Fó shuō Miàojíxiáng yújiā dàjiào jīngāng Péiluómó lún guānxiǎng chéngjiù yíguǐ jīng 佛說妙吉祥瑜伽大教金剛陪囉嚩輪觀想成就儀軌經
Sūtra on the Visualisation-Accomplishment Ritual of the Vajra-Bhairava Wheel of the Mañjuśrī Yoga Great Teaching, Spoken by the Buddha by 法賢 (Fǎxián, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric ritual sūtra translated by Fǎxián (法賢, i.e. Tiānxīzāi 天息災 after his 1000-CE name-change — the Sòng imperial Sūtra-Translation Institute’s chief translator, 譯經三藏 Tripiṭaka of the Translation Institute) at Kāifēng. Sanskrit affiliation in canwww: Vajrabhairava(tantrakrodhatattvarāja). Korean Tripiṭaka K1214; Zhōnghuá H1324; Nanjio 1062. The text is one of the principal Chinese vehicles for the Vajrabhairava (金剛陪囉嚩 = Skt. Vajrabhairava) cycle of late Indian Yoga-tantra — the wrathful Mañjuśrī (妙吉祥) cult that became central in Tibetan Anuttarayoga-tantra practice.
Abstract
The text presents Vajrabhairava — the buffalo-headed wrathful manifestation of Mañjuśrī (the Bodhisattva of Wisdom) — as the central deity of a lún 輪 (wheel-maṇḍala) practice. The structure is given by canwww as a six-part Structural Division (see below). The text bridges the Yoga-tantra and Anuttarayoga-tantra phases of Indian Esoteric Buddhism: it is among the latest Indian-Buddhist materials to enter the Sinitic canon, and its transmission to Sòng China was largely an artefact of the imperial translation programme rather than of organic continuity with earlier Tang Esoteric practice. In Tibetan Buddhism this same Vajrabhairava cycle would later be foundational for the Yamāntaka practices of the Gélug 格魯派 tradition, and the comparative study of T1242 with the surviving Tibetan parallels (the Vajrabhairava-tantra corpus) is philologically valuable.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T21N1242) records six sub-divisions:
- Mànnáluó fēn 曼拏羅分 (Maṇḍala Section)
- Yīqiè chéngjiù fǎ fēn 一切成就法分 (Section on All Accomplishment-Methods)
- Guānxiǎng fēn 觀想分 (Visualisation Section)
- Jìnxiàng yíguǐ fēn 盡像儀軌分 (Section on the Painted-Image Ritual)
- Hùmófǎ fēn 護摩法分 (Section on the Homa Method)
- Guānxiǎng chéngjiù fēn 觀想成就分 (Section on Visualisation-Accomplishment)
These divisions correspond to the standard Indian kalpa-organisation of an Esoteric ritual-cycle: maṇḍala → applied methods → visualisation → painted-image → fire-rite → realisation.
The dating bracket reflects Fǎxián’s documented translation activity at Kāifēng during the late TàipíngXīngguó and Yōngxī reigns (the great bulk of Fǎxián / Tiānxīzāi’s output dates from after his 982 appointment to the new Translation Institute, with the post-989 Vajrabhairava material falling in the late Sòng Tàizōng / early Zhēnzōng years).
Translations and research
- Siklós, Bulcsu. The Vajrabhairava Tantras: Tibetan and Mongolian Versions, English Translation, and Annotations. Tring, U.K.: Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1996.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 — early Sòng Translation Institute.