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金剛手光明灌頂經最勝立印聖無動尊大威怒王念誦儀軌法品

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Text ID
KR6j0426
Date
746–774
Dynasty
唐

Jīngāngshǒu guāngmíng guàndǐng jīng zuìshèng lìyìn shèng wúdòng zūn dàwēinùwáng niànsòng yíguǐ fǎpǐn 金剛手光明灌頂經最勝立印聖無動尊大威怒王念誦儀軌法品

Recitation Ritual-Manual Chapter on the Most-Excellent Sealed-Form, the Holy Acala, the Great Wrath-King, from the Vajrapāṇi Light-Abhiṣeka Sūtra by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Táng Esoteric ritual manual on Acalanātha (聖無動尊 = Ārya-Acala; also 不動明王 Acala-vidyārāja), the wrath-king vidyārāja of the maṇḍala — translated by Amoghavajra (不空, 705–774). Title page gives Amoghavajra’s full elevated titulature. This is the first of three Amoghavajra Acala texts (T1199, T1200 = KR6j0427, T1201 = KR6j0428) and forms the core Táng scriptural authority for the Acala cult.

Abstract

The text presents itself as a chapter (法品) extracted from the larger Vajrapāṇi Light-Abhiṣeka Sūtra (金剛手光明灌頂經) — a text whose larger Tang form does not survive intact, but whose Acala-chapter has been preserved here as a self-standing manual.

The narrative frame: Vajrapāṇi (金剛手菩薩) enters a samādhi called Vajra-equality, blazing-flame radiance, whose light universally illuminates all Buddha-fields and burns up the māras and vighnas of the three realms — they are subdued by the fire of Vajra-rage. From this samādhi emerges Acala, the great Wrath-King, who is identified as Vajrapāṇi’s wrathful manifestation and the executor of the Tantric programme of conversion-by-force.

The yíguǐ gives the practical recitation-and-visualization cycle of Acala:

  1. The opening invocations and the Acala root-mantra (the ārya-acalāya kuruvarṇāya hūṃ phaṭ form);
  2. The mudrā-cycle for the wrathful body — the Standing-Seal (立印) standing-stake-mudrā that gives the text its title;
  3. The visualization — Acala as a youth-with-single-topknot, dark-blue body, brandishing a sword in the right hand and a noose in the left, surrounded by flame;
  4. The practical purposes — abhicāra (subjugation) of inner and outer obstacles, deliverance from disease and demonic attack, and protection in circumstances of crisis.

Acala became the most influential wrathful protector of the East Asian Esoteric tradition, especially in Japan where (as Fudō Myōō 不動明王) he is the central figure of an entire devotional tradition. The Táng-Chinese Acala literature is concentrated in this T1199–T1207 cluster; Amoghavajra is responsible for T1199, T1200, T1201; 金剛智 Vajrabodhi for T1202 (KR6j0429); the remainder are anonymous compilations.

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

Translations and research

  • Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
  • Faure, Bernard. Protectors and Predators: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 2. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016. (For Acala’s later East Asian career.)
  • Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

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