Zhēnyán jìng pútíxīn sījì 眞言淨菩提心私記
Personal Notes on the Pure Bodhicitta of the Mantra School by 覺鑁 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle doctrinal essay by 覺鑁 Kakuban (1095–1144), signed Denpō-in Kakuban sen 傳法院覺鑁撰 — the Daidenpō-in 大傳法院 being the great seminary Kakuban founded at Mount Kōya in 1132 as the institutional base of his reformist movement. The work concerns the pure bodhicitta 淨菩提心 of the Shingon tradition — the foundational “thought of awakening” doctrine that constitutes the kausala (cause-condition) for the sokushin jōbutsu (becoming-Buddha-in-this-very-body) of the Shingon soteriology.
Abstract
Doctrinal thesis (opening): “The pure bodhicitta of the mantra-tradition is the very body of the heart-king of the Dharma-Dhātu Mahāvairocana, the dharma-body of innate-nature, the heart-ground of the dharma-realm; it is also the true-aspect-of-form-and-mind of all sentient beings, the equal seed of the universal-gate ocean-assembly.”
Method: citation-based exposition through the Mahāvairocana-sūtra Commentary (大日經疏) of Yīxíng 一行 and Kūkai’s Jūjūshin-ron 十住心論. From the Commentary fasc. 2: “This mind is the Tathāgata’s spontaneous-wisdom; it is also Mahāvairocana pervading every body. Since the mind is thus, dharmas too are thus; both the cognitive faculties and the sense-objects enter the A-syllable gate.” From the Commentary fasc. 1: “The true-aspect-of-form-and-mind of all sentient beings has been, from the original-limit and ever, the equal wisdom-body of Mahāvairocana. It is not the case that at the time of attaining Buddhahood one forcibly empties dharmas and so produces the dharma-realm. The Buddha, from the equal heart-ground, develops the great-maṇḍala of inexhaustible adornment-treasury; this maṇḍala in turn uses sentient-beings’ equal-heart-ground inexhaustible adornment-treasury great-maṇḍala. The wondrous response and wondrous reception do not transcend the A-syllable gate.”
The pure bodhicitta is identified with yathābhūtam ātmacittajñāna 如實知自心 — the omniscient wisdom of knowing one’s own mind as it really is — citing the Mahāvairocana-sūtra fasc. 1: “What is bodhi? It is knowing one’s own mind as it really is.” And from Jūjūshin-ron fasc. 10: “This single line contains immeasurable meanings. Vertically it displays the depths-and-shallows of the ten residences; horizontally it shows the dust-and-numbers immense quantity.”
Significance: a Kakuban statement on the foundational bodhicitta doctrine, expressly invoking the institutional authority of the Daidenpō-in and the Kūkai-tradition. The text is one of the principal Heian-era Japanese statements of the Shingon-school bodhicitta doctrine.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban (2000).
- For the Bodhicitta doctrine of the Shingon school see Abe Ryūichi, The Weaving of Mantra (1999); Hakeda, Yoshito, Kūkai: Major Works (1972).
Links
- CBETA: T79n2521