The Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra (Vairocana’s Awakening Sutra, Sanskrit: ), also known as the Mahāvairocana Tantra (Sanskrit: ; ; also known as 大日經 Da Ri Jing) is an important Vajrayana Buddhist text composed before 674 CE.[1] The Indian tantric master Buddhaguhya (fl. c.700 CE) classified the text as a caryātantra, and in Tibetan Buddhism it is still considered to be a member of the carya classification. In Japan where it is known as the Mahāvairocana Sūtra (Daibirushana jōbutsu jinpen kajikyō), it is one of two central texts in the Shingon school, along with the Vajrasekhara Sutra. Both are also part of the Tendai school.
Though the text is often called a tantra by later figures (including later Indian commentators), the scripture does not call itself a tantra.
thumb|Tibetan representation of Buddha Vairocana, featuring several of his defining characteristics, including his white color, the teaching gesture (dharmacakramudra), and sitting on an elaborate lion throne.The Mahāvairocana 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 at Nālandā.[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 including Buddhaguhya and Śubhakarasiṃha. The description of plants and trees in the MVT also matches those found in the region surrounding Nalanda in North-East India.[3]
The longer title of the scripture is Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi-vikurvitādhiṣṭhāna-vaipulyasūtrendrarāja-nāma-dharmaparyāya (Dharma Discourse Called “Mahāvairocana’s Awakening and His Empowerment of Miracles,” King of the Best of the Extensive Scriptures).
According to Rofl Giebel, "the Chinese translation was produced in seven fascicles by Śubhākarasiṃha (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."[4]
The Mahāvairocana Tantra was later translated into Tibetan sometime before 812 by Śīlendrabodhi and Kawa Paltsek.[5]
The Sanskrit text of the Mahāvairocana Tantra is lost, but it survives in Chinese and Tibetan translations. The Chinese translation has preserved the original Sanskrit mantras in the Siddhaṃ script. There are translations from both into English. (see below).
A major commentary by Buddhaguhya 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).
In East Asian Esoteric Buddhism, the most widely used commentary is the Pronunciations 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, the Dainichi kyō. It was written by Yixing, and was mostly based on the teachings given by Śubhakarasiṃha (637-735 CE). This commentary is key in both Tendai and Shingon.
Kūkai learned of the Mahāvairocana Tantra in 796, and travelled to China in 804 to receive instruction in it.
The Mahāvairocana 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’s (a summary of the main points of the tantra) the Mahāvairocana 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 the samaya, that form the basic precepts esoteric Buddhist practitioners must follow:
The Mahavairocana Tantra does not trace its lineage to Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Instead it comes directly from Mahavairocana. The lineage then being, according to the Shingon tradition:
Within the vision of the Mahavairocana Sutra, the state of bodhi ("awakening, enlightenment") is seen as naturally inherent to the mind - the mind's natural and pure state (as in Dzogchen and Tathagatagarbha) - 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 in Yogacara Buddhism. To achieve this vision of non-duality, it is necessary to recognise one's own mind. Writing on the Mahavairocana Sutra, Buddhist scholar and translator of that scripture, Stephen Hodge, comments:[6]
The text also speaks of how all things can be accomplished once 'non-dual union with emptiness' is attained.[7]
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:
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:
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:
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 the Mahāvairocana Tantra.[8]