Xīfāng tuóluóní zàng zhōng jīngāng zú Āmìlīduō Jūnzhālì fǎ 西方陀羅尼藏中金剛族阿蜜哩多軍吒利法
Method of the Vajra-Family Amṛta-Kuṇḍalin from within the Western Dhāraṇī-Piṭaka by anonymous (preface attributes the recovery to Ennin 圓仁)
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous late-Táng or post-Táng Esoteric ritual manual on Amṛta-Kuṇḍalin in his “Western” Dhāraṇī-Piṭaka aspect (i.e., as a member of the Padma-kula, the western “Lotus-family” of the Vajra-realm maṇḍala). The preface (序), unusual in this corpus, gives the text’s recovery-history.
Abstract
The preface reads: 「慈覺大師圓仁入唐新求聖教目錄。有阿蜜哩多軍荼利法一卷。惜密部經軌中逸而不傳。安然八家祕錄。以此法為最澄圓仁二家…」 — “The Master Cíjué Dàshī = Ennin (圓仁), in his Catalogue of Newly-Acquired Sacred Teachings from the Táng (入唐新求聖教目錄), records one fascicle of the Amṛtakuṇḍalin Method. Regrettably, in the Esoteric-section sūtra-and-ritual texts, it had been lost and not transmitted. Annen (安然)‘s Eight-Houses Secret Catalogue (八家祕錄) attributes this text to the [Japanese] schools of Saichō (最澄) and Ennin…”
The preface thus identifies the text’s transmission-history: it was on Ennin’s list of texts brought back from Táng China (838–847, his Nittō-ki 入唐記 pilgrimage), it was subsequently lost in mainstream Chinese transmission, and it was preserved only in the Japanese Esoteric lineages of Saichō (最澄, Tendai) and Ennin (圓仁, Tendai), where Annen’s late-ninth-century catalogue preserved its bibliographic data. The text we have today is presumably a Japanese-preserved copy that re-entered the Chinese canon via the East Asian textual circulation of Esoteric materials.
The body of the text — the actual Method itself — gives the vidhi of the Western-Family Amṛta-Kuṇḍalin: maṇḍala-architecture, mantra-cycle, mudrā-sequence, and visualization of Amṛta-Kuṇḍalin in his Western Lotus-Family aspect, distinct from but parallel to the Vajra-Family form of T1211 (KR6j0438).
The dating bracket here (838–1100) reflects: terminus a quo Ennin’s pilgrimage-recovery (838); terminus ad quem the canonical stabilization in the Sòng or Liáo period.
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
- Reischauer, Edwin O. Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law. New York: Ronald Press, 1955. (For Ennin’s Tang pilgrimage and its catalogue.)
Other points of interest
This is one of a handful of Esoteric texts whose survival in the Chinese canon is owed to Japanese transmission-channels: the late-Táng Esoteric corpus was disrupted in China by the Huìchāng persecution of Buddhism (842–845, under 武宗) and by the 安祿山 An–Shǐ disruption a century earlier; many texts were preserved in Japan through 最澄 Saichō, 空海 Kūkai, 圓仁 Ennin, and 圓珍 Enchin’s pilgrim-acquisitions and only re-entered the Chinese canon via these Japanese routes.