Dàfāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng rù fǎjièpǐn dùnzhèng Pílúzhēnà fǎshēn zìlún yújiā yíguǐ 大方廣佛花嚴經入法界品頓證毘盧遮那法身字輪瑜伽儀軌
Yoga Ritual Manual on the Letter-Wheel for Sudden Realisation of the Vairocana Dharmakāya, from the Avataṃsaka’s “Entry into the Dharma-Realm” Chapter by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric yújiā yíguǐ 瑜伽儀軌 (yoga ritual manual) by Amoghavajra (不空), forming the practice-companion to KR6j0212 (T1019, the guānmén / contemplation-gate text). Where T1019 sets out the contemplative-doctrinal interpretation of the Arapacana forty-two-syllable mantra, the present T1020 supplies the zìlún 字輪 (“letter-wheel”) liturgical procedure: the maṇḍala arrangement of the syllables in a circle for the practitioner to visualise and circumambulate-internally as the path to sudden realisation (dùnzhèng 頓證) of Vairocana’s dharmakāya.
Abstract
The zìlún yújiā (“letter-wheel yoga”) is a distinctive Esoteric practice in which the 42 Arapacana syllables are visualised as the rim of a wheel surrounding the practitioner’s body or the Vairocana figure at the centre of the maṇḍala; through one-pointed yogic concentration on this configuration the practitioner is said to attain dùnzhèng 頓證 — sudden, non-gradual realisation — of identity with the Mahāvairocana dharmakāya. The text is among the most theoretically important of Amoghavajra’s syllabary-yoga writings and is paired with T1019 (KR6j0212) as the practical complement. Together they testify to the Tang Esoteric integration of Avataṃsaka cosmology with the Vajraśekhara yoga-tantra apparatus that Amoghavajra was systematising at Dàxìngshànsì.
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.
- Sharf, Robert H. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002. — for the philosophical context of dùnzhèng in eighth-century Esoteric Buddhism.
- Orzech, Charles D., Henrik Sørensen, and Richard Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
Links
- CBETA T19n1020
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (750) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.