Amoghavajra
Amoghavajra
不空 (Skt; Jpn Fuku)
An Indian Monk who went to China to disseminate Esoteric Buddhism and became known in China as Pu-k'ung. See Pu-k'ung.
Amoghavajra (不空金剛, 705–74) is referred to as Not Empty Vajra in China. He is the sixth patriarch in the Buddhist esoteric lineage. Born in the Lion Kingdom, present-day Sri Lanka, in southern India, he traveled in his youth with his uncle. Later he renounced family life and studied under Vajrabodhi (金剛智), who took him to Luoyang (洛陽) in 720, the eighth year of the Kaiyuan (開元) years of Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Amoghavajra was then sixteen. Another version of the story goes that he was the son of a Brahmin in northern India. Orphaned as a child, he went to China with his uncle and then studied under Vajrabodhi.
At twenty, Amoghavajra was fully ordained at the Guangfu Temple (廣福寺) in Luoyang (洛陽). Exceptionally intelligent, he was well regarded by his teacher Vajrabodhi, who imparted to him all five divisions of the teachings on the three secrets: body, voice, and mind. After Vajrabodhi died, Amoghavajra, honoring his teacher’s instruction, set out for India in search of the esoteric Dharma. Together with Hanguang (含光), Huibian (慧辯), and others, he traveled by sea. He first visited Sri Lanka and received from Nāgabodhi (龍智) the Vajra Summit Yoga, which had been initially imparted in eighteen assemblies, and the Mahāvairocana Great Compassion Store, as well as the Five-Division Empowerment, the Secret Book of Mantras, and some five hundred sūtras and treatises. He also received teachings on the secret mudrās of the deities. After traveling extensively across the five regions of India, Amoghavajra returned to Chang-an (長安), China’s capital, in 746, the fifth year of the Tianbao (天寶) years. There he gave an esoteric empowerment to Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗). Later on, the emperor named him Knowledge Store and bestowed upon him the purple robe because his practice successfully brought rainfall.
In 771, the sixth year of the Dali (大曆) years of Emperor Daizong (唐代宗), Amoghavajra presented his Chinese translations of seventy-seven Sanskrit texts in 101 fascicles with a table of contents, and requested to have them included in the Tripiṭaka. Then the emperor conferred upon him a title, Great Vast Knowledge Tripiṭaka Master. In the sixth month of 774, sensing that his time was due, Amoghavajra wrote the emperor a farewell letter and offered his ritual objects, a bell and a five-spoke vajra. Lying on his side, he died at the age of seventy. A memorial pagoda was erected at the Daxingshan Temple (大興善寺), for keeping his relics.
Kumārajīva (鳩摩羅什, 344–413), Paramārtha (真諦, 499–569), Xuanzang (玄奘, 600– or 602–64), and Amoghavajra (不空金剛, 705–74) are honored in China as the four great translators, who contributed greatly to establishing the correspondence between Sanskrit and Chinese in sounds and rhythms. Subhakara-Siṁha (善無畏, 637–735), Vajrabodhi (金剛智, 671?–741), and Amoghavajra are called the Three Great Ones during the Kaiyuan (開元) years. Amoghavajra’s Chinese disciple Huiguo (惠果, 746–805) received full impartation of the Dharma from him and became the seventh patriarch, the last one in China. During their days, the Esoteric School of Buddhism flourished in China. Then the esoteric lineage was carried on by Huiguo’s Japanese disciple Konghai (空海, 774–835), who became the first patriarch of the True Word School (Mantra School) in Japan, which has thrived to this day.
