Acala
Acala or Achala (अचल, "Immovable One"), also known as Acalanātha (अचलनाथ, "Immovable Lord") or Āryācalanātha (आर्याचलनाथ, "Noble Immovable Lord"), is a wrathful deity and dharmapala (protector of the Dharma) prominent in Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism.[1]
Originally a minor deity described as a messenger or acolyte of the buddha Vairocana, Acala later rose to prominence as an object of veneration in his own right as a remover of obstacles and destroyer of evil, eventually becoming seen as the wrathful manifestation of either Vairocana, the Buddha Akṣobhya, or the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. In later texts, he is also called Caṇḍaroṣaṇa (चण्डरोषण, "Violent Wrathful One", sa) or Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa (चण्डमहारोषण, "Violent One of Great Wrath", sa), the names by which he is more commonly known in countries like Nepal and Tibet.[2][3][4]
Acala has been worshiped throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times in Nepal, Tibet, China and Japan, where sculptural and pictorial representations of him are most often found.[1][3]
Acala in East Asian Buddhism
In East Asian esoteric Buddhism, Acala is classed among the Wisdom Kings (Vidyārāja) and is preeminent among the five Wisdom Kings of the Womb Realm. Accordingly, he occupies an important hierarchical position in the Mandala of the Two Realms. In China, he is known as Bùdòng Míngwáng (不動明王, "Immovable Wisdom King", the Chinese translation of Sanskrit Acala(nātha) Vidyārāja,[5]) while in Japan, he is called Fudō Myōō, the on'yomi reading of his Chinese name.[6] Acala (as Fudō) is one of the especially important and well-known divinities in Japanese Buddhism, being especially venerated in the Shingon, Tendai, Zen, and Nichiren sects, as well as in Shugendō.
Further reading:
不動明王 Bù dòng míngwáng, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
Acala in Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism, Acala (T. mi g.yo ba མི་གཡོ་བ་, pron. miyowa) is one of the ten wrathful kings (Skt. daśakrodha; Wyl. khro bo bcu) that are present in many Yoga Tantra and Anuttarayoga Tantra mandalas, and one of the four main meditational deities of the Kadampa school.[7]
Also known as: Acalanātha-Vidyārāja. (T. mi g.yo mgon po rig pa’i rgyal po).[8]
Further reading:
Achala main page, Himalayan Art Resources
See also
- Acalā-bhūmi, the eighth of the ten bodhisattva grounds
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Murakami 1988, Jp. rel. dict., pp. 242–246
- ↑ Weston, David (2018). "The Bayer Collection — University of Glasgow" (PDF). The Bayer Collection. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Donaldson, Thomas E. (2001). Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa: Text. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. pp. 219–221. ISBN 978-0-486-25575-0.
- ↑ Hugo Kreijger (1999). Kathmandu Valley painting: the Jucker collection. Shambhala. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-57062-454-4.
- ↑ Goble, Geoffrey C. (2019). Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition. Columbia University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-231-55064-2.
- ↑ Fudō Myōō and Myō-ō, Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑
Achala, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
- ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Acalanātha-Vidyārāja
Further reading
Acala, Wikipedia- 不動明王 Bù dòng míngwáng, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
- Achala main page, Himalayan Art Resources
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