ཤས་པས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཐར་ཕྱན་པར་གྲབ་པའ་མཆད་རྟན་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro.3

intro.3

There are two dhāraṇī texts in the Kangyur that have been (and still are today) the principal works employed in Tibetan rites for the consecration and inauguration caityas and stūpas. They are known as the “two stainless ones,”⁷ The Radiance of the Stainless Uṣṇīṣa (Raśmivimaloṣṇīṣa­prabhāsa, ) and The Dhāraṇī of Pure Stainless Light (Raśmivimalaviśuddha­prabhā­nāma­dhāraṇī, ). It is the first of these that is considered the main canonical text introducing and featuring the vimaloṣṇīṣa dhāraṇī. It relates the narrative of how the dhāraṇī, emanated from the Buddha’s uṣṇīṣa, was first taught when a Trāyastriṃśa god was about to die and fall to the lower realms.⁸ The Buddha explains how it should be placed in caityas with a series of offerings and recitations in order to prolong life and purify the karmic causes of lower rebirth. The vimaloṣṇīṣa dhāraṇī is also counted as one of the “five great dhāraṇīs” (gzung chen sde lnga) used in consecration rituals in Tibet.⁹