འཕགས་པ་ཚ་དང་ཡ་ཤས་དཔག་ཏ་མད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.18

intro.18

The only other mention in the Kangyur of the tathāgata known as Aparimitāyur­jñāna is, misleadingly, in the title of the text that follows the two versions of this sūtra in the Tantra section. Often confused with the present text, it is The Dhāraṇī “The Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom” (Toh 676, Aparimitāyur­jñānahṛdaya-nāma-dhāraṇī),¹² but that work proves to be concerned solely with the “other” Amitāyus (or Aparimitāyus) to be identified with Amitābha, in Sukhāvatī. It shares no content with The Aparimitāyur­jñāna Sūtra, has an entirely different dhāraṇī, and—despite the title—the name Aparimitāyur­jñāna does not appear within the text itself. However, the fact that it has that title, and its placement in most Kangyurs just after The Aparimitāyur­jñāna Sūtra, indicate that these two buddhas were already identified with each other by the time of the compilation of the Kangyurs—as indeed they are in the Buddhist traditions of East Asia.