The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth
Toh 647
Degé Kangyur, vol. 91 (rgyud, ba), folios 132.b–134.a
Imprint
Translated by the Alexander Csoma de Kőrös Translation Group under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2023
Current version v 1.0.4 (2024)
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Table of Contents
Summary
This short text narrates Ānanda’s nocturnal encounter in the Banyan Grove in Kapilavastu with a gruesome female preta, or “hungry ghost,” with a burning mouth. The ghost tells Ānanda that he will die imminently and be reborn in the realm of the pretas unless he satisfies innumerable pretas with offerings of food the following morning. Terrified, Ānanda goes quickly to the Buddha and asks for advice. The Buddha then teaches Ānanda a dhāraṇī and an associated food offering ritual that together will satisfy innumerable ghosts and will cause offerings to the Three Jewels to multiply. The Buddha then instructs Ānanda to memorize and widely propagate this practice.
Acknowledgements
Translated by the Alexander Csoma de Kőrös Translation Group: Krisztina Teleki in collaboration with Karma Dorje (Rabjampa), and assistance from Beáta Kakas (Sanskrit) and William Dewey (English). Edited and introduced by George FitzHerbert, and finalized by members of the 84000 editorial team.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth is one of two closely related texts found together in the Degé Kangyur1 in which the Buddha teaches a dhāraṇī and associated food offering ritual to relieve pretas of their sufferings.2 The other text is The Dhāraṇī of Refuge for the Preta Flaming Mouth (Toh 646/1080). These texts have had a significant legacy for the ritual traditions of Buddhist Asia, serving as foundations for the traditions of giving compassionate food offerings to alleviate the suffering of spirits and ghosts. The present text is the shorter of the two, corresponding (though not precisely matching) Śikṣānanda’s Chinese translation in the Chinese Buddhist canon (Taishō 1314).
The sūtra narrates Ānanda’s3 nocturnal encounter with a gruesome female preta, or “hungry ghost,” known by the epithet Flaming Mouth (Tib. kha ’bar ma),4 who threatens him with imminent death unless he satisfies innumerable pretas and brahmin ascetics with food offerings. Ānanda seeks the Buddha’s advice, whereupon the Buddha gives him a dhāraṇī and brief instructions for how to use it to consecrate bali (Tib. gtor ma) offerings that will magically satisfy innumerable pretas, relieve them of their suffering, and cause them to be reborn as gods. The Buddha further states that the ritual will be of great benefit to whoever performs it and will prevent them from being bothered by nonhuman spirits and hostile forces. He instructs Ānanda to propagate the practice widely.
The Tibetan text has no colophon, so little is known for certainty about its translation history or possible Indian origins. However, it is listed in the Denkarma imperial catalog,5 indicating that the Tibetan translation was made no later than the early ninth century ᴄᴇ. A version of the parallel text (Toh 646/1080) also exists among the manuscripts discovered in the cave library at Dunhuang (IOL Tib J 349). No extant Sanskrit version of either text has been identified, and its Sanskrit title is unknown.
This text was translated into Chinese by Śikṣānanda between 700 and 704 ᴄᴇ6 (Foshuo jiu mianran egui tuoluoni shenzhou jing 說救面燃餓鬼陀羅尼神咒經, Taishō 1314).7 Some decades later, between 757 and 770,8 a slightly longer version, corresponding to Toh 646, was translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra (Taishō 1313).9 Both Chinese texts have been translated into English by Lye (2003).10 The Chinese and Tibetan texts mirror each other in their respective length and content (Toh 647 with Taishō 1314, and Toh 646 with Taishō 1313), so it is possible that the Tibetan translations were made from the Chinese. However, in some significant details they diverge. For example, in the Tibetan of the present text (Toh 647) the main preta protagonist is explicitly female (Tib. yi dags mo), something that is not found in either Chinese text. This observation led Lye (2003) to tentatively conclude that the Tibetan versions were probably made directly from two variant iterations of the narration that circulated in Sanskrit. The two Tibetan texts, while clearly presenting the same narrative, differ in their wording.
As shown by Lye (2003), the Chinese versions of these texts are foundational to the Yuqie yankou (瑜伽燄口) and Shuilu (水陸) ghost-feeding rites, as well as the annual Ghost Festival in Chinese Buddhism, which takes place in the seventh lunar month. Such rituals appear to have developed from the late Tang and early Song periods in China,11 from whence they spread to Vietnam and also to Japan.12
Fire and flames are a common—if secondary—feature of descriptions of pretas in the canonical literature both Chinese and Tibetan,13 and in some Tibetan sources, the preta known by the epithet “flaming mouth” is presented as a “queen of pretas” (Tib. yi dwags kyi rgyal mo), though she is not explicitly described as such in this text. The torma (Tib. gtor ma, Skt. bali) offering ritual for the preta Flaming Mouth has a long history in Tibet. The Blue Annals, for example, mentions the eleventh–twelfth-century master Dzeng Dharmabodhi requesting instruction on the “Great Torma Offering of Flaming Mouth.”14 The ritual is also mentioned in the writings of Sakya Paṇḍita (1182–1251) in the thirteenth century, who identified it as a rite that was inaccurately performed in Tibet.15 In the eighteenth century the actual dhāraṇī was included in the compendium of dhāraṇī in four scripts (Tibetan, Manchurian, Chinese, and Mongolian) compiled under Chankya Rolpé Dorjé and the Qianlong emperor.16
The epithet “flaming mouth” or “blazing mouth” (Tib. kha ’bar ma) for pitiful female ghosts, both as a name for an individual figure and a class of beings, features in a number of “averting death” (Tib. ’chi bslu), repelling harm (bzlog pa), and “thread-cross” (mdos) rituals.17 For example, the figure White Flaming Mouth (kha ’bar ma dkar mo) is found in a number of such ritual texts dating from the eighteenth century, though the relationship between this figure and the protagonist of the present canonical text remains to be explored.
As a proper name, “Flaming Mouth,” kha ’bar ma in Tibetan, corresponding in at least some attested sources to the Sanskrit Jvālāmukhī (female) or Jvālāmukha (male), is also found in a range of tantras referring to various minor deities. Of more specific relevance, in the Guhyagarbhatantra and other tantras of the Nyingma tradition the masculine form is the name of the nirmāṇakāya sage (Muni) who manifests in the realm of the pretas, one of six such Munis corresponding to the six realms and numbered among the one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities of the maṇḍala.18
The dhāraṇī and the associated rite of compassionate appeasement for worldly spirits described here, as well as a large number of liturgical arrangements incorporating the dhāraṇī formula are still widely used in the Tibetan and Mongolian19 cultural areas. Many such liturgies involve the invocation or visualization of Avalokiteśvara, just as some of the related practices in Chinese tradition may incorporate the bodhisattva Guanyin.20
The category of such practices in which the offering consists of water alone (Tib. chu gtor) may derive from the additional way of making offerings mentioned in the present text (see 1.11)—but not in the other version, Toh 646/ 1080, even though the latter, with its greater detail in other respects, may represent a later and more elaborated form.
As far as we are aware, this is the first translation of the Tibetan text into any European language. An early French translation of the parallel text (Toh 646) was published by Léon Feer in 1883.21
This translation was made from the Tibetan version in the Degé Kangyur, where the text is found twice in almost identical editions, once in the Tantra (rgyud) section and once in the Dhāraṇī (gzungs) section. The Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace Kangyur editions were also consulted for variant readings.
Text Body
The Translation
Homage to the Three Jewels.
Once, the Blessed One was staying at Banyan Grove in Kapilavastu with a great congregation of monks, a great assembly of bodhisattvas, and a great assembly of other beings, teaching them the Dharma. In the meantime, Ānanda was in seclusion, meditating and realizing the Dharma through single-pointed contemplation.
During the last watch of the night, the female preta Flaming Mouth came before him and spoke, “O Ānanda, you will die the day after tomorrow and be reborn in the realm of pretas.”
The female preta replied, “Ānanda, if in the morning you offer food and drink in the amount of seven large Magadhan bushels to each and every preta as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, and satisfy one hundred thousand brahmin ascetics, and make an offering in my name to the Three Jewels, then your life will be extended, and I will transmigrate from the realm of the pretas and be reborn in the upper realms.”
Then Ānanda saw that female preta Flaming Mouth. She was wasted and ugly, with an emaciated body, tongues of flame coming from her mouth, and her belly and mouth shriveled up. Her hair was matted and in disarray, and she had long nails and body hair. Hearing her jarring and unpleasant words, he was so afraid that the hairs all over his body stood on end. [F.133.a] He rose from his seat, and went hurriedly, very quickly, to where the Blessed One was.
On arriving, he prostrated to the Blessed One and, trembling, he begged, “Blessed One, please protect me! Well-Gone One, please protect me! I will be killed the day after tomorrow. Blessed One, I saw the female preta Flaming Mouth and she told me, ‘You will die the day after tomorrow.’ I asked her, ‘What method is there to avoid it?’ She replied, ‘If you satisfy pretas as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, as well as one hundred thousand brahmin ascetics, then your life will be extended.’ Blessed One, please tell me how I can do this.”
Then the Blessed One, the Thus-Gone One Śākyamuni, said to venerable Ānanda, “Ānanda, do not be afraid! There is a method to satisfy the pretas and the brahmin ascetics. Ānanda, there is a dhāraṇī called the great powerful light that illumines everything.23 Just making an offering with this will satisfy pretas as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, so that each and every preta and brahmin ascetic will be given seven Magadhan bushels of food and drink. Long ago, when I was a brahmin, I received this dhāraṇī from the bodhisattva mahāsattva Lokeśvara and the Thus-Gone One Lokeśvaraprabha.24 With this dhāraṇī I satisfied numerous, countless pretas and brahmin ascetics with food and drink, and all of them transmigrated from the realm of the pretas [F.133.b] and were reborn in the realm of the gods. Ānanda, remember and accept it:
“Ānanda, recite this spell seven times over the bali for the preta. Then, extending your arm, offer it in front of the door, snap your fingers, and clap.26 Immediately after you offer it in this way, all the pretas of the four directions, as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, will be satisfied, and each preta will be given seven Magadhan bushels. Merely by consuming it, they will transmigrate from the realm of the pretas and be reborn among the gods.
“Ānanda, you should constantly and incessantly relate this to the monks and nuns and the male and female lay devotees around you. For those who act in this way, a heap of merit will be accrued and their life will be long. They will obtain the combined heaps of merit of a trillion thus-gone ones, and will become invisible to those spirits that wander incessantly in nonhuman forms—bhūtas, piśācas, kumbhāṇḍas,27 and others; yakṣas, rākṣasas, grahas, and pretas. They will become strong and diligent. They will obtain beauty, charisma, and mindfulness.
“To satisfy brahmin ascetics, fill a container with the clean water to be offered, recite the dhāraṇī seven times, and make the offering at any place where water is swiftly flowing. When this is done accordingly, brahmin ascetics as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges will be satisfied with divine food and drink. Those brahmin ascetics will be thoroughly sated, and they will cry, “ Oṃ! May all be well!” In this way, the intentions of those beings will be completely purified, [F.134.a] and they will have the charisma of brahmins. They will always live the religious life, they will obtain the roots of virtue of thus-gone ones as numerous as the billions of grains of sand of the river Ganges, and all their enemies will always be destroyed.28
“Recite the dhāraṇī twenty-one times over flowers, incense, perfume, or food and drink, and then offer them to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. If that is done accordingly, noble sons and noble daughters, monks and nuns, and male and female lay devotees will revere, honor, and worship the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha of the buddhafields of all the thus-gone ones in the ten directions with divine offerings and the supreme offerings of the thus-gone ones. They will be in the intentions and prophecies of all the thus-gone ones, and will be protected by all the gods.
“Ānanda, go, and accept this! Teach it correctly, again and again, to all beings. Perform all the roots of virtue. Thus have I spoken.”
This concludes “The Bali Ritual to Relieve the Female Preta Flaming Mouth.”
Notes
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 1079 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 1079, note 2, for details.
Bibliography
Tibetan
yi dags mo kha ‘bar ma dbugs dbyung ba’i gtor ma’i cho ga. Toh 647, Degé Kangyur, vol. 91 (rgyud, ba), folios 132.b–134.a.
yi dags mo kha ‘bar ma dbugs dbyung ba’i gtor ma’i cho ga. Toh 1079, Degé Kangyur, vol. 101 (gzungs, wam), folios 240.b–242.b.
yi dags mo kha ‘bar ma dbugs dbyung ba’i gtor ma’i cho ga. bka’ ‘gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Pedurma Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ‘jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Compilation 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. 91, pp. 484–89.
yi dags mo kha ‘bar ma dbugs dbyung ba’i gtor ma’i cho ga. bka’ ‘gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Pedurma Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ‘jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Compilation 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. 837–41.
yi dags mo kha ’bar ma dbugs dbyung ba’i gtor ma’i cho ga. Stok Palace Kangyur, vol. 105 (rgyud, pha), folios 92.a.–94.a.
[Toh 646] yi dags kha nas me ‘bar ba la skyabs mdzad pa’i gzungs. bka’ ‘gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Pedurma Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ‘jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Compilation 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. 91, pp. 475–82.
Choné Drakpa Zhédrup (co ne drags pa bshad sgrub). gsung ’bum [Collected Works], vol. 14, pp. 153–65. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009. BDRC W1PD90129.
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.
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Zhonnu Pel (gzhon nu dpal). deb ther sngon po. Chengdu: si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984. BDRC W1KG5762.
Chinese and Mongolian
Aman daγan γal badaraγči em-e birid-i amuγulqui baling-un ǰang üile. Mongolian Kanjur, vol. 24, folios 304.a–306.b. Edited by Lokesh Chandra. Śata-piṭaka Series 101–208. New Delhi: Sharada Rani, 1973–79.
Western Languages
Chandra, Lokesh. Sanskrit Texts from the Imperial Palace at Peking in the Manchurian, Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan Scripts. 22 vols. New Delhi: Institute for the Advancement of Science and Culture, 1966-76.
Choying Tobden Dorje, tr. Gyurme Dorje. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahāyoga (2 vols). Boulder: Snow Lion, 2016.
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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
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Ānanda
- kun dga’ bo
- ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།
- ānanda
bali
- gtor ma
- གཏོར་མ།
- bali
Banyan Grove
- nya gro dha’i kun dga’ ra ba
- ཉ་གྲོ་དྷའི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
- nyagrodhārāma
bhūta
- ’byung po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- bhūta
billions
- bye ba khrag khrig phrag ’bum
- བྱེ་བ་ཁྲག་ཁྲིག་ཕྲག་འབུམ།
- koṭiniyutaśatasahasra
blessed one
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavat
bodhisattva
- byang chub sems dpa’
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- bodhisattva
brahmarṣis
- bram ze’i drang srong
- བྲམ་ཟེའི་དྲང་སྲོང་།
- brahmarṣi
brahmin
- bram ze
- བྲམ་ཟེ།
- brāhmaṇa
brahmin ascetics
- bram ze’i drang srong
- བྲམ་ཟེའི་དྲང་སྲོང་།
- brahmarṣi
buddhafield
- sangs rgyas kyi zhing
- སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་།
- buddhakṣetra
dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
female preta
- yi dags mo
- ཡི་དགས་མོ།
- *pretikā
Ganges
- gang gA’i klung
- གང་གཱའི་ཀླུང་།
- gaṅgā
graha
- gdon
- གདོན།
- graha
Kapilavastu
- yul ser skya
- ཡུལ་སེར་སྐྱ།
- kapilavastu
kumbhāṇḍa
- grul bum
- གྲུལ་བུམ།
- kumbhāṇḍa
lay devotee
- dge bsnyen
- dge bsnyen ma
- དགེ་བསྙེན།
- དགེ་བསྙེན་མ།
- upāsaka
- upāsikā
Lokeśvara
- ’jig rten dbang phyug
- འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག
- lokeśvara
Lokeśvaraprabha
- ’jig rten dbang phyug ’od
- འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་འོད།
- lokeśvaraprabha
Magadhan bushel
- ma ga dha’i bre bo
- མ་ག་དྷའི་བྲེ་བོ།
- —
method
- thabs
- ཐབས།
- upāya
monk
- dge slong
- དགེ་སློང་།
- bhikṣu
Nanda
- dga’ bo
- དགའ་བོ།
- nanda
nun
- dge slong ma
- དགེ་སློང་མ།
- bhikṣuṇī
offering ritual
- gtor ma’i cho ga
- གཏོར་མའི་ཆོ་ག
- balividhi
offering water
- mchod yon
- མཆོད་ཡོན།
- argha
piśāca
- sha za
- ཤ་ཟ།
- piśāca
preta
- yi dags
- ཡི་དགས།
- preta
rākṣasa
- srin po
- སྲིན་པོ།
- rākṣasa
religious life
- tshangs pa lha’i spyod pa
- ཚངས་པ་ལྷའི་སྤྱོད་པ།
- brahmacārya
root of virtue
- dge ba’i rtsa ba
- དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ།
- kuśalamūla
Three Jewels
- dkon mchog gsum
- དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།
- triratna
thus-gone one
- de bzhin gshegs pa
- དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
- tathāgata
well-gone one
- bde bar gshegs pa
- བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ།
- sugata
yakṣa
- gnod sbyin
- གནོད་སྦྱིན།
- yakṣa