Guānzìzài púsà rúyìlún zhòu kèfǎ 觀自在菩薩如意輪咒課法
Recitation-Course Method for the Cintāmaṇi-Cakra Spell of Avalokiteśvara by 仁岳 (Rényuè, 撰)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern-Sòng Tiantai liturgy compiled by Rényuè (仁岳, 992–1064), a leading figure of the Tiantai Shānwài 山外 / Zápài 雜派 lineage and disciple-turned-rival of 知禮 Zhīlǐ. The work is preserved in the Qiánlóngbǎn dàzàngjīng 乾隆版大藏經 (vol. 135, no. 1571) as Rényuè’s compilation rather than as a translation. It is appended in the canonical witness with a separate Tiāntái Zhìzhě dàshī zhāijì lǐzànwén 天台智者大師齋忌禮讚文 (KR6d0198; a Tiantai-Zhīzhě anniversary liturgy) that travelled with the kèfǎ in late-Imperial liturgical use.
Prefaces
The work carries Rényuè’s own preface (并序). Its substance: Rényuè explains that, although master Zhīzhě (智顗 智者大師) had laid out the Móhē zhǐguān 摩訶止觀 (KR6d0130) and prescribed the four samādhi practices, “few cultivate them” because of the shallowness of recent practitioners’ faculties. He therefore set out, in his own leisure from teaching, to seek a course of ritual recitation. He found in the Tripiṭaka the Cintāmaṇi-cakra dhāraṇī under four parallel translations (凡四本) — and then comments on each:
一實叉難陀此云覺喜唐天后久視元年譯八紙，二阿彌真那此云寶思惟中宗神龍二年譯七紙，三唐天后代三藏法師義淨譯三紙，四唐天竺三藏法師菩提流志此云覺愛…
That is, the four Cintāmaṇi-cakra recensions of KR6j0289 實叉難陀 Śikṣānanda (translated 久視 1 = 700, eight folios), KR6j0290/KR6j0291 寶思惟 Bǎosīwéi (translated Shénlóng 2 = 706, seven folios), KR6j0288 義淨 Yìjìng (three folios), and KR6j0287 菩提流志 Bodhiruci. The preface concludes that the four are “essentially the same in substance, only divergent in translation” (文實同出而異譯也).
Abstract
The body of the kèfǎ is a ritual course (課法 = kalpa-vidhi): a structured liturgy in which the practitioner performs prostrations, recitations of the dhāraṇī, repentance (kṣama), and dedication, organised over a sequence of sessions. The work represents the Tiantai Sòngshì 宋式 fusion of Esoteric dhāraṇī recitation with Tiantai zhǐguān practice — a synthesis distinctive of the Shānwài / Zápài lineage in which Rényuè was a major figure (along with 從義 and 智圓). It is therefore important both as a Sòng Tiantai liturgical text and as the principal Sòng witness to the comparative reception of the four Tang Cintāmaṇi-cakra recensions, which Rényuè personally compared and synthesised. The catalog meta gives the dynasty as 宋, which is correct: Rényuè was a Northern-Sòng monk active 1015–1064.
Translations and research
- Sharf, Robert H. “On Pure Land Buddhism and Ch’an / Pure Land Syncretism in Medieval China.” T’oung Pao 88 (2002): 282–331 — context for Sòng Tiantai-Esoteric synthesis.
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “The Four Kinds of Samādhi in Early T’ien-t’ai Buddhism.” In Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism, ed. Peter Gregory. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1986 — for the Móhē zhǐguān four-samādhi framework that Rényuè cites.
- Getz, Daniel A. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation of the Pure Land Patriarchate.” In Buddhism in the Sung, ed. Peter Gregory and Daniel Getz. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1999 — Rényuè in his Sòng Tiantai context.