Fóshuō qījùzhī fómǔ Zhǔntí dàmíng tuóluóní jīng 佛說七俱胝佛母准提大明陀羅尼經
Buddha-Spoken Sūtra of the Great-Vidyā Dhāraṇī of Cundī, Mother of Seven Koṭi-Buddhas by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric dhāraṇī-sūtra on the goddess Cundī (准提 Zhǔntí; Skt. Cundī, Cundā, Caṇḍī), one of the principal Buddha-Mother (buddha-mātṛ, 佛母) deities of the Tang Esoteric pantheon. The colophon reads 唐天竺三藏金剛智譯 — translated by Vajrabodhi (金剛智, 671–741). The “seven koṭi” (七俱胝 = 七十萬億 saptakoṭi) opening epithet places the goddess as the mother of seventy-million Buddhas and the source of the Cundī-dhāraṇī.
Abstract
The Buddha, residing in the Jetavana of Anāthapiṇḍada near Śrāvastī, contemplates the future suffering of beings and discloses the Cundī-dhāraṇī as expounded by the seven koṭi buddha-mātṛ in the past. The dhāraṇī is given in transliteration; the text then expounds the upāya of recitation, the ritual purifications, the worldly fruits (cure of disease, exorcism, fertility, longevity, abhaya), and the supramundane fruits (good rebirth, eventual bodhi). The Cundī cult was substantial in mid-Tang Buddhism and remained important in late-Imperial Chinese Buddhism (the Cundī-mantra is one of the Ten Small Mantras 十小咒 of the post-Sòng monastic morning-recitation). Vajrabodhi’s recension is the earliest of the three Tang Cundī-dhāraṇī sūtras and the first to systematise the cult in Tángmì 唐密 practice; it is paralleled by KR6j0283 (Amoghavajra’s recension, T20n1076) and KR6j0284 (Divākara’s recension, T20n1077). CANWWW (T20N1075) cross-references the parallel recensions.
Translations and research
- Gimello, Robert. “Icon and Incantation: The Goddess Zhunti and the Role of Images in the Occult Buddhism of China.” In Images in Asian Religions: Texts and Contexts, ed. P. Granoff and K. Shinohara. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004 — definitive on the Cundī cult.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
Links
- CBETA T20n1075
- Kanseki DB
- 金剛智 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (730) — 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.