Qīngjìng Guānshìyīn Pǔxián tuóluóní jīng 清淨觀世音普賢陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Pure Avalokiteśvara-Samantabhadra Dhāraṇī by 智通 (Zhìtōng, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle early-Tang dhāraṇī-sūtra translated by Zhìtōng (智通) at Zǒngchísì in 653, fusing Avalokiteśvara and Samantabhadra into a single combined dhāraṇī-deity in the title 觀世音普賢. This unusual double-name is notable: Avalokiteśvara represents karuṇā (compassion) and Samantabhadra represents caryā (practice / activity), and their combination in one dhāraṇī signals a synthesis-deity tradition that is otherwise rare in Chinese Buddhist literature.
Abstract
The text is one of three Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī translations Zhìtōng made at Zǒngchísì in 653 (see also KR6j0233 T1035 and the Suíxīn zhòu T1103). The Qīngjìng Guānshìyīn Pǔxián tuóluóní offers a synthesis-deity framework in which the dhāraṇī itself is presented as belonging to both bodhisattvas simultaneously — a notable conceptual move that Amoghavajra later elaborated under the inverse framing in KR6j0235 (Avalokiteśvara speaks the Samantabhadra dhāraṇī). The text is short and ritually programmatic; its principal interest lies in the synthesis-deity aspect.
Translations and research
- Yü Chün-fang. Kuan-yin. New York: Columbia UP, 2001.
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
Links
- CBETA T20n1038
- Kanseki DB
- 智通 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (640) — 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.