འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱ་རྩ་བའ་རྒྱད 170

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of the tathāgata Ratnaketu, auspicious in every respect. He is praised and extolled by all the buddhas, is the relief of all beings, and is the destroyer of every evil. He grants every wish and fulfills every hope. So what is this mantra?”¹⁰¹⁹

While he spoke, a ray of light called arouser of all the buddhas emerged from the tuft of hair between the eyebrows of the blessed Śākyamuni. It illuminated all the buddhafields in the ten directions, above, below, and everywhere, delighting the minds of all beings. It then disappeared into Blessed Śākyamuni’s uṣṇīṣa. Subsequently, there emerged from the same uṣṇīṣa the lord of vidyās named One Syllable, as a form ablaze all around with the light that all ordinary beings find impossible to look at, or to lay hold of. Out of this great effulgence emerged his body, consisting of a halo of light, displaying multiple aspects and the great form of a cakravartin.

Having emerged, he illuminated the entire sky. He had a retinue of all the vidyā kings and was attended on and worshiped by many hundreds of thousands of millions of vidyās. He was praised by all the supramundane cakravartins and vidyārājas, eulogized by all the mantras,¹⁰²⁰ and cherished by all the buddhas and the bodhisattva great beings who had attained the tenth level of realization. Together they filled the entire canopy of the sky. His body was adorned with celestial gems and bedecked with great jewels and gems, beautiful in appearance, supremely radiant, emanating hundreds of thousands of millions of magical creations in various forms,¹⁰²¹ pronouncing the one-syllable word of his mantra, and radiating a great mass of light. He positioned himself in midair above Lord Śākyamuni, facing and looking upon the entire realm of the Pure Abode and illuminating the circle of the great assembly.

Lord Śākyamuni then pronounced the One Syllable, this vidyā cakravartin, the heart essence of all the tathāgatas, the supreme secret heart essence of the tathāgata called Ratnaketu; the One Syllable that is taught and cherished by all the tathāgatas intimately connected with Lord Ratnaketu ¹⁰²²—Śālendra­rāja,