Jīngāngdǐng chāoshèng sānjiè jīng shuō Wénshū wǔzì zhēnyán shèngxiàng 金剛頂超勝三界經說文殊五字真言勝相
Excellent Marks of Mañjuśrī’s Five-Syllable Mantra Expounded in the Vajraśekhara Trailokyavijaya Sūtra by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric ritual text translated by Amoghavajra (不空, 705–774). Sanskrit title (per CANWWW): Trailokyavijayamahākalparāja. Alternate title 文殊五字真言勝相. 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鑒正號大廣智大興善寺三藏沙門不空奉詔譯. The text expounds the shèngxiàng (excellent marks / superior characteristics) of Mañjuśrī’s Five-Syllable mantra in the Trailokyavijaya (超勝三界, “Conqueror-of-the-Three-Realms”) section of the Vajraśekhara-mahā-kalpa-rāja.
Abstract
The text opens with Vajrapāṇi Bodhisattva (金剛手菩薩摩訶薩) and the other bodhisattvas in the great-assembly of Vairocana Buddha, each propounding their own heart-mantra-and-mudrā (心真言印). Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva then rises and addresses the Buddha: I, in order to benefit all sentient beings of the future, will expound the swift-attainment-of-Mahā-Prajñā-Pāramitā method: whoever recites it once acquires the merit of reciting the eight-thousand-verse… — i.e. the assertion that one recitation of the five-syllable Mañjuśrī mantra equals one recitation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. The text thus emphasises the mnemonic-equivalence valuation of the formula: the five-syllable bīja-cluster compresses the entire prajñāpāramitā corpus into recitable form, making it operative for laity and monks alike. The text belongs with KR6j0395, KR6j0397, KR6j0398, KR6j0399, and KR6j0400 in the Mañjuśrī-Five-Syllable cycle. The frame-citation of the Trailokyavijaya portion of the Vajraśekhara situates it doctrinally within the Yogatantra — Sarva-tathāgata-tattva-saṃgraha tradition.
Translations and research
- Birnbaum, Raoul. Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī. Boulder: Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, 1983.
- Goble, Geoffrey. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
- Giebel, Rolf. Two Esoteric Sutras: The Adamantine Pinnacle Sutra, The Susiddhikara Sutra. BDK English Tripiṭaka Series, 2001.
Links
- CBETA T20n1172
- 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.