. the esotericization of chinese buddhist practices 517
carefully proscribed formulae: illness, ill fortune, and all manner of
calamity can be explained by a failure to properly perform rituals.
Failing faithful reproduction of the ritual and obtaining the desired
effect, Buddhists, perhaps more than Daoists (their closest rivals),
have had access to a pantheon of deities—the Mahāyāna bodhisatt-
vas—who can intervene on a personal basis. The most common means
to affect the bodhisattvas has been through the chanhui rites of
repentance, from the Sanskrit ksamạ (enduring, suffering) and āpatti-
prati-deśanā (instructions to alleviate misfortunes). These rites, which
have been at the center of Chinese Buddhist liturgical rites since the
third century, have only recently attracted interest on the part of
Western-language scholars (Kuo, 1994, 1998). Nevertheless, the Tian-
tai and Huayan exegetical traditions, based on the
Lotus (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka sūtra, Miaofa lianhua jing ,
T. 262) and Buddhāvataṃsaka (Huayan jing , T. 279) sūtras,
respectively, owe their enduring influence on the ritual dimensions
of East Asian Buddhism to the successful performance of repentance
rites. Furthermore, the Suvarṇaprabhāsa[uttamarāja] (Jinguangming
jing , T. 663) and the Chinese Śūraṃgama (Shoulengyan
jing , T. 945) sūtras, in particular, coupled with the Lotus and
Buddhāvataṃsaka, have provided the Chinese with a stable cosmo-
logical system to address the close bodhisattvas, distant buddhas, and
myriad Chinese and Indian beings in between to intervene on behalf
of the living and the dead when misfortunes inevitably arise.
A common ten-stage rite to propitiate demons—who the Chinese
hold responsible for nearly all maladies—through the Mahāyāna Bud-
dhist deities in both Tiantai and Huayan rituals includes: 1) purifica-
tion of the ritual space; 2) making prostrations (bowing); 3) burning
incense and perfuming the area with flowers; 4) recollection (mind-
fulness); 5) invitations and offerings to the Three Treasures (Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha); 6) use of poplar branches and purifying water
(often perfumed); 7) recitation of spells (dhāraṇī or mantra); 8) per-
formance of the repentance rite; 9) circumambulation or performance
of a ritual; and 10) sūtra recitation or seated meditation (Kamata 1986;
Shioiri 2007). From the tenth century, after the introduction and dis-
semination of esoteric Buddhist practices, these rites changed little,
apart from the very striking use of different spells, certain rituals (in
the ninth stage), and, most significantly, the fact that so-called esoteric
forms of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteśvara, increasingly
become the focus of the rites (Kamata 1999b; Hirai 1999). It should