Dǐlī sānmèiyē bùdòng zūn wēinùwáng shǐzhě niànsòng fǎ 底哩三昧耶不動尊威怒王使者念誦法
Recitation-Method of the Trisamaya Acala-Wrathking-Servitor by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Táng Esoteric ritual manual on the Trisamaya Acala (底哩三昧耶不動尊 = Tri-samaya-Acala) — Acala in his servitor-of-the-Buddha (使者) aspect, where he functions as the executor of the three samaya (body, speech, mind) of the Tathāgata — translated by Amoghavajra (不空). Companion to T1199 (KR6j0426) and T1201 (KR6j0428).
Abstract
The frame-narrative: Śākyamuni addresses Vajrapāṇi (執金剛菩薩), declaring that he will now reveal the trisamaya doctrine of Acala — the principle that Acala embodies the three samaya (body, speech, mind) of all Tathāgatas in their wrathful aspect, and that his single-pointed concentration (samādhi) is what gives the entire Esoteric programme its operative force.
The text gives Acala’s four-armed, two-armed and single-arm-with-sword forms, each suited to specific ritual purposes:
- Wrathful subjugation of the four māras and the eighty-four-thousand klesas;
- Boundary-binding (sīmā-bandha) for the protection of the practitioner’s altar and body;
- Disaster-removal (śāntika) for the immediate environment;
- Subduing-of-the-disobedient (śatru-mardana) — for the conversion of recalcitrant beings.
The text’s emphasis on Acala as the servitor of the Tathāgatas — rather than as an independent wrath-deity — is doctrinally important: it establishes that Acala’s wrath is a manifestation of the buddhas’ compassion-in-its-fierce-mode, not a demonic power external to the maṇḍala. This is the doctrinal warrant for the Acala cult’s central place in Esoteric Buddhism.
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.
Links
- CBETA T21n1200
- 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.