Guānzìzài púsà rúyìlún zhòu kèfǎ 觀自在菩薩如意輪呪課法
Daily-Recitation Method of the Avalokiteśvara Wish-Wheel Dhāraṇī [Anonymous, in the lineage of Cíyún Zūnshì]
About the work
A one-fascicle (1卷) daily-recitation manual (kèfǎ 課法) for the Rúyìlún (Cintāmaṇi-cakra) dhāraṇī of Avalokiteśvara, in the Tiāntái-school tradition descending from Cíyún Zūnshì 慈雲遵式 遵式 (964–1032). Preserved as T46 no. 1952 in the Taishō. The catalog meta entry is silent on authorship; internal evidence shows the author working post-Zūnshì in the Tiāntái-school xíngfǎ 行法 ritual-manual tradition.
Prefaces
The preface frames the manual in terms of the Tiāntái-school’s Sìzhǒng sānmèi 四種三昧 system established in Suízǔ Zhìzhě’s 智顗 Móhē zhǐguān 摩訶止觀 (KR6d0130): “Many read it; few practice it. Why is this? Human capacities are shallow; the savor of the dharma is thin; one labors with one’s teacher among names and forms; one slackens in attending the Buddha. Hence the shíguān (ten-fold contemplation) of completing the vehicle, and the wǔhuǐ (fivefold repentance) of supporting the path, remain mere empty words.” The author then describes his project: “I, in the leisure of my teaching, sought the benefit of recitation-practice. Opening the canon, I obtained four versions of the Rúyìlún dhāraṇī sūtra…the earlier Tiānzhú master named Zūnshì had often contemplated this sūtra and known the essentials of benefiting beings; he loved Yìjìng’s 義淨 translation for its easy recitation, and had it cut for printing as a legacy. But Yìjìng’s translation is brief; the prescribed method merely says ‘compose the mind, recite with the mouth.’ For the ritual-procedure and visualization, no indications were given. Recipients sometimes feel something missing; I therefore take from the texts and provide supplementary aids.”
Abstract
The Kèfǎ is a daily-recitation manual that supplements Yìjìng’s 義淨 brief Tang-period translation of the Cintāmaṇi-cakra-dhāraṇī-sūtra with the elaborated Tiāntái-school ritual-procedure (shìyí 事儀) and visualization (guānxiǎng 觀想) framework — drawing on the Sìzhǒng sānmèi method. The work is firmly in the lineage of Zūnshì’s broader Sòng-period Tiāntái devotional-manual project. Composition window: post-1032 (after Zūnshì’s death, when the project of supplementing his Rúyìlún manual could be undertaken) – c. 1200 (Southern Sòng).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.