The Rules of Recitation, and a Day in the Life of a Practitioner
The final two chapters of Buddhaguhya's ritual manual — and of the entire Mahāvairocana Sūtra. Self-generation as Mañjuśrī, Mahāvairocana, and Śākyamuni in turn; the colors, shapes, and mantra-particles proper to pacification, increase, attraction, and subjugation; and, closing the whole text, something this sūtra has not offered before: an ordinary day's schedule — almsround, eating without gluttony, an evening's reading, and how to lie down to sleep.
Becoming Mañjuśrī, Mahāvairocana, and Śākyamuni
行者應生決定意， 先當一緣觀本尊，持彼真言祕密印， 自作瑜伽本尊像，如其色相威儀等， 我身無二行亦同，由住本地相應身， 雖少福者亦成就。……本尊三昧相應者， 以心置心為種子，彼應如是自觀察， 安住清淨菩提心，眾所知識之形像， 隨順彼行而勿異。當知聖者妙音尊， 身相猶如欝金色，頂現童真五髻相， 左伐折羅在青蓮，以智慧手施無畏， 或作金剛與願印。……如前轉阿字， 而成大日尊，法力所持故， 與自身無異。住本尊瑜伽， 加以五支字，下體及臍上， 心頂與眉間，於三摩呬多， 運相而安立，以依是法住， 即同牟尼尊。」
The practitioner should give rise to a settled, resolute mind, first fixing single-pointed attention on the deity contemplated, holding that deity's mantra and secret seal, and generating, in yoga, the deity's own image — its color, form, and bearing exactly as described, one's own body and its very conduct no different from it. By abiding in this way in a body attuned to that fundamental ground, even one of little merit will accomplish it…For one attuned to the deity's own samādhi, mind is placed upon mind as the seed itself; one should observe oneself in just this way, abiding in pure bodhicitta, the very form known to all — following that conduct without any departure from it. Know that the holy Mañjughoṣa's own bodily form is the color of turmeric gold, five youthful topknots crowning his head, a vajra held in his left hand upon a blue lotus, the wisdom-hand forming the gesture of fearlessness, or else the vajra and wish-granting seal…Transforming the letter A as before, into the honored Mahāvairocana, sustained by the power of the Dharma, no different from one's own body. Abiding in the deity's own yoga, adding the five limb-syllables — at the lower body, above the navel, at the heart, the crown, and between the eyebrows — one arranges these marks and establishes them there in deep absorption; abiding in accordance with this method, one becomes identical with the Silent Sage himself.
The chapter continues with Śākyamuni's own self-generation, the seal of his alms-bowl already described in Part 6, and a note that a practitioner who takes up this practice under Mahāvairocana's own form should have received full initiation into the great maṇḍala of Part 2 — not merely a lesser, vidyā-holder's consecration — before doing so.
The five-limb-syllable placement repeated here — A at the lower body, VA above the navel, RAṂ at the heart, HĀṂ at the forehead, and KHA at the crown — is, by this point in the collection, a familiar structure: the same five-element body meditation given in full in Part 5, restated here as a set piece a practitioner performs at the specific moment of generating themselves as Mahāvairocana rather than as a standalone teaching. Buddhaguhya's own editorial voice appears directly in the source at this point, in a note this page's translation preserves rather than silently absorbs: "these five verses were, to a considerable extent, supplied by the one who transmitted this text, so as to make the wording complete" — an unusually candid acknowledgment, by the transmitter of this manual, of their own hand in filling out a passage the received text left incomplete.
The Colors and Shapes of the Four Rites
Chapter Four closes with a systematic table pulling together a classification this collection has already touched on separately in Parts 5 and 9: the four ritual purposes — pacification, increase, attraction, and subjugation — each assigned its own color, shape, direction the practitioner faces, seat, facial expression, and even where in a mantra the syllables OṂ, HŪṂ PHAṬ, and NAMAḤ should be placed.
| Rite | Color / shape | Direction & seat | Bearing | Mantra placement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacification (寂災) | white · circular altar | facing north, seated on a lotus | a calm, detached expression | OṂ at the start, SVĀHĀ at the end |
| Increase (增益) | yellow · square altar | facing east, an auspicious seat | a joyful, delighted countenance | NAMAḤ at both start and end |
| Attraction (攝召) | red · a lotus-shaped altar | facing west, a worthy seat | joy and wrath mingled together | OṂ at the start, HŪṂ at the end |
| Subjugation (降伏) | deep black · a triangular altar | facing south, crouching low | a wrathful image | HŪṂ PHAṬ at both start and end |
This table gathers into a single working reference what this collection has met piecemeal since Part 5's five-color visualization and Part 9's twelve fires of wisdom — the fourfold classification of ritual purpose (with a fifth, "attraction" or 鉤召, sometimes counted separately from the four given here, and sometimes folded into them, as the tradition's later terminology shows some variance) that structures nearly every subsequent ritual manual in the East Asian esoteric tradition, still used today to organize everything from Shingon homa rites to the color of a temple's own ritual implements. That the text specifies not only color and shape but facial expression and where a mantra's own OṂ or HŪṂ PHAṬ belongs underscores a point this collection's reading notes have made before: ritual detail in this sūtra is never treated as arbitrary convention layered onto doctrine, but as doctrine itself, worked out to its most granular, practicable level.
A Day in the Life of a Mantra Practitioner
爾時真言行者隨其所應如法持誦已，復當如前事業而自加持，作金剛薩埵身，思惟佛菩薩眾無量功德，於無盡眾生界興大悲心，隨其所有資具而修供養。……次持所造眾善迴向發願，作如是言：「如大覺世尊所證知解了積集功德迴向無上菩提。我今亦復如是，所有福聚與法界眾生共之，咸使度生死海、成遍知道，自利利他法皆滿足。……」……又為身輪得支持故，次行乞食，或檀越請，或僧中所得，當離魚肉薰菜。及供養本尊諸佛之餘，乃至種種殘宿不淨、諸酒木果等漿可以醉人者，皆不應飲噉。次奉摶食，用獻本尊。又作隨意食法。若故有餘，更出少分，為濟飢乏乞求故。當生是心：「我為任持身器安隱行道受是段食，如膏車轄令不敗傷。」有所至到，不應以滋味故增減其心及生悅澤嚴身之相。……彼食竟，休息少時。復當禮拜諸佛、懺悔眾罪，為淨心故。如是循修常業，乃至依前讀誦經典，恒依是住。於後日分亦復如是，初夜後夜思惟大乘無得間絕。……次當運心如法供養，而作是念：「我為一切眾生志求大事因緣故，應當愛護是身，少時安寢，非為貪著睡眠之樂。」先當正身威儀，重累二足，右脇而臥。若支體疲懈者，隨意轉側無咎。為令速寤，常當係意在明。又復不應偃臥床上。」
At that time, once the mantra practitioner has recited in accordance with the Dharma as their own capacity allows, they should again empower themselves through the same ritual work as before, taking on the body of Vajrasattva, holding in mind the measureless merits of every buddha and bodhisattva, arousing great compassion for the boundless realm of beings, and making offering with whatever means they have…One should then dedicate every wholesome act accumulated, and vow: "Just as the greatly awakened World-Honored One has realized and understood the dedication of accumulated merit toward unsurpassed bodhi, so too do I now dedicate my own store of merit, shared together with the beings of the whole dharma-realm, that all may cross the sea of birth-and-death and accomplish the path of perfect knowing, both benefiting themselves and others, every dharma brought to fulfillment…"…And, so as to sustain the body's own wheel, one next goes on almsround, whether by a patron's invitation or by what is received within the community; one should keep away from fish, meat, and pungent vegetables. And beyond what remains after offering to the deity and every buddha, one should neither eat nor drink anything left standing overnight and gone impure, nor any wine, nor any fermented fruit-drink capable of intoxicating. One should next offer a small portion of food to the deity contemplated, and then eat according to one's own measure; should any remain, a further small portion should be set aside, to relieve the hungry and those who beg for food. One should give rise to this thought: "I take this portion of food only to sustain and steady this vessel of a body, that I may walk the path in ease — as one greases an axle only so it will not break." Whatever one comes to eat, one should not, for the sake of its flavor, let the mind swell or shrink, nor give rise to any thought of a glossy, well-fed appearance…Once the meal is finished, one should rest a short while, and then bow to every buddha and confess one's own offenses, so as to purify the mind. Practicing in this way as one's constant discipline, one continues, as before, to read and recite the scriptures, abiding always in this manner. The remainder of the day is spent likewise, reflecting on the Great Vehicle without interruption in the first and last watches of the night…One should then turn the mind, in accordance with the Dharma, toward offering, and think: "For the sake of every being, seeking this great cause, I should care for this body, and rest for a short while — not out of any attachment to the pleasure of sleep." One should first settle the body in proper bearing, the two feet placed one upon the other, and lie down on the right side. Should the limbs grow weary and stiff, one may turn to either side as needed, without fault. So as to wake quickly, one should constantly hold the mind fixed on light — and one should never lie sprawled upon a raised bed."
After eleven parts and dozens of pages tracing bodhicitta through emptiness, the maṇḍala, mudrā, mantra, and the letter A carried through every transformation the alphabet allows, this sūtra's very last extended passage of practical instruction is about eating without gluttony and lying down on the right side to sleep — the same recumbent posture (右脇而臥, "lying on the right side") traditionally associated with the Buddha's own final repose at his parinirvāṇa. The instruction to "never lie sprawled upon a raised bed" repeats, almost verbatim, the plain ethical prohibition already given in Part 9's chapter on three samayas, now folded into the closing daily schedule rather than stated as a separate rule — a small but telling structural choice: the sūtra's very last words on conduct are not a further doctrinal teaching but the most ordinary instruction imaginable, treated with exactly the same seriousness as everything that came before it. The reasoning given for a short, disciplined sleep — "not out of any attachment to the pleasure of sleep," but to sustain a body needed for the work still ahead — closes the entire text on a note of plain, unglamorous practicality: the most advanced esoteric ritual system this site has translated ends, finally, with an instruction about how to rest well enough to get up and do it again tomorrow.
Four Meditations, and the Syllable in the Heart
Chapter four is the rule of recitation, and it opens where chapter three left off — the offering made, the practitioner seated. What it describes is not the counting of syllables but the state in which counting happens: the deity seen, the moon-disc in the heart, and the mantra’s letters read off that disc as though from a written page.
如是具法供養已， 起利無盡眾生心，稽首諸佛聖天等， 住相應座入三昧，四種靜慮之軌儀， 能令內心生喜樂，以真實義加持故， 當得真言成等引。若作真言念誦時， 今當次說彼方便，智者如先所開示， 現前而觀本所尊，於其心月圓明中， 悉皆照見真言字。即應次第而受持， 乃至令心淨無垢，數及時分相現等， 依隨經教已滿足。志求有相之義利， 真言悉地隨意成，是名世間具相行， 四支禪門復殊異。
……瑜伽勝義品中說， 次應轉變明字門，而以觀作本尊形， 逮見身祕之幖幟。契經略說有二相， 正遍知觀最為先，次及菩薩聖天觀， 妙吉祥尊為上首，亦依彼乘位而轉， 以相應印及真言。
……合定慧手虛心掌， 火輪交結持水輪，二風環屈加大空， 其相如鉤成密印，而用遍置自支分， 爾乃修行眾事業，當知諸佛菩薩等， 轉字瑜伽亦復然。或餘經說真言印， 如是用之不違背，或依彼說異儀軌， 或以普通三密門，若能解了旋轉者， 諸有所作皆成就。……契經所說迦字門， 一切諸法無造作，當以如是理光明， 而觀此聲真實義。真陀摩尼寶王印， 定慧五輪互相交，金剛合掌之標式， 普通一切菩薩法。
……佉字含眾色， 增加大空點，如前所宣說， 置之於頂上，當得等虛空， 說諸法亦然。復於其首內， 想念本初字，純白點嚴飾， 最勝百明心，眼界猶明燈， 大空無垢字，住於本尊位， 正覺當現前，乃至諦明了， 應當如是見。又觀彼心處， 圓滿淨月輪，炳現阿字門， 遍作金剛色。說聲真實義， 諸法本無生，於中正觀察， 皆從此心起。聲字如花鬘， 煇焰自圍繞，其光普明淨， 能破無明窟。迦字以為首， 或復餘字門，皆當修是法， 念以聲真實。或所持真言， 環列在圓明，單字與句因， 隨息而出入。
Having made the offering complete with its rule, he rouses the mind that benefits endless beings, bows to the buddhas and the holy ones, takes the seat that answers to it and enters samādhi. The procedure of the four meditations can make joy and ease arise in the inward mind; and because he is empowered by the true meaning, he will attain the composure in which mantra is accomplished. When he comes to recite the mantra, the method for it is now to be told: as the wise one was shown above, he contemplates his own deity present before him, and in the full bright moon within that deity’s heart he sees, illuminated, every letter of the mantra. He should then take them up in order until his mind is pure and stainless; the count, the division of time, the appearance of signs and the rest are fulfilled by following the scripture’s teaching. Whoever seeks benefit that has form will have mantra-attainment accomplished as he wishes — this is called worldly practice endowed with form; the four-limbed gate of meditation is something else again.
…As the chapter on the ultimate meaning of yoga says, he should next turn the syllable-gate of the vidyā and by contemplation make it the form of his deity, so coming to see the emblem of the body’s secret. The scripture speaks briefly of two aspects: contemplation of the Perfectly Awakened first of all, then contemplation of bodhisattvas and holy ones, with Mañjuśrī foremost among them — turned likewise according to that one’s vehicle and station, with the seal and mantra that answer to it.
…Join the meditation- and wisdom-hands with the palms hollowed; the fire-wheels crossed and holding the water-wheels; the two wind-wheels bent into rings and added to the great space-wheels, their shape like a hook — so the secret seal is made, and used, it is set over his own limbs; only then does he undertake the various works. Know that with the buddhas and bodhisattvas, the yoga of turning syllables is likewise. Or a mantra and seal given in some other scripture — to use it so is no contradiction; or he may follow a different procedure given there, or use the universal gate of the three secrets. If he can understand and turn them, everything he undertakes will be accomplished. …Of the syllable-gate KA, the scripture says: all dharmas are without making. With the light of just this principle he should contemplate the true meaning of the sound. The seal of the wish-fulfilling jewel-king: the five wheels of the meditation- and wisdom-hands crossing one another, in the form of the vajra-añjali — this is the universal method for all bodhisattvas.
…The syllable KHA contains all colors; add to it the point of great space; as was declared above, set it upon the crown, and he will attain what is equal to space — and so it is said of all dharmas too. Within his head, again, he recollects the primordial syllable, pure white and adorned with the point, the supreme heart of the hundred lights; the field of the eye like a bright lamp, the stainless syllable of great space; abiding in the place of the deity, the Perfectly Awakened will appear before him — and until it is clear and distinct, thus should he see. Again he contemplates the place of the heart: a full and pure moon-disc, and blazing there the syllable-gate A, turned everywhere to vajra color. The true meaning of the sound is declared: all dharmas are from the first unarisen. Rightly contemplating within this, he sees that all of it rises from this mind. The sound and the letters are like a garland of flowers, their blaze encircling of itself, their light pure and bright everywhere, able to break open the cave of ignorance. With KA at the head, or with any other syllable-gate, he should cultivate this same method, recollecting by the truth of sound. Or the mantra he holds may be set in a ring within that bright disc, single syllables and the causes of phrases going out and coming in with the breath.
Reading note — after Yixing
“Going out and coming in with the breath” (隨息而出入) is the one line in the appendix that ties the mantra to respiration rather than to counting, and Yixing reads it as the bridge between the two registers this chapter keeps distinguishing — the worldly recitation that has form and counts its rounds, and the four-limbed meditation that does not. The syllables circling on the moon-disc with the breath belong to neither exactly; they are how one becomes the other.
The Five Syllables on the Body
The center of chapter four, and the passage that travelled furthest. Five syllables are set on five places of the body — A at the lower body, VAṆ at the navel, RAṆ at the heart, HAṆ between the brows, KHA at the crown — each with an element, a color, and a shape. The text notes drily that its five verses were filled out by the translator from the sense of the sūtra, which is an unusually frank admission for a canonical text to make about itself.
或修意支法， 應理如等引，緣念成悉地， 普利眾生心，方迺作持誦， 懈極然後已。或以真言字， 運布心月中，隨其深密意， 思念聲真實。如是受持者， 復為一方便，諸有修福聚， 成就諸善根。當習意支法， 無有定時分，若樂求現法， 上中下悉地，應以斯方便， 先作心受持。正覺諸世尊， 所說法如是，或奉香花等， 隨力修供養。
是中先持誦法略有二種：一者依時故、二者依相故。時謂所期數滿及定時日月限等，相謂佛塔圖像出生光焰音聲等，當知是真言行者罪障淨除之相也。彼如經所說，先作意念誦已，復持滿一落叉。從此經第二月，乃修具支方便，然後隨其本願作成就法。若有障者，先依現相門以心意持誦，然後於第二月具支供養。應如是知。
復為樂修習， 如來三密門，經于一月者， 次說彼方便。行者若持誦， 大毘盧遮那，正覺真言印， 當依如是法。……是中身密印， 正覺白毫相，慧手金剛拳， 而在於眉間。……阿字遍金色， 用作金剛輪，加持於下體， 說名瑜伽座。鑁字素月光， 在於霧聚中，加持自臍上， 是名大悲水。囕字初日暉， 彤赤在三角，加持本心位， 是名智火光。唅字劫災焰， 黑色在風輪，加持白毫際， 說名自在力。佉字及空點， 相成一切色，加持在頂上， 故名為大空。
……五字以嚴身， 威德具成就，熾然大慧炬， 滅除眾罪業。天魔軍眾等， 及餘為障者，當見如是人， 赫奕同金剛。又於首中置， 百光遍照王，安立無垢眼， 猶燈明顯照，如前住瑜伽， 加持亦如是，智者觀自體， 等同如來身。心月圓明處， 聲鬘與相應，字字無間斷， 猶如韻鈴鐸，正等覺真言， 隨取而受持，當以此方便， 速得成悉地。
Or he cultivates the method of the mental limb, conforming to principle as in meditative composure; by that recollection attainment is accomplished and the minds of beings universally benefited — and only then does he take up recitation, leaving off when weariness is extreme. Or, with the letters of the mantra, he deploys them within the moon of the heart, and according to their deep and secret meaning contemplates the truth of sound. One who takes them up so has yet another skillful means, by which every store of merit cultivated brings the roots of goodness to accomplishment. He should train in the method of the mental limb, for which there is no fixed division of time; and if he delights in seeking, in the present Dharma, attainment of the higher, middling, or lesser kind, he should by this same means first take it up in the mind. Thus have the Perfectly Awakened World-Honored Ones declared the Dharma; and let him offer incense and flowers and the rest, cultivating offering as his strength allows.
Here the method of recitation is briefly of two kinds: the first depending on time, the second depending on signs. Time means the completion of the expected count, and fixed limits of day and month and the rest; signs mean that from a stūpa or an image there arise light, flame, or sound — know these to be the signs that the mantra practitioner’s obstructions of offense have been purified. As the scripture says, having first recited mentally, he then holds it until a full lakṣa is reached. From that point, in the second month, he cultivates the means complete in all its limbs, and afterward performs the method of accomplishment according to his original vow. If there is obstruction, let him first, by the gate of the appearance of signs, recite with the mind, and then in the second month make the offering complete in its limbs. So it should be understood.
And for one who delights in cultivating the Tathāgata’s gate of the three secrets and has passed a month at it, the means is told next. If the practitioner recites the mantra and seal of Mahāvairocana, the Perfectly Awakened, he should follow this method. …The body-seal here is the Perfectly Awakened One’s white-curl mark: the wisdom-hand in a vajra fist, held between the brows. …The syllable A, golden throughout, is made a vajra wheel and empowers the lower body: this is called the seat of yoga. The syllable VAṆ, the light of a white moon, within a gathering of mist, empowers above his navel: this is called the water of great compassion. The syllable RAṆ, the light of the rising sun, crimson within a triangle, empowers the place of the heart: this is called the light of wisdom-fire. The syllable HAṆ, the flame of the kalpa-ending fire, black within the wind-wheel, empowers the place of the white curl: this is called the power of sovereignty. The syllable KHA with the point of space, whose aspect completes all colors, empowers upon the crown: and so it is called great space.
With the five syllables adorning the body, majesty and virtue are brought to accomplishment; a great torch of wisdom blazes up and destroys the many acts of offense. The armies of Māra’s gods and all others who obstruct, seeing such a person, see him blazing, the equal of vajra. And in his head he sets besides the King of the Hundred Lights Shining Everywhere, establishing the stainless eye, bright and illuminating as a lamp; abiding in yoga as before, the empowerment likewise; and the wise one contemplates his own substance as equal to the Tathāgata’s body. In the place of the heart’s full bright moon, the garland of sound answers to it, letter after letter without a break, like the ringing of bells; and the mantra of the Perfectly Awakened, taken up and held as he chooses — by this means he will swiftly come to attainment.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
These five syllables, on these five places, became gosō jōjin-gan in Japanese Shingon — the five-stage rite of realizing buddhahood in the present body. Part 5 of this collection gave the same set from the root sūtra; here the appendix gives it as liturgy, with the element, color, and geometric shape attached to each: A a golden vajra circle below, VAṆ a white moon in mist at the navel, RAṆ a crimson triangle at the heart, HAṆ black wind between the brows, KHA all colors at the crown. Circle, moon, triangle — these are the shapes that would become the five-element stūpa standing in Japanese graveyards.
The text’s own note on this passage, kept out of the translation above, reads: “these five verses the transmitter has filled out somewhat from the sense of the sūtra, so that the wording may be complete.” The appendix is telling its reader, in a parenthesis, which of its lines are Śubhakarasiṁha’s rather than the sūtra’s.
Śākyamuni’s Seal, and the Four Rites in the Sūtra’s Own Words
Chapter four closes by returning to Śākyamuni — whose seal is the begging bowl — and then setting out the four ritual applications that all later East Asian tantra would organize itself around: pacifying, increasing, summoning, and subduing. Each has its color, its altar shape, its direction, its posture, and its own way of ending a mantra.
復次若觀念， 釋迦牟尼尊，所用明字門， 我今次宣說。……是中聲實義， 所謂離諸觀，彼佛身密印， 以如來鉢等，當用智慧手， 加於三昧掌，正受之儀式， 而在於臍輪。
……如是或餘等正覺密印真言，各依本經所用。亦當如前方便，以字門觀轉作本尊身，住瑜伽法運布種子，然後持誦所受真言。若依此如來行者，當於大悲胎藏生漫荼羅王得阿闍梨灌頂，乃應具足修行；非但得持明灌頂者之所堪也。其四支禪門方便次第，設餘經中所說儀軌有所虧缺，若如此法修之，得離諸過，以本尊歡喜故，增其威勢，功德隨生。又持誦畢已，輒用本法而護持之。雖餘經有不說者，亦當通用此意，令修行人速得成就。
復次本尊之所住， 漫荼羅位之儀式，如彼形色壇亦然， 依此瑜伽疾成就。當知悉地有三種， 寂災增益降伏心，分別事業凡四分， 隨其物類所當用，純素黃赤深玄色， 圓方三角蓮華壇。北面勝方住蓮座， 淡泊之心寂災事；東面初方吉祥座， 悅樂之容增益事；西面後方在賢座， 喜怒與俱攝召事；南面下方蹲踞等， 忿怒之像降伏事。若知祕密之幖幟， 性位形色及威儀，奉花香等隨所應， 皆當如是廣分別，淨障增福圓滿等， 捨處遠遊摧害事。真言之初以唵字， 後加莎訶寂災用；若真言初以唵字， 後加[合*牛]發攝召用；初後納麼增益用， 初後[合*牛]發降伏用；[合*牛]字發字通三處， 增其名號在中間。如是分別真言相， 智者應當悉知解。
Next, if he would contemplate Śākyamuni the Honored One, the vidyā-syllable gate to be used I shall now declare. …The true meaning of the sound here is what is called being apart from all contemplating. That buddha’s body-seal takes the Tathāgata’s bowl and the like: with the wisdom-hand laid over the samādhi palm, in the posture of right reception, held at the wheel of the navel.
…Likewise for the secret seals and mantras of the other Perfectly Awakened Ones, each is used according to its own scripture. Here too he should follow the means given above — by contemplation of the syllable-gate, turning it into the deity’s body; abiding in the method of yoga, deploying the seed-syllable; and only then reciting the mantra he has received. One who practices in dependence on this Tathāgata should receive the ācārya consecration at the king of maṇḍalas born of the Womb of Great Compassion, and only then undertake the practice in full — it is not something one who has received only the vidyā-holder’s consecration is equal to. As for the sequence of means in the four-limbed gate of meditation: if the procedure given in some other scripture is deficient in anything, practicing it by this method will free it of faults, and because the deity rejoices, majesty is increased and merit arises accordingly. And when he has finished reciting, let him at once guard and hold himself by the root method. Though some other scripture may not say so, this intent should be applied generally, so that the practitioner may swiftly reach accomplishment.
Next, where the deity abides — the procedure of the stations of the maṇḍala — the altar too follows that shape and color, and by this yoga accomplishment is swift. Know that attainment is of three kinds, and the mind of pacifying, of increasing, and of subduing; the works are distinguished in four parts, and each is used according to the class of thing. Pure white, yellow, red, and deep black; a round altar, a square, a triangle, a lotus. Facing north, the excellent quarter, seated on a lotus, with a mind of calm detachment: the work of pacifying. Facing east, the first quarter, on an auspicious seat, with a countenance of delight: the work of increasing. Facing west, the hinder quarter, on a worthy seat, joy and anger together: the work of summoning. Facing south, the lower quarter, squatting and the like, in a wrathful aspect: the work of subduing. If he knows the secret emblems — nature and station, shape and color and bearing — and offers flowers and incense and the rest as befits each, he should distinguish all of it at length in this way: purifying obstruction, increasing merit, bringing to fullness and the rest; leaving a place, journeying far, crushing and harming. A mantra beginning with Oṃ and ending with SVĀHĀ is used for pacifying; if it begins with Oṃ and ends with HŪṆ PHAṬ, it is used for summoning; NAMAḤ at beginning and end is used for increasing; HŪṆ PHAṬ at beginning and end for subduing. The syllables HŪṆ and PHAṬ serve in all three places, and the name of the one addressed is set in the middle. Thus are the aspects of mantra distinguished; the wise should understand all of it.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The four rites — śāntika, pauṣṭika, vaśīkaraṇa, abhicāraka — are given here as a complete system in nine lines, and the system is grammatical as much as ritual: what makes a mantra a pacifying mantra is not its content but how it opens and closes. A practitioner who has this table can take any mantra in the canon and put it to any of the four uses. That is a considerable power to hand over in verse, and the sūtra hands it over only after insisting, two paragraphs earlier, that the full practice requires the ācārya consecration and not merely the vidyā-holder’s.
Dedication, Dismissal, and the Rest of the Day
Chapter five is what happens after the recitation stops. The merit is dedicated, the deities invited in chapter three are formally released, the practitioner unbinds his own protections — and then the text follows him out of the shrine and through an ordinary day: reading, begging his food, eating it, resting, and lying down at night in a posture it specifies.
……供養已，又當一心合掌，以金剛諷誦及餘微妙言辭稱歎如來真實功德。……依於如來大住而住，非獨為己身故求菩提也。乃至往返生死，濟諸眾生同得一切種智以來，常當修集福德智慧、不造餘業。願我等得到第一安樂，所求悉地，離諸障礙，一切圓滿故。復更思惟：「令我速當具足若內若外種種清淨妙寶而自莊嚴，相續無間普皆流出。以是因緣故，能滿一切眾生所有希願。」……若廣修行者，當如普賢行願及餘大乘修多羅所說，以決定意而稱述之。
……次當奉獻閼伽，作歸命合掌置之頂上，思惟諸佛菩薩真實功德，至誠作禮而說偈言：「諸有永離一切過， 無量功德莊嚴身，一向饒益眾生者， 我今悉皆歸命禮。」次當啟白眾聖，說是偈言：「現前諸如來， 救世諸菩薩，不斷大乘教， 到殊勝位者，唯願聖天眾， 決定證知我，各當隨所安， 後復垂哀赴。」次當以三昧耶真言密印於頂上解之，而生是心：「諸有結護加持皆令解脫。」以此方便故，先所奉請諸尊各還所住，不為無等大誓之所留止也。
復用法界本性加持自體，思惟淨菩提心，而住金剛薩埵身。……若念誦竟，以此三印持身，所有真言行門終畢，法則皆悉圓滿。又應如前方便，觀法界字以為頂相。彼服金剛甲冑，由斯祕密莊嚴故，即得如金剛自性，無能沮壞之者。諸有聞其音聲或見或觸，皆必定於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，一切功德皆悉成就，與大日世尊等無有異也。
次復起增上心，修行殊勝事業。於清淨處嚴以香花，先令自身作觀世音菩薩，或住如來自性。依前方便，以真言密印加持，然後以法施心讀誦大乘方廣經典，或以心誦而請諸天神等令聽受之。如所說偈言：「金剛頂經說， 觀世蓮花眼，即同一切佛， 無盡莊嚴身。或以世導師， 諸法自在者，隨取一名號， 作本性加持。」……字門真實義， 諸法無染著，音聲所流出， 當作如是觀。此中身密相， 所謂蓮花印，如前奉敷座， 我已分別說。……前以法界心字置之在頂。又用此真言密印相加，隨力所堪讀誦經法，或造制底漫荼羅等。所為已畢，次從座起，以和敬相應接諸人事。
…The offering made, he should again join his palms single-mindedly and, with the vajra chant and other exquisite words, praise the Tathāgata’s true merit. …He abides in dependence on the Tathāgata’s great abiding, and does not seek awakening for his own sake alone. Until, going and returning through birth and death, he has delivered living beings so that all together attain the knowledge of all modes, he should always cultivate and gather merit and wisdom, and do no other work. “May we reach the foremost ease; may the attainment we seek be free of every obstruction and complete in every part.” And he reflects further: “May I swiftly be furnished with every pure and exquisite jewel, inward and outward, adorning myself with them, so that they stream forth continuously and without break; and by this cause may I fulfill every hope that living beings have.” …One who would cultivate this at length should do it as Samantabhadra’s Vows and the other Mahāyāna sūtras describe, reciting it with a settled mind.
Next he should present the argha, making the añjali of homage and setting it upon his head; contemplating the true merit of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, he bows with full sincerity and speaks this verse: “You who are forever parted from every fault, whose bodies are adorned with measureless merit, who benefit living beings undividedly — to all of you I now bow in homage.” Next he should address the holy ones, speaking this verse: “Tathāgatas here present, bodhisattvas who save the world, you who do not let the Great Vehicle’s teaching lapse and who have reached the excellent station — may the assembly of holy ones bear witness to me with certainty; let each go to where he is at ease, and afterward come again in pity.” Next, with the samaya mantra and secret seal, he releases it above his head, and gives rise to this thought: “Let every binding, guarding, and empowering be released.” By this means the honored ones invited earlier each return to their own abode, and are not detained by the unequalled great vow.
Then, with the original nature of the dharma-realm, he empowers his own body, contemplates the pure awakening-mind, and abides as the body of Vajrasattva. …When the recitation is done, with these three seals he holds the body; every gate of mantra practice is finished, and the rule is complete in all its parts. He should also, by the means given above, contemplate the dharma-realm syllable as the mark upon his crown. He puts on the vajra armor, and because of this secret adornment he attains the very nature of vajra, which nothing can break down. Whoever hears his voice, or sees him, or touches him, becomes certain of unsurpassed perfect awakening; every merit is brought to accomplishment, and he is no different from Mahāvairocana the World-Honored One.
Next he rouses a superior mind and undertakes excellent work. In a pure place adorned with incense and flowers, he first makes his own body Avalokiteśvara, or abides in the Tathāgata’s own nature. Following the means given above, he empowers with mantra and secret seal, and then, with a mind that gives the Dharma, reads and recites the Mahāyāna Vaipulya scriptures — or recites mentally and invites the gods and spirits to hear and receive it. As the verse says: “The Vajraśekhara says: the World-Regarder, lotus-eyed, is the same as every buddha, a body of endless adornment. Or of the World’s Guide, sovereign over all dharmas, take any one of the names and make it the empowerment of his own nature.” …The true meaning of the syllable-gate: all dharmas are unstained; what streams out from sound — thus should he contemplate. The body-secret aspect here is what is called the lotus seal, which I have already distinguished above, in the offering of the seat. …As before, he sets the dharma-realm heart-syllable upon his crown. Using this mantra and secret seal together, he reads and recites the scriptures as his strength allows, or builds caityas and maṇḍalas and the like. What he set out to do being finished, he then rises from his seat, and meets the affairs of others in harmony and respect.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The dismissal verse is the most courteous thing in the appendix. Having summoned the buddhas with a hook-seal in chapter three, the practitioner now tells them they are free to go — “let each go to where he is at ease” — and adds that they are not held by the great vow that brought them. The rite ends by releasing what it bound, including its own guests.
Bathing, the Two Attainments, and the Close
The last stretch of the appendix covers washing — and takes the opportunity to reject external purification as a category — before ending on the distinction the whole sūtra has been building toward: attainment that has form, and attainment that does not. The colophon that follows is the compiler’s own, and says plainly what he cut.
持真言者，以不虧法則無間勤修故，得真言門修菩薩行之名號也。若於數時相現等持誦法中作前方便，乃至具修勝業猶不成就者，應自警悟，倍加精進，勿得生下劣想，而言是法非我所堪。如是展其志力，自利利他常不空過。以行者勤誠不休息故，眾聖玄照其心，則蒙威神建立得離諸障。是中有二事不應捨離，謂不捨諸佛菩薩及饒益無盡眾生心。恒於一切智願心不傾動，以此因緣必定得成隨類悉地也。
常依內法而澡浴， 不應執著外淨法，於觸食等懷疑悔， 如是皆所不應為。若為任持是身故， 隨時盥沐除諸垢，於河流等如法教， 與真言印共相應。以法界心淨諸水， 隨用不動降三世，真言密印護方等， 住於本尊自性觀。復當三轉持淨土， 恒以一心正思惟，念聖不動真言等， 智者默然應澡浴。……此中訶字門， 聲理如前說，少分差別者， 所謂淨除相。降伏三界尊， 身密之儀式，當用成事業， 五智金剛印。
……如是澡浴灑淨已， 具三昧耶護支分，思惟無盡聖天眾， 三奉掬水而獻之。為淨身心利他故， 敬禮如來勝生子，遠離三毒分別等， 寂調諸根詣精室。或依水室異方便， 心住如前所制儀，自身三等為限量， 為求上中下法故。行者如是作持誦， 所有罪流當永息，必定成就摧諸障， 一切智句集其身。
彼依世間成就品， 或復餘經之所說，供養支分眾方便， 如其次第所修行，未離有為諸相故， 是謂世間之悉地。次說無相最殊勝， 具信解者所觀察，若真言乘深慧人， 此生志求無上果，隨所信解修觀照， 如前心供養之儀，及依悉地流出品， 出世間品瑜伽法，彼於真實緣生句， 內心支分離攀緣，依此方便而證修， 常得出世間成就。如所說優陀那偈言：「甚深無相法， 劣慧所不堪，為應彼等故， 兼存有相說。」
右阿闍梨所集大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經中供養儀式具足竟。傳度者頗存會意，又欲省文故，刪其重複真言旋轉用之。修行者當綜括上下文義耳。
Because the holder of mantra practices diligently and without break, not falling short of the rule, he earns the name of one who practices the bodhisattva conduct by the gate of mantra. If, within the methods of recitation by count, by time, and by the appearance of signs, he performs the means described above, and even undertakes the excellent works in full, and still does not reach accomplishment — then he should rouse and warn himself, and redouble his diligence, and must not give rise to a low opinion of himself and say that this Dharma is beyond him. Extending his resolve in this way, benefiting himself and others, he never passes his time in vain. And because the practitioner is earnest and does not rest, the holy ones illumine his mind from afar, and by their majesty he is established and comes to be free of obstructions. Here there are two things he must not let go: not letting go of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and not letting go of the mind that benefits endless beings. If his mind never wavers from the vow of omniscience, by this cause he will certainly accomplish attainment of whatever kind belongs to him.
Let him always bathe in dependence on the inward method, and not cling to outward methods of purity, nor harbor doubt and regret about defiling foods and the like — none of this should be done. If for the sake of maintaining this body he washes from time to time and removes the dirt, let him do so at a river or the like as the rule teaches, answering to mantra and seal. With the dharma-realm heart he purifies the waters, and uses accordingly Acala and Trailokyavijaya; with mantra and secret seal he guards the quarters and the rest, and abides in contemplation of the deity’s own nature. Again he should empower the pure earth three times over, always rightly contemplating with a single mind; recollecting the mantra of holy Acala and the rest, the wise one should bathe in silence. …The syllable-gate HA here has the same principle of sound as was told above; where it differs a little is in the aspect of purifying and clearing. For the Honored One who subdues the three realms, the procedure of the body-secret — to be used for accomplishing the work — is the vajra seal of the five wisdoms.
…Having bathed and sprinkled clean in this way, complete with the samaya guarding of the limbs, he contemplates the endless assembly of holy ones and offers up three handfuls of water to them. To purify body and mind and benefit others, he bows to the Tathāgata’s true-born children, keeps far from the three poisons and from discrimination, stills and tames the faculties, and goes to the chamber of practice. Or, by the alternative means of a water-chamber, his mind abiding in the procedure prescribed above, taking his own body three times over as the measure — for the sake of seeking the higher, middling, or lesser Dharma. When the practitioner recites in this way, the flow of every offense will be stopped forever; he will certainly accomplish the crushing of obstructions, and the phrases of omniscience will gather in his body.
What follows the chapter on worldly accomplishment, or what other scriptures declare — the limbs of offering and their many means, practiced in their proper sequence — because it is not yet free of the marks of the conditioned, this is called worldly attainment. Next is declared the formless, which is most excellent, contemplated by those endowed with faith and understanding. If one of deep wisdom in the mantra vehicle seeks the unsurpassed fruit in this life, let him cultivate contemplation according to his faith and understanding, as with the inward offering rite above, and according to the chapter on the arising of attainment and the yoga method of the chapter on the supramundane; and as to the true phrase of dependent arising, let the limbs of his inward mind be free of clinging. Practicing and realizing by this means, he always attains supramundane accomplishment. As the udāna verse says: “The profound and formless Dharma is beyond those of weaker wisdom; and to meet their case, the teaching with form is kept alongside it.”
Here ends the complete offering rite within the Mahāvairocana Sūtra, as compiled by the ācārya. The transmitter has kept somewhat to the sense, and, wishing also to economize on text, has cut the repeated mantras and used them in rotation. The practitioner should gather up the meaning of what comes before and after for himself.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
“Let him always bathe in dependence on the inward method, and not cling to outward methods of purity” is a direct rejection of Brahmanical ritual bathing, placed in a chapter that then gives detailed instructions for ritual bathing. The distinction being drawn is not between washing and not washing but between what the washing is held to accomplish.
The closing udāna verse states the appendix’s own status: the teaching with form is kept “to meet the case” of those who cannot take the formless. Everything in these five chapters — the altars, the seals, the syllables on the body, the four rites — is classed by its own final verse as the accommodation, not the thing accommodated.
The colophon is the compiler speaking in his own voice about his editorial method: he cut repeated mantras and expected the reader to supply them from elsewhere in the text. It is the same frankness as the note on the five verses in chapter four, and it is worth registering that a canonical text carries both.
How to Pronounce What Cannot Be Translated
Two short things close the appendix, both of them easy to pass over. The first is a handful of instructions about food and the middle of the night that complete the practitioner’s day. The second is a note on pronunciation — the transmitter telling his Chinese readers how to say the syllables he has just spent seven fascicles refusing to translate.
……是中種子，如鑁字真言所說。復誦施十力明八遍，方乃食之。……如是住先成就本尊瑜伽。飯食訖已，所餘觸食，以成辦諸事真言心供養所應食者。當用不空威怒增加聖不動真言，當誦一遍，受者歡喜，常隨行人而護念之。
……至中夜分，以事業金剛如前被金剛甲，敬禮一切諸佛大菩薩等。……次於餘日亦如是行之。
……凡真言中平聲字皆稍上聲呼之。若諸與下字相連，亦可逐便以入聲呼之。如婆伽梵呼為薄伽梵之類是也。
…The seed-syllable here is as was said of the VAṆ mantra. He then recites the vidyā that bestows the ten powers eight times over, and only then eats. …So abiding, he first accomplishes the yoga of his deity. When the meal is finished, for the food that is left and has been touched, he makes offering with the heart-mantra that accomplishes every task, to those who ought to receive it. He should use the mantra of holy Acala with the addition of Amoghakrodha, reciting it once; those who receive it rejoice, and will follow the practitioner always and guard him in mind.
…At the middle watch of the night, with the vajra of works he puts on the vajra armor as before, and bows to all the buddhas and great bodhisattvas. …And on each following day he does likewise.
…In general, level-tone characters within a mantra should all be pronounced slightly toward the rising tone. Where any of them is joined to the character below it, one may also, as convenience serves, pronounce it in the entering tone — as when bō-ga-bḹn is said as bó-ga-bḹn, and the like.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The pronunciation note is the most practical sentence in the appendix and the hardest to render. Śubhakarasiṁha is instructing Chinese readers on how to bend their own tone system so that a transliterated Sanskrit syllable comes out closer to the sound it stands for — a level tone raised, a final consonant borrowed from the entering tone. His example, 婚伸梗 read as 薄伸梗, is Sanskrit bhagavān, and the point is that the standard reading is wrong and the adjusted one is right.
It is worth pausing on what this tells you about the whole collection. A text that has refused throughout to translate its mantras, on the grounds that the sound is the thing, here concedes that the sound as Chinese renders it is already an approximation, and gives instructions for improving the approximation. The refusal to translate was never a claim that the transliteration was exact.
The Sūtra's Own Closing Colophon
"右阿闍梨所集大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經中供養儀式具足竟" — "Here concludes, in full, the rite of offering gathered from the Mahāvairocana Sūtra by the ācārya" [traditionally identified as Buddhaguhya] — "the transmitter of this text supplied a good deal of its sense from his own understanding, and, wishing also to keep the wording concise, removed its repetitions and abbreviated the mantras accordingly where they recur; a practitioner should draw together the meaning of the text as a whole, above and below, to make full sense of it."
With this line, Taishō's own seventh fascicle — and the entire Mahāvairocana Sūtra — comes to a close.
The Mahāvairocana Sūtra: Complete
Eleven parts, covering all thirty-one chapters of this sūtra's core teaching and the full five-chapter Method of Sequential Offerings appended to it: bodhicitta as cause, compassion as root, and skillful means as ultimate; a search for mind that cannot be found in twelve places; sixty ordinary minds and three incalculable kalpas compressed into one lifetime; the full iconography, mudrās, and mantras of the Womb Maṇḍala's three courts; the forty-two letter-gates and the five elements mapped onto the body as A, VA, RA, HA, and KHA — the direct source of Japan's five-tiered stone stūpa; ten precepts each weighed against their own compassionate exception; forty-four Vedic fires reworked into twelve fires of wisdom; and, at the very last, an ordinary day's discipline of eating, walking, and sleep. Read together with its companion text, the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha — the other of the two root scriptures of the systematic Tang esoteric tradition — this collection completes the doctrinal foundation of what this site's own sūtra index calls 唐密, the Tang lineage of Chinese esoteric Buddhism.
Return to the Mahāvairocana Sūtra collection overview →