Mañjuśrī’s Increasing of Insight and Intelligence is a short dhāraṇī scripture centered on the figure of Mañjuśrī. It opens with a salutation to the Three Jewels, followed by the Sanskrit dhāraṇī proper, and concludes with an enumeration of the benefits accrued by its memorization. These include the swift attainment of intelligence, a melodious voice, and a beautiful appearance. It also extols physical contact with the material text, which is said to enable recollection of one’s former lives. The scripture concludes with a brief statement of the benefits accrued by extensive recitation, which culminate in beholding the very face of Mañjuśrī.
Translated by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer, 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.
Mañjuśrī’s Increasing of Insight and Intelligence is the fifth 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 text opens with a salutation to the Three Jewels, followed immediately by the Sanskrit dhāraṇī itself. The dhāraṇī is benevolent in tone, extolling Mañjuśrī’s immaculate nature, purifying agency, and graceful demeanor. This is followed by a list of the benefits accrued by its recitation, which include the swift attainment of intelligence, a melodious voice, and a beautiful appearance. Mere physical contact with the material text is also said to enable the recollection of former lives.
The scripture concludes with a guarantee by the speaker (presumably Mañjuśrī) of the dhāraṇī’s efficacy. This takes the form of a pledge to take on the karmic burden of the five misdeeds with immediate retribution, should the stated benefits of recitation fail to ensue. This pledge is nearly identical in form to the oaths and promises sworn by bodhisattvas in other similar sources.1 A more explicit presentation of this type of vow is also preserved in three Sanskrit practice manuals in the Sādhanamālā.2
A Sanskrit version of Mañjuśrī’s Increasing of Insight and Intelligence is to our knowledge no longer extant, and it appears the text was never translated into Chinese. The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon, so we have no information about the history of its transmission or the identity of its translators. However, its inclusion in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs indicates that it was translated no later than the early ninth century.3
This English translation is based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (Toh 549) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 895),44 in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and with the Stok Palace Kangyur.
namo mañjuśriye kumārabhūtāya5 ||
tadyathā | oṁ araje viraje | śuddhe viśuddhe | śodhani6 viśodhani7 | śodhaya viśodhaya | amale vimale | jayavati ru ru cale | hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ | phaṭ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā ||8
Those who memorize this will become intelligent within one month. Their voice will be melodious. Their appearance will be beautiful. After a single reading they will turn their back on cyclic existence for a thousand eons. By merely holding it in their hands they will recall former lives. After a hundred thousand recitations they will become erudite. After two hundred thousand recitations they will become vidyādharas.[F.168.a] After three hundred thousand recitations they will behold the face of Mañjuśrī.
If one who has committed the five misdeeds with immediate retribution does not thus succeed, then may I myself become guilty of committing the five misdeeds with immediate retribution and of deceiving the blessed buddhas.
This concludes “The Noble Lord Mañjuśrī’s Dḥāraṇī for Increasing Insight and Intelligence.”
Mañjuśrī’s Increasing of Insight and Intelligence is a short dhāraṇī scripture centered on the figure of Mañjuśrī. It opens with a salutation to the Three Jewels, followed by the Sanskrit dhāraṇī proper, and concludes with an enumeration of the benefits accrued by its memorization. These include the swift attainment of intelligence, a melodious voice, and a beautiful appearance. It also extols physical contact with the material text, which is said to enable recollection of one’s former lives. The scripture concludes with a brief statement of the benefits accrued by extensive recitation, which culminate in beholding the very face of Mañjuśrī.
Translated by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer, 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.
Mañjuśrī’s Increasing of Insight and Intelligence is the fifth 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 text opens with a salutation to the Three Jewels, followed immediately by the Sanskrit dhāraṇī itself. The dhāraṇī is benevolent in tone, extolling Mañjuśrī’s immaculate nature, purifying agency, and graceful demeanor. This is followed by a list of the benefits accrued by its recitation, which include the swift attainment of intelligence, a melodious voice, and a beautiful appearance. Mere physical contact with the material text is also said to enable the recollection of former lives.
The scripture concludes with a guarantee by the speaker (presumably Mañjuśrī) of the dhāraṇī’s efficacy. This takes the form of a pledge to take on the karmic burden of the five misdeeds with immediate retribution, should the stated benefits of recitation fail to ensue. This pledge is nearly identical in form to the oaths and promises sworn by bodhisattvas in other similar sources.1 A more explicit presentation of this type of vow is also preserved in three Sanskrit practice manuals in the Sādhanamālā.2
A Sanskrit version of Mañjuśrī’s Increasing of Insight and Intelligence is to our knowledge no longer extant, and it appears the text was never translated into Chinese. The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon, so we have no information about the history of its transmission or the identity of its translators. However, its inclusion in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs indicates that it was translated no later than the early ninth century.3
This English translation is based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (Toh 549) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 895),44 in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and with the Stok Palace Kangyur.
namo mañjuśriye kumārabhūtāya5 ||
tadyathā | oṁ araje viraje | śuddhe viśuddhe | śodhani6 viśodhani7 | śodhaya viśodhaya | amale vimale | jayavati ru ru cale | hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ | phaṭ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā ||8
Those who memorize this will become intelligent within one month. Their voice will be melodious. Their appearance will be beautiful. After a single reading they will turn their back on cyclic existence for a thousand eons. By merely holding it in their hands they will recall former lives. After a hundred thousand recitations they will become erudite. After two hundred thousand recitations they will become vidyādharas.[F.168.a] After three hundred thousand recitations they will behold the face of Mañjuśrī.
If one who has committed the five misdeeds with immediate retribution does not thus succeed, then may I myself become guilty of committing the five misdeeds with immediate retribution and of deceiving the blessed buddhas.
This concludes “The Noble Lord Mañjuśrī’s Dḥāraṇī for Increasing Insight and Intelligence.”
Similar statements are made by the bodhisattva Siṃhanāda in The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda, the bodhisattva Maitreya in The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge,” and Ārya Tārā in The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise,” all of which include the Tibetan term dam bcas pa in their titles.
Bhattacharyya, pp. 47–48, 52, 54. The statement can be found in two works with the title Siṃhanādasādhana (sādhana nos. 17 and 21), and the Siṃhanādadhāraṇī (no. 23). An example of this statement from the Siṃhanādadhāraṇī reads, “If this is not accomplished after seven, thirteen, or twenty-one days, even for one who has committed the five misdeeds with immediate retribution, I myself will be one who has committed the five misdeeds with immediate retribution” (yadi saptame divase trayodaśe divase ekaviṃśatitame vā divase pañcānantaryakāriṇo ’pi na sidhyaty ayaṃ tadā ’ham eva pañcānantaryakārī bhaviṣyāmi).
In the Denkarma the title is listed as ’phags pa shes rab kyi blo ’phel ba’i gzungs. Denkarma, folio 303.b; Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 249. The Phangthangma lists the title as ’phags pa shes rab ’phel ba’i gzungs (Phangthangma, p. 30). The Denkarma catalog is usually dated to ca. 812
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 895 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 895, n.4, for details.
This text, Toh 895, 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.
Provisional translation: “Homage to the ever-youthful Mañjuśrī. [The dhāraṇī] is: “Oṁ, immaculate, untainted, pure, utterly pure, purifying one, making perfectly pure! Do purify, make perfectly pure! O stainless, utterly stainless, and victorious one who moves with the roaring sounds ru ru! Hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ, phaṭ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā!” Our translation of the Sanskrit ru ru cale is tentative. It could alternatively be interpreted as one word (rurucale), meaning “you with the movements of an antelope” and implying grace and gentleness.
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
A cosmic period of time, sometimes equivalent to the time when a world system appears, exists, and disappears. According to the traditional Abhidharma understanding of cyclical time, a great eon (mahākalpa) is divided into eighty lesser eons. In the course of one great eon, the universe takes form and later disappears. During the first twenty of the lesser eons, the universe is in the process of creation and expansion; during the next twenty it remains; during the third twenty, it is in the process of destruction; and during the last quarter of the cycle, it remains in a state of empty stasis. A fortunate, or good, eon (bhadrakalpa) refers to any eon in which more than one buddha appears.
The five most negative actions. Upon death, those who have committed one or more of these immediately proceed to the hells without first experiencing the intermediate state. They are (1) killing an arhat, (2) killing one’s mother, (3) killing one’s father, (4) creating a schism in the saṅgha, and (5) maliciously drawing blood from a tathāgata’s body.
Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconographic form, he is portrayed bearing the sword of wisdom in his right hand and a volume of the Prajñāpāramitāsūtra in his left. To his name, Mañjuśrī, meaning “Gentle and Glorious One,” is often added the epithet Kumārabhūta, “having a youthful form.” He is also called Mañjughoṣa, Mañjusvara, and Pañcaśikha.
The Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—the three objects of Buddhist refuge. In the Tibetan rendering, “the three rare and supreme ones.”
A class of semidivine beings that are known for wielding (dhara) spells (vidyā). Loosely understood as “sorcerers.” The later Buddhist tradition, playing on the dual valences of vidyā as “spell” and “knowledge,” began to apply this term to realized beings.
rje btsun ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi shes rab dang blo ’phel ba zhes bya ba'i gzungs (Mañjuśrībhaṭṭārakasya prājñābuddhivardhanadhāraṇī). Toh 549, Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud, pa), folios 14.b.3–14.b.7.
rje btsun ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi shes rab dang blo ’phel ba zhes bya ba'i gzungs (Mañjuśrībhaṭṭārakasya prājñābuddhivardhanadhāraṇī). Toh 895, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 167.b.5–168.a.2.
rje btsun ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi shes rab dang blo ’phel ba zhes bya ba'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. 56–57.
rje btsun ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi shes rab dang blo ’phel ba zhes bya ba'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. 499–500.
rje btsun ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi shes rab dang blo ’phel ba zhes bya ba'i gzungs. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folios 495.b.5–496.a.3.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Āryamaitripratijñānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 643, Degé Kangyur vol. 91 (rgyud, ba), folios 127.b.2–128.a.3; and Toh 890, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 165.b.4–166.a.4.
’phags ma sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa’i gzungs (Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 730, Degé Kangyur vol. 94 (rgyud, tsha), folios 222.a–222.b; and Toh 1002, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, waM), folios 160.a–160.b. English translation in Lhasey Lotsawa Translations and Publications 2021.
seng+ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs. Toh 912, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 242.a.7–242.b.3.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh, ed. Sādhanamālā. 2 vols. First published, Baroda: Central Library, 1925. Reprint, Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1968.
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.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Lhasey Lotsawa Translations and Publications, trans. The Dhāraṇī “Tara’s Own Promise” (Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī, Toh 730). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.
