འཕགས་མ་སྒྲལ་མ་རང་གས་དམ་བཅས་བ་ཅས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro: 84000's introduction
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” intro
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84000's introduction
intro.1
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” is a short dhāraṇī invoking the goddess Tārā.
intro.2
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” is, as the title suggests, framed as a promise made by the goddess Tārā. Tārā, whose name can be translated as “Savior,”¹ is revered in diverse Buddhist communities as a deity who quickly responds to the needs of all in the face of worldly and spiritual dangers.
intro.3
The worship of Tārā in India can be traced back to at least the sixth century, and since that time the goddess has gained increasingly important status in the Buddhist pantheon.² Tibetan histories recount that worship and practice of the deity Tārā was introduced to Tibet as early as the seventh century via a sandalwood statue brought by the Nepalese princess Bhṛkuṭī as dowry for her marriage to the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo.³ While a few texts dedicated to Tārā were translated in the following centuries,⁴ it is believed that the worship of Tārā did not take firm root in Tibet until the eleventh century, when it was actively promoted by Atīśa.⁵
intro.4
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” can be divided into two parts: the dhāraṇī and a statement of its benefits. The dhāraṇī itself was not translated into Tibetan but was instead preserved in transliterated Sanskrit. The Tibetan text lacks a colophon, so the Tibetan translators and editors of the dhāraṇī remain unidentified.
intro.5
This work is cataloged in the Degé Kangyur⁶ as part of a cycle of eight Kriyātantra (bya rgyud) texts (Toh 724–731) dedicated to the goddess Tārā. The dhāraṇī recorded here is also preserved in Butön Rinchen Drup’s (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) Dhāraṇī Collection (gzungs bsdus) from his Collected Works (gsung ’bum),⁷ and is found in a short Sanskrit ritual manual collected in the Sādhanamālā and preserved in Tibetan translation as The Instructions on the Ritual of Blessed Āryatārā from the Essence of Amitābha Tantra (Amitābhagarbhatantre bhagavatyāryatārāyāḥ kalpoddeśaḥ, Toh 3501). ⁸ The colophon to the Tibetan translation states that this dhāraṇī is an extract from The Supreme Vajra Tantra (rdo rje mchog gi brgyud), while the colophon to Toh 3501 and the Sanskrit witness in the Sādhanamālā state that it comes from the Amitābhagarbhatantra.⁹ There are, however, no extant texts with either of these titles.
intro.6
In attempting to establish the text of the dhāraṇī presented here, we have consulted the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur and Butön’s Dhāraṇī Collection. The texts preserved in the Sādhanamālā edition and in the Tengyur are generally similar to each other, but they differ in a few significant ways from the dhāraṇī found in the present text. Our own rendering, therefore, is based on the best available Kangyur readings but also includes conjectures informed by the Sādhanamālā text and related Sanskrit manuscripts. The English translation of the verses following the dhāraṇī are based on the Tibetan version in the Degé Kangyur collection, in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur.