འཕགས་པ་ཡན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏ་མད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro: 84000's introduction

The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One intro

Language: English

84000's introduction

intro.1

The Dhāraṇī that Praises the Qualities of the Immeasurable One contains a short dhāraṇī mantra praising the tathāgata Amitābha and brief instructions on the benefits that result from its recitation.

The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One consists of a short dhāraṇī praising Buddha Amitābha and a brief description of the benefits one accrues by reciting this dhāraṇī. These benefits range from the purification of negative deeds to having visions of the bodhisattva Maitreya, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and the buddha Amitābha himself. The Sanskrit term for the English “immeasurable” (aparimita) that appears in the title of this work can be interpreted as referring both to the Buddha Amitābha as “The Immeasurable One” and to the fact that the qualities that Amitābha possesses are themselves “immeasurable.” The phrase “The Immeasurable One” is used here to give coherence to the title in English, but the reader is invited to entertain the dual significance of the term when reading or reciting the text—that Amitābha is both immeasurably vast and possesses immeasurable qualities.¹

intro.3

A Sanskrit version of this work is to our knowledge no longer extant. The text seems to have been translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century, as its title is recorded in the Denkarma² and Phangthangma³ Tibetan imperial translation catalogs. However, the Tibetan translation does not contain a colophon, so further details surrounding its translation into Tibetan are unknown. A Chinese translation of the text (Taishō 934) was completed by a certain Faxian (whose identity is surrounded with uncertainty) sometime between 989 and 999 ce.⁴

intro.4

This brief scripture is missing from some Kangyur collections but appears twice in others.⁵ Its title does not appear in any of the Kangyur collections that belong purely to the Thempangma (them spangs ma) lineage. However, the Kangyur collections that belong to the Tshalpa (tshal pa) lineage include it twice, while the mixed lineage and independent collections include it either twice or only once. In the Degé Kangyur it appears in both the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum, Toh 679) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus, Toh 851).⁶ The dhāraṇī mantra featured in the text is also included in Butön Rinchen Drup’s (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) Collection of Dhāraṇī of the Four Classes of Secret Mantra.⁷

intro.5

This English translation is based on the Degé Kangyur version of Toh 679 in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). In addition, we have compared Toh 679 to Toh 851 (Degé and Comparative Edition) and accounted for all significant differences in the notes. The dhāraṇī is rendered in Sanskrit diacritics following the Tibetan transliteration in the Tantra Collection of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 679), with major variants between Toh 679 and Toh 851 noted. An English translation of the dhāraṇī is also provided in a note.