Recollecting the Common Essence of the Tathāgatas
Toh 869
Degé Kangyur, vol. 100 (gzungs ’dus, e), folio 89.a
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First published 2025
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
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. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Nathaniel Rich edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
Recollecting the Common Essence of the Tathāgatas includes a short dhāraṇī that is identified as the common essence of all tathāgatas, along with a statement that reciting it even once brings an end to the obscurations of eight hundred million eons.
The text is found in the Degé Kangyur in both the Tantra section, where it is classed as an action tantra (bya rgyud, kriyātantra), and in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section.
The work lacks a Sanskrit title as well as a colophon and is not listed in any of the imperial-period catalogs. However, a text bearing the same title does appear at Dunhuang, suggesting that the text was translated into Tibetan and circulated in Tibet in a relatively early period.1
We are unaware of any extant Sanskrit recension or Chinese translation of Recollecting the Common Essence of the Tathāgatas.
This translation was made on the basis of the two Degé Kangyur recensions of the text (Toh 5362 and Toh 8693), with reference to the Stok Palace edition as well as the notes to the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). There are no major discrepancies among the recensions consulted. The dhāraṇī itself has been transcribed exactly as it appears in Toh 536.
Text Body
Notes
In the Toh 536 version of the text there is a slight discrepancy in the folio numbering between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings of the Degé Kangyur. Although the discrepancy is irrelevant here, further details concerning this may be found in n.2 of the Toh 536 version of this text.
This text, Toh 869, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs ’dus, waM), 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.
Bibliography
Source Texts
de bzhin gshegs pa spyi’i snying po rjes su dran pa. Toh 536, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud, na), folio 83.a.
de bzhin gshegs pa spyi’i snying po rjes su dran pa. Toh 869, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs ’dus, e), folio 89.a.
de bzhin gshegs pa spyi’i snying po rjes su dran pa. 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. 88, p. 322.
de bzhin gshegs pa spyi’i snying po rjes su dran pa. 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, p. 255.
de bzhin gshegs pa spyi’i snying po rjes su dran pa. S496. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folio 102.b.
Secondary Sources
Dalton, Jacob, and Sam van Schaik, eds. Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library 12. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
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.