Xiūxí Bānruò bōluómì púsà guānxíng niànsòng yíguǐ 修習般若波羅蜜菩薩觀行念誦儀軌
Ritual Manual for the Cultivation of the Visualisation-Practice and Recitation of the Bodhisattva Prajñāpāramitā by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric ritual manual translated by Amoghavajra (不空, 705–774). Colophon: 開府儀同三司特進試鴻臚卿肅國公食邑三千戶賜紫贈司空諡大鑑正號大廣智大興善寺三藏沙門不空奉詔譯. Alternate title 修習般若軌. The opening verse: 歸命般若母 (“Homage to the Mother Prajñāpāramitā”). Closely related to KR6j0370 (T1152, Shīhù’s parallel manual).
Abstract
The text presents the visualisation-and-recitation programme for Prajñāpāramitā (般若波羅蜜) personified as the Mother of the Buddhas (般若母, Buddha-mātṛ-Prajñāpāramitā). The opening verse-cycle salutes the goddess as the source of all Buddhas. The text then prescribes the guānxíng (visualisation-practice) and niànsòng (recitation) sequence: deity-yoga visualisation of Prajñāpāramitā-bhagavatī (般若佛母), her bīja-syllable, her mudrā-and-mantra, and the dedication of practice. The text represents the ritual integration of prajñāpāramitā doctrine with deity-yoga, a synthesis foundational to the Tang Esoteric school’s understanding of the Mahāyāna-canon: the Heart Sūtra and the Prajñāpāramitā-vajra-cakra tradition merged with the Vajraśekhara’s deity-mandala system. The text is one of the principal sources of the Hannya Bosatsu (般若菩薩 / Prajñāpāramitā-bodhisattva) iconography in Heian and later Esoteric Buddhism, where the goddess appears as a six-armed feminine bodhisattva at the centre of the Hannya jūroku-zen-shin-ō (般若十六善神王) mandala.
Translations and research
- Orzech, Charles D. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.
- Conze, Edward. The Prajñāpāramitā Literature. 2nd ed. Tokyo: Reiyukai, 1978. (For the broader Indic tradition.)
- Kimura Shūshō 木村秀照. Hannya bosatsu kō 般若菩薩考. Various journal articles, 1980s–1990s.
Links
- CBETA T20n1151
- 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.