Miào chéngjiù jì 妙成就記
Notes on the Marvellous-Accomplishment Practice by 圓仁 (記)
About the work
A single-fascicle ritual-procedural notebook on the Marvellous-Accomplishment (miào chéng-jiù 妙成就) practice — the Susiddhi-tradition’s siddhi-attainment rite — by Ennin 圓仁 (Jikaku Daishi, 794–864). The work has the unusual editorial structure of carrying two layers of text: a base layer in black ink, attributed to “the previous master” (presumably Annen or an earlier Hiei-zan compiler), and interlinear red-ink notes attributed to Jikaku Daishi (Ennin) himself. The work documents the Tendai-Esoteric trayo-mantra-niṣpādana (three-hūṃ body-completion) practice — a Susiddhi-tradition counterpart to the Vajra-realm’s five-aspect body-completion.
Abstract
Authorship. The header reads: “The black-ink text is from the previous master’s transmission; Jikaku Daishi’s red text is the later master’s explanation.” (墨字先師所傳。慈覺大師朱書後師説). Both layers ultimately stem from Ennin’s circle.
Date. Ennin’s red annotations are post-847 (his return from Tang). notBefore = 847, notAfter = 864 is the appropriate composition bracket for Ennin’s layer.
The work opens: “The practitioner, when about to perform the ritual, must know the great-purport of the three sections: the Garbha-realm arises from the syllable a and is completed by the five-cakras body. The Vajra-realm arises from the syllable vaṃ and is completed by the five-aspects body. Now in this [Susiddhi], one arises from the syllable hūṃ and is completed by the three-hūṃ-body. The practitioner first mentally contemplates the hūṃ syllable; recites the hūṃ-mantra once. The syllable transforms into the Five-Wisdom Vajra. Next, place the same syllable on the tongue. Next, place it on the crown of the head — all three transform into the Five-Pronged Vajra. Recite the hūṃ as above; then form the Five-Pronged Vajra mudra and seal-empower at five places. Imagine that one’s own body becomes the Vajra-Tooth Bodhisattva. This is the initial entry-gate of this realm.”
The text proceeds through procedures for visiting impure places (徃穢處 — sites of pollution; the rite for vinaya-pure travel through such places); the subjugation of demons by name (稱彼名字); the hūṃ-cleansing-of-the-three-karmas; the three-part samaya mudras; and the body-protection rite.
The work bears a manuscript-copy colophon: “Eikyū 4, 8th month, 24th day” (= October 1116 CE) — the reading-mark insertion date — and the private annotation: “This private record is especially to be kept secret — keep it secret! Recorded by Dōgen 道玄; transmission completed, Jitsujo 實助*.*” This documents the work’s transmission in the kuden tradition through the 12th century.
Translations and research
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988).
Other points of interest
The work’s trayo-hūṃ-niṣpādana — the three-hūṃ body-completion — is doctrinally interesting. The standard Tang Shingon (Tōmitsu) tradition recognizes the five-aspect body-completion of the Vajra-realm and the five-cakra body-completion of the Garbha-realm; the Susiddhi-tradition’s three-hūṃ body-completion is a Tendai-distinctive ritual element that Ennin’s text here documents in concrete procedural form. It is a unique technical contribution of the Taimitsu lineage.