This text presents a single dhāraṇī for the attainment of the ten perfections.
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. Paul G. Hackett produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Rory Lindsay edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Sameer Dhingra was in charge of the digital publication process.
This text presents a single dhāraṇī for the attainment of the ten perfections1 that does not appear to be contained in any other canonical text. No additional explanation is given, although in Meisezahl’s manuscript the dhāraṇī is followed by a “confession and purification” (gso sbyong) ritual. The text appears to be a more condensed version of the dhāraṇī for the six individual perfections presented in Toh 580, and an alternate version of the idea set forth in Toh 579. No Sanskrit title is provided for this text, and its title is given on the basis of the Tibetan alone.
This translation of the text into English relied primarily on the Degé recension while referring to variant readings in other recensions as noted in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and validated in the source texts—notably Narthang.22 No previous translation of this text into a language outside the Tibetan sphere of influence is known. Meisezahl (1957) provides a diplomatic edition of the dhāraṇī found in the Linden Museum Tibetan collection.
namas saptānām3 tathāgatānām daśapāramitāparipūrakānām hrīḥ |4
This completes “The Dhāraṇī for Obtaining the Ten Perfections.”
This text presents a single dhāraṇī for the attainment of the ten perfections.
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. Paul G. Hackett produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Rory Lindsay edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Sameer Dhingra was in charge of the digital publication process.
This text presents a single dhāraṇī for the attainment of the ten perfections1 that does not appear to be contained in any other canonical text. No additional explanation is given, although in Meisezahl’s manuscript the dhāraṇī is followed by a “confession and purification” (gso sbyong) ritual. The text appears to be a more condensed version of the dhāraṇī for the six individual perfections presented in Toh 580, and an alternate version of the idea set forth in Toh 579. No Sanskrit title is provided for this text, and its title is given on the basis of the Tibetan alone.
This translation of the text into English relied primarily on the Degé recension while referring to variant readings in other recensions as noted in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and validated in the source texts—notably Narthang.22 No previous translation of this text into a language outside the Tibetan sphere of influence is known. Meisezahl (1957) provides a diplomatic edition of the dhāraṇī found in the Linden Museum Tibetan collection.
namas saptānām3 tathāgatānām daśapāramitāparipūrakānām hrīḥ |4
This completes “The Dhāraṇī for Obtaining the Ten Perfections.”
Of the four types of dhāraṇīs described by the fourth-century scholar-yogi Asaṅga—Dharma dhāraṇīs (dharmadhāraṇī; chos kyi gzungs), meaning dhāraṇīs (arthadhāraṇī; don gyi gzungs), mantra dhāraṇīs (mantradhāraṇī; gsang sngags kyi gzungs), and bodhisattva forbearance dhāraṇīs (bodhisattvakṣāntilābhāyadhāraṇī; byang chub sems dpa’ bzod pa ’thob par byed pa’i gzungs)—this text falls into the category of bodhisattva forbearance dhāraṇīs which enable one to progress along the path. Cf. Grounds of Bodhisattvas (Bodhisattvabhūmi; byang chub sems dpa’i sa; Toh 4037, folio 144.a). A discussion of various classifications of dhāraṇīs is given in Pagel 2007.
This text, Toh 937, 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 937 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 937, n.2, for details.
The dhāraṇī translates as “Homage to you, O seven tathāgatas, you who are completely filled with the ten perfections. hrīḥ.” In Meisezahl’s manuscript, this dhāraṇī is followed by a “confession and purification” (gso sbyong) ritual.
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 set of practices to be mastered by those on the bodhisattva path: (1) generosity, (2) discipline, (3) patience, (4) diligence, (5) meditative concentration, (6) wisdom, (7) skillful means, (8) strength, (9) aspirations, and (10) knowledge.
pha rol tu phyin pa bcu thob par ’gyur ba’i gzungs. Toh 581, Degé Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud, pha), folio 203.b.
pha rol tu phyin pa bcu thob par ’gyur ba’i gzungs. Toh 937, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs ’dus, e), folio 281.b.
pha rol tu phyin pa bcu thob par ’gyur ba’i gzungs. (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. 90, pp. 657–58.
Meisezahl, Richard O. “Die tibetischen Handschriften und Drucke des Linden-Museums in Stuttgart.” Tribus 7 (1957): 1–166, 103–4 (item 71 607, Nr. 2).
Pagel, Ulrich. Mapping the Path: Vajrapadas in Mahāyāna Literature. Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2007.
