Dàlè jīngāng sàduǒ xiūxíng chéngjiù yíguǐ 大樂金剛薩埵修行成就儀軌
Cultivation-Accomplishment Ritual Manual of the Great-Bliss Vajrasattva (Mahāsukha-Vajrasattva-sādhana-vidhi) by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric yíguǐ on the Great-Bliss Vajrasattva (大樂金剛薩埵 Dàlè Jīngāngsàduǒ, Mahāsukha-Vajrasattva) translated by Amoghavajra (不空). The colophon notes that the text is 出吉祥勝初教王瑜伽經 — “Extracted from the Śrī-paramādya-tantra-rāja-yoga-sūtra” (the Yuánlì jīngāng dǐng yúqié dàjiàowáng jīng 一切如來真實攝大乘現證三昧大教王經 cycle of the Vajraśekhara corpus). Vajrasattva (金剛薩埵) is the central figure of the Vajraśekhara maṇḍala — the personified vajra-body of all Tathāgatas — and his Mahāsukha (“Great Bliss”) form is the doctrinally pivotal Esoteric figure for the yoga-tantra and proto-anuttarayoga-tantra material that the Lǐqùjīng (KR6c0120) represents.
Abstract
The text expounds the operative sādhana procedure for the Mahāsukha-Vajrasattva practice: the deity-visualisation (Vajrasattva embracing his prajñā consort in yab-yum form, holding the vajra in the right hand and the ghaṇṭā in the left, embodying the indivisibility of upāya and prajñā / Wisdom-Compassion-Method-Means), the mūla-mantra, the mudrā repertoire, the abhiṣeka sequence, the homa offerings, and the siddhi-applications. The Mahāsukha register makes this one of the earliest Chinese-canonical witnesses to the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā / Lǐqùjīng-cycle’s doctrine that Great Bliss (mahāsukha) is the proper soteriological character of the yoga-tantra attainment — a doctrine that would become central to the later anuttarayoga-tantra and Tibetan Vajrayāna.
The text is grouped with KR6j0334 (T1120A), KR6j0335 (T1120B), KR6j0336 (T1121), and KR6j0337 (T1122) — all five together form Amoghavajra’s principal Mahāsukha-Vajrasattva yíguǐ cycle, drawn from the Śrī-paramādya-tantra-rāja / Vajraśekhara family of texts.
Translations and research
- Astley-Kristensen, Ian. The Rishukyō: The Sino-Japanese Tantric Prajñāpāramitā in 150 Verses (Amoghavajra’s Version). Tring: Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1991.
- Orzech, Charles D., Henrik H. Sørensen, Richard K. Payne (eds.). Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011 — multiple chapters on the Lǐqùjīng / Mahāsukha tradition.
- Toganoo Shōun 栂尾祥雲. Rishukyō no kenkyū 理趣経の研究. Wakayama: Mt. Kōya University, 1930 — classic Japanese study.
Links
- CBETA T20n1119
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (750) — 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.