The Method of Sequential Offerings, I
Taishō's own printed edition of this sūtra carries a seventh fascicle distinct from the thirty-one chapters translated in Parts 1–9: the Method of Sequential Offerings (供養次第法), a five-chapter ritual manual traditionally attributed to Buddhaguhya, an 8th-century Indian commentator on this same sūtra, and appended to it by the Chinese tradition as its working liturgical companion. Written almost entirely in verse, it takes the doctrine of the sūtra's main chapters and organizes it into an actual, performable daily sequence — a "how to" manual answering the "what" and "why" already given at length.
Approaching a Master
稽首毘盧遮那佛！ 開敷淨眼如青蓮，我依大日經王說， 供養所資眾儀軌。為成次第真言法， 如彼當得速成就，又令本心離垢故， 我今隨要略宣說。……有情信解上中下， 世尊說彼證修法，哀愍輪迴六趣眾， 隨順饒益故開演，應當恭敬決定意， 亦起勤誠深信心。……彼師自在而建立， 大悲藏等妙圓壇，依法召入漫荼羅， 隨器授與三昧耶，道場教本真言印， 親於尊所口傳授，獲勝三昧耶及護， 爾乃應當如說行。……導諸密行軌範者， 皆當敬重不輕毀，以能饒益諸世間， 是故勿生捨離心。……淨菩提心如意寶， 滿世出世勝希願，除疑究竟獲三昧， 自利利他因是生，故應守護倍身命， 觀具廣大功德藏。」
I bow my head to Mahāvairocana Buddha, whose pure eyes, opened wide, are like a blue lotus in bloom. Following the king of sūtras, the Mahāvairocana, I now explain the whole sequence of rites that offering itself depends on. So that this sequential mantra method may be accomplished, and swiftly, and so that the mind at its root may be freed of every stain, I shall now proclaim it in brief, according to what is truly needed…Beings of higher, middling, and lesser faith and understanding — the World-Honored One has taught the very method of their own realization and practice, expounding it out of pity for those turning through the six destinies of saṃsāra, entirely for their benefit. One should approach it with reverence, a settled mind, and a diligent, sincere, and deep faith…That master, sovereign over the rite, establishes the wondrous, perfect maṇḍala born of great compassion, and, in accordance with the Dharma, summons the disciple into it, conferring samaya according to their own capacity, teaching the very seals and mantras of the place of practice, transmitted mouth to mouth in the master's own presence — having received this surpassing samaya and its protection, one should then act exactly as taught…Those who guide the rules of this secret conduct should always be revered and never treated lightly, since they bring benefit to the whole world — one should never let arise a mind that would abandon them…Pure bodhicitta is a wish-fulfilling jewel, fulfilling every wish both worldly and transcendent; resolving every doubt, one attains samādhi at last, and from this, benefit to self and others alike is born — one should therefore guard it more dearly than one's own body and life, beholding it as a treasury of vast and boundless merit.
Buddhaguhya's opening chapter restates, in his own verse, the same ground Parts 2 and 7 of this collection already covered from the sūtra's own root text — choosing a worthy master and disciple, site selection, and reverence toward a teacher — but shifts the register from the sūtra's third-person doctrinal exposition to a first-person voice of practical exhortation: "I now explain," "I shall proclaim in brief," a commentator's own hand visible in a way the root sūtra's voice never allows. Read alongside the ten qualities of a master given in Part 2, this chapter functions as that same material's working checklist, restated for a practitioner about to actually undertake the sequence Buddhaguhya is here compressing into an actionable liturgy.
Faith, and the Master’s Leave
Between the homage that opens this appendix and the passage on choosing a master already given above, Buddhaguhya sets out what has to be in place before any of it can begin. The order is deliberate: faith first, then the qualifications that make a disciple receivable, then the bearing in which the disciple actually stands before the teacher. Nothing here is ritual yet.
然初自他利成就， 無上智願之方便，成彼方便雖無量， 發起悉地由信解，於滿悉地諸勝願， 一切如來勝生子，彼等佛身真言形， 所住種種印威儀，殊勝真言所行道， 及方廣乘皆諦信。……若於最勝方廣乘， 知妙真言調伏行，隨善逝子所修習， 無上持明別律儀，解了具緣眾支分， 得受傳教印可等。見如是師恭敬禮， 為利他故一心住，瞻仰猶如世導師， 亦如善友及所親，發起殷勤殊勝意， 供養給侍隨所作，善順師意令歡喜， 慈悲攝受相對時，稽首請勝善逝行， 願尊如應教授我。……然此契經之所說， 攝正真言平等行，哀愍劣慧弟子故， 分別漸次之儀式，於造勝利天中天， 從正覺心所生子，下至世天身語印， 入此真言最上乘。
But at the outset, for the accomplishment of benefit to oneself and to others — the skillful means of the unsurpassed wisdom-vow — though the means to that accomplishment are measureless, attainment is set in motion by faith and understanding. In the excellent vows that bring attainment to fullness: all the Tathāgatas’ own true-born children, their buddha-bodies and their mantra-forms, the seals and the bearing in which they abide, the path travelled by supreme mantra, and the Vast Vehicle itself — believe truly in every one of these.
If, within that most excellent Vast Vehicle, one knows the wondrous mantra practice of taming; if one follows what the Sugata’s children cultivate, the unsurpassed and separate discipline of the mantra-holder; if one understands the required conditions and all their parts — then one may receive transmission, seal, and approval.
Seeing such a master, bow to him in reverence; for the sake of benefiting others, abide single-mindedly. Look up to him as to the World’s Guide himself, and as to a good friend and a close kinsman. Rouse an earnest and excellent intention; make offerings and attend on him in whatever he does; go gladly along with the master’s own intent and make him rejoice. When compassion has gathered you in and you stand before him, bow your head and ask for the Sugata’s excellent conduct: “May the honored one instruct me as is fitting.”
And what this scripture sets out is the gathering-in of the true and equal practice of mantra. Out of pity for disciples of weaker wisdom it distinguishes the stages of the rite — from the god among gods who works the highest benefit, and the children born of the awakening-mind, down to the body- and speech-seals of the worldly gods — all of it entering this supreme vehicle of mantra.
Reading note — after Yixing
“Attainment is set in motion by faith and understanding” (發起悉地由信解) is the hinge of the whole appendix. The root sūtra opened by identifying bodhicitta as the cause; here the ritual manual, written for someone about to begin, names the first thing that cause requires of a person who is not yet accomplished. Yixing reads the list that follows — buddha-bodies, mantra-forms, seals, bearing, path, vehicle — not as six separate objects of belief but as one object approached from six sides, so that faith in any of them is already faith in all.
The Practitioner’s Own Discipline
What follows is the longest single stretch of chapter one, and the least ritual thing in the whole appendix: an ethical training, given before any mantra is uttered or any altar laid out. Anger, intoxication, a high bed, restraint of the senses, the measureless minds, the perfections — this is ordinary Mahāyāna discipline, set down here because the rites that come afterward are held to be inoperative without it.
佛聲聞眾及緣覺， 說彼教門盡苦道，授學處師同梵行， 一切勿懷毀慢心，善觀時宜所當作， 和敬相應而給侍。不造愚童心行法， 不於諸尊起嫌恨，如世導師契經說， 能損大利莫過瞋，一念因緣悉焚滅， 俱胝曠劫所修善，是故慇懃常捨離， 此無義利之根本。……若身口意嬈眾生， 下至少分皆遠離，除異方便多所濟， 內住悲心而現瞋。於背恩德有情類， 常懷忍辱不觀過，又常具足大慈悲， 及與喜捨無量心。隨力所能法食施， 以慈利行化群生，或由大利相應心， 為俟時故而棄捨，若無勢力廣饒益， 住法但觀菩提心，佛說此中具萬行， 滿足請白純淨法。以布施等諸度門， 攝受眾生於大乘，令住受持讀誦等， 及與思惟正修習。智者制止六情根， 常當寂意修等引。毀壞事業由諸酒， 一切不善法之根，如毒火刀霜雹等， 故當遠離勿親近。又由佛說增我慢， 不應坐臥高妙床。取要言之具慧者， 悉捨自損損他事。我依正三昧耶道， 今已次第略宣說，顯明佛說修多羅， 令廣知解生決定。依此正住平等戒， 復當離於毀犯因，謂習惡心及懈惰， 妄念恐怖談話等。妙真言門覺心者， 如是正住三昧耶，當令障蓋漸消盡， 以諸福德增益故。
The Buddha, the community of hearers, and the solitary awakened; the teaching-gate they set out, which is the path that exhausts suffering; the master who confers the training, and those who share the holy life — toward none of these should one harbor a mind that belittles or scorns. Observe well what the occasion calls for, and serve in harmony and respect.
Do not take up the ways of a childish mind, and bear no grudge against any of the honored ones. As the World’s Guide says in the sūtras, nothing damages great benefit like anger: on the strength of a single thought it burns away every good cultivated across ten million kalpas. Therefore put it from you, earnestly and always — it is the root of what has no worth in it at all.
If in body, speech, or mind you would trouble living beings, keep away from it, down to the smallest part — unless, by some other skillful means, many are thereby rescued, and compassion abides within while anger is what is shown.
Toward those who repay kindness with ingratitude, hold patience always and do not look for their faults; and be furnished besides with great loving-kindness and compassion, and with joy and equanimity, the measureless minds.
Give the gift of Dharma and the gift of food as your strength allows, and transform the multitude by acts of kindness and benefit. Or, with a mind attuned to some greater benefit, set that aside and wait for the proper time. And if you have no power to benefit widely, abide in the Dharma and simply contemplate the awakening-mind — the Buddha has said that within this the ten thousand practices are complete, and the pure teaching one asked for is fulfilled.
By the gateways of giving and the other perfections, gather beings into the Great Vehicle; settle them in receiving and upholding it, in reciting it, and in reflection and right cultivation.
One who is wise restrains the six faculties of sense, and, stilling the mind, cultivates meditative composure continually.
Undertakings are ruined by liquor, the root of every unwholesome state — like poison, like fire, like a blade, like frost or hail. Keep far from it; do not draw near.
And because the Buddha said that it swells conceit, one should not sit or lie on a high and splendid bed.
To put it briefly: one who has wisdom abandons every act that injures oneself and injures others.
Following the way of the true samaya, I have now set this out in order and in brief, making plain what the Buddha taught in the sūtras, so that understanding may spread widely and certainty arise.
Abiding rightly in this equal precept, one should further keep clear of the causes of its breach — which are these: habituating the mind to evil, indolence, deluded recollection, fear, and idle talk.
One who has awakened the mind at the gate of wondrous mantra, and who abides rightly in the samaya in this way, will let obstruction and covering wear gradually away, because merit is by that much increased.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The single line that carries the most weight here is the exception clause: “unless, by some other skillful means, many are thereby rescued, and compassion abides within while anger is what is shown” (除異方便多所濟，內住悲心而現瞭). It is the standard Mahāyāna licence for wrathful means, and this text grants it in half a line immediately after devoting eight lines to the destructiveness of anger — the order is the argument. The wrathful deities that later Shingon and Tibetan practice would build whole liturgies around stand, doctrinally, on exactly this clause.
The prohibition on a “high and splendid bed” is the sixth of the eight precepts taken by lay practitioners on observance days, which places this passage’s intended reader: not a monastic under full Vinaya, but a serious lay practitioner about to undertake tantric rites.
Where to Practice, and With Whom
Chapter one closes with the most concrete instructions in it — where to go, what the ground should look like, and who, if anyone, should come along. The list of desirable sites is unusually specific for a sūtra, and the final stanza defining a good companion reads almost as a checklist a practitioner could apply to an actual person.
欲於此生入悉地， 隨其所應思念之，親於尊所受明法， 觀察相應作成就。當自安住真言行， 如所說明次第儀，先禮灌頂傳教尊， 請白真言所修業。智者蒙師許可已， 依於地分所宜處，妙山輔峯半巖間， 種種龕窟兩山中，於一切時得安隱， 芰荷青蓮遍嚴池，大河涇川洲岸側， 遠離人物眾憒鬧，篠葉扶疏悅意樹， 多饒乳木及祥草，無有蚊虻苦寒熱， 惡獸毒蟲眾妨難。或諸如來聖弟子， 甞於往昔所遊居，寺塔練若古仙室， 當依自心意樂處，捨離在家絕諠務， 勤轉五欲諸蓋纏，一向深樂於法味， 長養其心求悉地。又常具足堪忍慧， 能安饑渴諸疲苦，淨命善伴或無伴， 當與妙法經卷俱。若順諸佛菩薩行， 於正真言堅信解，具淨慧力能堪忍， 精進不求諸世間，常樂堅固無怯弱， 自他現法作成就，不隨餘天無畏依， 具此名為良助伴。
One who would enter attainment in this very life should reflect on it as befits his own case, receive the luminous teaching in person from the honored one, and, examining what accords with it, carry it through to accomplishment.
Establish yourself in mantra conduct, following the sequence of rites as it has been set out; and first pay homage to the master who confers consecration and transmits the teaching, formally requesting the mantra work you are to undertake.
Once the wise one has his master’s leave, then, according to the ground and what the place allows: a fine mountain, a spur below the summit, the space between cliffs, the many niches and caves between two hills — anywhere he may be at ease at every hour; a pool made lovely throughout with water-chestnut and blue lotus; the bank of a great river, or an islet in a stream; far from people and the noise of crowds; slender leaves spreading over pleasant trees, milk-trees in abundance and auspicious grasses; free of mosquitoes and gadflies, of bitter cold and heat, of savage beasts and venomous insects and every hindrance.
Or else where the Tathāgata’s noble disciples once wandered and dwelt — a monastery, a stūpa, a hermitage, the old cell of a sage. Let him settle where his own mind delights; let him leave the household life and cut off its clamor, work to turn back the five desires and the coverings that bind, incline wholly and deeply toward the taste of the Dharma, and nourish that mind in the search for attainment.
Let him be furnished always with the wisdom of endurance, able to rest easy under hunger and thirst and every weariness — with a good companion of pure livelihood, or with none at all, but always with the scroll of the wondrous Dharma beside him.
If one follows the conduct of the buddhas and bodhisattvas; has firm faith and understanding in true mantra; is furnished with the strength of pure wisdom and can endure; is diligent, and seeks nothing of the world; delights always in what is firm, and is without timidity; brings both self and others to accomplishment in the present Dharma; and does not turn to other gods as a refuge from fear — one furnished with all this is called a good companion.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
“Or with none at all, but always with the scroll of the wondrous Dharma beside him” (淨命善伴或無伴，當與妙法經卷俱) is a small line with a large implication: the text will accept a solitary practitioner, provided the text itself is present. For a tradition that insists elsewhere on oral transmission from a living master — and this same chapter has just insisted on it — permitting the scroll to stand in for a companion is a real concession, and it is made without comment.
The closing definition of a good companion ends on an odd note: “does not turn to other gods as a refuge from fear.” In a text that will shortly instruct the practitioner to summon and make offerings to worldly gods by name, the point is not that such gods are unreal but that fear is the wrong reason to approach them.
The Daily Rite of Purification
Chapter Two lays out a sevenfold liturgy — the "seven-limbed" structure (七支) that remains, to this day, the standard opening sequence of nearly every Tibetan and East Asian esoteric daily practice: prostration, confession, taking refuge, offering the body, arousing bodhicitta, rejoicing in others' merit, and dedicating the merit generated — each limb paired here with its own mantra.
我由無明所積集， 身口意業造眾罪，貪欲恚癡覆心故， 於佛正法賢聖僧，父母二師善知識， 以及無量眾生所，無始生死流轉中， 具造極重無盡罪。親對十方現在佛， 悉皆懺悔不復作。
南無十方三世佛， 三種常身正法藏，勝願菩提大心眾， 我今皆悉正歸依。
我淨此身離諸垢， 及與三世身口意，過於大海剎塵數， 奉獻一切諸如來。
淨菩提心勝願寶， 我今起發濟群生，生苦等集所纏繞， 及與無知所害身，救攝歸依令解脫， 常當利益諸含識。
十方無量世界中， 諸正遍知大海眾，種種善巧方便力， 及諸佛子為群生，諸有所修福業等， 我今一切盡隨喜。
我今勸請諸如來， 菩提大心救世者，唯願普於十方界， 恒以大雲降法雨。
所修一切眾善業， 利益一切眾生故，我今盡皆正迴向， 除生死苦至菩提。
Confession: Through ignorance I have accumulated, through the karma of body, speech, and mind, every kind of offense — my mind covered over by greed, hatred, and delusion, I have, toward the Buddha, the true Dharma, and the noble saṅgha, toward my parents, my two kinds of teacher, and my good friends, and toward beings without measure, throughout beginningless birth-and-death, committed offenses of the gravest, most inexhaustible kind. In the presence of every buddha of the ten directions, now present, I confess every one of them entirely, and vow never to do so again.
Refuge: Homage to the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times, the treasury of the true Dharma in its three eternal bodies, and every great being of surpassing vow and bodhicitta — I now take true refuge in all of you entirely.
Offering the body: I purify this body, free of every stain, together with body, speech, and mind across the three times, and offer them, more numerous than the motes of dust in every buddha-field beyond the great ocean itself, to every Tathāgata.
Arousing bodhicitta: Pure bodhicitta, jewel of surpassing vow — I now arouse it to rescue every being, bound up as they are in the suffering of birth and its accumulation, and harmed by their own ignorance; I take them under my protection and refuge, that they may be liberated, and shall constantly bring benefit to every sentient being.
Rejoicing: Throughout the measureless worlds of the ten directions, the great ocean-host of every perfectly awakened one, through every kind of skillful means, and every child of the Buddha, for the sake of every being, cultivate merit of every kind — I now rejoice in every one of these entirely.
Requesting the teaching: I now exhort and request every Tathāgata, every bodhicitta-bearing savior of the world: I beg only that, throughout the ten directions everywhere, you constantly send down the rain of the Dharma from a great cloud.
Dedication: Whatever wholesome karma I have cultivated, for the benefit of every being, I now dedicate entirely and rightly, to remove the suffering of birth-and-death and reach bodhi.
Each of these seven verses is followed by its own mantra of empowerment in the source. The chapter then continues into a further sequence of body, speech, and mind purification already familiar from earlier parts of this collection: the seal of entry into the buddhas' own samaya (Part 6), the seal of the arising of the dharma-realm (Part 6), the vajra-wheel seal uniting the elemental wheels (Part 7's twelve-syllable verse), Vajrasattva's own empowerment and vajra armor (Part 3), the syllable RAṂ for purifying every defiled place, and, to subdue obstructing spirits, the same great protective Mahābala vidyā already given in full in Part 3 and again as a mudrā in Part 6.
This seven-limbed sequence — confession, refuge, offering the body, bodhicitta, rejoicing, request, and dedication — did not originate with this sūtra; it is already found, in slightly different form, in earlier Mahāyāna devotional literature associated with Samantabhadra's own vows, and Buddhaguhya's chapter here is one of the channels through which it became fixed as the standard opening of tantric daily practice across the later Tibetan and East Asian traditions alike, still recited today in essentially the same order. Its recurrence at the head of a working liturgy, immediately after a chapter devoted entirely to finding a worthy teacher, marks a structural point worth noting: everything the sūtra's own thirty-one chapters spent building — bodhicitta as cause, the maṇḍala, the mudrās, the mantras — is, in Buddhaguhya's own working manual, prefaced every single time by this same short, entirely ordinary act of confession and refuge, repeated at the start of every session rather than performed once and assumed thereafter.
Waking, Washing, and the First Bow
The sevenfold liturgy above does not begin the day. Chapter two opens earlier than that — at the moment of waking — and closes the rite with a supplementary formula that is one of the most compressed statements of emptiness anywhere in the appendix. Both are given here; the mantras that punctuate them are left in Chinese transliteration and unrendered, as elsewhere in this collection.
彼作成就處所已， 每日先住於念慧，依法寢息初起時， 除諸無盡為障者，是夜放逸所生罪， 慇懃還淨皆悔除，寂根具悲利益心， 誓度無盡眾生界。如法澡浴或不浴， 應令身口意清淨，次於齋室空靜處， 散妙花等以莊嚴，隨置形像勝妙典， 或心思念十方佛，心目現觀諦明了。當依本尊所在方， 至誠恭敬一心住，五輪投地而作禮， 歸命十方正等覺，三世十切具三身， 歸命一切大乘法，歸命不退菩提眾， 歸命諸明真實言，歸命一切諸密印， 以身口意清淨業，慇懃無量恭敬禮。
……是中增加句言，菩提心離一切物，謂蘊界處能執所執捨故。法無有我，自心平等，本來不生，如大空自性，如佛世尊及諸菩薩發菩提心。乃至菩提道場，我亦如是發菩提心。
……願令凡夫所住處， 速捨眾苦所集身，當得至於無垢處， 安住清淨法界身。
……復造所餘諸福事， 讀誦經行宴坐等，為令身心遍清淨， 哀愍救攝於自他。心性如是離諸垢， 身隨所應以安坐，次當結三昧耶印， 所謂淨除三業道。
Once he has settled on the place of accomplishment, let him each day first abide in recollection and wisdom. When he has slept as the rule prescribes and first rises, let him clear away the endless things that obstruct; whatever offense the night’s heedlessness has produced, let him earnestly purify and confess away. With the faculties stilled, possessed of compassion and of a mind set on benefit, let him vow to deliver the endless realm of beings.
Bathing as the rule prescribes, or not bathing, he should make body, speech, and mind pure. Then, in the fasting-room or some empty and quiet place, he scatters fine flowers and the rest by way of adornment, sets out an image and an excellent scripture as he is able, or else calls the buddhas of the ten directions to mind — present before the mind’s eye, contemplated clearly and distinctly.
Facing the quarter in which his own deity abides, he stands sincere, reverent, single-minded, and casting the five limbs to the ground he makes his bow. Homage to the Perfectly Awakened of the ten directions, of the three times, all possessed of the three bodies. Homage to all the Dharma of the Great Vehicle. Homage to the assembly irreversible in awakening. Homage to every luminous and truthful word. Homage to every secret seal. With the pure acts of body, speech, and mind he bows, earnestly and with measureless reverence.
…Here the supplementary phrases are spoken: the awakening-mind is apart from all things — that is, because in aggregates, elements, and sense-fields alike, grasper and grasped are both relinquished. Dharmas have no self; one’s own mind is equal; from the beginning unarisen; its own nature like the nature of great space. As the Buddha, the World-Honored One, and as all the bodhisattvas gave rise to the awakening-mind, so also, all the way to the seat of awakening, do I give rise to the awakening-mind.
…May the place where ordinary beings dwell soon be rid of the body in which suffering gathers; may they reach the stainless ground and abide in the pure body of the dharma-realm.
…Performing besides whatever other meritorious acts there are — reciting, walking meditation, sitting in stillness — so that body and mind may be wholly pure, out of pity he gathers in both himself and others. The nature of mind being thus free of every stain, he seats himself as befits the body, and next forms the samaya seal — which is to say, the purifying of the three avenues of action.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The supplementary formula (增加句) carries an instruction the text puts in a parenthesis and this translation has kept in the note rather than the line: “this supplementary passage, like the mantra, should be recited from the Sanskrit.” It is a small sign of what the appendix is — a liturgy compiled for actual use, where even the doctrinal formula has a prescribed language of performance.
What the formula says is the root sūtra’s first chapter in four lines: no self in dharmas, one’s own mind equal, unarisen from the beginning, its nature that of space. A practitioner who recites this every morning is reciting the whole of Chapter One before beginning the rites that the other thirty chapters describe.
Five Seals, and the Armor
The second half of chapter two arms the practitioner. Five seals follow in fixed order — entering the Buddha’s samaya, the arising of the dharma-realm, the vajra of Vajrasattva, the vajra armor, and the syllable RA set on the crown — each with its own hand-position and mantra, and each doing something specific to the body before any offering is made. The sequence closes with the great protective vidyā that Part 3 already gave from the root sūtra.
應知密印相， 諸正遍知說，當合定慧手， 並建二空輪，遍觸諸支分， 誦持真實語。……纔結此密印， 能淨如來地，地波羅蜜滿， 成三法道界。所餘諸印等， 次第如經說，真言者當知， 所作得成就。
次結法界生， 密慧之幖幟，淨身口意故， 遍轉於其身。般若三昧手， 俱作金剛拳，二空在其掌， 風幢皆正直，如是名法界， 清淨之祕印。……如法界自性， 而觀於自身，或以真實言， 三轉而宣說。當見住法體， 無垢如虛空，真言印威力， 加持行人故。
為令彼堅固， 觀自金剛身，結金剛智印， 止觀手相背，地水火風輪， 左右互相持，二空各旋轉， 合於慧掌中，是名為法輪， 最勝吉祥印。是人當不久， 同於救世者，真言印威力， 成就者當見，常如寶輪轉， 而轉大法輪。……誦此真言已， 當住於等引，諦觀我此身， 即是執金剛。無量天魔等， 諸有見之者，如金剛薩埵， 勿生疑惑心。
次以真言印， 而擐金剛甲，當觀所被服， 遍體生焰光。用是嚴身故， 諸魔為障者，及餘惡心類， 覩之咸四散。是中密印相， 先作三補吒，止觀二風輪， 糺持火輪上，二空自相並， 而在於掌中，誦彼真言已， 當觀無垢字。
……囉字色鮮白， 空點以嚴之，如彼髻明珠， 置之於頂上。設於百劫中， 所積眾罪垢，由是悉除滅， 福慧皆圓滿。……真言同法界， 無量眾罪除，不久當成就， 住於不退地。一切觸穢處， 當加此字門，赤色具威光， 焰鬘遍圍繞。次為降伏魔， 制諸大障故，當念大護者， 無能堪忍明。……由纔憶念故， 諸毘那也迦，惡形羅剎等， 彼一切馳散。
Know the form of the secret seal, of which the Perfectly Awakened have spoken: join the meditation-hand and the wisdom-hand, raise the two space-wheels together, touch each part of the body in turn, and recite and hold the truthful words. …Merely by forming this secret seal one purifies the ground of the Tathāgata; the perfection of the grounds is fulfilled, and the realm of the threefold Dharma-path accomplished. The remaining seals and the rest follow in order, as the scripture says; let the mantra practitioner know that what he undertakes will come to accomplishment.
Next he forms the Arising of the Dharma-Realm, the emblem of secret wisdom: because it purifies body, speech, and mind, it turns through the whole of his body. The wisdom-hand and the meditation-hand both make vajra fists; the two space-wheels rest within their palms, the wind-banners standing straight — this is called the pure secret seal of the dharma-realm. …As is the dharma-realm’s own nature, so he contemplates his own body; or else, with the truthful words, he proclaims it three times over. He should see himself abiding in the body of Dharma, stainless as space — for it is the power of mantra and seal that empowers the practitioner.
That this may be made firm, he contemplates his own vajra-body and forms the vajra wisdom-seal: the calming hand and the contemplating hand back to back; the wheels of earth, water, fire, and wind holding one another left and right; the two space-wheels each turning and joining within the palm of wisdom — this is called the Dharma-wheel, the most excellent and auspicious seal. Such a one will before long be the equal of the World’s Savior; by the power of mantra and seal the accomplished will see it, and like a jeweled wheel forever turning, he will turn the great wheel of Dharma. …Having recited this mantra he should abide in meditative composure and contemplate truly: this body of mine is Vajradhara himself. Should any of the measureless host of Māra’s gods behold him, let no doubt arise in them — he is Vajrasattva.
Next, with mantra and seal, he puts on the vajra armor, and contemplates what he has been clothed in: flames of light arising over the whole of his body. Adorned with this, the demons who obstruct, and every other malevolent kind, scatter to the four directions at the sight of him. The form of the secret seal here is this: first make the threefold cup; the calming and contemplating wind-wheels are twined and held above the fire-wheels; the two space-wheels lie side by side within the palm. Having recited that mantra, he should contemplate the stainless syllable.
…The syllable RA, brilliant white, adorned with the empty point, is set upon the crown like the bright jewel in a topknot. Though the stains of offense be heaped up through a hundred kalpas, by this they are all destroyed, and merit and wisdom alike made whole. …The mantra is one with the dharma-realm; measureless offenses are cleared away; before long he will be accomplished and will abide on the ground of no return. In every place of defilement this syllable-gate should be added — red in color, full of majestic light, a garland of flame encircling it. Next, to subdue Māra and to check every great obstruction, he should call to mind the Great Protector, the vidyā that none can withstand. …Merely by that calling to mind, the vināyakas, the rākṣasas of evil shape, and all the rest of them flee.
Reading note — after Yixing
The order of the five seals is an argument. Purification of the three actions comes first, then the practitioner’s identification with the dharma-realm, then with Vajrasattva, then the armor, then the syllable on the crown — each step presupposing the one before it. Yixing reads the armor as needed only because the identification with Vajrasattva has already succeeded: what draws the attention of obstructing spirits is not weakness but the practitioner having become something worth obstructing.
“This body of mine is Vajradhara himself” (謪觀我此身，即是執金剛) is the appendix’s most direct statement of deity yoga, and it arrives here as a line of daily liturgy rather than as doctrine — performed before dawn, by a practitioner who has not yet made a single offering.
Building the Ground
Chapter three is the offering rite itself, and it opens by constructing the place where the offering will happen — not the physical room, which was chosen back in chapter one, but a ground built in contemplation, from the bottom up. The wind-wheel first, then water, then the vajra ground, then a lotus, then a throne, then a palace over it. The order is cosmological: this is how a world is assembled in Buddhist cosmology, performed by one person before dawn.
如是正業淨其身， 住定觀本真言主，以真言印而召請， 先當示現三昧耶。真言相應除障者， 兼以不動慧刀印，稽首奉獻閼伽水， 行者復獻真言座。次應供養花香等， 去垢亦以無動尊，辟除作淨皆如是， 加持以本真言王，或觀諸佛勝生子， 無量無數眾圍繞。右攝頌竟，下當次第分別說。
現前觀囉字， 具點廣嚴飾，謂淨光焰鬘， 赫如朝日暉。念聲真實義， 能除一切障，解脫三毒垢， 諸法亦復然。先自淨心地， 復淨道場地，悉除眾過患， 其相如虛空，如金剛所持， 此地亦如是。
最初於下位， 思惟彼風輪，訶字所安住， 黑光焰流布。……次上安水輪， 其色猶雪乳，嚩字所安住， 頗胝月電光。……復於水輪上， 觀作金剛輪，想置本初字， 四方遍黃色。……是輪如金剛， 名大因陀羅，光焰淨金色， 普皆遍流出。
於彼中思惟， 導師諸佛子，水中觀白蓮， 妙色金剛莖，八葉具鬚蘂， 眾寶自莊嚴，常出無量光， 百千眾蓮繞。其上復觀想， 大覺師子座，寶王以校飾， 在大宮殿中，寶柱皆行列， 遍有諸幢蓋，珠鬘等交絡， 垂懸妙寶衣，周布香花雲， 及與眾寶雲，普雨雜花等， 繽紛以嚴地，諧韻所愛聲， 而奏諸音樂。宮中想淨妙， 賢瓶與閼伽，寶樹王開敷， 照以摩尼燈。三昧總持地， 自在之婇女，佛波羅蜜等， 菩提妙嚴花，方便作眾伎， 歌詠妙法音。以我功德力， 如來加持力，及以法界力， 普供養而住。
……由此持一切， 真實無有異，作金剛合掌， 是則加持印。
Having purified his body by right action in this way, he abides in concentration and contemplates the lord of his own mantra; with mantra and seal he issues the summons, and first displays the samaya. Clearing obstruction by the mantra that answers to it, together with Acala’s wisdom-blade seal, he bows and presents the argha water, and then the practitioner offers the mantra-seat. Next he should offer flowers, incense, and the rest — removing stains here too by the Immovable One; every clearing and purifying is done in this way, and empowered by the king of his own mantra — or else he contemplates the buddhas’ true-born children, encircled by hosts beyond measure or number. So the summary verses end; what follows sets it all out in order.
Before him he contemplates the syllable RA, adorned wide with its point — a garland of pure light and flame, blazing like the light of morning. Recollecting the true meaning of that sound, he can clear away every obstruction and be released from the stain of the three poisons; and so it is with all dharmas. First he purifies the ground of his own mind, then the ground of the practice-place; every fault and trouble is removed and its aspect becomes like space — as vajra holds it, so is this ground also.
At the very bottom he contemplates the wind-wheel, where the syllable HA abides, its black light and flame spreading abroad. …Above that he sets the water-wheel, its color like snow and milk, where the syllable VA abides, with the light of crystal, moon, and lightning. …And over the water-wheel he contemplates a vajra-wheel made, setting there the primordial syllable, yellow through all four quarters. …That wheel is like vajra and is named Mahendra; its flame is pure golden in color, streaming out everywhere.
Within it he contemplates the Guide and the buddhas’ children: in the water he sees a white lotus, its stem vajra of exquisite color, eight petals with filaments and anthers, adorned of itself with every jewel, pouring out measureless light always, encircled by hundreds of thousands of lotuses. Above it he contemplates further the lion-throne of the Great Awakened One, set off with the king of jewels, standing within a great palace; the jeweled pillars all in rank, banners and canopies everywhere, pearl-garlands and the rest interlaced, fine jeweled robes hung down, clouds of incense and flowers spread all round, and clouds of jewels besides, raining mixed blossoms everywhere, adorning the ground in profusion, while harmonious and beloved sounds play out all manner of music. In the palace he contemplates — pure and exquisite — the auspicious vase and the argha, the king of jeweled trees in full flower, lit by lamps of maṇi. The ground of samādhi and dhāraṇī, its sovereign celestial maidens, the Buddha’s perfections and the rest, the exquisite adorning flowers of awakening, perform every skill by way of means, and sing out the sound of the wondrous Dharma. By the power of my own merit, by the empowering power of the Tathāgata, and by the power of the dharma-realm, may this offering pervade all and abide.
…By this everything is held, and it is true, without difference. He makes the vajra-añjali: this is the seal of empowerment.
Reading note — after Yixing
The wheels are stacked in the order of the standard Buddhist cosmology — wind beneath water beneath the golden ground — and each is not merely visualized but carried by a syllable: HA for wind, VA for water, A for the vajra ground. Yixing’s point is that the practitioner is not imagining a world but writing one, and that what holds it up is the alphabet the sūtra spent its middle chapters teaching.
“First he purifies the ground of his own mind, then the ground of the practice-place” (先自淨心地，復淨道場地) fixes the direction of dependence for the entire rite. Everything built above rests on that order, not the reverse.
The Deity Arises from a Letter
With the ground built and the throne standing empty, the rite produces its occupant. It does so by transformation of a syllable — A becomes Mahāvairocana, BHA becomes Śākyamuni, MAṇ becomes Mañjuśrī — and the same procedure is then offered for any deity the practitioner holds, with a list of eighteen names given as though from a catalogue.
一切法不生， 自性本寂故，想念此真實， 阿字置其中。次當轉阿字， 成大日牟尼，無盡剎塵眾， 普現圓光內。千界為增數， 流出光焰輪，遍至眾生界， 隨性令開悟。身語遍一切， 佛心亦復然，閻浮淨金色， 為應世間故，加趺坐蓮上， 正受離諸毒，身被綃縠衣， 自然髮髻冠，若釋迦牟尼。
彼中想婆字， 復轉如是字，而成能仁尊， 勤勇袈裟衣，四八大人相。……字門轉成佛， 亦利諸眾生，猶如大日尊， 瑜伽者觀察。一身與二身， 乃至無量身，同入於本體， 流出亦如是。
於佛右蓮上， 當觀本所尊，左置執金剛， 勤勇諸眷屬。前後花臺中， 廣大菩薩眾，一生補處等， 饒益眾生者。右邊花座下， 真言者所居。若持妙吉祥， 中置無我字，是字轉成身， 如前之所觀。
……若觀世自在， 或金剛薩埵，慈氏及普賢， 地藏除蓋障，佛眼并白處， 多利毘俱知，忙莽商羯羅， 金輪與馬頭，持明男女使， 忿怒諸奉教，隨其所樂欲， 依前法而轉，為令心喜故， 奉獻外香花，燈明閼伽水， 皆如本教說。
All dharmas are unarisen, because their own nature is from the first at rest. Recollecting this truth, he sets the syllable A in the midst of it. Then he should turn the syllable A and it becomes Mahāvairocana the Sage, with hosts numberless as the dust-motes of the buddha-fields appearing throughout his aureole. Multiplying by a thousand worlds, wheels of light and flame stream out, reaching the whole realm of beings and awakening each according to its nature. His body and speech pervade all things, and so does the buddha-mind; the pure gold color of Jambu, assumed in response to the world; seated cross-legged on the lotus, in right reception, free of every poison; his body robed in fine silk gauze, with hair bound in its own natural crown — just as Śākyamuni is.
In that same place he contemplates the syllable BHA, and turning this syllable likewise, it becomes the Able and Humane One, in the robe of the diligent and brave, with the thirty-two marks of a great person. …The syllable-gate turns and becomes a buddha, and benefits beings too, just as with Mahāvairocana — so the practitioner of yoga contemplates. One body and two bodies, and so on to bodies beyond measure, all enter alike into the original substance, and stream out from it likewise.
On the lotus to the buddha’s right he should contemplate the deity he himself holds; on the left he places Vajradhara and the diligent and brave retinue. On the flower-daises before and behind, the vast assembly of bodhisattvas, those in their last birth and the rest, who benefit living beings. Beneath the flower-seat on the right is where the mantra practitioner himself resides. If he holds Mañjuśrī, he sets in the center the syllable of no-self, and that syllable turns into a body, contemplated as before.
…If it be Avalokiteśvara, or Vajrasattva, Maitreya and Samantabhadra, Kṣitigarbha and Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, Buddhalocanā and Pāṇḍaravasinī, Tārā and Bhṛkuṭī, Māmakī and Śaṅkara, the Golden Wheel and Hayagrīva, the male and female messengers of the mantra-holders, and the wrathful ones who carry out commands — according to what he delights in, let him turn it by the method given above; and, to make their hearts rejoice, let him present outwardly incense and flowers, lamps and argha water, all as the root teaching says.
Reading note — after Yixing
“One body and two bodies, and so on to bodies beyond measure, all enter alike into the original substance, and stream out from it likewise” is the doctrinal licence for the whole catalogue that follows it. Yixing takes the list of eighteen deities not as alternatives among which the practitioner picks a favorite, but as demonstrations that the procedure is indifferent to its object: whichever syllable is set on the throne, what arises is the same substance differently inflected.
Summoning, Sealing, and the Five Offerings
The longest stretch of the chapter is its most practical: Acala’s blade for clearing, the hook-seal that summons, the samaya, the argha water, the lotus seat, the practitioner’s own transformation into Vajrasattva, the armor, the subduing of Māra, the sealing of the boundary, and only then the five offerings themselves — unguent, flower, incense, lamp, and food. Hand-positions are described by the five wheels: space is the thumb, wind the index, fire the middle, water the ring, earth the little finger.
不動以去垢， 辟除使光顯，本法自相加， 及護持我身。結諸方界等， 或以降三世，召請如本教， 所用印真言，及此普通印， 真言王相應。……當以定慧手， 皆作金剛拳，正直舒火風， 虛空持地水，三昧手為鞘， 般若以為刀，慧刀入住出， 皆在三昧鞘，是則無動尊， 密印之威儀。定手住其心， 慧手普旋轉，應知所觸物， 即名為去垢；以此而左旋， 因是成辟除；若結方隅界， 皆令隨右轉。所餘眾事業， 滅惡淨諸障，亦當如是作， 隨類而相應。
次以真言印， 而請召眾聖，諸佛菩薩說， 依本誓而來。……以歸命合掌， 固結金剛縛，當令智慧手， 直舒彼風輪，俛屈其上節， 故號為鉤印，諸佛救世者， 以茲召一切，安住十地等， 大力諸菩薩，及餘難調伏， 不善心眾生。次奉三昧耶， 具以真言印，印相如前說， 諸三昧耶教。……以如是方便， 正示三昧耶，則能普增益， 一切眾生類，當得成悉地， 速滿無上願，令本真言主， 諸明歡喜故。
所獻閼伽水， 先已具嚴備，用本真言印， 如法以加持，奉諸善逝者， 用浴無垢身，次當淨一切， 佛口所生子。……次奉所敷座， 具密印真言，結作蓮花臺， 遍置一切處。覺者所安坐， 證最勝菩提，為得如是處， 故持以上獻。……其中密印相， 定慧手相合，而普舒散之， 猶如鈴鐸形，二空與地輪， 聚合以為臺，水輪稍相遠， 是即蓮花印。
復次當辟除， 自身所生障，以大慧刀印， 聖不動真言。當見同於彼， 最勝金剛焰，焚燒一切障， 令盡無有餘。智者當轉作， 金剛薩埵身，真言印相應， 遍布諸支分。……念此真實義， 諸法離言說，以具印等故， 即同執金剛。當知彼印相， 先以三補吒，火輪為中鋒， 端銳自相合，風輪以為鉤， 舒屈置其傍，水輪互相交， 而在於掌內。……或用三昧手， 作半金剛印，或以餘契經， 所說之軌儀，次當周遍身， 被服金剛鎧，身語之密印， 前已依法說，以佉字及點， 而置於頂上，思惟此真言， 諸法如虛空。……應先住此字門，然後作金剛薩埵身。
次應一心作， 摧伏諸魔印，智者應普轉， 真語共相應，能除極猛利， 諸有惡心者，當見遍此地， 金剛熾焰光。……當以智慧手， 而作金剛拳，正直舒風輪， 加於白毫際，如毘俱知形， 是則彼幖幟，此印名大印， 念之除眾魔。纔結是法故， 無量天魔軍，及餘為障者， 必定皆退散。次用難堪忍， 密印及真言，而用結周界， 威猛無能覩。……先以三補吒， 風輪在於掌，二空及地輪， 內屈猶如鉤，火輪合為峯， 開散其水輪，旋轉指十方， 是名結大界。用持十方國， 能令悉堅住，是故三世事， 悉能普護之。或以不動尊， 成辨一切事，護身處令淨， 結諸方界等。
……次先恭敬禮， 復獻於閼伽，如經說香等， 依法修供養。復以聖不動， 加持此眾物，結彼慧刀印， 普皆遍灑之。是諸香花等， 所辨供養具，數以密印灑， 復頻誦真言。各說本真言， 及自所持明，應如是作已， 稱名而奉獻。一切先遍置， 清淨法界心，所謂囕字門， 如前所開示。……及餘供養具， 所應奉獻者，依隨此法則， 淨以無動尊。當合定慧掌， 五輪互相叉，是則持眾物， 普通供養印。
真言具慧者， 敬養眾聖尊，復作心儀式， 清淨極嚴麗，所獻皆充滿， 平等如法界，此方及餘剎， 普入諸趣中。依諸佛菩薩， 福德而生起，幢幡諸瓔蓋， 廣大妙樓閣，及天寶樹王， 遍有諸資具，眾香花雲等， 無際猶虛空，各雨諸供物， 供養成佛事。思惟奉一切， 諸佛及菩薩，以虛空藏明， 普通供養印，三轉作加持， 所願皆成就。持虛空藏明增加句云：依我功德力， 及與法界力，一切時易獲， 廣多復清淨。大供莊嚴雲， 依一切如來，及諸菩薩眾， 海會而流出。以一切諸佛， 菩薩加持故，如法所修事， 積集諸功德，迴向成悉地， 為利諸眾生。以如是心說， 願明行清淨，諸障得消除， 功德自圓滿，隨時修正行， 是則無定期。
By the Immovable One he removes stains; by clearing away he makes the light show forth; the root method adds itself to itself, and guards and holds his body. He binds the boundaries of the quarters and the rest, or else uses Trailokyavijaya; the summoning is as the root teaching has it, with the seals and mantras used there, and with this universal seal, answering to the king of mantras. …With the meditation-hand and the wisdom-hand he should make vajra fists, extending the fire- and wind-wheels straight, the space-wheel holding down earth and water; the samādhi hand is the sheath, wisdom is the blade; the wisdom-blade entering, resting, and drawn — all of it within the samādhi sheath. This is the bearing of the Immovable One’s secret seal. The meditation-hand rests at the heart, the wisdom-hand turns all about; know that whatever it touches is thereby called cleansed of stain. Turned leftward with this, it becomes the clearing away; and if he would bind the boundary of a quarter or a corner, let all of it follow the turn to the right. For every remaining act — destroying evil, purifying obstruction — he should do likewise, matching the kind of thing to be done.
Next, with mantra and seal, he invites and summons the holy ones; the buddhas and bodhisattvas, it is said, come in accordance with their original vow. …With the añjali of homage he binds the vajra-bond firmly; then, with the wisdom-hand, he extends the wind-wheel straight and bends down its upper joint — and for this it is called the hook-seal. By this the buddhas, the world’s saviors, summon all: those abiding on the ten grounds and the rest, the bodhisattvas of great strength, and likewise those hard to tame, beings of unwholesome mind. Next he presents the samaya, complete with mantra and seal, the seal-form being as was said above, in the teachings of the samaya. …By such means, rightly displaying the samaya, he can increase and benefit every kind of living being universally; they will gain attainment and swiftly fulfill the unsurpassed vow, and the lord of his own mantra and all the vidyās will thereby rejoice.
The argha water presented has already been fully prepared; with the seal of his own mantra he empowers it as the rule prescribes and offers it to the Sugatas, to bathe their stainless bodies; and next he purifies all those children born from the Buddha’s mouth. …Next he offers the seat that is spread, complete with secret seal and mantra, forming a lotus dais and setting it everywhere. It is where the Awakened One sits at ease and realizes supreme awakening; to obtain such a place for himself, he holds it up in offering. …The form of the secret seal there is this: the meditation- and wisdom-hands joined and then spread wide apart, like the shape of a bell; the two space-wheels together with the earth-wheels gathered to form the dais, the water-wheels a little further off — this is the lotus seal.
Next he should again clear away the obstructions arising from his own body, with the great wisdom-blade seal and the mantra of holy Acala. He should see himself as that same supreme vajra flame, burning away every obstruction until none at all remains. The wise one should then turn himself into the body of Vajrasattva, mantra and seal answering to one another, spread through all his limbs. …Recollecting this true meaning — that all dharmas are apart from speech — and being equipped with the seal and the rest, he is thereby the same as Vajradhara. Know the form of that seal: first the threefold cup; the fire-wheels are the central points, their tips sharp and joined to one another; the wind-wheels serve as hooks, extended and bent and set beside them; the water-wheels cross one another within the palm. …Or with the samādhi hand he makes the half-vajra seal, or follows the ritual procedure of some other scripture. Next he should clothe the whole body, putting on the vajra armor; the secret seal of body and speech has already been given as the rule prescribes. With the syllable KHA and its point set upon the crown, he contemplates this mantra: all dharmas are like space. …He should abide first in this syllable-gate, and only then make the body of Vajrasattva.
Next, single-mindedly, he should form the seal that crushes the Māras; the wise one should turn it everywhere, with true speech answering to it. It can clear away those of exceedingly fierce and evil mind, and he should see this whole ground filled with blazing vajra light. …With the wisdom-hand he should make a vajra fist, extend the wind-wheel straight, and set it at the place of the white curl between the brows, in the form of Bhṛkuṭī — that is her emblem. This seal is called the great seal, and recollecting it removes the Māras. Merely by forming this method, the measureless armies of Māra’s gods, and all others who obstruct, will certainly retreat and scatter. Next he uses the Unendurable One, its secret seal and mantra, and by it binds the boundary all around, so majestic that none can look upon it. …First the threefold cup; the wind-wheels lie in the palm; the two space-wheels together with the earth-wheels are bent inward like hooks; the fire-wheels joined to make a peak; the water-wheels opened and spread; and turning, he points to the ten directions — this is called binding the great boundary. By it he holds the lands of the ten directions and can make them all stand firm; and so the affairs of the three times are all of them universally protected. Or else, by the Immovable One, he accomplishes every task — guarding the body, purifying the place, binding the boundaries of the quarters and the rest.
Next he first pays reverent homage, then presents the argha again, and, with the incense and the rest as the scripture says, performs the offering according to the rule. Then, by holy Acala, he empowers these various things, forms that wisdom-blade seal, and sprinkles them all throughout. All these incenses and flowers, the offering-articles he has prepared, he sprinkles repeatedly with the secret seal and recites the mantra over them again and again. Speaking each root mantra, and the vidyā he himself holds, having done so he names each and presents it. In everything, first and throughout, he sets the pure dharma-realm mind — that is, the syllable-gate RAṆ, as was shown above. …And for the remaining offering-articles that ought to be presented, let him follow this same rule, purifying with the Immovable One. He should join the meditation- and wisdom-palms, the five wheels crossing one another: this is the universal offering seal by which all the articles are held.
The mantra practitioner endowed with wisdom, reverently making offering to the holy ones, then performs the rite inwardly as well — pure and exceedingly splendid, the offerings all of them full to overflowing, equal as the dharma-realm, entering universally into this quarter and every other field and into all the destinies. Arising out of the merit of the buddhas and bodhisattvas: banners and streamers, necklaces and canopies, vast and exquisite pavilions, the king of heavenly jewel-trees, every requisite everywhere, clouds of incense and flowers without limit as space, each raining down its offerings, making offering and accomplishing the buddha-work. Contemplating that he presents all this to every buddha and bodhisattva, with the Ākāśagarbha vidyā and the universal offering seal he empowers it, turning it three times, and all that he vows is accomplished. Holding the Ākāśagarbha vidyā, the supplementary phrase says: by the power of my own merit and by the power of the dharma-realm, may it be easily obtained at every hour, vast in quantity and pure besides. The cloud of great offerings in their splendor streams out from all the Tathāgatas and from the oceanic assembly of bodhisattvas. Because of the empowerment of every buddha and bodhisattva, the works performed according to the rule accumulate merit, which he dedicates toward attainment, for the benefit of living beings. Speaking with such a mind, he vows that the vidyā-conduct be pure, that obstructions be cleared away, and that merit be fulfilled of itself; and he practices rightly as the occasion serves — for in this there is no fixed term.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The hand-positions in this chapter are unintelligible without the finger-to-element convention the sūtra assumes throughout: space is the thumb, wind the index, fire the middle finger, water the ring finger, earth the little finger. “The fire-wheels are the central points, their tips sharp and joined” means the two middle fingers meet at their tips. The sūtra never states the convention; a reader without a teacher is expected to have it already, which is one honest reason a text like this resists translation into instructions anyone could follow from the page alone.
The order of operations is worth noticing on its own. The practitioner clears, summons, seats, and bathes the deities — and only afterward becomes Vajrasattva himself and puts on armor. Hospitality precedes identity.
The Vajradhara Verses
Chapter three ends with a hymn that the text marks out from everything around it: 執金剛阿利沙偞, the ārṣa verses of Vajradhara — ārṣa meaning of the seers, the register reserved for what is held to be revealed rather than composed. As with the bodhicitta formula in chapter two, the text directs that these be recited in Sanskrit, not in Chinese.
若諸真言人， 此生求悉地，先依法持誦， 但作心供養。所為既終竟， 次經於一月，具以外儀軌， 而受持真言。又以持金剛， 殊勝之諷詠，供養佛菩薩， 當得速成就。
執金剛阿利沙偈曰：無等無所動， 平等堅固法，悲愍流轉者， 攘奪眾苦患，普能授悉地。一切諸功德， 離垢不遷變，無比勝願法， 等同於虛空，彼不可為喻， 隙塵千萬分，尚不及其一。恒於眾生界， 成就果願中，於悉地無盡， 故離於譬喻。常無垢翳悲， 依於精進生，隨願成悉地， 法爾無能蔽。作眾生義利， 所及普周遍，照明恒不斷， 哀愍廣大身，離障無罣礙。行於悲行者， 周流三世中，施與成就願， 於無量之量，令至究竟處。奇哉此妙法， 善逝之所到，唯不越本誓， 授我無上果。若施斯願者， 恒至殊勝處，廣及於世間， 能滿勝希願，不染一切趣， 三界無所依。右此偈即同真言，當誦梵本。
誦持如是偈讚已， 至誠歸命世導師，唯願眾聖授與我， 慈濟有情之悉地。復次為欲利他故， 觀佛化雲遍一切，我所修福佛加持， 普賢自體法界力，坐蓮華臺往十方， 隨順性欲導眾生，依諸如來本誓願， 淨除一切內外障，開現出世眾資具， 如其信解充滿之。以我功德所莊嚴， 及淨法界中出生，如來神力加持故， 成就眾生諸義利。備足諸佛之庫藏， 出無盡寶不思議，三誦虛空藏轉明， 及密印相如前說。此真言乘諸學者， 是故當生諦信心，一切導師所宣說， 不應誹謗生疑悔。
If a mantra practitioner seeks attainment in this life, let him first recite according to the rule, making only the inward offering. Once what he set out to do is finished, then, after the passing of a month, let him take up the mantra with the outward ritual complete. And by the excellent chant of Vajradhara, making offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas, he will swiftly come to accomplishment.
The ārṣa verses of Vajradhara say: Unequalled and unmoved, the equal and unshakable Dharma, pitying those who turn in the round, stripping away their many sufferings, able to bestow attainment universally. Every merit, free of stain and unchanging; the incomparable Dharma of the excellent vow, equal to space itself, for which no comparison will serve — a ten-millionth part of a mote of dust in a crack of light does not come to the least of it. Forever, in the realm of beings, in bringing the fruit of the vow to accomplishment, attainment is inexhaustible: therefore it is beyond all simile. Compassion, always without stain or film, arises in dependence on diligence, and attainment is accomplished according to the vow; such being the nature of things, nothing can obscure it. Working the good and benefit of living beings, its reach pervades all things everywhere; its illumination never once breaks off; a body of pity, vast and great, free of obstruction and without hindrance. To one who walks in the conduct of compassion, flowing through the three times, it gives and brings the vow to accomplishment, in a measure beyond measure, bringing him to the ultimate place. How marvelous, this wondrous Dharma, the place the Sugata has reached! Only do not overstep your original vow — bestow on me the unsurpassed fruit. If one grants such a vow, he comes always to the most excellent place, reaching widely into the world, able to fulfill the excellent and longed-for vow, unstained by any of the destinies, dependent on nothing in the three realms. These verses are the equal of a mantra: recite them from the Sanskrit.
Having recited and held such verses of praise, with full sincerity he takes refuge in the World’s Guide: “May the holy ones bestow upon me the attainment that compassionately delivers beings.” Then, wishing to benefit others, he contemplates the buddhas’ cloud of transformations pervading all; the merit he has cultivated, empowered by the buddhas, Samantabhadra’s own substance, the power of the dharma-realm; seated on the lotus dais he goes to the ten directions, guiding beings in accordance with their natures and desires, and relying on the original vows of the Tathāgatas he clears away every obstruction inward and outward, and reveals the requisites that lead beyond the world, filling each according to his faith and understanding. Adorned by my own merit, and arising within the pure dharma-realm, empowered by the Tathāgata’s spiritual power, may every good and benefit of living beings be accomplished. Stocking full the storehouse of all the buddhas, an inexhaustible and inconceivable jewel comes forth. He recites the Ākāśagarbha transformation-vidyā three times, with the secret seal-form as given above. Therefore let all students of this mantra vehicle give rise to a mind of true faith: what every Guide has proclaimed is not to be slandered, nor made an occasion of doubt or regret.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
阿利沙 transliterates ārṣa, “of the seers” — the term Sanskrit grammarians use for archaic forms preserved in revealed texts because they are revealed, not because they are correct. Its appearance here, with the instruction to recite from the Sanskrit, tells you how these verses were understood: not as a composition in praise of Vajradhara, but as Vajradhara’s own speech, whose sound carries what a rendering cannot.
The image of a ten-millionth part of a dust-mote seen in a shaft of light （隙塵） is a stock simile in Chinese Buddhist verse for the smallest perceptible thing. The verse uses it to say that even that is too large a unit for the comparison it is refusing to make.
Becoming the Deity
最初於下位， 思惟彼風輪，訶字所安住， 黑光焰流布。……次上安水輪， 其色猶雪乳，嚩字所安住， 頗胝月電光。……復於水輪上， 觀作金剛輪，想置本初字， 四方遍黃色。……於彼中思惟， 導師諸佛子，水中觀白蓮， 妙色金剛莖，八葉具鬚蘂， 眾寶自莊嚴。……次當轉阿字， 成大日牟尼，無盡剎塵眾， 普現圓光內。……彼中想婆字， 復轉如是字， 而成能仁尊，勤勇袈裟衣， 四八大人相。……一身與二身， 乃至無量身，同入於本體， 流出亦如是。」
First, at the lowest position, contemplate the wind wheel, upon which the letter HA abides, its black light streaming and radiating…Next, above it, set the water wheel, its color like snow-white milk, upon which the letter VA abides, crystal-clear, moonlight and lightning combined…Above the water wheel, further contemplate the vajra wheel formed, and visualize there the primordial letter A, its yellow color spreading in every direction…Within it, contemplate the guide and every child of the Buddha: within the water, behold a white lotus, its wondrous-colored stem of vajra, eight petals complete with filament and pistil, adorned throughout with every jewel…Next, transform the letter A into the Silent Sage Mahāvairocana, boundless assemblies as numerous as motes of dust in every buddha-field, all appearing within that very circle of light…Within it, visualize the letter BHA, and transform that letter in turn into the capable and benevolent lord — the valiant one in the kāṣāya robe, bearing the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks…One body, and a second body, and on up to bodies beyond number, all entering into that same fundamental substance, and flowing forth from it again in just this way.
The chapter continues through the same self-generation sequence for other deities — a seed-syllable transforming into Avalokiteśvara, Vajrasattva, Maitreya, Samantabhadra, Kṣitigarbha, Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, Buddhalocanā, Pāṇḍaravāsinī, Tārā, Bhṛkuṭī, Māmakī, Trailokyavijaya, Hayagrīva — before turning to the offering rite proper: requesting the deity, presenting argha water, offering the deity's own seat, taking on Vajrasattva's own form and armor, subduing obstructing demons, setting the ritual boundary with the Mahābala vidyā, and finally presenting scented paste, flowers, incense, lamps, and food, each with its own mantra — all mantras already given in full in Part 3's cluster of ritual formulas.
The chapter's central visualization — a practitioner building the elemental wheels from the ground up, wind beneath water beneath the vajra earth-wheel, and only then transforming a seed-syllable into a full buddha-body seated on the lotus that grows from it — is the same body-as-maṇḍala structure the root sūtra already gave in Part 7's account of the "secret maṇḍala," here worked out as a complete, step-by-step meditation sequence a practitioner can actually follow start to finish, rather than stated as doctrine to be understood. That the sequence culminates in "one body, and a second body, and on up to bodies beyond number, all entering into that same fundamental substance" restates, in ritual instruction, the non-duality between the practitioner's own visualized body and the deity contemplated that Part 9's "mirror of the self" chapter already established philosophically — Buddhaguhya's manual does not argue for this identity so much as walk a practitioner through actually performing it.
Part 10 Complete
This closes the first three chapters of the Method of Sequential Offerings: how to approach and honor a master, the seven-limbed liturgy of confession, refuge, and dedication that opens every tantric daily practice descended from it, and the visualization sequence by which a practitioner builds the elemental wheels and becomes, in meditation, the very deity contemplated. Part 11 completes this ritual manual with its final two chapters — 持誦法則品第四, the rules of recitation itself, and 真言事業品第五, the ritual actions a mantra practitioner ultimately carries out in the world — closing the whole Mahāvairocana Sūtra collection.
Continue to Part 11 — The Rules of Recitation, and Ritual Action →