Mànshūshìlì Yànmàndéjiā wànài mìshù rúyì fǎ 曼殊室利焰曼德迦萬愛祕術如意法
Wish-Fulfilling Method of the Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka Secret Art of Universal-Affection by 一行 (Yīxíng, 撰)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Esoteric ritual handbook attributed to Yīxíng (一行, 683–727) — the great Táng polymath-monk and disciple of 善無畏 Śubhakarasiṃha and 金剛智 Vajrabodhi. Colophon: 一行撰譯 (“authored-and-translated by Yīxíng”). The work treats the Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka cycle in its affection-attraction (敬愛 jìng’ài / vāśīkaraṇa) application — the gentlest of the four standard homa applications.
Abstract
The text opens with a doctrinal claim about the homa tradition: 「夫真言教源。自護摩法無上也。」 — “The source of the true-mantra teaching is the homa method, which is supreme.” Within homa, the present text expounds the affection-attraction rite, which is the wàn’ài mìshù (萬愛祕術 = “secret art of universal affection”) — a vāśīkaraṇa-class rite whose function is to attract beings to right view through love rather than wrath.
The icon-specification: a six-faced, six-armed, six-legged Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka, mounted on a buffalo. The text gives the mantra (yī yìn zhēn-yán, “single-seal mantra”), the corresponding mudrā, and the visualization sequence for the affection-attraction rite. Although the deity-form is the wrathful Yamāntaka, his function in this rite is the gentlest of the four homa applications — a striking instance of the Esoteric principle that the deity-form and the ritual-application are independently variable.
The attribution to Yīxíng is plausible given his close involvement in both the Garbha-cycle (his role as Śubhakarasiṃha’s commentator on the Mahāvairocana-sūtra) and the Vajra-cycle (his Vajrabodhi-affiliation), but the text is not in the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (730), so its attribution to Yīxíng could be later. The dating bracket follows Yīxíng’s documented Esoteric activity at Cháng’ān (717–727).
Translations and research
- Chen Jinhua. Yixing’s Astronomical Works and Their Buddhist Context. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 2016.
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
Links
- CBETA T21n1219
- Kanseki DB
- 一行 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (727) — 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.