The Procedure for Mañjuśrī’s Single-Syllable Mantra
Translation of འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱ་སྔགས་ཡ་ག་འབྲ་གཅག་པའ་ཆ་ག (འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་སྔགས་ཡི་གེ་འབྲུ་གཅིག་པའི་ཆོ་ག)
- Language
- English
- Translators
- David Mellins, Kaia Fischer
- Extent
- 13 passages, 645 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Translated by the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York (v 1.0.6 2023). 84000: Translating the Words… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a…
Contents
- intro 84000's introduction — 5 parts
- 1
- 2
- notes Notes — 6 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Procedure for Mañjuśrī's Single-Syllable Mantra is a pithy text extolling an exceedingly secret and potent single-syllable mantra. Following a note regarding its universal efficacy, the remaining portion of the text outlines ritual applications for the remediation of specific ailments through the consecration of common items as sacral implements in rites of healing.
intro.2
The Procedure for Mañjuśrī's Single-Syllable Mantra ¹ appears as the last of six dhāraṇī scriptures (Toh 545–550) gathered together within the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur that provide instruction in incantatory practices that feature the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Five of these scriptures (Toh 547 omitted) also appear in the Dhāraṇī section of the Degé Kangyur as Toh 892–896. This is the pithiest of the canonical Mañjuśrī dhāraṇīs and includes neither a Sanskrit title nor an opening salutation.
intro.3
The scripture begins simply with a statement of the Tibetan title, followed by the prefatory expression tadyathā, the introductory mantra syllable oṁ, and then the single syllable kṣṇīṃ.² The dhāraṇī is then extolled as being both exceedingly secret and potent. After praising its universal efficacy, the remainder of the text outlines a series of ritual applications to remedy specific ailments, involving the consecration of common items as sacral implements in rites of healing.
intro.4
A Sanskrit version of the text is to our knowledge no longer extant, and it appears that the text was never translated into Chinese. The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon that might have offered information about the history of its transmission or the identity of its translators. Its absence from the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs suggests that it was translated into Tibetan later than the beginning of the ninth century ce ³ but before the flourishing of the scholar Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), who listed its Tibetan title, along with those of the other texts in this collection (Toh 545–550), in his History of Buddhism.⁴
intro.5
This English translation is based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (Toh 550) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 896), in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and with the Stok Palace Kangyur.
1
tadyathā | oṁ kṣṇīṁ || ⁵
This single-syllable mantra is exceedingly secret,
2
for it accomplishes every aim and performs every action. As the essence of all the tathāgatas, it fulfills all hopes.
Holding a tooth stick incanted with the mantra will cure toothache. Sea salt incanted seven times with the mantra, when applied to the eyes, will cure eye disease.
If a person has a weapon fragment lodged inside of them, consecrate old and melted butter seven or one hundred and eight times with the mantra and give it to them to drink, or apply it to the wound, and the fragment will be expelled.
Indigestion, swelling, dysentery, and feverish diarrhea will be cured by eating mu rang salt,⁶ sea salt, or any other suitable rock salt incanted seven times with the mantra, and recovery will be the very same day.
Sweeping motions made with a raven’s feather incanted seven times with the mantra will heal illnesses of the brain.
Notes
notes.1
1. This is the title given at the beginning of the text in all versions of the Kangyur consulted. The colophon, however, titles it The Dhāraṇī of Mañjuśrī's Single Syllable (’jam dpal gyi yi ge ’bru gcig pa'i gzungs).
notes.2
2. Chapter 9 of The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī is dedicated to a similarly potent single-syllable mantra of Mañjuśrī. In that text, which is extant in Sanskrit, the single-syllable mantra is kḷlhīṁ.
notes.3
3. The Denkarma catalog is usually dated to ca. 812 ce
notes.4
4. Butön Rinchen Drup, chos ’byung, folio 172.a/p. 975.
notes.5
5. Provisional translation: “It is: oṃ kṣṇīṁ.”
notes.6
6. “mu rang salt,” for unfamiliar mu rang tshwa. This may be a transliteration of the Sanskrit muraṅgī and thus refer to the refined products of Moringa oleifera, which have both culinary and medicinal applications.