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蓮華部院

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Court of the Lotus Division

Senses:

  • Also written 蓮花部, 蓮華部, 觀音部, 蓮部, and 觀音院. A section in the Garbhadhātu maṇḍala 胎藏界曼荼羅 on the north side of the Court of the Eight-petaled Lotus 中臺八葉院. The Darijing shu 大日經疏 (T 1796; fasc. 5) states it is the samādhi of great compassion of the Tathāgata 如來大悲三昧. It is called the Lotus Division as it nurtures myriad virtues. The Mahāvairocana-sūtra 大日經 (T 848) only describes seven deities. It is thought that fourteen deities were introduced into the painted maṇḍala in order to establish correspondences with the deities of the Court of Vajrapāṇi 金剛手院. The deities were in particular drawn from the Amoghapāśa-kalparāja 不空羂索經 (T 1092). The seed syllable of this division is sa, derived from satya (truth) or asakta (unattached, just as a lotus is untouched by defilement).

    References:

    Somekawa, Eisuke, Michihiko Komine, Tenyū Koyama, Hisao Takahashi, and Takayuki Hirosawa. 1993. Mandara zuten曼荼羅図典 . Tokyo:  Daihōrinkaku.

    [Jeffrey Kotyk; source(s): FGD]
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    Entry created: 2016-06-24