Mediating the Power of Buddhas offers a fascinating analysis of the seventh-century ritual manual, the Mañjusrimulakalpa. This medieval text is intended to reveal the path into a ritual universe where the power of a buddha abides. Author Glenn Wallis traces the strategies of the Mañjusrimulakalpa to enable its committed reader to perfect the promised ritual, uncovering what conditions must be met for ritual practice to succeed and what personal characteristics practitioners must possess in order to realize the ritual intentions of the Buddhist community. The manual itself was written at a key point in Buddhist history, one when Hindu forms of practice were still imitated and on the cusp of the shift from Mahāyāna to Vajrayāna (or Tantric) Buddhism. In addition, the Mañjusrimulakalpa presents a rich compendium of Buddhist life in an earlier era, containing information on a variety of its readers' concerns: astrology, astronomy, medicine and healing, ritual practice, iconography, devotion, and meditation.

Preface

Acknowledgments

1: Introduction

1.1 Aims
1.2 Methods
1.3 The Text: Mañjusrımulakalpa
1.4 The Ritual

2: The Source of Power: The Assembly (sannipata)

2.1 Cosmology
2.2 Mmk 1: vision and cult
2.3 The text as cult image
2.4 Revelation and transmission

3: The Refraction of Power: The Cult Image (pata)

3.1 The pata as image and animated object
3.2 Creation of the cult object (patavidhana)

4: The Empowered Practitioner (sadhaka)

4.1 The practitioner in the text
4.2 The sadhaka
4.3 Epithets and space

5: Summary and Conclusion

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index