འཕགས་པ་ཡན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏ་མད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས notes: Notes
The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One notes
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- English
Notes
notes.1
1. We have translated the title of this text based on the Sanskrit title provided in the Tibetan text (aparimitaguṇānuśāṁsa). Here we have interpreted the Sanskrit compound to reflect the internal syntax *aparimitasya guṇānām anuśaṁsaḥ. A literal translation of the Tibetan title (yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa) might be Immeasurable Praising of Qualities. If the Tibetan title were to reflect our reading of the Sanskrit compound aparimitaguṇānuśāṁsa it would have to be emended to dpag tu med pa’i yon tan bsngags pa. Ultimately, the decision to follow the reading reflected in the Sanskrit title was supported by the fact that the dhāraṇī itself is clearly addressed to the buddha Amitābha. Translating the title based on the Tibetan would obscure the fact that the title is a reference to Amitābha, not just a generic sense of “immeasurable qualities.”
notes.2
2. Denkarma folio 303.a.6; see also Herrmann-Pfandt (2009), p. 238.
notes.3
3. dkar chag ’phang thang ma (2003), p. 30.
notes.4
4. For details about this translation and the inconclusive identification of Faxian (法賢), see Lancaster, “K 1224i,” Korean Buddhist Canon, 2018.
notes.5
5. For details, see Resources for Kanjur & Tenjur Studies.
notes.6
6. Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 851 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 851 note 6 for details. This text, Toh 851, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, e), are listed as being located in volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). However, several other Kangyur databases—including the eKangyur that supplies the digital input version displayed by the 84000 Reading Room—list this work as being located in volume 101. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that the two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section are an added supplement not mentioned in the original catalog, and also hinges on the fact that the compilers of the Tōhoku catalog placed another text—which forms a whole, very large volume—the Vimalaprabhānāmakālacakratantraṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od, Toh 845), before the volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur, numbering it as vol. 100, although it is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts as volume 102; indeed its final fifth chapter is often carried over and wrapped in the same volume as the Kangyur dkar chags (catalog). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.
notes.7
7. See Butön Rinchen Drup (1965–1971), vol. ma, p. 258.a.7–258.b.3.
notes.8
8. This reading is attested in Toh 851 as well as the Yongle, Narthang, and Lhasa (Zhol) editions of the Kangyur. Toh 679 reads gaganakīrtikari.
notes.9
9. This reading is attested in the Kangxi (Peking) edition of the Kangyur. Toh 679 and Toh 851 read sarvakleśakṣayaṃkari.
notes.10
10. Translation: “I pay homage to the Three Jewels. I pay homage to the thus-gone, worthy, perfect buddha—the blessed Amitābha with the following: Oṃ infinite one who arises from the infinite, whose nature is infinite, whose stride is infinite, whose range is infinite, who grants renown vast as the sky, who brings an end to all the afflictions, svāhā .”
notes.11
11. The translation here follows the Yongle, Kangxi (Peking), Narthang, and Lhasa (Zhol) editions of the Kangyur, which read ltung ba rtsa ba’i bzhi po.