. yixing 343
by the teachings of the diamond mandala remains the subject of schol-
arly debate. His magnum opus is the first and primary commentary to
the Mahāvairocana sūtra, the Commentary on Mahāvairocana Becom-
ing a Buddha (Da Piluzhe’na chengfo jingshu ,
T. 1796) in twenty rolls, which has been widely read in China, Korea,
and Japan.
Contemporary scholars frequently discuss four main points of
Yixing’s commentary on the Mahāvairocana sūtra: the true nature
of the mind (xinshixiang ); grading the four vehicles accord-
ing to the single path (yidao sisheng panjiao ); the
three mysteries (triguhyāni, sanmi ); and becoming a buddha
in a single lifetime (yisheng chengfo ) (Lü Jianfu 1995, 233–
246). Indian Madhyamaka philosophical suppositions regarding the
true meaning of emptiness (śūnyatā, kong ) had been difficult for
Chinese Buddhists to grasp for centuries; Yixing’s commentary has
no fewer than two hundred citations to Nāgārjuna’s (ca. 150–250)
pivotal Madhyamaka-śāstra (Zhong lun , T. 1564), as well as
to the colossal Commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom in 25,000
Lines (*Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa-śāstra, Dazhi dulun ,
T. 1509), also attributed to Nāgārjuna. Yixing’s commentary provides
an innovative approach to Madhyamaka exegesis in the form of reach-
ing the nondual (between purity and the passions) state of true reality
(tattvasya lakṣaṇam) by meditating on the single Sanskrit syllable “A”
(Dari jingshu 7, T. 1796.39:651c).
Contemporary Chinese scholastic monks, especially Fazang
(643–712), who privileged the Buddhāvataṃsaka sūtra (Huayan jing
, T. 279), had already classified the sūtras and śāstras accord-
ing to doctrinal taxonomies, always pointing to a single overriding
text. Instead of a single text—such as the Buddhāvataṃsaka or Lotus
sūtras—as the foremost expression of the Buddha’s teachings, Yix-
ing posited the category of the secret teachings of the Mahāyāna
(bimi dasheng ) as the means to immediate awakening,
juxtaposed with the exoteric teachings (xianjiao ) venerated
by all other contemporaneous Buddhists in China (Dari jingshu 15,
T. 1796.39:731b14–17). The three mysteries refer to the body, speech, and
mind of the buddhas, which one should replicate using mudrās, man-
tras, and sādhanas (Dari jingshu 14, T. 1796.39:729a–b). If one purifies
one’s deeds, words, and thoughts, by means of the support (adhiṣthānạ ,
jiachi ) of these three esoteric practices of Mahāvairocana Buddha
one will achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime (Dari jingshu 1, T.