Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia

(Ben Green) #1
66 henrik h. sørensen

to Partake of Food Offerings Together with the Bathing of the Image
of the Central White Vajra[pāla] who Searches Out [Demons]).^166 A
manuscript from the Dali kingdom but composed during the Shaox-
ing reign-period (1131–1162) of the Southern Song. The text
includes bilingual liturgy and spells in Sanskrit and Chinese with
punctuation in red, and is similar to the abovementioned Zhu fo pusa
jin’gang deng qiqing yigui.

Jin’gangsaduo huoweng tan shou guan yi
(Ritual for the Vajrasattva Fire Urn Altar Bestowal of Abhisekạ ).^167
Another ritual text with instructions for initiation to Vajrasattva in
connection with funerary rites. This text may post-date the Dali period
and may possibly be from the early Ming period.

Lengyan jieyuan shijie daochang yi (Regula-
tions of the Ritual of the Pseudo-Śūraṅgama Sūtra for the Expulsion of
Oppressions for Consolation and Expiation of Wrongdoings),^168 author
unknown. A ritual text featuring many spells and dhāraṇīs, including
the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī, the Jie baisheng yuanjia tuoluoni
( Dhāraṇī for Liberating the One Hundred Opressed
Families), the Mārīcī mantra, the Buddhosṇ̣īsa dhāraṇī, etc. The text
invokes and quotes from the apocryphal Foding xin tuoluoni jing
(Scripture on the Buddha’s Us ṇ̣īsa Heart Spell )^169 several
times. Annotation in red. Probably dating from the Ming period; the
present edition is from 1786.^170


Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi (Regulations for the
Ritual of Widely Supporting Those Without Protection).^171 This is a
shuilu-type text that would appear to have been composed in Yunnan
during the later period of the Dali kingdom. The present version is
dated 1379 C.E., i.e., early Ming. Vairocana, Śakyamuni, Mahākāla,
and Indra are invoked along with with numerous spells and mantras.

(^166) Translation of the title is tentative.
(^167) Provincial Library of Yunnan.
(^168) ZWF, First Series, vol. 6, pp. 35–226.
(^169) For additional information on this interesting scripture, see Yü 2001, 118–27.
(^170) For the complete ritual texts relating to the Pseudo-Śūraṅgama from Dali, see
ZWF, First Series, vol. 6, pp. 35–226.
(^171) ZWF, First Series, vol. 6, pp. 360–71.

Free download pdf