The Dhāraṇī for Obtaining the Ten Perfections
Toh 937
Degé Kangyur, vol. 100 (gzungs ’dus, e), folio 281.b
Imprint
First published 2024
Current version v 1.0.3 (2024)
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Table of Contents
Summary
This text presents a single dhāraṇī for the attainment of the ten perfections.
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. 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.
Introduction
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.2 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.
Text Body
The Translation
By hearing this essence mantra of the ten perfections, even one time, one will obtain the ten perfections:
This completes “The Dhāraṇī for Obtaining the Ten Perfections.”
Notes
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.
Bibliography
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.
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.
ten perfections
- pha rol tu phyin pa bcu
- ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བཅུ།
- daśapāramitā AD