The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī
Chapter 10

At that time Lord Śākyamuni taught yet another supreme ritual practice:

“Having chosen another mantra from this king of manuals, one should go down to [the bank of] the great river Gaṅgā. Staying in a boat in the middle of the river, one should incant rice gruel mixed with milk three million times on the days of one’s choice. Subsequently, at the end of recitation, one will perceive all the nāgas. One should then start the main practice. For that, one should prepare, in the middle of the boat, a fire pit in the shape of a lotus. One should prepare a big offering of ironwood blossoms to the painting. The painting of the superior type should be positioned facing west, with oneself sitting on a bundle of kuśa grass facing east. One should incant each of the ironwood blossoms seven times and offer it into the blazing fire of cutch tree sticks. One should do this until one has offered thirty thousand such blossoms, each smeared with white sandalwood and saffron paste. One should use nothing else. One should wait for the nāgas to appear.717 They will be enticed by the power substances, but will not take them. {10.1}

“Then, at the conclusion of the homa ritual, one will fly up together with the boat. One will become a vidyādhara-cakravartin, and all the nāga kings will become one’s followers, acting as servants. One will live thirty intermediate eons and will be able to act as one pleases. One’s activities will be unimpeded. One will be able to perceive Noble Mañjuśrī face to face. He will touch one on the head, and as soon as he has done so, one will obtain the five superknowledges. One will be certain to attain buddhahood. {10.2} [F.148.a] [F.165.a]

“There is another supreme ritual practice. One should descend to the bank of the great river Gaṅgā and construct a boat from a single block of wood from the bilva tree. It ought to be well made and attractive. One should board it,718 bringing an oar of bilva wood. With this, one should propel the boat, employing a genuinely skilled assistant. One should have him row the boat, without leaving the great river Gaṅgā, in circles, across, or lengthwise.719 One should choose either the six-syllable root mantra, the eight-syllable mantra, the single-syllable one, or another, such as those of the wrathful deities, dūtas, or dūtīs, or yet another mantra.720 One should then install the painting of the superior type facing west, with the practitioner facing east. From this point onward one can conduct the ritual as one wishes. One should use either a dish of milk, barley, and fruit, or one of water, radishes, and fruit. One should observe silence, ritually bathe three times a day, and possess three changes of clothing. One should practice pure conduct, with a very pure mind. First, one should recite the mantra,721 in front of the painting, six million times, following the previously described procedure. Then, at the end of the recitation, the boat will be fit to sail across a big ocean. {10.3}

“For that reason, the practitioner should collect the things that he will need and put them in the boat in advance. He should not be afraid when sailing across the great ocean. The boat will not be obstructed. It cannot be forced to turn back, except through the practitioner’s own will. He will thus be able to enter the big ocean in an instant even if this ocean is a thousand leagues away, so what need is there even to mention short distances? {10.4}

“Having entered it, this home of all rivers, one should start one’s practice.722 Having lit a fire of cutch tree sticks in a previously constructed pit or a clay basin made by a potter, one should offer into the fire six million oblations of stamens of ironwood blossoms mixed with white sandalwood and camphor. These individual oblations could be either small or big. {10.5} [F.148.b] [F.165.b]

“While one is offering the oblations, the rākṣasas who dwell in Laṅkā and assume many forms will cry, ‘Ha, ha!’ The nāga kings who dwell in Bhogavatī, a city of the nāgas, will emerge from the water in their different forms, ranging from exceedingly fierce to very peaceful. These nāgas and rākṣasas will say, ‘Get up, sir, get up! Become our master!’ In this way, the asuras, the yakṣas, the gods, the mahoragas, the celestial siddhas, and all the humans will try to entice the practitioner. One should neither get up, nor be afraid. {10.6}

“At that time, the adept of vidyās should, while reciting the mantra, threaten them with the index finger of the left hand. They will then disperse, running hither and thither, and be gone.723 Then, at the conclusion of the homa ritual, they will seize the boat together with the practitioner and, in an instant, take it to the realm of Akaniṣṭha. One can thus go to and return from other world spheres. One will become equal in mental power to a bodhisattva,724 possessing the five superknowledges, great magical abilities, and great power. One will be able to see Noble Mañjuśrī at all times. All the nāgas, rākṣasas, gods, asuras, and every other being will come under one’s control, having been appointed to carry out one’s orders by all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyeka­buddhas, noble śrāvakas, and those who have accomplished the mantra. They will be lovingly disposed toward the practitioner and act in his interest, so that he cannot be harmed by any being.725 {10.7}

“There is another supreme ritual practice. One should commission the construction of a boat from a big log of bilva wood, or perhaps from the pieces of a single block of wood. One should construct a big wharf on an island in the middle of the Gaṅgā. [F.149.a] [F.166.a] One should build a boat docked at that place. In that boat, there should be one hundred and twenty passengers‍—each holding a flower and a lamp‍—who have performed the protection rite and are wearing white clothes. One should have them place the flowers and the lamps in front of the superior of the different types of painting, installed according to the previously described procedure.726 One should then perform a large pūjā in front of the painting and offer into the cutch-wood fire thirty-six thousand oblations of powdered ironwood blossoms mixed with saffron, white sandalwood, and camphor. {10.8}

“Subsequently, at the conclusion of the homa ritual, the boat will ascend to the world of Brahmā in an instant. When one arrives there, one will be able to move around at will. One will perceive Noble Mañjuśrī face to face. As soon as one beholds him, one will attain the bodhisattva levels and the five superknowledges. One will live for a long time, enduring for one great eon. One will become the great monarch of the vidyādharas, who, holding lamps in their hands, will become one’s helpers. Together with them one will be able to wander as one pleases; one will be able to go wherever one wants to. One will delight in worshiping the blessed buddhas.727 In the end, one will be certain to attain buddhahood. {10.9}

“If one does not find, among those places that were taught for all rites, places for the practice of the rites that bring supreme accomplishment, one should perform the preliminary practices in any clean place anywhere. With faith and resolve, one should commence the supreme rites employing the sādhana method.748 {10.51}

“To start, one should install the painting of the superior749 type facing west, with oneself facing east. One should take some clay, either from a fine anthill or from the bank of the Gaṅgā, and, optionally, [the root of] khaskhas grass, white sandalwood, and saffron. One should mix this very well with camphor and fashion from this an effigy of a peacock. One should place it in front of the painting and fashion with kuśa grass that has grown in a clean place, with the tips of the grass blades untrimmed, the shape of a ring. Holding this ring with one’s right hand in front of the painting, and the peacock750 with one’s left, one should, on the night of the full moon, offer to the painting a large pūjā, burning an incense of camphor.751 One should recite the mantra until daybreak. {10.52}

“Then, at sunrise, this clay peacock will become the great king of peacocks,752 and the ring of grass will blaze with light. Oneself will become possessed of a divine body, adorned with divine garlands, clothes, and ornaments. One will be graced with a desirable form that resembles the rising sun. One should bow to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, circumambulate the painting clockwise, take the painting into one’s hands, [F.151.a] [F.168.a] and sit upon the peacock as one’s mount. In an instant one will ascend to the realm of Brahmā. One will become the great emperor of vidyādharas, surrounded by many hundreds of thousands of millions of them. One will live for sixty eons of Manu.753 One will be able to go wherever one wants, and one’s movement will not be impeded. One will be endowed with divine good fortune and be able to see Noble Mañjuśrī face to face. Mañjuśrī will become one’s spiritual friend and, in the end, one will attain buddhahood. {10.53}

“Similarly, one should procure a mendicant’s staff, a water pitcher, a sacred cord, red arsenic and bovine orpiment, a sword, an arrow, a javelin, an axe, and [other] different kinds of weapons and also, made of clay, humans and animals, different types of birds for riding, lions, tigers, hyenas, and so forth, fashioning them from clay from an anthill or clay from a riverbank754 richly scented with pleasant scents. Likewise, one should procure conveyances provided with a chair or a bed, white parasols, various types of head ornaments, all types of jewels, and all the different requisites of one who has gone forth, including a rosary of rudrākṣa beads,755 sandals, wooden clogs, an alms bowl, an ascetic’s robes and staff, a needle, and a knife and any other implements made of ‘flower-metal,’756 starting with a bowl. One should fashion them from flower-metal, clay from an anthill, or clay from the riverbank, and smear or sprinkle all of them with the five products of a cow.757 One should incant them one hundred and eight times with the purificatory mantra, one-syllable mantra, or any other mantra taught in this king of manuals, with the exception of the mantras employed in subsidiary practices.758 Having performed, as appropriate, the desired protection ritual for oneself and one’s friends, one who is well acquainted with the knowledge of the mantra system [F.151.b] [F.168.b] should secretly install, in any of the previously described places, the painting of the superior type facing west, with oneself facing east, and offer to it a large pūjā. Burning incense of camphor, one should grasp any one of the previously mentioned individual weapons and implements,759 fashioned as specified, and recite over it the mantra on a bright night of the full moon until sunrise. {10.54}

“Immediately, the painting will appear enveloped in a great halo of light. If it was a mode of conveyance that was grasped by the practitioner, he will be able, after boarding it, to go wherever he pleases. If, on the other hand, it was an ornament or a weapon item, he will become, when holding it, a venerable760 vidyādhara-cakravartin. He will be able to go wherever he pleases, possessed of divine form, effulgent as the rising sun, enveloped in a halo of great light, with the body as bright as lightning.761 He will be the master of all vidyādharas, will live for one great eon, have a retinue of many hundreds of thousands of millions of vidyādharas, and live in a divine palace made of precious jewels and gems.762 {10.55}

[The ability] that was perceived in the previously crafted conveyance, whatever [that being] was good at, will now become its great power.763 This being will become one’s conveyance for riding and a companion. Thwarting the minute powers of others’ mantras764 and employing the powers of one’s own, it will become compassionate at heart, desiring to benefit others, and always devoted [to the practitioner]. And whatever items of weaponry, ornaments, jewels, and so forth one took up, starting with the beings who serve as seat and bed conveyances, they will always follow the practitioner to give him good protection, cover, and shelter. {10.56}

“One will obtain great power, energy, and a superb physical body. One will behold Noble Mañjuśrī face to face and be applauded [F.152.a] [F.169.a] by him. When touched by him on the head, one will receive the boon of spiritual friendship until one has reached the essence of awakening. One will definitely obtain the ten powers. One will be venerated by all beings765 and will never be assailed or defeated by spirits. One will not be separated from the lineage of the final goal and will attain the bodhisattva levels. One will follow the obligations of a bodhisattva consistent with the ten powers.766 In short, all the supreme rites should be performed in these supreme places, and one who delights in the supreme worship in front of the superior painting should only perform the supreme rites.767 {10.57}

“One should become a sky-traveling vidyādhara‍—a bodhisattva endowed with the five superknowledges, established on the bodhisattva levels, and able to traverse the world spheres in this very body‍—in order to swell the lineage of the buddhas possessed of the ten powers, to be able to see Noble Mañjuśrī face to face, to give Dharma discourses that will bear fruit, to encourage others to listen to Dharma teachings, to prevent the lineage of the buddhas from dying out, to gradually attain omniscience, to reach the tenth bodhisattva level called The Cloud of Dharma,768 to dry up and pacify the afflictions with the rain of ambrosia, to continually confer benefits on the people of the world, to guard the Dharma eye of the Tathāgata, to make the doctrine of the Tathāgata bear fruit, to manifest the power of the sādhana methods that involve the mantra practice,769 and to propagate the teaching of the greatness of all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyeka­buddhas, and noble śrāvakas.770 For all this, one needs to accomplish the complete teachings in this king of manuals. {10.58}

“This ritual of the king of paintings should be accomplished following the procedure taught in all the tantras and manuals of worldly and supramundane mantras that are to be recited by the practitioner in front of the superior type of painting. [F.152.b] [F.169.b] Briefly speaking, it can be accomplished through the rites taught in this and also other manuals. These mantras will quickly bring on the accomplishment. Whatever I have taught here will definitely bring accomplishment.” {10.59}