Huāyán fóguāng sānmèi guān mì bǎozàng 華嚴佛光三昧觀祕寶藏
The Secret Treasure-Store of the Avataṃsaka Buddha-Light Samādhi Contemplation by 高辨 (集)
About the work
A two-fascicle Kegon-Shingon ritual-meditation manual by Myōe Kōben 明惠高辨 (1173–1232), expounding the Buddha-Light samādhi contemplation (fóguāng sānmèi guān 佛光三昧觀) as the central contemplative practice of the integrated Kegon-Shingon tradition. The work’s title declares its esoteric character: it is a mì bǎozàng — a “secret treasure-store” — and the author opens with the explicit warning: “This Dharma is the most deeply secret. It must not be casually held by any who has not received the transmission and practised it. Be sure not to handle it casually.” The work is therefore one of the few openly-esoteric Kegon texts in the Taishō canon, and a unique witness to Myōe’s Kōzan-ji esoteric transmission lineage.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The colophon dates and locates the composition precisely: “Jōkyū 3 (= 1221), 11th month, 9th day, at the ushi-no-toki (= ca. 2 AM), at the Kamo Bukkō-zan-ji Zendō-in residence — śramaṇa Kōben” (承久三年十一月九日丑時於賀茂佛光山寺禪堂院住房記之). Myōe (1173–1232; DILA A001007). The composition is precisely dated: notBefore = 1221, notAfter = 1221. The work was composed at the same Kamo Sub-Temple Zendō-in residence as KR6t0026 Huā-yán xìn-zhǒng yì (also dated Jōkyū 3, two months earlier).
Doctrinal content: the work is structured in three large sections — (1) zhǐ shì dà-yì 示大意 (showing the great meaning); (2) chū jiào zhèng 出教證 (presenting scriptural evidence); (3) liào-jiǎn zhèng-xiū yì 料簡正修義 (consideration of the correct cultivation). The first section opens with the Kegon-Shingon syllogism: “One who wishes to cultivate this Buddha-Light samādhi must first arouse the great mind of Mañjuśrī, distinguishing and selecting the One-Vehicle real-Dharma; then arouse the wondrous wisdom of Samantabhadra, cultivating the One-Vehicle excellent practice. The first is the One-Vehicle Faith. The latter is the One-Vehicle Practice.” The integration of Faith (= Mañjuśrī) with Practice (= Samantabhadra) under the unified figure of Vairocana is the central Kegon-Shingon equation.
The text then expounds the 三昧觀 (samādhi contemplation) of the Buddha-Light — a meditation in which the practitioner visualises the fó-guāng (light emanating from the Buddha’s body) as the manifestation of the yī-chéng zhēn-shí (One Vehicle true-real) and is, through that visualisation, transformed by the light. The practice culminates in a seven-day intensive retreat during which the practitioner recites the Universal-Awakening Chapter (pǔ-jué pǐn 普覺品) of the Avataṃsaka alongside the Mantra of Light (guāng-míng zhēn-yán 光明眞言) — confirming the work’s integration with Myōe’s parallel Mantra-of-Light project (KR6j0192, composed the following year, 1222).
The strict transmission-protocol at the head of the work — “must not be casually held by any who has not received the transmission and practised it” — places this firmly within the Esoteric kanjō 灌頂 (initiation) tradition: the work was intended to be transmitted only after the recipient had received the abhiṣeka (initiation-empowerment) and undertaken the seven-day retreat.
The text completes Myōe’s Kegon contemplative trilogy of 1220–1221 (KR6t0026 on faith; KR6t0027 on dhyāna-contemplation; this work on the Buddha-Light samādhi), all composed at the Kamo Sub-Temple in a single fifteen-month period.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Frédéric Girard, Un moine de la secte Kegon à l’époque de Kamakura — discusses Myōe’s Buddha-Light samādhi practice.
- George J. Tanabe, Myōe the Dreamkeeper — treats the Buddha-Light samādhi as a key element of Myōe’s contemplative synthesis.
- Mark Unno, Shingon Refractions: Myōe and the Mantra of Light (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004) — the principal Western treatment of Myōe’s integration of the Mantra of Light into the Kegon contemplative system.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Bukkō zammai 佛光三昧 and Kegon bukkō zammai kan hi hōzō 華嚴佛光三昧觀祕寶藏.
Other points of interest
The text is among the few medieval Japanese Buddhist canonical works to explicitly declare itself esoteric — with restrictive transmission requirements written into its preface. This makes it a unique witness to Myōe’s Kōzan-ji Kegon-Shingon esoteric transmission tradition, and to the medieval Japanese practice of openly-declared guhya (secret) writing within the otherwise public canon.