Mìyán jìngtǔ lüèguān 密嚴淨土略觀
Brief Contemplation of the Mitsugon Pure Land by 覺鑁 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle visionary description and meditation-manual of the Mitsugon Pure Land 密嚴淨土 — the Esoteric Pure Land of Mahāvairocana — by 覺鑁 Kakuban (1095–1144). Together with the Wǔlún jiǔzì míng mìmìshì (KR6t0220) it is one of the two foundational texts of the Kakuban-school Shingon-Pure-Land synthesis (Mikkyōjōdo). The work consists of an extended rhapsodic descriptive ekphrasis of the Mitsugon Pure Land — its cosmic geography, its precious-jewel landscape, its dharma-preaching birds and flowers — in highly ornamented parallel prose, followed by a contemplation-manual instructing the practitioner how to visualize it.
Abstract
Dating: a Kakuban autograph composition; no internal date, conventionally placed in his mature Kōyasan period of the 1130s, closely connected with KR6t0220 Wǔlún jiǔzì. According to CANWWW it has a related text at KR6t0617 (T83n2617).
Opening (cosmic-geographical description): “The Mitsugon Pure Land is the lotus-capital of the heart-king Mahāvairocana, the diamond-citadel of the universally-illuminating dharma-emperor, the abode of secret-adornment, the realm of mandalas wonderful-and-pure. Its form is vast, equal to space; its nature and aspect are eternally abiding, transcending the dharmadhātu. The ten-direction Pure Lands are its front-garden; the wonderful-lands of all Buddhas are its rear-garden…”
Cosmography: at the center is Mahāvairocana seated atop a Sumeru of Dharmakāya proper; surrounding seven golden mountains correspond to the seven branches of awakening (七覺); the eight virtue-laden seas correspond to the eight virtues; in the sea swims a great-compassion golden tortoise (大悲金龜); on its back blooms a pure-consciousness jewel-lotus (淨識寶蓮); on the lotus stands Sumeru with the maṇḍala on its summit. The mountain has eight corners corresponding to the eight consciousnesses (八識), four jewels representing the four wisdoms (四智). Countless kalpa-flag trees (跛樹) stand in rows; sandalwood groves perfume each region. Delicate heavenly garments hang from the branches; jeweled nets veil the trees. Five-colored awakening-flowers bloom on a single trunk in mixed hues; six-time dharma-birds (六時法鳥) — the birds of the six watches — sing in unison but with different beaks. Sweet fruits weigh the branches down; golden flowers and silver calyxes cover the leaves. The wind through the bells preaches the three-vajra dharma-music 三金法樂; the flower-birds in the jewel-trees chirp the five-treasury meditation-joy 五藏禪悦. Eight-fold seas serve as jewel-pools; seven peaks serve as treasury-adornments. The four-colored lotuses bloom in the sea-center; five-colored jewel-trees forest the mountain-summits. The waves’ surging preaches the ten-mind-stages doctrine (十住心教 — Kūkai’s jūjūshin doctrine); the falling petals adorn the five-peak meditation-palace.
Meditation-doctrine: each cosmic feature is doctrinally encoded. The five-wisdom-pool mirrors are without private bias — within all phenomena of the dharma-dhātu, how can anything escape detection? The five-eyes light-lamps are without darkness — what ignorance can persist? The six great-elements are as incense, the awakening-wind suffuses the ten directions; the four-time dharma-flavors answer the practitioner’s longing.
Significance: the foundational textual articulation of the Mitsugon Pure Land as a Shingon-doctrinal landscape, and a key witness to Kakuban’s Pure-Land turn within the Shingon tradition. The doctrinal identification of Mitsugon with Sukhāvatī (and of Mahāvairocana with Amitābha) is here developed visually as well as doctrinally.
Translations and research
- van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban, Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.
- Inaya Yūsen 稲谷裕宣, Kakuban no kenkyū 覺鑁の研究, Kōyasan: Kōyasan Daigaku, 1969.
- The Mitsugon Pure Land doctrine builds on the Mahāyāna Mitsugon-jīng 大乘密嚴經 (T16n0681, T16n0682); for the doctrinal-philological background see Hamar, Imre (ed.), Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.
Other points of interest
The work’s lush prose-poetry, full of doctrinal-allegorical encoding, is one of the most artistically accomplished pieces in the Kakuban corpus.