Jīngāngdǐng jīng yújiā Wénshūshīlì púsà gòngyǎng yíguǐ 金剛頂經瑜伽文殊師利菩薩供養儀軌

Offering Ritual Manual of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva from the Yoga of the Vajraśekhara-sūtra by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric ritual manual translated by Amoghavajra (不空, 705–774). Alternate title 文殊五字念誦法. Colophon: full Amoghavajra titulature with 大廣智大興善寺三藏沙門不空奉詔譯. Taishō head-note: No. 1175 [cf. No. 1171]. The opening verse: 歸命童真妙吉祥 我依瑜伽說念誦 身口意業金剛念 (“Homage to Mañjuśrī-kumāra; I rely on the Yoga to expound the recitation; with body, speech, and mind in vajra-attention…”).

Abstract

The text presents the offering-and-recitation manual for Mañjuśrī, opening with the homage-verse to Mañjuśrī-kumāra (童真妙吉祥) and announcing the Yoga-based recitation programme. The text proceeds to expound the full ritual sequence: bodhicitta-arousal, ten-direction-Buddha-anumodanā, mandala-construction, deity-visualisation (Mañjuśrī as five-syllable kumāra-form), mudrā-cycle, mantra-cycle, internal and external offerings (pūjā), and dedication. The manual provides the operative-ritual side of the Mañjuśrī-Pañcākṣarī corpus, complementing the doctrinal-and-narrative T1171 (KR6j0395) and the verse-summary T1174 (KR6j0398). CANWWW pairs this directly with T1171 as the principal ritual-companion text.

The dating bracket follows Amoghavajra’s translation activity at Cháng’ān (746–774).

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.
  • Lamotte, Étienne. “Mañjuśrī.” T’oung Pao 48 (1960): 1–96.
  • CBETA T20n1175
  • 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.