Spells, Images, and Mandalas

Tracing the Evolution of Esoteric Buddhist Rituals

Koichi Shinohara

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780231537391
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Asian Art

Koichi Shinohara traces the evolution of Esoteric Buddhist rituals from the simple recitation of spells in the fifth century to complex systems involving image worship, mandala initiation, and visualization practices in the ninth century. He presents an important new reading of a seventh-century Chinese text called the Collected Dharani Sutras, which shows how earlier rituals for specific deities were synthesized into a general Esoteric initiation ceremony and how, for the first time, the notion of an Esoteric Buddhist pantheon emerged.

In the Collected Dharani Sutras, rituals for specific deities were typically performed around images of the deities, yet Esoteric Buddhist rituals in earlier sources involved the recitation of spells rather than the use of images. The first part of this study explores how such simpler rituals came to be associated with the images of specific deities and ultimately gave rise to the general Esoteric initiation ceremony described in the crucial example of the All-Gathering mandala ritual in the Collected Dharani Sutras. The visualization practices so important to later Esoteric Buddhist rituals were absent from this ceremony, and their introduction would fundamentally change Esoteric Buddhist practice.

This study examines the translations of dharani sutras made by Bodhiruci in the early eighth century and later Esoteric texts, such as Yixing's commentary on the Mahavairocana sutra and Amoghavajra's ritual manuals, to show how incorporation of visualization greatly enriched Esoteric rituals and helped develop elaborate iconographies for the deities. Over time, the ritual function of images became less certain, and the emphasis shifted toward visualization. This study clarifies the complex relationship between images and ritual, changing how we perceive Esoteric Buddhist art as well as ritual.

PART I

The Three Ritual Scenarios

This book presents a study of Chinese sources on Esoteric Buddhist ritual manuals, texts on the correct performance of ritual. The introduction named a number of such texts describing a variety of rituals, which I grouped into distinctive scenarios. These ritual manuals not only specify the actions to be performed but also gloss the rituals as part of the Buddha’s own teachings, often tracing their supposed origins to buddhas in the distant past. They list the benefits to be expected from each ritual and tell how the efficacy of the performance is miraculously confirmed.

In part I below I offer a more detailed investigation of the three basic ritual scenarios. The first chapter examines the first scenario of dhāraṇī recitation and vision and the introduction of the second scenario of image worship. The second chapter reconstructs the evolution of this second scenario around one particular deity. The third and fourth chapter investigate how the third scenario of maṇḍala initiation emerged.

1. THE RECITATION OF SPELLS IN THE DHĀRAṆĪ COLLECTIONS

The simplest ritual scenario consists of reciting specific spells for the purpose of attaining specific benefits. The simplest accounts present the wording of the spell, explain how to put it into practice, and name its expected effects. In more complex accounts the origin of the spell and the specific deities who transmitted it and/or to whom it should be addressed are identified. In many of these, the spell’s efficacy is attested by extraordinary signs, often a vision of deities appearing to the practitioner.

In some rituals recitation of spells takes place in front of an image of the deity. The image, whether painting or statue, is described, often in considerable iconographic detail. In such instances the account offers elaborate instructions not only for reciting the spell but also for presenting offerings to the image, such as flowers, incense, and food. I group these increasingly more complex rituals as a separate ritual scenario.

In Esoteric ritual manuals the practice of reciting spells or dhāraṇīs and that of worshipping images often appear side by side, but the two practices had separate origins. Spells were often recited without images, and their efficacy was confirmed by visions, typically of buddhas appearing to the practitioner. Images were introduced later into this well-established ritual scenario. I believe that this development can be traced concretely in early sources preserved in Chinese. Let us first look closely at the introduction of images into rituals that had begun with only the recitation of spells.

My exploration will focus on two specific examples, each represented by groups of closely related ritual texts. I first examine the complex history of two collections of instructions on magical spells, or dhāraṇīs, concluding with the example of a ritual associated with the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara that occupies an important place in one of these groups of texts. In the next chapter I will examine a text that describes the Esoteric ritual for the Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara that is preserved in several versions; four of these are in Chinese translation.

TWO CHINESE DHĀRAṆI COLLECTIONS

A number of dhāraṇī practices are brought together in an early Chinese dhāraṇī collection in four fascicles, called The Divine Spells of the Great Dhāraṇīs Taught by the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas (Qifo bapusa suoshuo datuoluoni shenzhou jing 七佛八菩薩所說大陀羅尼神咒經, abbreviated as Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas below).¹ Images are mentioned only a few times. This work, dating from the fourth to the fifth century, became a part of another work in ten fascicles traditionally assigned to the first half of the sixth century, Miscellaneous Collection of Dhāraṇīs (Tuoluoni zaji 陀羅尼雜集).² In this later and much larger text, images appear more frequently. These collections had complex histories, and unpacking certain parts will provide important clues for tracing the two early scenarios that appear in them. I shall therefore reconstruct in broad outline the formation of these collections, then turn to the two ritual scenarios, with particular attention to the introduction of image rituals.

The first fascicle of the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas in four fascicles, in the version known today, presents the dhāraṇīs attributed to the deities in its title. The Kaiyuan Catalogue (730) mentions a work bearing the same title but in one fascicle.³ The first fascicle of the present Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas may have circulated earlier as an independent work.⁴ As a hypothesis, the four-fascicle version of the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas came into being as further materials were added to this one-fascicle version. This expanded collection was then incorporated into the Miscellaneous Collection of Dhāraṇīs.

Traditional Chinese catalogues treat the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas as a translation, and its dhāraṇīs would have stemmed from India, though we cannot exactly reconstruct them. Additional dhāraṇī entries were then attached to this core collection. Two citations from named texts appear at the beginning of fascicle 2.⁵ These passages must have been taken from independently existing works. A text bearing a title very similar to t...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents 
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: The Three Ritual Scenarios
• Part II: The Evolution of Dhāranī Sūtras and the Introduction of Visualization Practice
• Part III: Toward a New Synthesis: “Mature” Rituals of Visualization
• Conclusion
• Appendix: The Day-by-Day Instructions for the All-Gathering Mandala Ceremony in the Collected Dhāranī Sūtras
• Notes
• References
• Index