Bùdòng shǐzhě tuóluóní mìmì fǎ 不動使者陀羅尼祕密法
Secret Method of the Acala-Servitor Dhāraṇī by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Táng Esoteric Acala manual translated by Vajrabodhi (金剛智, 669–741) — the senior of the Three Great Táng Masters and the master of 不空 (Amoghavajra). Colophon: 大唐贈開府儀同三司諡大弘教三藏沙門金剛智奉詔譯 (the use of 諡 “posthumously named” indicates the colophon was added after Vajrabodhi’s death in 741, although the translation itself precedes that date).
Abstract
The text presents the infinite-power Acala-the-Vairocana-Servitor’s heart (無量力不動聖者毘盧遮那使者心) — i.e., Acala in his servitor-of-Vairocana mode, distinct from but parallel to the trisamaya aspect of the Amoghavajra texts (T1200, T1201).
The text gives the four practical disciplines that the practitioner must observe to effect the rite:
- Fasting (斷食);
- Breath-cultivation (服氣);
- Vegetarian diet (食菜);
- Restricted diet (節食).
These four are the standard physiological preconditions of the Acala-rite, designed to align the practitioner’s body with Acala’s wrathful but disciplined energy. The vidhi that follows includes the Acala dhāraṇī (the Vajrabodhi recension is shorter than Amoghavajra’s), the mudrā-cycle, the visualization, and the daily recitation programme.
This is the earliest Táng Acala translation, predating the Amoghavajra cluster (T1199–T1201) by perhaps a generation. Vajrabodhi’s translations, generally less polished than Amoghavajra’s, are nevertheless the foundational layer of Táng Esoteric literature, and his Acala translation is the textual ancestor of the entire later Acala corpus.
The dating bracket (720–741) follows Vajrabodhi’s documented translation activity at Cháng’ān after his arrival in 720.
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
- Faure, Bernard. Protectors and Predators. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
Links
- CBETA T21n1202
- Kanseki DB
- 金剛智 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (730) — 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.