Bùkōng juànsuǒ tuóluóní jīng 不空羂索陀羅尼經
Dhāraṇī Sūtra of the Unfailing Noose (Amoghapāśa-dhāraṇī-sūtra) by 李無諂 (Lǐ Wúchǎn, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang translation of the Amoghapāśa-dhāraṇī-sūtra produced by the lay translator Lǐ Wúchǎn (李無諂) of Lampāka (嵐波國, North India) at the Fóshòujìsì 佛授記寺 (Buddha-Prophecy Monastery) Translation Cloister in 700 CE — the third year of Wǔ Zétiān’s Shènglì 聖曆 era — at the request of the Korean (Silla) monk 明曉 Míngxiǎo. The text is parallel to the Amoghapāśa cycle: T1093 (KR6j0301, Jñānagupta), T1094 (KR6j0302, Xuánzàng), T1095 (KR6j0303, Bodhiruci), and T1097 (KR6j0305, Bǎosīwéi). It is uniquely valuable as a witness to a slightly different recension of the Sanskrit vorlage: Lǐ Wúchǎn’s text contains a more developed vidyā-apparatus and ritual procedure than the hṛdaya-form translations of Jñānagupta and Xuánzàng.
Prefaces
The Taishō text is preceded by an introductory preface (序) by 波崙 Bōlún, śramaṇa of the Fúshòusì 福壽寺 (Felicity-and-Longevity Monastery): 不空羂索陀羅尼經序，福壽寺沙門波崙撰 — “Preface to the Amoghapāśa-dhāraṇī-sūtra, composed by the śramaṇa Bōlún of the Fúshòu Monastery.” The preface celebrates the doctrinal scope of the work — that it “encompasses the two truths without remainder, exhausts cause and effect” (該二諦而無遺，括因果而斯盡) — extols the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara as the great compassion of the ten directions, and provides a condensed introduction to the cult of the Amoghapāśa (the “Unfailing Noose”). Bōlún records that he himself, though “feeble and dim of mind” (愚暗), has long been devoted to the Buddhadharma and travelled widely between the two capitals (兩京) seeking dharma-friends.
Abstract
The opening narrative situates the discourse at the kūṭāgāra (重閣) of the Sūrya-tilaka (日輪頂) — a celestial vantage above Mt. Potalaka — with Avalokiteśvara as the discoursing bodhisattva and the standard Mahāyāna audience of bhikṣus, bodhisattvas, and divine retinue. The mūla-mantra (the Amoghapāśa-hṛdaya), the vidyā-formulae, the eighteen siddhi-applications, the maṇḍala-construction (a quadrate maṇḍala with the deity at the centre and four guardian-bodhisattvas at the cardinal points), the abhiṣeka procedure, and the closing dedication are all expounded. The text’s distinguishing feature among the parallel Amoghapāśa translations is its preservation of a particularly elaborate kuṇḍa (火爐) and homa (護摩) ritual, suggesting access to a slightly later recension of the Sanskrit vorlage than the Jñānagupta and Xuánzàng versions.
The dating is fixed by the DILA Buddhist Person Authority record (A000518) and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (KR6s0093, T55n2154): Shènglì sānnián gēngzǐ sānyuè 聖曆三年庚子三月 — “Shènglì 3, gēngzǐ year, third month” = March 700 CE.
Translations and research
- Reis-Habito, Maria. Die Dhāraṇī des Großen Erbarmens. Nettetal: Steyler, 1993.
- Forte, Antonino. Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock. Roma/Paris: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1988 — Wǔ Zétiān-period imperial Buddhist translation programmes.
Links
- CBETA T20n1096
- Kanseki DB
- 李無諂 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (700) — 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.