Shè wúài dàbēi xīn dà tuóluóní jīng… màntúluó yíguǐ 攝無礙大悲心大陀羅尼經計一法中出無量義南方滿願補陀落海會五部諸尊等弘誓力方位及威儀形色執持三摩耶幖幟曼荼羅儀軌
Maṇḍala Manual of the Five Sections of Honoured Ones — Their Vows, Positions, Comportment, Form, Color, and Samaya Insignia — Of the South Pūrṇa Ocean Assembly of Potalaka, Drawing Out Boundless Meanings from the One Method of the Sūtra of the All-Encompassing Unobstructed Great-Compassion-Heart Great Dhāraṇī by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tángmì màntúluó yíguǐ 曼荼羅儀軌 — a full maṇḍala manual — for the Sahasrabhuja cycle, organised around the Potalaka assembly (補陀落海會) of Avalokiteśvara and his five-section retinue. The colophon names Amoghavajra (不空) as the translator. The very long descriptive title is conventional in Tángmì yíguǐ: the editorial sub-title 但呪讚及作法宜視大儀軌內 (“for the spells, hymns, and ritual procedures consult the great manual”) indicates the present text is the maṇḍala-iconography component to be paired with KR6j0272 (the recitation-practice manual) and KR6j0269 (the spell-text proper) as the third member of the Amoghavajra Sahasrabhuja yíguǐ triad.
Abstract
The text describes the full maṇḍala of the Potalaka oceanic assembly of Avalokiteśvara: the central deity (Sahasrabhuja-Avalokiteśvara), the four directional bodhisattvas, the five-section retinue (五部諸尊 — Buddha section, Vajra section, Ratna section, Padma section, Karma section), each deity’s praṇidhāna / bāla (弘誓力), spatial position (方位), comportment (威儀), iconographic form and color (形色), and samaya / insignia (三摩耶幖幟). The explicit “drawing-out-boundless-meanings-from-one-method” rubric (計一法中出無量義) is the standard Tangmí formula for kalpa-derived ritual elaboration: from the single core dhāraṇī of KR6j0260 the manual generates the full Esoteric maṇḍala of the Sahasrabhuja deity. The text is essential reading for understanding the Tángmì iconography of the Sahasrabhuja and the South-Indian Pūrṇa-girí / Potalaka maṇḍala tradition that Amoghavajra had brought back to China in 746.
Translations and research
- Orzech, Charles D., Henrik Sørensen, and Richard Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
- Chandra, Lokesh. The Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara. New Delhi: IGNCA, 1988.
Links
- CBETA T20n1067
- 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.