. vajrabodhi (–) 349
of texts Vajrabodhi focused on: texts related to the Yoga teaching of
the STTS, and dhāraṇī texts focused on particular deities that were
designed to address specific, often worldly, needs, such as protection
from disease or disaster. Vajrabodhi also produced ritual manuals
(yigui , xiuxing fa ), though in these types of texts and
in most of the work of other Tang masters some elements of ritual
instruction are included. In 730 he translated another dhāraṇī text, the
Jin’gangding jing Manshusheli pusa wu zi xin tuoluoni pin
( T. 1173), which is actually an extract
from the STTS that details a rite for summoning Mañjuśrī. In the same
year he translated a ritual manual for Cintāmaṇicakra-Avalokiteśvara,
the Guanzizai ruilun pusa yuqie fayao
(T. 1087).
Some twenty-four texts are attributed to Vajrabodhi by the edi-
tors of the Taishō canon, and lists of texts complied by Japanese pil-
grims include more beyond these (Lü 1995, 218). Among these are
the Jin’gang yuqie liqu boruo jing ( T. 241, a
version of the so-called tantric Prajñāpāramitā); Da Piluzhe’na fo shuo
yaolue niansong jing ( T. 849, a sketch of
basic rites for the invocation of Mahāvairocana); Yaoshi rulai guanxing
yigui ( T. 923, procedures for the contemplation
of Bhaisaja Tathāgata); ̣ Qianshou qianyan Guanzizai pusa guangda
yuanman wuai dabei xin tuoluoni zhou ben (
T. 1061, dhāraṇī for the worship of
the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara); Budong shizhe tuoluoni mimi fa
( T. 1202, secret dhāraṇī method of Acala);
and Beidou qixing niiansong yigui ( T. 1305, pro-
cedures for worshipping the deities of the Northern Dipper).^14
Finally, it is significant that Zanning also records an event in which
Vajrabodhi used child-mediums to investigate the illness of one
of Xuanzong’s daughters.^15 The method employed, āveśa (aweishe
, is based on pan-South Asian techniques and it resembles later
Song Dynasty Daoist techniques used by fashi , called kaozhao
, “summoning and investigating”; it is discussed in Vajrabodhi’s
Jin’gang feng louge yiqie yuqie yuqi jing.^16
(^14) The full list is T. 241, 849, 866, 867, 876, 904, 923, 932, 980, 1061, 1062A, 1075,
1087, 1112, 1166, 1173, 1202, 1208, 1220, 1223, 1251, 1269, 1293, and 1305. 15
T. 2061:711c. The episode is translated in Chou 1945, 278–79.
(^16) Discussions of āveśa are found at T. 867.18:263a8, 264a19, 268c23, 268c26.