Gòngyǎng hùshì bātiān fǎ 供養護世八天法
Method for the Offering to the Eight World-Protector Heavens by 法全 (Fǎquán, 集)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual (fǎ 法) “compiled” (集) by Fǎquán (法全) of the Qīng-lóng-sì 青龍寺 in late-Tang Cháng-ān: 青龍寺沙門法全集. The text codifies an Esoteric Eight World-Protector Heavens (護世八天) offering for daily use by the practitioner of zhēn-yán (mantra) practice, citing the Sū-pó-hū jīng 蘇婆呼經 (the Tang Esoteric ritual classic KR6j0125 / T895, Subāhuparipṛcchā) as its scriptural authority for the daily directional offering.
Abstract
The opening paragraph cites the Sū-pó-hū jīng 蘇婆呼經: “Those who practise mantra should daily offer to the Direction-Protector Heavenly Spirits (護方天神); then they will be free from disasters.” Outside the principal ritual platform (道場), at the eight directions, mats of thatch-grass (茅草) or lotus-leaves (荷葉) are laid; or alternatively a circular altar is painted out, with ten ritual positions: the eight directional gods plus, on each side of Indra, Brahmā 梵天 and Pṛthivī 地天 (the Earth-Heaven), giving “Ten Heavens” within the rubric of “Eight World-Protectors”. If the principal ritual area lacks space for these positions, a clean spot in front of the platform is bounded as a maṇḍala-perimeter (方界), with the eight directions disposed on the perimeter and Brahmā and Pṛthivī at the centre, so that the offering is to all ten directions of the heavens.
The food is again the standard mixed porridge (雜粥) of non-glutinous rice and sesame, presented one position at a time on a clean leaf or clean tea-bowl. A clean kuṇḍikā of empowered fragrant water is poured first, then the practitioner kneels with palms joined and invokes (請) the Ten Heavens, beginning at the East with Kauśika 憍尸迦 (= Indra: “I respectfully invite the Eastern Ruler Kauśika and his retinue to descend hither — may they receive my offerings”); the Southeast invokes Agni 火天 with the parvata-mountains; the South invokes Yama 琰摩天, the Rākṣasa Lord, and the Bhūta Heavens; the West, Varuṇa the Nāga-rāja; the Vāyu Spirit-King; Vaiśravaṇa; Īśāna; and Mahābrahmā. The “earth-resident great deity-kings” (地居所有諸大神王) are invited together with their retinues, with the formula “may you secretly add protection over me; I contemplate the principal direction and address you”. The deities are dismissed (退請) at the end of the rite. The mudrā-and-Sanskrit-name section follows: the Northeast Īśāna with his bhūta retinue is given the trident-mudrā (戟印) — the samaya-fist (三昧拳) with fire-fingers raised and wind-fingers bent backward — together with the Īśāna mantra, and so on for each of the directional positions.
The text is one of 法全’s mature Chángān Qīnglóngsì ritual codifications, alongside the better-known Xuánfǎsì yíguǐ (KR6j0008) and the Garbhadhātu yoga (KR6j0010). The dating bracket reflects his recorded period of teaching activity (DILA: ca. 824 – 859); the text would have been transmitted to Japan in the second half of the 9th century by his Japanese disciples 圓仁 Ennin, 圓珍 Enchin, and 宗叡 Shūei, and entered the foundational Tendai-Esoteric (Taimitsu) ritual corpus.
Translations and research
- ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.
- Bogel, Cynthea J. With a Single Glance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyō Vision. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
- Orzech, Charles D., Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011 — for the late-Tang Cháng-ān Esoteric milieu.
- Reis-Habito, Maria. “The Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and the Eight World-Protectors.” In studies of late-Tang protector cycles.