Tāizàng rùlǐ chāo 胎藏入理鈔
Notes on Entering the Principle of the Garbhadhātu by 頼瑜 (記)
About the work
A three-fascicle ritual oral-transmission record by 頼瑜 Raiyu (1226–1304), the Garbhadhātu companion to KR6t0239 Jīnjiè fāhuì chāo. The internal title is 胎藏界念誦次第 (“Garbhadhātu Recitation Sequence”), and Raiyu is named at the head as recorder (記) of the transmission.
Abstract
Opening doctrinal question: “Why is this realm named ‘Garbha’ (womb / embryonic-treasury)?” The answer cites the Mahāvairocanasūtra Commentary fasc. 3: “For now we provisionally take the garbha (womb) as an analogy. The practitioner who first arouses the all-knowing mind is as the consciousness-seed which by father-and-mother condition first deposits in the womb-treasury; in this condition gradual growth is brought about by the practice-karma skill-wind, until at the first birth all the faculties and hundred-bones are completely furnished; from out of the father-mother nature it is born — like one who, depending on the gate of the mantras, learns the great-compassion ten-thousand practices, the pure-mind manifests-and-displays. Again, this little-child gradually acquires the human-dharma, practices the various arts; when the arts are mastered, he undertakes practical actions…”
The remainder of the work proceeds through the Garbhadhātu recitation-sequence ritual stage-by-stage, with the master’s oral-instructions recorded at each clause. The doctrinal-allegorical framework — the Garbha as embryonic-gestation of bodhicitta — governs the whole work’s structuring.
Significance: with KR6t0239, the principal Raiyu witness to the Vajradhātu / Garbhadhātu twin-realm ritual-cycle transmission at the late-Kamakura Daigo Sanbō-in Hō’on-in.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For the Garbhadhātu Mahāvairocana-sūtra and its ritual implementation: Hodge, Stephen, The Mahā-Vairocana-Abhisaṃbodhi Tantra (2003); Yamasaki, Taikō, Shingon (1988).