Miàofǎ liánhuá sānmèi mìmì sānmóyē jīng 妙法蓮華三昧祕密三摩耶經
Sūtra of the Secret Samaya of the Lotus-Sūtra Samādhi by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric sūtra-manual preserved only in the Manji Xùzàngjīng (X02 no. 204), attributed to Amoghavajra (不空). The text presents the Lotus-Sūtra samādhi as an Esoteric samaya (sacred-vow / sacred-bond) — i.e. recasts the Lotus-sūtra meditation tradition within the Tang-period Esoteric yoga-tantra framework of samaya-vows linking practitioner to kula (Buddha-family).
Abstract
Amoghavajra produced a substantial corpus of texts integrating the Lotus-sūtra tradition with Esoteric ritual; his most influential such work is the Dàlè jīngāng bùkōng zhēnshí sānmóyē jīng (KR6c0120 T243), the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā in Tantric guise. The present Miàofǎ liánhuá sānmèi mìmì sānmóyē jīng extends that programme to the Lotus-tradition proper. Like KR6j0226 it is preserved only via the Xùzàngjīng supplementary line; the authenticity of the Amoghavajra attribution is therefore uncertain. The text presupposes a developed yoga-tantra ritual framework and reads as a late-eighth-century or later production within Amoghavajra’s school. The Japanese Tendai and Shingon traditions both draw on this text in their respective Lotus-meditation practices.
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.
- Stone, Jacqueline I. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. — for the Lotus-Esoteric synthesis in Japanese Tendai.