འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱ་ཡན་ལག་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro.2

intro.2

The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas records an encounter between the Buddha and the four guardians of the world at an unspecified site on the banks of the Ganges River. The Buddha himself initiates the dialogue, describing four great fears—aging, sickness, decrepitude, and death—declaring death to be the chief among them, and promising to provide remedies for them. With a snap of his fingers, the Buddha summons the attention and presence of buddhas throughout the reaches of space in the ten directions, and they recite, in unison, the longest of the dhāraṇī incantations found in the text. Each of the four guardians, in turn, goes on to pledge his assistance and provides a shorter dhāraṇī mantra as a supplement to the main one. The Buddha succinctly describes the various applications and benefits of the recitation, reading, writing, and wearing of these mantras, accruing not only to the individual, but to the very place in which they are recited and to those with whom they are connected. Finally, he explains how such practices fit in with commonly accepted ideas of accumulating merit through acts of devotion.