Zhēnyánzōng jíshēn chéngfó yìzhāng 眞言宗即身成佛義章
Treatise on the Doctrine of “Becoming-Buddha-in-this-very-Body” in the Mantra School by 覺鑁 (撰)
About the work
A short, single-fascicle doctrinal exposition in question-and-answer (問答) form by 覺鑁 Kakuban (1095–1144) on the foundational Shingon doctrine of sokushin jōbutsu 即身成佛 — “attaining Buddhahood in this very body.” The work is a methodical defense and elaboration of Kūkai’s 弘法大師 Sokushin jōbutsu gi 即身成佛義 against the exoteric objection that Buddhahood requires the three incalculable kalpas of cultivation through the fifty-two stages.
Abstract
Dating and authorship: a Kakuban composition, no internal date; conventional dating in his Kōyasan period 1120s–1140s. The treatise should be read as a Kakuban-school re-articulation of Kūkai’s foundational doctrinal text.
Method and structure: the text proceeds by questions and answers (問·答). The opening question states the exoteric objection: the sūtras and śāstras teach that the three asaṃkhyeya-kalpa cultivation through fifty-two stages eliminates the obstructions of afflictions and of cognition and so attains Buddhahood — on what evidence do you establish “becoming-Buddha-in-this-very-body”? Kakuban responds: in the mantra-secret-treasury the Tathāgata himself proclaims it. He then cites in sequence the Vajraśekhara-sūtra 金剛頂經 (those who cultivate this samādhi directly realize bodhi; those who attain the prīti-bhūmi — the first joyous bhūmi — through this teaching realize anuttara-samyak-sambodhi after sixteen lives), the Mahāvairocana-sūtra 大日經 (without abandoning this body, one attains the supernatural powers and the wandering body in the great-emptiness position — this is the body-secret), and the Bodhicitta-treatise 菩提心論 of Nāgārjuna 龍猛 (he who seeks Buddha-wisdom and penetrates bodhicitta directly realizes the great-awakening position with the body born of his father and mother).
The treatise then offers a mudrā-doctrine of the Five Wisdoms: when the practitioner imprints the Mahāvairocana three-syllable mantra-mudrā at five places of his body — heart, brow, mouth, throat, crown — the corresponding Five Wisdoms (五智) are realized in the five locations, transforming the practitioner into the Five Wisdom Buddhas (五智五佛). The technical apparatus uses the Ichi-ji chōrinō samādhi 一字頂輪王三摩地 (“the One-Syllable Cakravartin Crown Samādhi”) of Mahāvairocana as its central methodological framework.
Significance: a key Kakuban gloss on Kūkai’s Sokushin jōbutsu gi; one of the principal Heian-period restatements of the Shingon-school’s foundational soteriological claim.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For the doctrinal background see Hakeda, Yoshito S., Kūkai: Major Works, New York: Columbia University Press, 1972, pp. 225–234 (translation of Kūkai’s Sokushin jōbutsu gi).
- van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban (2000).
Links
- CBETA: T79n2511