Tattvasamgraha Tantra

Tattvasamgraha Tantra, tantra of Chen-yen Buddhism.

During the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries the Vajrayāna forms of Esoteric Buddhism that were developing in India spread to Southeast Asia and to East Asia. In East Asia Esoteric Buddhism became established in the Chen-yen (“True Word”) school in China and in the Tendai (see T’ien-t’ai) and Shingon schools in Japan. According to the Chen-yen tradition, developed and systematized forms of the Esoteric tradition were first brought from India to China by three missionary monks: Shubhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra. Shubhakarasimha arrived in China from the famous Indian center of learning at Nalanda in 716, and he translated into Chinese the Mahavairocana Sūtra and a closely related ritual compendium known as the Susiddhikara. Vajrabodhi and his disciple Amoghavajra arrived in 720 and produced two abridged translations of the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, also known as the Tattvasamgraha. The Tattvasamgraha and the Mahavairocana Sūtra became the two basic Chen-yen texts. A fully developed “Five Buddha” complex found its primary expression in the Tattvasamgraha, in which Shakyamuni, as Vairocana, appears as the central Buddha.