Bùkōng juànsuǒ shénzhòu xīn jīng 不空羂索神呪心經
Heart-Spell Sūtra of the Spirit-Spell of the Unfailing Noose (Amoghapāśahṛdaya-dhāraṇī-sūtra) by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang re-translation of the Amoghapāśahṛdaya-dhāraṇī-sūtra by Xuánzàng (玄奘, 602–664), executed at the Xīmíngsì 西明寺 translation cloister (according to the Dà-Táng nèidiǎn lù 大唐內典錄 (KR6s0088) and 義淨 Yìjìng’s Dà-Táng xīyù qiúfǎ gāosēng zhuàn 大唐西域求法高僧傳 (KR6r0059)). The colophon: 唐三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯 — “Translated by Imperial Decree by Xuánzàng, Tripiṭaka-master of the Great Tang.” The Taishō head-note groups this text with KR6j0301 (T1093, Jñānagupta), KR6j0303 (T1095, Bodhiruci), KR6j0307 (T1099, Shīhù), and KR6j0300 (T1092 fasc. 1, Bodhiruci) as parallel translations of the same Indic source.
Abstract
The setting is unchanged from the Jñānagupta version (KR6j0301): the discourse is delivered at Mt. Potalaka (布怛洛迦山 Bùdáluòjiāshān, Xuánzàng’s preferred phonetic Sinicisation, replacing Jñānagupta’s 逋多羅山) at Avalokiteśvara’s palace. The audience is more elaborately specified in Xuánzàng’s version — eight thousand bhikṣus, ninety-nine koṭi-nayuta of bodhisattvas, śuddhāvāsa deities, the Maheśvara deities, the Mahā-Brahma kings, and the heavenly retinue. The text recounts Avalokiteśvara’s exposition of the Amoghapāśa-hṛdaya mantra and its eighteen siddhi-applications, transmitted by Avalokiteśvara from the Buddha Lokendrarāja (世自在王) ninety-one kalpas ago.
Xuánzàng’s version is the most polished Chinese rendering of the Amoghapāśahṛdaya-dhāraṇī — characteristically careful in its phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit dhāraṇī-syllables, idiomatic in its prose, and consistent in its terminological choices. It supplanted Jñānagupta’s earlier rendering as the standard Tang witness for the hṛdaya-form (the short core text) of the Amoghapāśa material, while Bodhiruci’s Bùkōng juànsuǒ shénbiàn zhēnyán jīng (KR6j0300) provided the comprehensive kalpa-rāja version. The Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (KR6s0093, T55n2154) places the translation in the third year of Xuánzàng’s Xīmíngsì residency.
Translations and research
- Reis-Habito, Maria. Die Dhāraṇī des Großen Erbarmens. Nettetal: Steyler, 1993.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
- Liu Shu-fen. Zhōngguó Tángmì. Shanghai: Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2011 — Tang Esoteric corpus surveys including the Avalokiteśvara cycles.
Links
- CBETA T20n1094
- Kanseki DB
- 玄奘 DILA
- CANWWW: T20N1094 (in div17.xml); related-text references → KR6j0300 (T1092 fasc. 1), KR6j0307 (T1099)
- Dazangthings date evidence (655) — 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.