Sūxīdì miàoxīn dà 蘇悉地妙心大
Outline of the Marvellous Heart of the Susiddhi by 圓仁 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle ritual-procedural notebook by Ennin 圓仁 (Jikaku Daishi, 794–864) on the Susiddhi-kara-tantra (蘇悉地經) ritual sequence — the third of the three Tang Shingon ritual cycles after the Garbha-realm and Vajra-realm. The Sūxīdì tradition is the Tendai-distinctive third esoteric platform that Ennin received from his Tang teacher and that distinguishes the Taimitsu tradition from the Tōmitsu (Kōya-san Shingon, which holds the Susiddhi as a subset of the Garbha-realm rather than as a third independent platform).
Abstract
Authorship and dating are as for KR6t0083 and KR6t0084: Ennin’s mature ritual notebook from his post-Tang teaching at Hiei-zan, 847–864 CE.
The work opens with a Susiddhi-specific opening sequence: “Hūṃ [for] the pure-three-karmas, the three-part samaya, the body-protection. After this, do all the mudras. Next, the Receive-Touch-Fury mudra. As in the text. But the left fist is placed on the hip; the right hand makes the mudra. First, above the navel, recite the mantra three times (or seven times). Next, seal at five places — namely forehead, right and left shoulders, heart, and above the throat. After that, with the mudra, lift to the crown of the head three times. After the right-rotation, with the mudra easily descend from the right side of the head to the chest. Then by skilful means lift the two hands to the crown of the head and scatter the mudra, as usual.” The text proceeds through the Susiddhi-distinctive earth-purification ritual (分土淨), the five-cluster earth and three-cluster earth rituals (using the five fingers together to take and divide the earth), and the wrathful protector invocations characteristic of the Susiddhi-kara.
The work was paired with the Sū-xī-dì jīng (蘇悉地經, T18n0893, Sanskrit Susiddhi-kara-mahā-tantra, translated by Śubhakarasiṃha) as a procedural manual for the third-platform initiation. Together with KR6t0083–KR6t0084 it forms the canonical Taimitsu three-platform documentation.
The work bears late-Edo collation marks: Jōkyō 1, 甲子 (1684), 12th month by Bishop Keisan 慶算, the Hōman-in restoration-abbot, and Genbun 1, 丙辰 (1736), 9th month, 6th day, collation by Fudō Kongō Gikū 不動金剛義空, the fifth abbot of Hōman-in — testimony to the work’s continued importance in Edo-Tendai esoteric training.
Translations and research
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988), for the Susiddhi-platform tradition.
Other points of interest
The Susiddhi-platform’s place in Taimitsu is distinctive: where the Tōmitsu (Kōya-san Shingon) tradition holds two main maṇḍala-platforms (Garbha and Vajra), the Taimitsu tradition holds three, with the Susiddhi as the third unifying platform. This Ennin text is among the earliest Japanese witnesses to the three-platform tradition’s procedural articulation.