曼殊室利童子菩薩五字瑜伽法

Mànshūshìlì tóngzǐ púsà wǔzì yújiā fǎ 曼殊室利童子菩薩五字瑜伽法

Five-Syllable Yoga Method of Mañjuśrī-Kumāra Bodhisattva by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric yoga-method manual translated by Amoghavajra (不空, 705–774). Alternate title 文殊五字瑜伽法. Colophon: full Amoghavajra titulature with 大廣智大興善寺三藏沙門不空奉詔譯. The text presents the practical yoga-method for the Mañjuśrī-Pañcākṣarī cycle, complementing the offering manual T1175 (KR6j0399).

Abstract

The text provides a concise practical yoga-method (瑜伽法, yoga-vidhi) sequence on the Mañjuśrī Five-Syllable formula, organised by the syllables themselves: 一曰 𤚥 (用孔雀座印如上); 二曰 體哩呬淫四合 (如上)… — i.e., each syllable is paired with its corresponding mudrā (the first using the Peacock-throne mudrā described above, etc.) and brief operative instructions. The text presupposes the doctrinal-and-narrative framework set out in T1171 (KR6j0395) and T1172 (KR6j0396), and the offering procedure in T1175 (KR6j0399); it gives only the bare mudrā-mantra-syllable practical sequence. As such, it serves as the operative yogic-summary of the Mañjuśrī-Pañcākṣarī cycle, suitable for advanced practitioners who already know the doctrinal context. The text closes the cluster of six related Mañjuśrī-Pañcākṣarī Tang Esoteric texts (T1171–T1176), of which Amoghavajra’s hand is dominant (translating T1171, T1172, T1174, T1175, T1176) and Vajrabodhi contributing T1173 (KR6j0397).

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.

Links

• CBETA T20n1176
• 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.