[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Protective spells and dhāraṇī-sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani) › [Dhāraṇīs of buddhas and uṣṇīṣas](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha) › [Buddhahṛdayadhāraṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515) › [འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855) › [The Dharani of the Buddha’s Essence](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000) › intro # འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱ་སྙང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro: 84000's introduction The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence intro - **Language:** English ### 84000's introduction ### [intro.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro.1) The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is structured as a dialogue between the Buddha and a retinue of gods from the Śuddhāvāsa realm. The dialogue revolves around the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa and the role that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa can play in continuing to guide beings in his absence until the next tathāgata appears in the world. The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is then introduced as the specific instruction that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa should preserve and propagate after Śākyamuni has departed. The Buddha then provides a list of benefits that members of the saṅgha can accrue by reciting this dhāraṇī. ### [intro.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro.2) The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is structured as a dialogue between the Buddha and a retinue of gods from the Śuddhāvāsa realm. The dialogue revolves around the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa and the role that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa can play in continuing to guide beings in his absence until the next tathāgata appears in the world. The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is then introduced as the specific instruction that the gods of Śuddhāvāsa should preserve and propagate after Śākyamuni has departed. The Buddha then provides a list of benefits that members of the saṅgha can accrue by reciting this dhāraṇī. ### [intro.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro.3) The translators’ colophon tells us that The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence was translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla along with the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé (ca. eighth and ninth centuries). The text appears in the Phangthangma¹ imperial Tibetan inventory of translated works among the collection of various dhāraṇī. In the Denkarma inventory’s list of dhāraṇī, there are two texts entitled The Buddha’s Essence (’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po),² and while neither of them matches the full title of the present work, the second mention is the more likely to correspond to it judging by the recorded length of the text (thirty-eight ślokas); the first record (fifty-five ślokas) probably corresponds to another, slightly longer text with a similar title, (’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs, Toh 514, 854). These works appear alongside each other in the Degé Kangyur in both the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus). ### [intro.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro.4) The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence does not appear in the Kangyurs of mainly Thempangma lineage, but it is present in the predominantly Tshalpa Kangyurs and in a number of mixed, Bhutanese, and Mongolian Kangyurs, and is mentioned in the catalog of the old Mustang Kangyur.³ Butön recorded the mantra from this text in his Collection of Dhāraṇī of the Four Classes of Secret Mantra (gsang sngags rgyud sde bzhi’i gzungs ’bum).⁴ ### [intro.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro.5) The text was translated into Chinese in 650 ce by Xuanzang⁵ (Taishō 918) and again in the late tenth century by Fatian⁶ (Taishō 919). No Sanskrit witness to this text has been identified to date. ### [intro.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro.6) This translation is based on the Tibetan translations of the text from the Tantra Collection and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs in the Degé Kangyur in conjunction with the text as it appears in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.buddha.buddhahrdayadharani-d515*bo-d855~en-84000.intro) · Pramāṇa