Fóshuō yīqiè zhū rúlái xīn guāngmíng jiāchí Pǔxián púsà yánmìng jīngāng zuìshèng tuóluóní jīng 佛說一切諸如來心光明加持普賢菩薩延命金剛最勝陀羅尼經
Most Excellent Vajra Life-Prolonging Dhāraṇī Sūtra Empowering the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra by the Heart-Light of All Tathāgatas by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric dhāraṇī sūtra translated by Amoghavajra (不空). The colophon: 大興善寺開府儀同三司肅國公特進試鴻臚贈司空諡大辨正廣智食邑三千戶師子國三藏沙門不空譯. CANWWW pairs this with KR6j0351 (T1135) as related Vajra-Longevity material; together with KR6j0348–KR6j0350 it forms the Amoghavajra Vajra-āyuṣ corpus.
Abstract
The sūtra opens with the Buddha on the Gaṅgā amid an assembly of bhikṣus and bodhisattvas. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (普賢菩薩), abiding in the Tathāgata Secret Samādhi (如來祕密三摩地), emerges from concentration and, empowered by the Buddhas, proclaims the Vajra-Longevity Dhāraṇī (金剛壽命陀羅尼) for the sake of beings — extending lifespans, averting untimely death (夭橫死), securing vajra-firm longevity (金剛壽命堅固不壞), and bringing beings to the irreversible (不退) stage of bodhi. The Buddha’s heart-light then summons innumerable Buddhas of the ten directions, who fill space “like an Indra-net” and shine their light upon Samantabhadra, authorising him to expound the longevity-dhāraṇī. The text thus assigns the Vajra-Longevity teaching to Samantabhadra-as-spokesperson, distinguishing it from T1135 (KR6j0351) where the Buddha himself is the propounder; this Samantabhadra-framed version became the basis of the Fugen Enmei (普賢延命) cult prominent in Japanese Tendai and Shingon liturgies for averting untimely death.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周. Taimitsu no kenkyū 台密の研究. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988.
Other points of interest
The text is the canonical source of the Fugen Enmei Bodhisattva (普賢延命菩薩) iconography that became central to Japanese esoteric longevity rites; the iconographic identification of Samantabhadra in the longevity-prolongation role derives from this scripture rather than from the broader Indian Samantabhadra material.
Links
- CBETA T20n1136
- 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.