宋高僧傳 1.40

1.40

釋不空，梵名阿目佉跋折羅，華言不空金剛，止行二字，略也。本北天竺婆羅門族，幼失所天，隨叔父觀光東國。年十五，師事金剛智三藏，初導以梵本悉曇章及聲明論，浹旬已通徹矣。師大異之，與受菩薩戒，引入金剛界大曼荼羅，驗以擲花，知後大興教法。洎登具戒，善解一切有部，諳異國書語。師之飜經，常令共譯。凡學聲明論，一紀之功，六月而畢。誦《文殊普賢行願》，一年之限，再夕而終。其敏利皆此類也。欲求學新瑜伽、五部、三密法，涉于三載，師未教詔。空擬迴天竺，師夢京城諸寺佛菩薩像皆東行，寐寤乃知空是真法器，遂允所求。授與五部灌頂、護摩、阿闍梨法及《毘盧遮那經》、《蘇悉地軌則》等，盡傳付之。厥後師往洛陽，隨侍之際，遇其示滅，即開元二十年矣。影堂既成，追諡已畢，曾奉遺旨，令往五天并師子國，遂議遐征。

The śramaṇa Amoghavajra, whose Sanskrit name was Amoghavajra, which in Chinese means 'Unfailing Diamond' (Bukong Jingang), commonly went by the two characters [Bukong] as an abbreviation. Originally of a Brahmin clan of North India, he lost his father at an early age and accompanied his uncle to visit the eastern realm. At age fifteen, he served the Tripiṭaka Master Vajrabodhi as his teacher. At first, he was instructed in the Sanskrit *Siddham* syllables and the science of linguistic sounds (śabdavidyā), and within a ten-day period he had fully mastered them. His master marveled greatly at him, conferred upon him the bodhisattva precepts, and led him into the great maṇḍala of the Vajradhātu; verifying the outcome by the casting of a flower, he knew that [Amoghavajra] would later greatly cause the teachings to flourish. When he received the full precepts, he thoroughly understood the Sarvāstivāda and was conversant with the scripts and languages of foreign realms. Whenever his master translated scriptures, he always had him assist in the translation. In studying the science of linguistic sounds, what normally required twelve years of effort he completed in six months. In reciting the *Mañjuśrī-Samantabhadra-praṇidhāna*, which had a term of one year, he finished it in two evenings. His keen intelligence was uniformly of this sort. Desiring to study the new yoga, the five families, and the rituals of the three mysteries, three years elapsed, yet his master had not taught him. Amoghavajra planned to return to India. His master dreamed that the images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the various temples of the capital were all moving eastward. Upon waking, he realized that Amoghavajra was a true vessel of the Dharma, and thereupon granted his request. He conferred upon him the five families' initiation, the homa rites, the ācārya practices, as well as the *Vairocana Sūtra* and the *Susiddhikara Rituals*, transmitting all of them to him. Later, his master went to Luoyang, and while attending upon him there, he met with his master's manifestation of nirvana; this was in the twentieth year of the Kaiyuan era. After the portrait hall was completed and the posthumous honors were finalized, having once received the final behest instructing him to go to the five regions of India and the Lion Country (Siṃhala), he subsequently deliberated on an expedition to far-off lands.