Sūxīdì duìshòu jì 蘇悉地對受記
Record of the Mutual-Reception of the Susiddhi by 安然 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle ritual-transmission record for the Susiddhi-kara-tantra (蘇悉地經) — the third Taimitsu ritual platform alongside the Garbha-realm and Vajra-realm — by Annen 安然 (841–c.915). The work completes Annen’s Three-Realm Major-Method Record set, with KR6t0088 (Garbha-realm) and KR6t0089 (Vajra-realm), documenting the Susiddhi ritual platform that distinguishes Taimitsu from the rival Tōmitsu (Kōya-san Shingon) tradition.
Abstract
Authorship. The header reads “Annen.” Date as the companion works: 876–915 CE.
The work opens by citing the foundational doctrinal framework of the three platforms in their seed-syllable-body-completion correspondences: “The Yún jì says: ‘The practitioner, 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 it 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…*”
This is the canonical Taimitsu three-platform body-completion framework: the a-vaṃ-hūṃ seed-syllable triad maps to the five-cakras body / five-aspects body / three-hūṃ body triad, in turn mapping to the Garbha-realm / Vajra-realm / Susiddhi platforms. This is the doctrinal foundation that justifies the Susiddhi as a separate third platform alongside the two major platforms — a distinctively Taimitsu doctrine that the Tōmitsu (Tōji / Kōya-san) tradition rejects.
The body of the work documents the Susiddhi mantra-mudra-meditation procedures: the various Susiddhi-platform initiations; the paṇḍara (white) family rites; the Marvellous-Accomplishment (miào chéng-jiù) practice; the earth-purification rites distinctive to the Susiddhi; the wrathful-protector invocations; the fire-offering (homa) variants.
The work is compact (only one fascicle), but doctrinally central: it provides the Taimitsu basis for the three-platform structure of esoteric practice.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988), discusses the Susiddhi platform in Taimitsu.
- Mizukami Fumiyoshi 水上文義, Annen no taimitsu shisō (Hōzōkan, 2008).
Other points of interest
The doctrine of the three platforms (sān-bù 三部 / Susiddhi as third platform) is the most controversial distinctive Taimitsu doctrinal-ritual claim: it is rejected by the Tōmitsu tradition, which holds that the Susiddhi is a subsidiary of the Garbha-realm. The present work provides the canonical Taimitsu argument for the Susiddhi’s independent platform-status, grounded in the a-vaṃ-hūṃ triadic syllable-body framework. The Susiddhi-platform doctrine is one of the most enduring divisions between the two principal Japanese esoteric schools.