The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers
Translation of འཕགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མ་འཇགས་པ་རབ་ཏ་སྦྱན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས (འཕགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མི་འཇིགས་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྦྱིན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས)
- Language
- English
- Translator
- Lowell Cook
- Extent
- 17 passages, 1,650 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.2 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 — 5 parts
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- notes Notes — 8 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers is set in Indra’s Rock Cave on Vaidehaka Mountain where Śakra requests the Buddha for a teaching to help him subdue the asuras, the famed adversaries of the devas. The Buddha instructs Śakra to employ the vidyāmantra that confers freedom from all dangers. This vidyāmantra specifically frees one from dangers associated with disease, poisons, weapons, malevolent nonhuman beings, and conflicts. Among the harmful nonhuman beings, the text places a particular emphasis on grahas, a class of beings who “seize,” possess, or otherwise adversely influence other beings by causing a range of physical and mental afflictions, as well as various types of misfortune. After the Buddha recites the vidyāmantra, he offers Śakra ritual instructions on how to incant the vidyāmantra on threads, ritual substances, or armor which, when placed on the body, ensures protection and the successful outcomes of one’s rituals.
intro.2
The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers is a short dhāraṇī work in the Action Tantra section of the Kangyur, which is also contained in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section.¹
intro.3
The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers is set in Indra’s Rock Cave on Vaidehaka Mountain where Śakra requests the Buddha for a teaching to help him subdue the asuras, the famed adversaries of the devas. The Buddha instructs Śakra to employ the vidyāmantra that confers freedom from all dangers. A vidyāmantra is an esoteric formula used to accomplish a ritual goal and, in this text, is largely used interchangeably with dhāraṇī. This vidyāmantra specifically frees one from the dangers associated with disease, poisons, weapons, malevolent nonhuman beings, and conflicts. Among the harmful nonhuman beings, the text places a particular emphasis on grahas, a class of beings who “seize,” possess, or otherwise adversely influence other beings by causing a range of physical and mental afflictions, as well as various types of misfortune. After the Buddha recites the vidyāmantra, he offers Śakra ritual instructions on how to incant the vidyāmantra on threads, ritual substances, or armor that, when placed on the body, ensure protection and the successful outcomes of one’s rituals.
intro.4
The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers shares a great deal of intertextuality with The Dhāraṇī of the Iron Beak [1] (Toh 761)² and, to a lesser degree, with Toh 762,³ also titled The Dhāraṇī of the Iron Beak [2]. These three works share an identical narrative structure, are set in Indra’s Rock Cave, and feature Śakra as their interlocutor. While the dhāraṇī formulas in The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers and Toh 761 are, in most places, nearly identical, they are entirely different from the much shorter formulas found in Toh 762. One notably absent feature from The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers but found in Toh 761 and Toh 762 is the emphasis on the dhāraṇī’s efficacy for weather control rituals aimed at favorable agriculture. Many sections of the dhāraṇī formula were challenging to comprehend. We did not attempt to venture any conjectural emendations and, instead, presented it largely as it appears in the Tibetan.
intro.5
There is no extant Indic manuscript for The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers and it is unclear what status it held in India. It was translated into Chinese during the Northern Song Dynasty as the Shi yiqie wuwei tuoluoni jing (T1373, 施一切無畏陀羅尼經). This translation was produced by Dānapāla (Shihu 施護, ?–1017 ᴄᴇ), an Indian scholar-monk from Uḍḍiyāna who translated over one hundred works into Chinese. The Tibetan translation describes in its colophon how it was produced by the prolific Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé in collaboration with the Indian masters Jinamitra and Dānaśīla. Therefore, the Tibetan translation would have been completed during the late eighth or early ninth centuries. Though the dhāraṇī’s colophon reports that it was translated during the imperial period, it does not appear in either of the imperial catalogs. The dhāraṇī, therefore, may be among the many tantric works of literature that were intentionally not registered in the imperial catalogs or, perhaps, the colophon may be a later attribution to imperial period translators. Beyond passing references to its title, The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers does not appear to have been widely cited or mentioned in later Tibetan literature. It has also has not been the subject of any sustained scholarly research that we are aware of. Without any extant Sanskrit to study, our translation was based on the textual witness from the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the variant readings attested in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur and the Stok Palace Manuscript (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyur.
1
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was traveling through the land of Magadha when he arrived at a mango grove. At that mango grove, he took up residence in the Indra’s Rock Cave on Vaidehaka Mountain. Śakra the lord of the devas then appeared before the Blessed One. He bowed his head at the Blessed One’s feet and sat to one side.
Having sat to one side, Śakra the lord of the devas told the Blessed One, “Blessed One,
2
the asuras are causing me great harm. Blessed One, the asuras are adversaries who have been hostile to me for a long time. Blessed One, please offer me a teaching.”
The Blessed One told Śakra the lord of the devas, “Lord of the devas, uphold the vidyāmantra that confers freedom from all dangers. It accomplishes all aims and quells all dangers. It alleviates all diseases, neutralizes all poisons, and stops all weapons. It paralyzes all legless, two-legged, and four-legged beings. It defeats all adversaries. It defeats asuras,⁴ garuḍas, daityas, piśācas, apasmāras, unmādas, brahmanical rākṣasas, bhūtas, vetālas, śakuni grahas, pūtanas, revatīs, ostāraka grahas, ostārakas, apasmāra grahas, deva grahas, nāga grahas, yakṣa grahas, gandharva grahas, kinnara grahas, vināyaka grahas, and mātṛ grahas. And it utterly defeats ojohāras, beings who feed on garlands, fragrances, flowers, incense, blood, pus, filth, and urine for sustenance. It completely overcomes⁵ all infectious diseases, vātikas, paittikas, śleṣmikas, sānnipātikas, and malevolent beings. It brings perfect peace from all conflicts, disputes, wars, and scandals.
3
I will recite the vidyāmantra that confers freedom from all dangers:
tadyathā | aḍe maḍe pramaḍe pravaṃ madiri gole mavoli vose modde vadde kharadte kharane graṇa graṇe gaṇa pragaṇe moṇe pratimoṇe kālī prakālī caṇḍe mahācaṇḍe praticaṇḍe vege ativege sona gona mohā pramohā mota pramoṭā nāśāni pranāśāni dhavanī pradhavanī valaganī pravalanī nṛdtyanī pranṛdtyanī pāniṭhāni krodhāni pratikrodhāni hana hana vihana vihana sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭān nāśaya sarvābhayaprade ⁶ | Protect myself and all those around me from all dangers, all grahas, and all transmittable diseases. Protect. Accomplish all my aims in this place. Thus: khidi khidi cumbe sarvasattvahite rate namaḥ sarvabuddhānāṃ svāhā
“Lord of the devas, anyone who ties a knot in a thread with this vidyāmantra of forty-one words⁷ that confers freedom from all dangers and wears it, ties it in their hair, chants it, incants mustard seeds or bezoar with it once and rubs that on themselves, or incants armor with it will be invulnerable to weapons. They will be invulnerable to poison, infectious diseases, single-day fevers, two-day fevers, three-day fevers, four-day fevers, fires, mantras, vetālas, venoms, and diseases. They will never die by drowning. They will accomplish all applications of vidyāmantras and mantras that they practiced yet failed to accomplish through their applications.⁸
4
Others will never be able to harm their accomplished applications. They will be freed from bondage caused by opposing forces. They will destroy others’ vidyāmantras and make their own vidyāmantras multiply. They will defeat all grahas and, if the grahas do not release them, the grahas’ heads will burst into seven pieces like the foliage of a basil plant.”
Thereupon, Śakra the lord of the devas himself disappeared. After the Blessed One had spoken, Śakra the lord of the devas rejoiced and praised what the Blessed One had taught.
Colophon
Translated and edited by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla along with the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé; later revised according to the new language reforms and then finalized.
Notes
notes.1
1. This text, Toh 925, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, e), are listed as being located in volume 100 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 101. 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 925 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 925, , for details.
notes.2
2. Lohatuṇḍadhāraṇī , (Toh 761).
notes.3
3. Lohatuṇḍadhāraṇī , (Toh 762).
notes.4
4. Reading lha ma yin (“asuras”) from C, K, KY, and L instead of lha (“devas”). This accords with Toh 761 and 762.
notes.5
5. Reading ’jig (“overcome”) from K, KY instead of ’jigs (“danger”). This accords with Toh 925.
notes.6
6. The phrase sarva abhaya prade has been emended here to sarvābhayaprade.
notes.7
7. Tib. tshig bzhi bcu rtsa gcig po. Not counting the initial tadyathā, the request for protection and the final mantra, the above vidyāmantra, as it stands, comprises fifty-one words rather than forty one.
notes.8
8. Translation tentative.