Jīngāngdǐng jiàngsānshì dà yíguǐ fǎwáng jiàozhōng Guānzìzài púsà xīn zhēnyán yīqiè rúlái liánhuá dà màntúluó pǐn 金剛頂降三世大儀軌法王教中觀自在菩薩心真言一切如來蓮華大曼荼羅品
Lotus Mahā-Maṇḍala Chapter on the Heart-Mantra of Avalokiteśvara, from the Trailokya-vijaya Mahā-vidhi Dharma-rāja Teaching of the Vajraśekhara by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric ritual chapter extracted by Amoghavajra (不空) from the larger Vajraśekhara-tantra (金剛頂經) corpus, specifically from the Trailokyavijaya-mahā-kalpa-rāja (降三世大儀軌法王教 — “Vidhi-Dharma-rāja teaching of the Conqueror of the Three Worlds”). The chapter focuses on the Liánhuá dàmàntúluó 蓮華大曼荼羅 (Lotus Great Maṇḍala) ritual centred on Avalokiteśvara’s heart-mantra.
Abstract
The Vajraśekhara-tantra (Skt. Sarva-tathāgata-tattva-saṃgraha) is the great yoga-tantra maṇḍala-encyclopaedia that Amoghavajra brought back from Sri Lanka in 746 and translated piecemeal in the following decades. The Trailokyavijaya section presents the wrathful aspect of the Vajraśekhara programme, in which the deities of the maṇḍala manifest in their wrathful forms to subdue the demons of the trailokya (three worlds). The present text extracts from this section the specific Lotus-family chapter centred on Avalokiteśvara — i.e. it gives the procedure for the construction and visualization of Avalokiteśvara’s Liánhuá dàmàntúluó (Lotus Great Maṇḍala) within the wrathful Trailokyavijaya framework. This is one of the more technical of Amoghavajra’s yoga-tantra extractions and presupposes substantial prior familiarity with the Vajraśekhara maṇḍala system.
Translations and research
- Giebel, Rolf W. Two Esoteric Sūtras: The Adamantine Pinnacle Sūtra & The Susiddhikara Sūtra. Berkeley: BDK, 2001. — partial translations of the Vajraśekhara corpus.
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia UP, 2019.
- Astley-Kristensen, Ian. The Rishukyō: A Translation and Commentary in the Light of Modern Japanese (Post-Meiji) Scholarship. Tring: IBS, 1991.
Links
- CBETA T20n1040
- 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.