Jīngāngdǐng yúqié tāhuàzìzàitiān lǐqùhuì Pǔxián xiūxíng niànsòng yíguǐ 金剛頂瑜伽他化自在天理趣會普賢修行念誦儀軌
Recitation Ritual Manual for the Practice of Samantabhadra in the Lǐqù-Assembly at the Paranirmita-Vaśavartin Heaven of the Vajraśekhara Yoga by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric yíguǐ on the Samantabhadra practice in the Lǐqù assembly at the Paranirmita-vaśavartin (他化自在天 Tāhuàzìzàitiān, the sixth and highest of the kāma-dhātu heavens). Translated by Amoghavajra (不空). The text is one of the principal yíguǐ of the Lǐqùjīng cycle — the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā / Lǐqùjīng (KR6c0120, T243) being the parent sūtra. The Lǐqùhuì (“Lǐqù assembly”) is the doctrinally-significant assembly setting of the Mahāsukha-Vajrasattva discourse, located in the highest of the desire-realm heavens, signalling the Lǐqùjīng’s doctrine of the trans-saṃsāric character of mahāsukha. The colophon: 唐特進試鴻臚卿三藏沙門大廣智不空奉詔譯.
Abstract
The text expounds the Samantabhadra (普賢) sādhana as performed within the Lǐqùhuì assembly framework: the deity-visualisation (Samantabhadra in his Vajraśekhara-iconographic form, identified with Vajrasattva as the bodhi-citta personified), the mūla-mantra, the mudrā repertoire (including the seventeen-mudrā sequence of the Lǐqù-cycle), the abhiṣeka sequence, the homa offerings, and the closing dedication. The doctrinal pivot of the text is the identification of Samantabhadra with Vajrasattva — the bodhi-citta-vajra — as the central deity of the Mahāsukha tradition. This identification is the foundational doctrinal move of the Lǐqùjīng cycle and is the basis of the entire later Vajrayāna bodhi-citta / Vajrasattva correlation.
The text is the most doctrinally-rich of the Mahāsukha-Vajrasattva / Samantabhadra yíguǐ cluster (KR6j0333–KR6j0337), and provides the principal canonical authority for the Samantabhadra-Vajrasattva identification in East Asian Esoteric Buddhism. As a foundational text of the Tang Esoteric Lǐqùjīng tradition, it had immense influence on the later Japanese Shingon and Tendai liturgical and doctrinal traditions.
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.
- Toganoo Shōun 栂尾祥雲. Rishukyō no kenkyū. Wakayama: Mt. Kōya University, 1930.
- Orzech, Charles D. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
- Snellgrove, David L. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. London: Serindia, 1987 — anuttarayoga-tantra precursor doctrines.
Links
- CBETA T20n1122
- 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.