འཕགས་པ་སྒྲབ་པ་རྣམ་པར་སལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro: 84000's introduction
The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin intro
- Language
- English
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin presents two short dhāraṇīs that purify evil deeds, ease the dying process, and bring about birth in the heavenly realms.
intro.2
The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin begins with homage to the Three Jewels, and then presents two short dhāraṇīs of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin. It is explained that reciting these dhāraṇīs will purify evil deeds that have been accumulated, result in a pleasant death rather than a painful one, and bring about subsequent rebirth in the heavenly realms.
intro.3
Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin is referred to in this short text as both a buddha and a bodhisattva. As a bodhisattva, he is generally associated with the removal of obscuration and evil deeds. He is also one of eight bodhisattvas who appear together in texts from the Guhyasamāja corpus and are referred to as a group in later Tibetan tradition as the “eight close sons” (nye ba’i sras brgyad) of the Buddha Śākyamuni.¹
intro.4
The present text is included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of the Degé Kangyur and other Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that have a separate dhāraṇī section. In the Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that do not contain a dhāraṇī section, it is placed in the Tantra section. However, it is not included in any Thempangma lineage Kangyurs. In fact, this text is one of only twelve works from the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of the Kangyurs that is not duplicated in other sections, either as a sūtra or a tantra. Like the few other texts in this unique category, the present work may have been included in some Kangyurs specifically due to its being part of an earlier collection of dhāraṇīs and associated ritual texts, which was later incorporated into the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs.² These collections, known in Sanskrit as dhāraṇīsaṃgraha, appear in South Asia as well as in Tibet—including at Dunhuang—and as extracanonical Tibetan dhāraṇī collections.³
intro.5
The text lacks a translator’s colophon, so we do not know when it was translated into Tibetan. It does not appear in any of the imperial catalogs, nor among the Dunhuang manuscripts. It also does not appear to be extant in Sanskrit, nor to have been translated into Chinese.
intro.6
The present English translation of The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin was made on the basis of the Degé Kangyur recension of the work, with additional reference to the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). The text is stable across all recensions consulted. The dhāraṇīs proper are transcribed exactly as they appear in the Degé recension of the text.