Fó shuō chūshēng yīqiè rúlái fǎyǎn biànzhào dàlì míngwáng jīng 佛說出生一切如來法眼遍照大力明王經
Sūtra of the Greatly-Powerful Vidyārāja, the All-Pervading Dharma-Eye Born from All Tathāgatas, Spoken by the Buddha (Skt. Mahābala-sūtra) by 法護 (Fǎhù, Dharmapāla, 譯)
About the work
A two-fascicle Esoteric scripture translated by Dharmapāla (法護, 963–1058) — the long-lived North-Indian translator who came to Sòng China in 1004 and worked at the Kāifēng Translation Institute (譯經院) for over half a century, succeeding the early-Sòng generation of Tiānxīzāi / Fǎxián / Fǎtiān / Shīhù. Sanskrit affiliation in canwww: Mahābala-sūtra. Alternate title 辟除諸惡經 (“Sūtra of Expelling All Evils”). Korean Tripiṭaka K1097; Zhōnghuá H1207; Nanjio 1019.
Abstract
The deity is MahābalaVidyārāja 大力明王 (“Greatly-Powerful Vidyārāja”), here qualified as the “All-Pervading Dharma-Eye Born from All Tathāgatas” (出生一切如來法眼遍照) — that is, the wrathful expression of the universal Buddha-eye of dharma that arises from all Tathāgatas. The two fascicles develop, in characteristic Indian Yoga-tantra style, the deity’s iconography, mantra, mudrā, maṇḍala, and the anuśaṃsā-catalogue (pi-chú zhūè, “expelling all evils”) that gives the alternate title: protection from all hostile powers, demonic and karmic. The text is among the substantial body of late-Indian kriyā- and yoga-tantra materials brought by Dharmapāla to Sòng China and rendered into Chinese under the imperial Translation Institute programme. The dating bracket spans Dharmapāla’s documented translation activity at Kāifēng (1006 onward, deceased 1058).
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
- Bagchi, Prabodh Chandra. Le canon bouddhique en Chine, 2 vols. Paris: Geuthner, 1927–1938 — for the bibliographic history of the early Sòng translation programme.