. the impact of translated esoteric buddhist scriptures 311
the eight-leaved [lotus flower] (of the Dari jing ; another name
for the Mt. Sumeru world-system). By means of the other-reward [body]
he manifests the three kinds of mandalas and causes the ten world-
systems to evince great emptiness (T. 905:18:912a21–25).The concepts of “wisdom” and “principle” are utilized repeatedly in
other later writings putatively associated with the Chinese esoteric tra-
dition, such as Kūkai’s (774– 835) Hizōki , in which one of
the predominant theories is that the text represents Huiguo’s (746–
805) instructions to Kūkai (Katsumata 1981, 186–210; Osawa 1999).
The record reports that the Sanskrit letter A is the seed syllable of the
dharmakāya of principle of Vairocana and Vaṃ is the seed syllable of
the dharmakāya of wisdom. It also says about the east that it is the
cause of principle, the Lotus section (lianhuabu ); and about
the west entrance that it is the result of wisdom, the Vajra section
(jin’gangbu ) (see Matsunaga Yūkei 1977; Osawa 1999).
The mysteries of body, speech, and mind, the three esoterica (sanmi
, *triguhya), straddle the borders between tantric doctrine and
ritual. The term was employed frequently in mainstream Mahāyāna
Buddhist literature to refer to the three types of karma produced by, as
well as the advanced spiritual attainments and supernormal powers of,
buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the special characteristics of enlight-
ened bodies long before the concept was alluded to in the advanced
ritual practices of the Mahāvairocana sūtra (T. 848). Despite Amogha-
vajra’s straightforward definition of the three actions of body, speech,
and mind as referring to making mudrā, chanting mantra, and abiding
in yogic meditative trance (T. 1665.32:574b11–16), which encapsulates
appropriately the fundamental tantric practices producing immediate
enlightenment as a result of rituals of consecration and initiation that
take place in mandalas under the auspices of gurus, the lion’s share of
translated materials, including many putatively tantric texts, continue
the already complex mainstream Chinese Mahāyāna interpretations of
this important doctrinal concept, particularly the concepts of univer-
sality (pingdeng ) and interfusion ( yuanrong ) promoted in
Huayan materials (McBride 2006).
Ritual Innovations
Although state-sponsored Buddhist rituals, such as assemblies or fasts
of the eight prohibitions (baguan zhai ) and convocations for
the recitation of the Sūtra on Humane Kings (Renwang jing ),
had been held by Chinese rulers of the Northern and Southern dynas-
ties period in the late fifth and sixth centuries, revised and expanded