Guǎngdà liánhuá zhuāngyán mànnáluó miè yīqiè zuì tuóluóní jīng 廣大蓮華莊嚴曼拏羅滅一切罪陀羅尼經
Dhāraṇī Sūtra of the Vast Lotus-Adorned Maṇḍala that Extinguishes All Sin (Vipula-Padmavyūha-maṇḍala-sarva-pāpa-praśamana-dhāraṇī-sūtra) by 施護 (Shīhù, Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern Sòng dhāraṇī-sūtra translated by Dānapāla (施護) on a padmavyūha-maṇḍala (lotus-adorned maṇḍala) practice for the extinction of all sin. The “lotus-adornment” of the title links the text to the Avalokiteśvara devotional cycle (the lotus is Avalokiteśvara’s defining iconographic emblem), and the miè yīqiè zuì (“extinguishing all sin”) theme places the text in the Esoteric pāpa-deśanā (sin-confession) genre.
Abstract
The discourse is set at the Mṛga-dāya (Deer Park, Lùyěyuàn 鹿野苑) at Vārāṇasī (波羅奈國 Bōluónàiguó) — the site of the Buddha’s first sermon. The Buddha expounds the padmavyūha-maṇḍala-dhāraṇī, the elaborate iconographic specification of the lotus-adorned maṇḍala (with Avalokiteśvara at the centre, surrounded by retinue-deities arranged in concentric petal-arrays), and the vidyā-formulae and mudrā-repertoire required for its construction and abhiṣeka. The text expounds the doctrine that practitioners who construct the maṇḍala, recite the mūla-dhāraṇī, and perform the prescribed ritual operations achieve the extinction of all sin — even the ānantarya (heinous) sins of patricide, matricide, killing of an arhat, breaking the saṅgha, and shedding the blood of a Buddha — and thereby attain the irreversible bhūmi-stage of bodhisattva-practice.
The text reflects the late-Sòng Esoteric integration of the kriyā-tantra sin-confession theme with the yoga-tantra maṇḍala-construction apparatus — a synthesis characteristic of Dānapāla’s translation programme.
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2003.
- Jan Yün-hua. “Buddhist Relations between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6 (1966): 24–42, 135–168.
Links
- CBETA T20n1116
- Kanseki DB
- 施護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000) — 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.