The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas

Notes

The Chinese title is simply The Gathering of All Buddhas Dhāraṇī Scripture 諸佛集會陀羅尼經.

The translations of this section and the other variations are included as notes inserted in the relevant places.

This text, Toh 856, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, e), are listed as being located in volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). However, several other Kangyur databases‍—including the eKangyur that supplies the digital input version displayed by the 84000 Reading Room‍—list this work as being located in volume 101. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that the two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section are an added supplement not mentioned in the original catalog, and also hinges on the fact that the compilers of the Tōhoku catalog placed another text‍—which forms a whole, very large volume‍—the Vimala­prabhā­nāma­kālacakra­tantra­ṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od, Toh 845), before the volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur, numbering it as vol. 100, although it is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts as volume 102; indeed its final fifth chapter is often carried over and wrapped in the same volume as the Kangyur dkar chags (catalog). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.

Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 856 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 856, n.3, for details.

Denkarma, 302.b.6. See also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, 222, no. 389.

Two sets of folio references have been included in this translation due to a discrepancy in volume 88 (rgyud ’bum, na) of the Degé Kangyur between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings. In the latter case, an extra work, Bodhi­maṇḍasyālaṃkāra­lakṣa­dhāraṇī (Toh 508, byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs), was added as the second text in the volume, thereby displacing the pagination of all the following texts in the same volume by 17 folios. Since the eKangyur follows the later printing, both references have been provided, with the highlighted one linking to the eKangyur viewer.

In the Toh 513 version of the text there is a slight discrepancy in the folio numbering between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings of the Degé Kangyur. Although the discrepancy is irrelevant here, further details concerning this may be found in n.5 of the Toh 513 version of this text.

The Chinese here lists the more frequently encountered “birth, old age, sickness, and death” 生老病死.

I am following the Mahāvyutpatti in translating btsam pa med pa, the reading found in the Narthang, Peking, and Yongle editions, as Skt. niṣṭhura, “cruel.” The Degé and others have the variant reading brtsam pa med pa.

Instead of this line, the Chinese only states that the fear of death is “the most difficult to get rid of” 然於其中死怖一種最難除遣.

In the Chinese text, the four great kings rise from their seats and bow with their palms joined before speaking.

Translated based on Yongle, Lithang, Peking, and Cone versions, where the word thugs is missing. It appears, however, in both the Degé and Stok Palace editions. In the Chinese version the Buddha rises from his seat before turning to the east.

While there is a fair amount of variation in some of the mantra syllables across the various Kangyur witnesses, these have not been noted here.

The Chinese has here “born from all Buddhas and known by all Buddhas” 從於一切諸佛所生。一切諸佛共所知見.

The Chinese version states “Whoever wishes to protect their body should write down this mantra and wear it on their body” 若有專欲擁護其身。當書此呪佩著身上. It additionally inserts “Wherever it is, there will be sons and daughters of noble family, and others, with deep faith in the Dharma” 若所在之處有深信法善男子善女人等.

The Chinese text includes an entire additional section here: “First find a pure, clean place, cover the ground in sandalwood, and construct a square altar with dimensions of seven cubits. Beginning on the eighth day of the lunar month, you should wash yourself in a bath of fragrant water and put on clean, new clothes. You should take the eight upāsaka precepts and abstain from any food except sweet rice porridge. Take black and camphor incense, and place two full measures on the altar. Also take white sandalwood incense or quality aloeswood incense, or camphor incense, or a combination of clove incense and kakubha incense, and place that upon the altar. You should recite the dhāraṇī over all the incense seven times, seven times a day, for seven days. On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, you should abstain from taking the noontime meal, and make twenty-one small altars with saffron incense. The first should be dedicated to the tathāgata, and the remaining twenty should be dedicated to the vajrarājas. Around them you should make four small altars, dedicated to the four great kings, with incense of musk, camphor, white sandalwood, saffron, and red sandalwood. Then you should make offerings to the tathāgata altar by strewing and anointing it, as well as making offerings of incense to it and all the other altars in turn. Also take buttermilk, yogurt, and sugar, and, sequentially, place them in the mouths of four new flasks as offerings, which should be placed separately upon the altars of the four great kings. Fill these flasks with fresh water, and place in them the flowers of the twelve fruit trees. Burn ten lamps filled with fragrant oil on the altar of the tathāgata, with the intention to make offerings to the buddhas of the ten directions, and burn one lamp on each of the other altars. Take the incense over which you recited the dhāraṇī, as well as camphor and quality aloeswood, and burn it to honor the tathāgata. Burn the remaining incense on the other altars. While the incense is burning on the altars, chant the various divine dhāraṇīs. Any being who smells this incense will never die prematurely or accidentally. When the incense has burned out, the various offerings should be scattered in a clean place.” 先當簡擇清淨之處。以栴檀末而塗其地 。成一方壇縱廣七肘。其人應從月初八日。香湯洗浴著新淨衣受八戒齋。唯食粳米石 蜜牛乳。取黑沈香及龍腦香。共滿一兩置於壇上。又取白檀香或沆水香。或龍腦香或 復丁香迦矩羅香。而置於壇。其人誦此陀羅尼呪。呪此諸香。於日日中皆七七遍滿于 七日。至十五日一日不食其日中時。以欝金香於其壇上作二十一小壇。其一處中名如 來壇。餘二十壇名金剛王壇。又於壇外作四小壇。名四天王壇復取麝香龍腦白檀欝金 之香及紫檀末。於如來壇若散若塗而為供養。自餘諸壇隨取一香而供養之。又取乳酪 酥及沙糖。如其次第以新瓶四口。各別盛之置四天王壇上。又以淨水著於瓶內。採十 二種果樹之花而置其中。又以香油然十支燈置如來壇。為欲供養十方佛故。自餘諸壇 各然一支。於前所呪諸香之內。取龍腦及沈水。於如來壇而燒供養。其餘壇上然自餘 香。將然香時其如來壇及餘壇香。復應各別誦此神呪而以呪之。若有眾生得聞此香。 非時夭橫靡不除滅。先所呪香並燒盡已。然後收彼四天王食散於淨處.