འཕགས་པ་ཚ་དང་ཡ་ཤས་དཔག་ཏ་མད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.27

intro.27

Before discussing the complex differences between The Aparimitāyur­jñāna Sūtra (1) and (2), it should be mentioned here that The Aparimitāyur­jñāna Sūtra (1) itself also exists in two slightly different forms, the difference being a minor one in the dhāraṇī that is less significant than the differences between versions (1) and (2). In those Kangyurs that, like the Degé, have a separate compendium of dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus, dhāraṇī) section, a second version of (1) appears there; in the Degé it is Toh 849, and is essentially a duplicate of the first (Toh 674), except that the dhāraṇī differs in one word. In the middle part of the repeated dhāraṇī, where the Toh 674 version has aparimitāyur­puṇya-jñāna, the Toh 849 version reads aparimita­puṇye aparimita­puṇya-jñāna. This latter reading is also found in the versions in the compendium of dhāraṇīs in several Tshalpa Kangyurs;¹⁶ is the only version to be found in some other Kangyurs, notably those of the Themphangma group;¹⁷ and corresponds to the version in the Druptap Küntü, which will be mentioned in more detail below. Readers of this translation will see the version of the dhāraṇī corresponding to the version (Toh 674 or Toh 849) that they have selected.