Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself
Translation of འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱ་ཞལ་ནས་གསངས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས (འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་ཞལ་ནས་གསུངས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས)
- Language
- English
- Translators
- David Mellins, Kaia Fischer, Erin Sperry
- Extent
- 23 passages, 776 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Translated by the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New Yorkunder the patronage and supervision of 84000:… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a…
Contents
- intro 84000's introduction — 5 parts
- 1
- 2
- notes Notes — 16 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself provides an incantatory practice taught by Mañjuśrī. The dhāraṇī has two sections: the first extols Mañjuśrī as a tathāgata, an arhat, and a perfectly awakened buddha, and the second invokes a bhagavatī who is praised as an illuminator and supplicated for protection.
intro.2
The Noble Dhāraṇī “Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself” is the first of six dhāraṇī scriptures (Toh 545–550) gathered together within the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur that provide instruction in incantatory practices that feature the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Five of these scriptures (Toh 547 omitted) also appear in the Dhāraṇī section of the Degé Kangyur as Toh 892–896.
intro.3
The dhāraṇī proper has two sections: the first extols Mañjuśrī as a tathāgata, an arhat, and a perfectly awakened buddha, and the second invokes a bhagavatī who is praised as an illuminator and supplicated for protection. The scripture then details the extraordinary benefits accrued by even a single recitation of the dhāraṇī—the eradication of karmic obscurations collected over a thousand eons and, at death, the sight of Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara. Although the title indicates that the dhāraṇī was spoken by Mañjuśrī, the text does not include a framing narrative.
intro.4
The colophon to the Tibetan translation states that it was translated from Sanskrit by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and the translator Bandé Lui Wangpo and finalized by the Indian preceptor Viśuddhasiṃha and the editor-translator Bandé Devacandra. This allows us to date the text to the late eighth or early ninth century ce, when these scholars and translators flourished. This dating is also supported by the text’s inclusion in the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs. ¹ A Sanskrit version of this work is, to our knowledge, no longer extant, and it appears that the text was never translated into Chinese.
intro.5
This English translation is based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (Toh 545) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 892), in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and with the Stok Palace Kangyur.
1
Homage to the Three Jewels! Homage to noble Mañjuśrī!
namo ratnatrayāya | namo bhagavate dharmadhātunigarjitarājāya tathāgatāya arhate samyaksambuddhāya |
2
namo mañjuśrīye kumārabhūtāya || ²
tadyathā | oṁ jñānāloke triratnavaṃśasaṃdhāraṇi³ bhagavati abhayaṃ⁴ dādi abhayaṃ⁵ datte me bodhicittavajraparipālaya samantāvabhāsena hana hana sarvasattvasaṃtānapatitaṃ⁶ kleśān ucchedaya⁷ varalakṣaṇālaṃkṛtaśarīre⁸ bodhisattvaśiśūn⁹ paripālaya¹⁰ buddhān ādeśaya¹¹ devanāgayakṣagandharvāsuragaruḍakinnaramahoragān¹² vaśe sthāpaya¹³ abhayaṃ¹⁴ dadati svāhā || ¹⁵
As for the benefits of this dhāraṇī, even a single recitation will purify the karmic obscurations accrued over a thousand eons, and at the time of death one will behold noble Mañjuśrī.¹⁶ One will also behold the body of noble Avalokiteśvara, his head adorned with a topknot. In short, the benefits of this dhāraṇī are limitless.
Colophon
Translated by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and the translator Bandé Lui Wangpo and finalized by the Indian preceptor Viśuddhasiṃha and chief editor-translator Bandé Devacandra.
Notes
notes.1
1. Denkarma, folio 303.a; see also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 231–32. Phangthangma 2003, p. 28. The Denkarma catalog is usually dated to ca. 812 ce.
notes.2
2. English translation: “Homage to the Three Jewels, homage to the Blessed One, to the king who has resounded the dharmadhātu, to the tathāgata, arhat, perfectly and completely awakened one, homage to ever youthful Mañjuśrī.”
notes.3
3. Toh 892 reads triratnapaṃśasaṃdhāraṇi.
notes.4
4. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads abāyaṃ.
notes.5
5. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads abāyaṃ.
notes.6
6. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads sarvasatva-saṃtanapatitaṃ.
notes.7
7. Based on Toh 892. Toh 545 reads ucchedāya.
notes.8
8. Based on Stok: varalakṣaṇa. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads vadalakṣaṇa. Toh 892 also reads alamkṛtaśarīri.
notes.9
9. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads bodhisatvaśiśū. Stok reads bodhisatvaśiśūṃ.
notes.10
10. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads patipālaya.
notes.11
11. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads adeśāya.
notes.12
12. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads mahoraga
notes.13
13. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads stapāya.
notes.14
14. The Degé Kangyur in both versions (Toh 545 and 892) reads apayaṃ.
notes.15
15. “It is: Tad yathā | oṁ, light of wisdom sustaining the lineage of the Three Jewels, Blessed Lady, grant freedom from fear! You who grant freedom from fear, protect the vajra of my mind of awakening! Vanquish, vanquish with your all-encompassing light the evil in the continuum of each being and sever the afflictions! You whose body bears the best of marks, protect the disciples of bodhisattvas, advise the buddhas, and bring the devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas under control while you remove their fear, svāhā!”
notes.16
16. According to the Comparative Edition, the Lhasa Kangyur edition here reads ’jam dpal gyi zhal mthong (“behold the face of Mañjuśrī”).