Unraveling amanasikāra: A Buddhist Tantric Exploration Based on Advayavajra's Amanasikārādhāra

Abstract

Amanasikāra, the opposite of manasikāra (mentation, attention), is a significant concept in the history of the development of Buddhist practices. This paper primarily focuses on a concise work titled Amanasikārādhāra (the locus of non-mentation) composed by Advayavajra (also known as Matreyanātha or Maitrīpa in Tibet), who flourished in the 11th century. This text offers valuable insights into the understanding of amanasikāra during his time, presenting intriguing arguments on its interpretation. As a preliminary study of the Amanasikāra tradition, this paper examines how the Indian Vajrayāna tradition interprets the Sanskrit term amanasikāra based on Advayavajra’s Amanasikārādhāra. Before delving into the details of this text, this paper provides an overview of how amanasikāra was understood in Mahāyāna Buddhist literature (i.e., the pre-Vajrayāna tradition) and how this concept developed in connection with various contemplative contexts. This overview helps to understand the doctrinal foundations and background that made the unique Vajrayāna interpretations possible. Therefore, in the main body of this paper, the specific discussions and issues of the Amanasikārādhāra are introduced and analyzed through a complete Korean translation with annotations. Footnotes include an edited text based on previous editions and a Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript, addressing the philological questions that arose during this process. In the text, Advayavajra endeavors to demonstrate that the privative particle “a-” in amanasikāra can be interpreted through both types of negation: prasajya-pratiṣedha and paryudāsa-pratiṣedha. This section particularly highlights how he integrates doctrines from both Buddhist tantric and non-Buddhist tantric traditions. Subsequently, the text concludes with various Buddhist tantric interpretations of the syllable “A” and culminates in the assertion that amanasikāra practices can induce Buddhist tantric states, namely prabhāsvara and svādhiṣṭhāna. In summary, this paper, based on the Amanasikārādhāra, examines the characteristics of Indian Vajrayāna contemplative theory and its commentary as the seed of the amanasikāra practice that further developed across India and Tibet.