The Dhāraṇī of the Polished Gem
Translation of Toh 1074
- Language
- English
- Translator
- Catherine Dalton
- Extent
- 8 passages, 718 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.3 2024). 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 — 5 parts
- 1
- notes Notes — 2 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Dhāraṇī of the Polished Gem includes a short dhāraṇī and instructions to polish a gemstone while reciting the dhāraṇī, and to imagine that this results in a rain of offering substances, which the reciter should then offer.
intro.2
The Dhāraṇī of the Polished Gem includes a short dhāraṇī and instructions to polish a gemstone while reciting the dhāraṇī. This is said to result in a boundless rain of offerings, which the reciter is then meant to offer.
intro.3
The text is found twice in the Kriya Tantra section (Toh 539e¹ and Toh 774) as well as in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 1074)² of the Degé Kangyur.
intro.4
The work lacks a Sanskrit title and a translators’ colophon, and it is not listed in any of the imperial catalogs, nor does it appear at Dunhuang, so it is difficult to assess when it was translated into Tibetan. We are unaware of any extant Sanskrit text or Chinese translation of The Dhāraṇī of the Polished Gem.
intro.5
This translation was made on the basis of the three Degé Kangyur recensions of the text, with reference to the Stok Palace edition as well as the notes to the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur. There are no major discrepancies among the recensions consulted. The dhāraṇī itself is transcribed exactly as it appears in Toh 539e.
1
Homage to the Three Jewels.
oṃ smara smara| vismanaskara mahājava hūṃ|
Say this as a gem is polished. Imagine that by doing this a boundless rain of jeweled parasols, banners, and the like fills the whole of the sky, and offer this.
Notes
notes.1
1. 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 539e 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 539e version of this text. In the Toh 539e 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 539e version of this text.
notes.2
2. This text, Toh 1074, 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 1074 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1074, , for details. Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1074 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1074, , for details.