644 henrik h. sørensen
),^53 and so on. A central passage from the introduction enti-
tled “Aja non ” (“A Discussion of the Letter A”) reads:
The verse on the letter a in the Vairocana sūtra^54 says:
“An eight petaled, white lotus flower suddenly opens,
brightly manifesting the letter a,
its color [being of] a white brightness.”^55
When contemplating the form of this character, wisdom will make one
realizes that bodhi is fundamentally unborn. Complete and perfect, it is
similar to a moon-disk. This is the meaning of contemplating the let-
ter [a]. Only those who cultivate yoga [i.e., Esoteric Buddhism] [may]
contemplate the moon-disk of the bodhi-mind. Inside the moon-disk,
arranged in revolving order from the right, are the forty-two Sanskrit
Siddham letters, all being of a golden color with a brightness extending
to the ten directions. From this, one will be able to realize Vairocana’s
body of wisdom, which is the perfection of the contemplation of the
letter a. Tripitaka [Master] Amoghavajra instructed his followers, say-̣
ing: “You should all contemplate the bodhi-mind of the Original Wor-
thy [Vairocana], the great being. This is the bodhi-mind of the Original
Worthy, the great being!”^56 Having [himself] accomplished the dharma
of the unborn and realized the great enlightened body he [Amoghavajra]
handed down the [method] of the contemplation of the letter a to his
followers.^57 The above way of contemplation is not different from the
Sŏn path outside the established norm (kyŏgoe sŏnmun ). In
the path of Sŏn they teach men through the wordless kongan, which is
similar [in essence] to the letter a. The dharma method of contemplating
the mind is not apart from the detailed investigation of the principle of
the abstruse [whereby] the evident and the mysterious are completely
fused. By constantly contemplating the letter a, one is fundamentally
working on the hwadu 58 [literally, “head of the word”]. (Chinŏn
chip/Aja non, 5b–6a)(^53) This practice is based on the Guan wuliang shou jing (Sūtra on Con-
templating Amitāyus; also known as the 54 Amitāyus dhyāna sūtra). Cf. T. 365.
Actually not the Mahāvairocana sūtra (T. 848), but T. 876. The full title of this
scripture is Jin’gangding jing yujia xiuxi pilushena sanmodi fa
. It was translated by Vajrabodhi between 731–736 C.E.
(^55) T. 876.18:5b. For the original passage, see T. 876.18:328b.
(^56) T. 876.18:5b. I have been unable to identify the source of this passage.
(^57) There are several translations of Esoteric Buddhist texts on the contemplation of
the letter a attributed to Amoghavajra. Cf. T. 953, 954a, 955, and 957.
(^58) The hwadu is the essential part of the kongan , upon which the Sŏn adept
focuses his entire attention. For a standard discourse on this practice, see Hyŭjŏng’s
Sŏnga kugam (HPC vol. 7, 636b–638a). For an overall discussion of hwadu and kon-
gan practice in the context of Korean Sŏn during the mid-Koryŏ, see Buswell 1988,
231–56.