TheVairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra (Vairocana’s Awakening Sutra,Sanskrit:𑀯𑁃𑀭𑁄𑀘𑀦𑀸𑀪𑀺𑀲𑀁𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀽𑀢𑁆𑀭), also known as theMahāvairocana Tantra (Sanskrit:𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀯𑁃𑀭𑁄𑀘𑀦𑀢𑀦𑁆;traditional Chinese:大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經; ; pinyin:Dà Pílúzhēnà Chéngfó Shénbiàn Jiāchí Jīng; also known as 大日經Da Ri Jing) is an importantVajrayanaBuddhist text composed before 674 CE.[1] The Indian tantric masterBuddhaguhya (fl. c.700 CE) classified the text as a caryātantra, and inTibetan Buddhism it is still considered to be a member of thecarya classification.[1] InJapan where it is known as theMahāvairocana Sūtra (Daibirushana jōbutsu jinpen kajikyō), it is one of two central texts in theShingon school, along with theVajrasekhara Sutra. Both are also part of theTendai school.
Though the text is often called atantra by later figures (including later Indian commentators), the scripture does not call itself a tantra.[1]
TheMahāvairocana Tantra is the first true Buddhist tantra, the earliest comprehensive manual of tantric Buddhism. It was probably composed in the middle of the 7th century, in all probability in north-eastern India atNālandā.[2] Evidence to support the text's composition in Nalanda include the fact that many of the Buddhist scholars involved in the transmission of the text resided in Nalanda includingBuddhaguhya,Śubhakarasiṃha,Chandrakirti,Naropa andAbhayakaragupta amongst others. The description of plants and trees in the MVT also matches those found in the region surrounding Nalanda in North-East India.[3] The Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra also circulated in the monastic university ofVikramashila where it was cited in the works ofAtiśa,Ratnākaraśānti andJñanasrimitra.[4]
The longer title of the scripture isMahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi-vikurvitādhiṣṭhāna-vaipulyasūtrendrarāja-nāma-dharmaparyāya (Dharma Discourse Called “Mahāvairocana’s Awakening and His Empowerment of Miracles,” King of the Best of the Extensive Scriptures).[1]
According to Rolf Giebel, "the Chinese translation was produced in seven fascicles byŚubhākarasiṃha (637–735) and his Chinese disciple Yixing (683–727) in 724–5, apparently on the basis of a manuscript sent to China some decades earlier by the Chinese monk Wuxing, who died in India in 674."[5]
TheMahāvairocana Tantra was later translated intoTibetan sometime before 812 byŚīlendrabodhi andKawa Paltsek.[6]
The Sanskrit text of theMahāvairocana Tantra is lost, but it survives in Chinese and Tibetan translations.[1] The Chinese translation has preserved the original Sanskrit mantras in theSiddhaṃ script. There are translations from both into English. (see below).
A major commentary byBuddhaguhya was written in about 760 and is preserved in Tibetan. Hodge translates it into English alongside the text itself. Four originally Sanskrit commentaries on the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi have survived, two by Śubhākarasiṃha (extant in Chinese) and two by Buddhaguhya (extant in Tibetan).[1]
In East Asian Esoteric Buddhism, the most widely used commentary is thePronunciations Basic Meaning: Commentary on the Mahāvairocana-abhisaṃbodhi-tantra (大毘盧遮那成佛經疏,T 1796.39.579a-649c), usually called by the abbreviated name, theDainichi kyō. It was written byYixing, and was mostly based on the teachings given byŚubhakarasiṃha (637-735 CE). This commentary is key in bothTendai andShingon.
Kūkai learned of the Mahāvairocana Tantra in 796, and travelled to China in 804 to receive instruction in it.
TheMahāvairocana Tantra consists of three primary mandalas corresponding to the body, speech and mind of Mahāvairocana, as well as preliminary practices and initiation rituals. According to Buddhaguhya’sPiṇḍārtha (a summary of the main points of the tantra) theMahāvairocana Tantra system of practice is in three stages: preliminary, application, and accomplishment. Attached here and there are doctrinal passages, and sadhana practices which relate back to the main mandalas.
The following outline is based on Hodge's translation of the Tibetan version of the Sutra. The Chinese version has differences in the order of the chapters.
Chapter 2 of the sutra also contains four precepts, called thesamaya, that form the basic precepts esoteric Buddhist practitioners must follow:
TheMahavairocana Tantra does not trace its lineage toShakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Instead it comes directly fromMahavairocana. The lineage then being, according to the Shingon tradition:
Within the vision of theMahavairocana Sutra, the state ofbodhi ("awakening, enlightenment") is seen as naturally inherent to the mind - the mind's natural and pure state (as inDzogchen andTathagatagarbha) - and is viewed as the perceptual sphere of non-duality, where all false distinctions between a perceiving subject and perceived objects are lifted and the true state of things (non-duality) is revealed. This is also the understanding of Enlightenment found inYogacara Buddhism. To achieve this vision of non-duality, it is necessary to recognise one's own mind. Writing on theMahavairocana Sutra, Buddhist scholar and translator of that scripture, Stephen Hodge, comments:[7]
... when the MVT [i.e.Mahavairocana Tantra] speaks of knowing your mind as it truly is, it means that you are to know the inherent natural state of the mind by eliminating the split into a perceiving subject and perceived objects which normally occurs in the world and is wrongly thought to be real. This also corresponds to the Yogacara definition ... that emptiness (sunyata) is the absence of this imaginary split. ... We may further elucidate the meaning of Perfect Enlightenment and hence of the intrinsic nature of the mind by correlating terms [which Buddhist commentator on theMahavairocana Sutra,] Buddhaguhya, treats as synonyms. For example, he defines emptiness (sunyata) as suchness (tathata) and says that suchness is the intrinsic nature (svabhava) of the mind which is Enlightenment (bodhi-citta). Moreover, he frequently uses the terms suchness (tathata) and Suchness-Awareness (tathata-jnana) interchangeably. But since Awareness (jnana) is non-dual, Suchness-Awareness is not so much the Awareness of Suchness, but the Awareness whichis Suchness. In other words, the term Suchness-Awareness is functionally equivalent to Enlightenment. Finally, it must not be forgotten that this Suchness-Awareness or Perfect Enlightenment is Mahavairocana [the Primal Buddha, uncreated and forever existent]. In other words, the mind in its intrinsic nature is Mahavairocana, whom one "becomes" (or vice-versa) when one is perfectly enlightened.
The text also speaks of how all things can be accomplished once 'non-dual union with emptiness' is attained.[8]
Yet ultimately even emptiness needs to be transcended, to the extent that it is not a vacuous emptiness, but the expanse of the mind of Buddha, Buddhic Awareness and Buddha-realms, all of which know of no beginning and no arising - as Stephen Hodge points out:
Finally, though one has realized the true emptiness of the individual and phenomena, one does not yet realize that the natural state of mind is the Tathagata's inherent Awareness and that it is the all-pervasive Body of Vairocana with all the manifested Buddha realms. Therefore one must transcend even emptiness with the emptiness of emptiness, when it is seen that the mind is primordially unborn and unarisen.[9]
The sutra later reinforces the notion that Emptiness is not mere inert nothingness but is precisely the unlocalised locus where Vairocana resides. Vajrapani salutes the Buddha Vairocana with the following words:
I salute you who arebodhicitta [Awakened Mind]!
I salute you who are the source of Enlightenment! [...]
I bow to you who reside in emptiness!'[10]
Emptiness in Buddhist discourse usually means the flow of causation and result - the arising of causes and conditions - but in this scripture, Mahavairocana Buddha declares himself to be separate from all causes and conditions and without defect - truly mighty:
I who am mighty have been renowned as the Great Hero. I directly realized that there is no arising, and abandoned the perceptual range of words; I became free from all faults, and separated from causes and conditions.[11]
The title of Chinese writer and film director Xu Haofeng's 徐浩峰 (b.1973) novel 《大日坛城》Da ri tan cheng (published in 2010) refers to theMahāvairocana Tantra.[12]
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