Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself
Toh 545
Degé Kangyur, vol. 89 (rgyud ’bum, pa), folios 13.a–13.b
- Jñānagarbha
- Bandé Lui Wangpo
- Viśuddhasiṃha
- Bandé Devacandra
Imprint
Translated by the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2023
Current version v 1.0.9 (2023)
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Table of Contents
Summary
Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself provides an incantatory practice taught by Mañjuśrī. The dhāraṇī has two sections: the first extols Mañjuśrī as a tathāgata, an arhat, and a perfectly awakened buddha, and the second invokes a bhagavatī who is praised as an illuminator and supplicated for protection.
Acknowledgements
Translated by David Mellins, Kaia Fischer, and Erin Sperry, with Geshé Lobsang Dawa and Phakyab Rinpoche (Geshé Ngawang Sungrab), under the auspices of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York. Introduction by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer. Special thanks to Paul Hackett for generously sharing his bibliographic expertise and resources. This translation would not have been possible without the kind and dedicated tutelage of Gen Lozang Jamspal, Executive Director, Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
The Noble Dhāraṇī “Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself” is the first 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.
The dhāraṇī proper has two sections: the first extols Mañjuśrī as a tathāgata, an arhat, and a perfectly awakened buddha, and the second invokes a bhagavatī who is praised as an illuminator and supplicated for protection. The scripture then details the extraordinary benefits accrued by even a single recitation of the dhāraṇī—the eradication of karmic obscurations collected over a thousand eons and, at death, the sight of Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara. Although the title indicates that the dhāraṇī was spoken by Mañjuśrī, the text does not include a framing narrative.
The colophon to the Tibetan translation states that it was translated from Sanskrit by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and the translator Bandé Lui Wangpo and finalized by the Indian preceptor Viśuddhasiṃha and the editor-translator Bandé Devacandra. This allows us to date the text to the late eighth or early ninth century ᴄᴇ, when these scholars and translators flourished. This dating is also supported by the text’s inclusion in the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs.1 A Sanskrit version of this work is, to our knowledge, no longer extant, and it appears that the text was never translated into Chinese.
Text Body
Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself
The Translation
Homage to the Three Jewels! Homage to noble Mañjuśrī!
namo ratnatrayāya | namo bhagavate dharmadhātunigarjitarājāya tathāgatāya arhate samyaksambuddhāya | [F.13.b] namo mañjuśrīye kumārabhūtāya ||3
tadyathā | oṁ jñānāloke triratnavaṃśasaṃdhāraṇi4 bhagavati abhayaṃ5 dādi abhayaṃ6 datte me bodhicittavajraparipālaya samantāvabhāsena hana hana sarvasattvasaṃtānapatitaṃ7 kleśān ucchedaya8 varalakṣaṇālaṃkṛtaśarīre9 bodhisattvaśiśūn10 paripālaya11 buddhān ādeśaya12 devanāgayakṣagandharvāsuragaruḍakinnaramahoragān13 vaśe sthāpaya14 abhayaṃ15 dadati svāhā ||16
As for the benefits of this dhāraṇī, even a single recitation will purify the karmic obscurations accrued over a thousand eons, and at the time of death one will behold noble Mañjuśrī.17 One will also behold the body of noble Avalokiteśvara, his head adorned with a topknot. In short, the benefits of this dhāraṇī are limitless.
Colophon
Translated by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and the translator Bandé Lui Wangpo and finalized by the Indian preceptor Viśuddhasiṃha and chief editor-translator Bandé Devacandra.
Notes
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 892 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 892, n.2, for details.
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
’jam dpal gyi zhal nas gsungs pa’i gzungs (Mañjuśrīsvākhyātadhāraṇī). Toh 545, Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud, pa), folios 13.a.6–13.b.4.
’jam dpal gyi zhal nas gsungs pa’i gzungs (Mañjuśrīsvākhyātadhāraṇī). Toh 892, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 166.b.4–167.a.2.
’jam dpal gyi zhal nas gsungs pa’i gzungs. bka’ ’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. 89, pp. 45–46.
’jam dpal gyi zhal nas gsungs pa’i gzungs. bka’ ’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. 97, pp. 491–92.
’jam dpal gyi zhal nas gsungs pa’i gzungs. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folios 493.b.6–494.b.1.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ʼphang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Western Language Sources
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
affliction
- nyon mongs
- ཉོན་མོངས།
- kleśa
arhat
- dgra bcom pa
- དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།
- arhat
asura
- lha ma yin
- ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
- asura
Avalokiteśvara
- spyan ras gzigs
- སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།
- avalokiteśvara
Blessed Lady
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavatī
Blessed One
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavat
bodhisattva
- byang chub sems dpa’
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- bodhisattva
deva
- lha
- ལྷ།
- deva
Devacandra
- de ba tsan+d+ra
- དེ་བ་ཙནྡྲ།
- devacandra
dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
dharmadhātu
- chos kyi dbyings
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- dharmadhātu
eon
- bskal pa
- བསྐལ་པ།
- kalpa
ever youthful
- gzhon nur gyur pa
- གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ།
- kumārabhūta
gandharva
- dri za
- དྲི་ཟ།
- gandharva
garuḍa
- nam mkha’ lding
- ནམ་མཁའ་ལྡིང་།
- garuḍa
Jñānagarbha
- dz+nyA na gar+b+ha
- ཛྙཱ་ན་གརྦྷ།
- jñānagarbha
karmic obscuration
- las kyi sgrib
- ལས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ།
- karmāvaraṇa
kinnara
- mi ’am ci
- མི་འམ་ཅི།
- kinnara
- kiṃnara
Lui Wangpo
- klu’i dbang po
- ཀླུའི་དབང་པོ།
- —
mahoraga
- lto ’phye chen po
- ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahoraga
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- mañjuśrī
mind of awakening
- byang chub sems
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།
- bodhicitta
nāga
- klu
- ཀླུ།
- nāga
tathāgata
- de bzhin gshegs pa
- དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
- tathāgata
Three Jewels
- dkon mchog gsum
- དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།
- ratnatraya
vajra
- rdo rje
- རྡོ་རྗེ།
- vajra
Viśuddhasiṃha
- bi shud+d+ha siM ha
- བི་ཤུདྡྷ་སིཾ་ཧ།
- viśuddhasiṃha
yakṣa
- gnod sbyin
- གནོད་སྦྱིན།
- yakṣa