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Vairocana (also Vairochana or Mahāvairocana, (サンスクリット:वैरोचन)) is a celestial buddha who is often interpreted, in texts like the Flower Garland Sutra, as the Dharma Body〔佛光大辭典增訂版隨身碟,中英佛學辭典 - "三身" (Fo Guang Great Dictionary Updated USB Version, Chinese-English Dictionary of Buddhist Studies - "Trikāya" entry)〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/eng/library/glossary/individual.html?key=birushana_buddha )〕 of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of Emptiness. In the conception of the Five Wisdom Buddhas of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Vairocana is at the centre and is considered a Primordial Buddha. Vairocana is not to be confused with Vairocana Mahabali, son of Virochana. ==History of devotion== Vairocana Buddha is first introduced in the Brahma Net Sutra:〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050305052346/http://www.ymba.org/bns/bnsframe.htm )〕 He is also mentioned in the Flower Garland Sutra; however, the doctrine of Vairocana Buddha is based largely on the teachings of the Mahavairocana Sutra (also known as the ) and to a lesser degree the Vajrasekhara Sutra (also known as the Tantra). He is also mentioned as an epithet of the Buddha Śakyamuni in the ''Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue'', who dwells in a place called "Always Tranquil Light". Vairocana is the Primordial Buddha in the Chinese schools of Tiantai and Hua-Yen Buddhism, also appearing in later schools including the Japanese Kegon, Shingon and esoteric lineages of Tendai. In the case of Shingon and Hua-Yen schools, Vairocana is the central figure. In Sino-Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana was gradually superseded as an object of reverence by Amitabha Buddha, due in large part to the increasing popularity of Pure Land Buddhism, but Vairocana's legacy still remains in the Tōdai-ji temple with its massive bronze statue and in Shingon Buddhism, which holds a sizeable minority among Japanese Buddhists. During the initial stages of his mission in Japan, the Catholic missionary Francis Xavier was welcomed by the Shingon monks since he used ''Dainichi'', the Japanese name for Vairocana, to designate the Christian God. As Xavier learned more about the religious nuances of the word, he substituted the term ''Deusu'', which he derived from the Latin and Portuguese ''Deus''. The Shingon Buddhist monk, Dohan, regarded the two great Buddhas, Amida and Vairocana, as one and the same Dharmakaya Buddha and as the true nature at the core of all beings and phenomena. There are several realisations that can accrue to the Shingon practitioner of which Dohan speaks in this connection, as James Sanford points out: "there is the realisation that Amida is the Dharmakaya Buddha, Vairocana; then there is the realisation that Amida as Vairocana is eternally manifest within this universe of time and space; and finally there is the innermost realisation that Amida is the true nature, material and spiritual, of all beings, that he is 'the omnivalent wisdom-body, that he is the unborn, unmanifest, unchanging reality that rests quietly at the core of all phenomena".〔James H. Sanford, 'Breath of Life: The Esoteric Nembutsu' in ''Tantric Buddhism in East Asia'', ed. by Richard K. Payne, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2006, p. 176〕 Helen Hardacre, writing on the ''Mahavairocana Sutra'', comments that Mahavairocana's virtues are deemed to be immanently universal within all beings: 'The principle doctrine of the ''Dainichikyo'' is that all the virtues of Dainichi (Mahavairocana) are inherent in us and in all sentient beings.'〔Helen Hardacre, 'The Cave and the Womb World', in ''Tantric Buddhism in East Asia'' (Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2006), p. 215〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vairocana」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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