The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering”
Toh 1024
Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waM), folios 183.a–183.b
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation team. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Ryan Damron edited the translation and the introduction, and Ven. Konchog Norbu copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” is a short dhāraṇī text in which, at Vajrapāṇi’s request, the Buddha Śākyamuni teaches a mantra associated with Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha that serves as a method for the pacification of suffering. The text opens at the Vajrāsana, where the Buddha is teaching a large assembly. The bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi makes a request that the Blessed One pacify the suffering of all beings, prompting Śākyamuni to explain that a practitioner who wishes to pacify suffering should meditate on Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha for six months and recite the mantra that the Buddha then proclaims. The remainder of the text describes the benefits of reciting the mantra, which include the complete pacification of suffering and a vision of a perfect buddha.
The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” does not appear to be extant in Sanskrit, or in Chinese translation. It also lacks a translator’s colophon and does not appear in either of the surviving imperial catalogs, or among the texts found in Dunhuang, so not much can be said about the work’s history in Tibet.
The text is included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of the Degé Kangyur and other Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that include a separate Dhāraṇī section.1 In Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that lack a section so named, the text is only found in the equivalent but unnamed dhāraṇī collection comprising part of the Tantra section. It is not included in any Themphangma lineage Kangyurs.
Notably, the dhāraṇī is one of only twelve works in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section that are not duplicated in other sections of the Kangyur. Therefore, it appears that these twelve texts found their way into the Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs specifically because of being part of the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, which most likely was compiled based on earlier collections of dhāraṇīs and associated ritual texts.2 These collections, known in Sanskrit as dhāraṇīsaṃgraha, circulated throughout South Asia and Tibet—as well as in Dunhuang—as extracanonical dhāraṇī collections.3
The present English translation of The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” was made based on the Degé Kangyur4 recension of this work, with additional reference to the notes from the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma). The text is stable across all recensions consulted, with only minor variants. The mantra is rendered in the translation exactly as it appears in the Degé recension of the work.
Text Body
The Translation
Thus did I hear at one time. [F.183.b] The Blessed One was teaching the Dharma to his full assembly at the Vajrāsana. The bodhisattva great being Vajrapāṇi said to him, “O Blessed One! Please pacify the suffering of beings.”
The Blessed One replied, “Sons or daughters of noble family who wish to pacify outer, inner, and secret suffering should apply themselves to meditation upon Mañjuśrī Vādisiṃha for six months while reciting this mantra, which is derived from the vowels and consonants of the alphabet:
namo ratnatrayāya | namo mañjunāthāya | namo yamāntakāya |
tadyathā | oṁ mañjubhara mañjughoṣa hana hana hana daha daha paca paca vece vece bhita bhita iphuta iphuta herate sottani namaḥ sottani pripiśale tang pritahasa prabhinata jaya hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ herate sottani hūṁ phaṭ svāhā | oṁ vāgīśvari muṁ mañjughoṣa hana vatisidhoharini svāhā ||
“By reciting this mantra just once, they will obtain the dhāraṇī of longevity. If they recite it ten times, they will be able to impartially elucidate wisdom.5 If they recite it a hundred times, the whole world system will tremble. If they recite it a thousand times, all desires will be fulfilled. If they recite it ten thousand times, all suffering will be pacified. If they recite it a hundred thousand times, they will behold the face of a perfect buddha.”
When the Blessed One had finished speaking, the bodhisattva great being Vajrapāṇi along with all in the assembly were delighted, and respectfully joined their palms together and praised what the Blessed One had said.
This completes The Dhāraṇī “Pacifying All Suffering” taught by the Blessed Śākyamuni.
Notes
This text, Toh 1024, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, waM), are listed as being located in volume 101 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 102. This discrepancy reflects a difference between the recognizably intended order of texts at the end of the Degé Kangyur and the order established by the compilers of the 1934 Tōhoku catalog. The two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section constitute what seems to be an added supplement that, in Situ Panchen’s original Degé dkar chags, are nevertheless mentioned—if very briefly and without their content being detailed— before the final text, the Vimalaprabhānāmakālacakratantraṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od); see Degé dkar chags (Toh 4568), F.156.b–157.a, and also the version in vol. 9 of Situ Panchen’s gsung ’bum, F.246.b–247.a. The Tōhoku compilers, however, number this Kālacakra commentary Toh 845 and give its volume (sh+rI) the number 100, thus placing it, in both text number and volume order, before the two gzungs ’dus volumes e and waM. Further evidence that this Kālacakra commentary is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts is the fact that its final fifth chapter is carried over into a final, 103rd volume (lak+S+mI) which it shares with the Kangyur dkar chags—an arrangement mentioned in the dkar chags itself (but omitted in the Tōhoku catalog, which gives only volume sh+rI for the whole of Toh 845 and places volume lak+S+mI at the end of the Tengyur). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
sdug bsngal thams cad rab tu zhi bar byed pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Sarvaduḥkhapraśamanakaranāmadhāraṇī). Toh 1024, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waM), folios 183.a–183.b.
sdug bsngal thams cad rab tu zhi bar byed pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. ka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 98, pp. 614–16.
Secondary Sources
Dalton, Jacob P. “How Dhāraṇīs WERE Proto-Tantric: Liturgies, Ritual Manuals, and the Origins of the Tantras.” In Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation, edited by David Gray and Ryan Richard Overbey, 199–229. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
dkar chag ’phang thang ma. Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Kawagoe, Eishin, ed. dKar chag ’Phang thang ma. Tōhoku Indo Chibetto Kenkyū Sōsho 3. Sendai: Tohoku Society for Indo-Tibetan Studies, 2005.
Lalou, Marcelle. “Les textes Bouddhiques au tempes du Roi Khri-sroṅ-lde-bcan.” Journal Asiatique 241 (1953): 313–53.
Negi, J. S. Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary (bod skad legs sbyar gyi tshig mdzod chen mo). 16 vols. Sarnath: Dictionary Unit, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1993.
Orosz, Gergely. A Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts and Block Prints in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest: Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2010.
Glossary
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Attested in other text
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Attested in dictionary
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Approximate attestation
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Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
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Blessed One
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavat
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- mañjuśrī
Themphangma Kangyur
- them spangs ma bka’ ’gyur
- ཐེམ་སྤངས་མ་བཀའ་འགྱུར།
- —
Tshalpa Kangyur
- tshal pa bka’ ’gyur
- ཚལ་པ་བཀའ་འགྱུརཾཨརྐུཔ༔་པླེཨསེ་ལིནཀ་ཐིས་ཨེནཏརཡ་ཏོ་ཨཉ་ཨིནསྟནཅེ་ཨོཕ༹་ཐེ་ཝོརད་ཊསལྤ།
- —
Vādisiṃha
- smra ba’i seng ge
- སྨྲ་བའི་སེང་གེ
- vādisiṃha
Vajrapāṇi
- phyag na rdo rje
- ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།
- vajrapāṇi
Vajrāsana
- rdo rje’i gdan
- rdo rje gdan
- རྡོ་རྗེའི་གདན།
- རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན།
- vajrāsana