མཆད་པའ་སྤྲན་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro: 84000's introduction
The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings” intro
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84000's introduction
intro.1
The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings” includes a short dhāraṇī along with its rite. The dhāraṇī is used to make extensive offerings to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Its recitation purifies evil and brings virtue to the reciter, such that he or she will be protected and, at the time of death, will take rebirth in Sukhāvatī.
intro.2
The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings” includes a dhāraṇī for making offerings and its brief rite. Through simply reciting the dhāraṇī one makes vast offerings to countless buddhas. The result of these offerings is that the reciter is freed from their evil deeds and obtains virtues. One will continually encounter the buddhas and bodhisattvas, be protected by all manner of beings, and finally, at the time of death, one will take birth in Sukhāvatī.
intro.3
Like many dhāraṇī texts, The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings” is found in the Degé Kangyur in both the Tantra section, where it is classed as an action tantra (bya rgyud, kriyātantra), and in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section. We are unaware of either an extant Sanskrit text or a Chinese translation of The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings”. None of the Kangyur recensions includes a translators’ colophon, but a text bearing the same title appears in both the Denkarma as well as the Phangthangma imperial catalogs, suggesting that some version of The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings” was translated into Tibetan and circulated in Tibet during the imperial period.¹ We cannot be sure, however, that the texts referenced in these catalogs match the present work.
intro.4
Indeed, at Dunhuang we find a number of manuscripts that include texts entitled The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings”, yet none of them is an exact match for the recension in the Kangyurs. Some of the recensions at Dunhuang include just a dhāraṇī, which is essentially the same as the one found in the Kangyur recensions, with minor variants; others include this same dhāraṇī with an additional prayer, rather than the rite described in The Dhāraṇī “Cloud of Offerings” as it appears in the Kangyurs; still another group include an entirely different dhāraṇī that nonetheless bears the same name.²
intro.5
This translation was made on the basis of the two Degé Kangyur recensions of the text (Toh 538³ and Toh 1068⁴), with reference to the Stok Palace edition as well as to the notes to the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). There are no major discrepancies among the recensions consulted. The dhāraṇī proper has been transcribed exactly as it occurs in Toh 538.