འཕགས་པ་ཚ་དང་ཡ་ཤས་དཔག་ཏ་མད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.29

intro.29

Another intriguing hint that the Kangyur provides us with regard to these two versions of the text is that the part of the dhāraṇī “present” in this version (1), Toh 674, but “missing” in version (2), Toh 675, is included in all Kangyurs, almost identically but on its own, as the dhāraṇī that forms the very short content of another text in this group, , Toh 673a. There is no explanation in the various Kangyur catalogs for its presence, but the term “essence” (hṛdaya, snying po, sometimes rendered “heart mantra”) in its title identifies it as a mantra used in at least one tradition of the practice of Aparimitāyus. The only other mention of this mantra in the Kangyur appears to be in the Sarva­durgati­pariśodhana, known best in Tibetan by its shortened title sbyong rgyud (the “Purification Tantra”), a tantra of the Yoga class, in which this same mantra is given as the “essence vidyā-mantra” (hṛdayavidyā, snying po’i rig pa) of the tathāgata Aparimitāyuḥ­puṇya­jñāna­sambhāra­tejo­rāja, the principal figure in a secondary maṇḍala.²⁰ What is confirmed by this mantra’s mention in the tantra, as well as its presence as Toh 673a, is at the very least that it is a potentially independent stand-alone mantra phrase, making it easier to understand that it might have been either added or removed at some stage in the evolving transmission of the dhāraṇī in the sūtra. Its use in arguments and counter-arguments in favor of the authenticity of each of the two versions of the sūtra is discussed in the introduction to Toh 675 at .