འཕགས་པ་རྡ་རྗའ་སྙང་པའ་གཟངས་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.2

intro.2

The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence belongs to the Buddhist genre called dhāraṇī or “incantation” (Tib. gzungs).¹ In the Degé Kangyur most works of this class, usually short Mahāyāna sūtras or tantric texts, are found in the corresponding General Sūtra or Action Tantra sections, but are also duplicated in their own Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of two hundred and sixty-four texts (Tohoku nos. 846–1108). The present scripture, however, is included only in the General Sūtra section and is one of the few such sūtras that, despite having the term dhāraṇī in their titles, are not duplicated in the compendium.² This particular text is not a dhāraṇī in the sense in which that term is applied to a large number of scriptures containing a specific mantra-like formula recited in order to bring about a desired result. It contains no such formula at all, but rather presents a series of specific dhāraṇī that constitute spiritual qualities or forms of spiritual realization. First and foremost among these is the dhāraṇī of the vajra quintessence, which is presented as the ultimate mode of being or state of realization that eludes all conceptual appropriation while at the same time being immanent in all things.