[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) › [Other dhāraṇīs](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other) › [Pratītyasamutpādahṛdaya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya) › [འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo) › The Essence of Dependent Arising # The Essence of Dependent Arising Translation of [འཕགས་པ་རྟན་ཅང་འབྲལ་པར་འབྱང་བའ་སྙང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ (འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo) - **Language:** English - **Translator:** [Bruno Galasek-Hul](https://indike.org/pramana/person/bruno-galasek-hul) - **Extent:** 21 passages, 1,627 words - **Text:** complete digital text - **Source:** 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.3 2025). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha,… · 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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro) — 7 parts - [1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.1) - [notes Notes](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes) — 13 parts ## Text ### 84000's introduction ### [intro.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.1) This brief dhāraṇī text presents a translation and transliteration of the well-known Sanskrit ye dharma formula, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings on dependent arising. The text also describes several benefits of reciting this dhāraṇī, including the purification of negative actions. ### [intro.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.2) The short dhāraṇī The Essence of Dependent Arising presents a Tibetan translation and transliteration of the well-known ye dharma formula, which is considered the essence of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s teachings on dependent arising. The dhāraṇī then concludes with a statement of the specific benefits that accrue from its recitation: the purification of all negative actions, the neutralization of adversity, and the multiplication of offerings. As the formula is considered to contain the very essence of the Buddha’s teaching and to represent the Buddha himself, the text states that any object visualized while reciting the dhāraṇī will become either the body of the Buddha or a stūpa. ### [intro.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.3) This verse on the essence of dependent arising is closely associated with the conversion of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana to the Dharma. In the Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins,¹ Upatiṣya, the ascetic who would later be known as Śāriputra, encounters the Buddha’s disciple Aśvajit, who summarizes for him the essence of Buddha’s teaching with the ye dharma verse. Upatiṣya gains deep insight into the Dharma through this formula, and subsequently shares it with his fellow ascetic Kaulita, who later became known as Maudgalyāyana. In the Pali canon, a version of this story of the transmission of the ye dharma formula is found in the Mahāvagga of the Khandhaka section of the Vinaya. Here again Śāriputra (Pali Sāriputta) and Maudgalyāyana (Pali Moggallāna) hear the verse from Aśvajit (Pali Assaji), who presents it as a summary of his understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.² Yet another version of the story occurs in The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī (Toh 138). In this text, the essence of the Buddha’s teaching on dependent arising is verbalized in an alternative, extended version of the ye dharma formula.³ In The Sūtra on Dependent Arising (Pratītya­samutpāda­sūtra, Toh 520), the verse was taught by the Buddha himself in Heaven of the Thirty-Three to an audience of gods, bodhisattvas, and śrāvakas, among whom was the great śrāvaka Aśvajit. ### [intro.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.4) The ye dharma formula has evolved to become a popular and widespread Buddhist dhāraṇī formula that is frequently used as an auspicious and benedictory refrain appended to the end of texts, inscribed on votive plaques and statues, and written down and deposited in caityas, stūpas, and other structures throughout the Buddhist world.⁴ ### [intro.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.5) The topic of dependent arising is explained at length in sūtras such as The Rice Seedling Sūtra (Śālistambha­sūtra, ) and The Sūtra Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising (Pratītya­samutpādādivibhaṅga­nirdeśa­sūtra, ), which detail the twelve links of dependent arising. Additional presentations of the ye dharma verse as a dhāraṇī formula can be found in works such as The Sūtra on Dependent Arising () and The Dhāraṇī Containing the Rite of the Essence of Dependent Arising ().⁵ These latter texts, and The Essence of Dependent Arising (Toh 521) translated here, are categorized as Action Tantras (kriyātantra, bya rgyud) in the Degé Kangyur, thus underscoring the development of this famous verse into an esoteric, spell-like formula that can bring material and spiritual benefits through its recitation. ### [intro.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.6) Two virtually identical versions of The Essence of Dependent Arising are found in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (rgyud sde, Toh 521) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (gzungs ’dus, Toh 981).⁶ It is likewise included in both the Tantra and Compendium of Dhāraṇīs sections in the other Tshalpa Kangyurs that have a separate Dhāraṇī section, and is found in the Tantra section of Tshalpa Kangyurs that do not contain a Dhāraṇī section.⁷ It is not included in any of the Thempangma Kangyurs. It thus appears this text may have been added to some Kangyurs specifically because it was included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, which may have been compiled on the basis of an earlier collection or collections of dhāraṇīs and associated ritual texts.⁸ Since both iterations of the text (Toh 521 and Toh 981) lack a translator colophon, we have no information about who translated it and when. A Sanskrit source of The Essence of Dependent Arising does not seem to have survived, and it has no Chinese translation. ### [intro.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.intro.7) English translations of The Essence of Dependent Arising, along with The Sūtra on Dependent Arising have been published in Peter Skilling’s anthology Questioning the Buddha.⁹ The English translation presented here is based on the two Degé witnesses (Toh 521 and Toh 981) in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma) and the Narthang Kangyur. ### [1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.1) ¹⁰ ¹¹Homage to the blessed Buddha! “The Tathāgata explained the cause Of dharmas that arise from causes, And he taught their cessation. Thus the Great Śramaṇa has instructed.¹² ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat | teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃvādī mahāśramaṇaḥ || By reciting this essence once, all negative actions will be purified and all adverse conditions will be pacified and averted. Any object that one envisions¹³ while reciting it will become the body of the Buddha or a stūpa, and any offering one envisions while reciting it will be offered as if they fill an entire world realm. ### Notes ### [notes.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.1) 1. An elaborate version of the story is told in the Pravrajyāvastu, the first chapter of the Vinayavastu (Toh 1-1). For an English translation, see The Chapter on Going Forth, Toh 1-1, translated by Robert Miller and team (online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018), 1.277. For a translation of the ye dharma formula itself as it appears there, see The Chapter on Going Forth (2018), 1.292. ### [notes.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.2) 2. The Pali version of the formula reads: ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesaṃ hetuṃ tathāgato āha tesañ ca yo nirodho evaṃvādī mahāsamaṇo (Mahāvagga, p. 40; Vin I 40, 28–29). ### [notes.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.3) 3. See The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī , Toh 138, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2020), 1.6–1.7. This long version of ye dharma formula seems only to occur in one additional canonical source, namely, as a maṅgalam-verse called “verse of the sage” (gtsug lag gi tshigs su bcad pa) at the end of the Amarakoṣa­ṭīkākāmadhenu­nāma . ### [notes.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.4) 4. See Skilling 2003, pp. 273–74. For some examples of the extent of this practice in Buddhist Asia and further references, see The Sūtra on Dependent Arising, Toh 212, translated by the Buddhavacana Translation Group (online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2016), i.3. For canonical sources in which the formula also occurs, see also The Sūtra on Dependent Arising (2016), 1.5, and an expanded Tibetan version in The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī (2022), 1.7. For an alternative translation of the Sanskrit, see Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings (2021), . ### [notes.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.5) 5. On more instances of the verse, see Dietz and Eimer, 2019. ### [notes.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.6) 6. This text, Toh 981, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, waM), are listed as being located in volume 101 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 102. 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. Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 981 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 981, , for details. ### [notes.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.7) 7. See Resources for Kanjur & Tenjur Studies: http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=520&typ=1. Among Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line, this text is not found in the Lithang Kangyur. ### [notes.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.8) 8. The opening lines of the table of contents (dkar chag) of an independent dhāraṇī collection printed in Beijing in 1731, found in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, identify the source of all such dhāraṇī collections as an extracanonical collection edited by Tāranātha (Orosz 2010, pp. 67 and 100). This mention is also noted by Hidas 2021, p. 7, n. 56. ### [notes.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.9) 9. See Skilling 2021, pp. 247, and 273. ### [notes.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.10) 10. Two sets of folio references have been included in this translation due to a discrepancy in volume 88 (rgyud ’bum, na) of the Degé Kangyur between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings. In the latter case, an extra work, Bodhi­maṇḍasyālaṃkāra­lakṣa­dhāraṇī (Toh 508, byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs), was added as the second text in the volume, thereby displacing the pagination of all the following texts in the same volume by 17 folios. Since the eKangyur follows the later printing, both references have been provided, with the highlighted one linking to the eKangyur viewer. In the Toh 521 version of the text there is a slight discrepancy in the folio numbering between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings of the Degé Kangyur. Although the discrepancy is irrelevant here, further details concerning this may be found in of the Toh 521 version of this text. ### [notes.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.11) 11. Toh 981 does not give the title of this dhāraṇī in Tibetan and Sanskrit, as is common at the beginning of texts in the Kangyur. ### [notes.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.12) 12. The Nartang Kangyur reads: de skad gsungs pa dge sbyong che. ### [notes.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000.notes.13) 13. Tib. dngos po gang la dmigs te. The verb dmigs means to take something as an object of thought or perception, so this could be a physical object or an imagined one. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.dharani.other.pratityasamutpadahrdaya*bo~en-84000) · Pramāṇa