The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering”

Translation of སྡག་བསྔལ་ཐམས་ཅད་རབ་ཏ་ཞ་བར་བྱད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས (སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཐམས་ཅད་རབ་ཏུ་ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས)

Language: English
Translator: Catherine Dalton
Extent: 13 passages, 1,234 words
Text: complete digital text
Source: 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.1 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…

intro 84000's introduction — 6 parts
1
2
notes Notes — 5 parts

Text

84000's introduction

The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” is a short dhāraṇī text in which, at Vajrapāṇi’s request, the Buddha Śākyamuni teaches a mantra associated with Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha that serves as a method for the pacification of suffering. The text opens at the Vajrāsana, where the Buddha is teaching a large assembly. The bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi makes a request that the Blessed One pacify the suffering of all beings, prompting Śākyamuni to explain that a practitioner who wishes to pacify suffering should meditate on Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha for six months and recite the mantra that the Buddha then proclaims. The remainder of the text describes the benefits of reciting the mantra, which include the complete pacification of suffering and a vision of a perfect buddha.

intro.3

The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” does not appear to be extant in Sanskrit, or in Chinese translation. It also lacks a translator’s colophon and does not appear in either of the surviving imperial catalogs, or among the texts found in Dunhuang, so not much can be said about the work’s history in Tibet.

intro.4

The text is included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of the Degé Kangyur and other Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that include a separate Dhāraṇī section.¹ In Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that lack a section so named, the text is only found in the equivalent but unnamed dhāraṇī collection comprising part of the Tantra section. It is not included in any Themphangma lineage Kangyurs.

intro.5

Notably, the dhāraṇī is one of only twelve works in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section that are not duplicated in other sections of the Kangyur. Therefore, it appears that these twelve texts found their way into the Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs specifically because of being part of the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, which most likely was compiled based on earlier collections of dhāraṇīs and associated ritual texts.² These collections, known in Sanskrit as dhāraṇīsaṃgraha, circulated throughout South Asia and Tibet—as well as in Dunhuang—as extracanonical dhāraṇī collections.³

intro.6

The present English translation of The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” was made based on the Degé Kangyur⁴ recension of this work, with additional reference to the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma). The text is stable across all recensions consulted, with only minor variants. The mantra is rendered in the translation exactly as it appears in the Degé recension of the work.

1

Homage to Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha.

Thus did I hear at one time.

2

The Blessed One was teaching the Dharma to his full assembly at the Vajrāsana. The bodhisattva great being Vajrapāṇi said to him, “O Blessed One! Please pacify the suffering of beings.”

The Blessed One replied, “Sons or daughters of noble family who wish to pacify outer, inner, and secret suffering should apply themselves to meditation upon Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha for six months while reciting this mantra, which is derived from the vowels and consonants of the alphabet:

namo ratnatrayāya | namo mañjunāthāya | namo yamāntakāya |

tadyathā | oṁ mañjubhara mañjughoṣa hana hana hana daha daha paca paca vece vece bhita bhita iphuta iphuta herate sottani namaḥ sottani pripiśale tang pritahasa prabhinata jaya hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ herate sottani hūṁ phaṭ svāhā | oṁ vāgīśvari muṁ mañjughoṣa hana vatisidhoharini svāhā ||

“By reciting this mantra just once, they will obtain the dhāraṇī of longevity. If they recite it ten times, they will be able to impartially elucidate wisdom.⁵ If they recite it a hundred times, the whole world system will tremble. If they recite it a thousand times, all desires will be fulfilled. If they recite it ten thousand times, all suffering will be pacified. If they recite it a hundred thousand times, they will behold the face of a perfect buddha.”

When the Blessed One had finished speaking, the bodhisattva great being Vajrapāṇi along with all in the assembly were delighted, and respectfully joined their palms together and praised what the Blessed One had said.

Notes

notes.1

1. An explicitly named Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section is found in the Degé and Urga Kangyurs as well as in the peripheral Kangyurs of the Tshalpa lineage (Dodedrak, Phajoding, and Ragya). In contrast, the Berlin, Choné, Lithang, and Peking Qianlong Kangyurs include the same collection of dhāraṇīs in a separate part of their Tantra sections that has no distinct label. With or without the label, these collections of dhāraṇīs contain many duplicates of texts also found in the general sūtra or tantra sections, and in the latter group of Kangyurs many dhāraṇī texts therefore appear twice in different parts of the Tantra section.

notes.2

2. 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 and transcribed by Orosz, identify the source of all such dhāraṇī collections as the extracanonical collection edited by Tāranātha (Orosz 2010, pp. 67 and 100). This mention is also noted by Hidas 2021, p. 7, n. 56.

notes.3

3. See J. Dalton 2016, and J. Dalton and S. van Schaik 2006, on the dhāraṇīsaṃgraha collections preserved among the Dunhuang finds. Like the canonical collection, they contain not only dhāraṇī texts but also praises and prayers. See Hidas 2021 for the catalogs of eighteen dhāraṇīsaṃgraha collections surviving in Sanskrit.

notes.4

4. This text, Toh 1024, 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 reflects a difference between the recognizably intended order of texts at the end of the Degé Kangyur and the order established by the compilers of the 1934 Tōhoku catalog. The two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section constitute what seems to be an added supplement that, in Situ Panchen’s original Degé dkar chags, are nevertheless mentioned—if very briefly and without their content being detailed— before the final text, the Vimalaprabhānāmakālacakratantraṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od); see Degé dkar chags (Toh 4568), F.156.b–157.a, and also the version in vol. 9 of Situ Panchen’s gsung ’bum, F.246.b–247.a. The Tōhoku compilers, however, number this Kālacakra commentary Toh 845 and give its volume (sh+rI) the number 100, thus placing it, in both text number and volume order, before the two gzungs ’dus volumes e and waM. Further evidence that this Kālacakra commentary is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts is the fact that its final fifth chapter is carried over into a final, 103rd volume (lak+S+mI) which it shares with the Kangyur dkar chags—an arrangement mentioned in the dkar chags itself (but omitted in the Tōhoku catalog, which gives only volume sh+rI for the whole of Toh 845 and places volume lak+S+mI at the end of the Tengyur). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.

notes.5

5. This translation follows the Choné Kangyur in reading shes rab phyogs med du ’grel. Degé and most of the other recensions read shes rab phyogs med du ’grol, which could mean “they will be liberated in impartial wisdom.” Lithang and Yongle read shes rab phyogs med du ’gral.