Explore Our Publications
Search our current published translations by their title, Tōhoku number, and by words in text descriptions.
In this sūtra, the goddess Tārā recites a dhāraṇī before an assembly of gods, asuras, and spirits of various types, which brings them peace and stills their speech. The assembled beings then sing praise for Tārā in the form of one hundred and eight epithets of the goddess. Tārā gives a pithy teaching on the importance of seeking liberation and on the right attitude needed for this endeavor. Finally, the goddess gives encouragement and extols the power of the dhāraṇī.
The Dhāraṇī “The Ritual of the Blue-Clad Vajrapāṇi” teaches a vidyāmantra of Vajrapāṇi that can be used in a number of ritual actions to achieve worldly goals such as healing disease, gaining wealth, and protection.
In this concise text, Vajrapāṇi, through the power and blessings of the Buddha and all bodhisattvas, proclaims a series of powerful dhāraṇī-mantras. The text concludes with verses on the benefits of the dhāraṇī and a simple ablution ritual.
The Noble Dhāraṇī of Māṇibhadra is a short dhāraṇī text aimed at accomplishing worldly goals. The spell is offered by the yakṣa Māṇibhadra to the Buddha at Śrāvastī. The yakṣa promises to rush to the aid of a person who recites the dhāraṇī and to provide them with worldly necessities and success in all kinds of activities. The text closes with a short ritual meant for obtaining gold.
The Dhāraṇī of Compassionate Noble Jambhala, Lord of the Waters, Called “Peacemaker” is a short dhāraṇī text aimed at accomplishing worldly aims. The spell is offered by the yakṣa and bodhisattva Māṇibhadra to the Buddha, who is residing in the yakṣa’s abode. The yakṣa promises to rush to the aid of a person who recites the dhāraṇī and provide worldly necessities and success in all kinds of activities. The text closes with a short ritual aimed at obtaining gold.
The short aspiration The Auspiciousness of the Three Families consists of three benedictory verses lauding the lords of the three families, Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, and Vajrapāṇi, as expressions of the auspiciousness of the Sugata’s body, speech, and mind.
The Auspiciousness of the Three Families is a short aspiration prayer that consists of three verses lauding the lords of the three families, Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, and Vajrapāṇi, as expressions of the auspiciousness of the Sugata’s body, speech, and mind.
The Noble King of Spells, the Dhāraṇī of Agrapradīpa presents six distinct dhāraṇī formulas that can be used for protection from threatening forces and illness, to facilitate the path to awakening, and to bring the practitioner into harmony with other beings. As the Buddha Śākyamuni resides at Jeta Grove near the city of Śrāvastī, he is visited by two bodhisattvas sent as emissaries by the Buddha Agrapradīpa, who resides in a distant buddhafield named Infinite Flowers. These bodhisattvas present the first of the six dhāraṇīs as an offering to Śākyamuni from Agrapradīpa. Inspired by their example, additional dhāraṇīs are then presented: one each by Maitreya and Mañjuśrī, two by Śākyamuni himself, and a final formula recited by the Four Great Kings. After the presentation of each dhāraṇī, the Buddha tells Ānanda of the rarity of such dhāraṇīs and describes the benefits that accrue from their recitation.
The Dhāraṇī “The Essence of Vairocana”, which pays homage to the Three Jewels, the Buddha Vairocana, and the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha, contains the dhāraṇī of Vairocana or Ākāśagarbha. It lists the following benefits for one who recites it: protection from weapons, fire, water, poison, poisoned food and drink, hostile magic, kings, thieves, epidemics, pain, contagions, and so forth, and the attainment of the samādhi called stainless light.
This short untitled text teaches a dhāraṇī and a rite for its practice.
The Dhāraṇī of Āvaraṇaviṣkambhin presents two short dhāraṇīs that purify evil deeds, ease the dying process, and bring about birth in the heavenly realms.
The Dhāraṇī of Accomplishing the Boundless Gateways narrates the Buddha’s transmission of a dhāraṇī to a vast assembly of monks and bodhisattvas. It explains the dhāraṇī’s purpose and benefits, what qualities must be possessed in order to obtain it, and how its practice leads to the state of enlightenment.
The Dhāraṇī of Vajrapāṇi, the Yakṣa Lord is a short work that teaches a vidyāmantra of Vajrakumāra, which is said to repel and avert illness, as well as other malevolent actions perpetrated by a variety of spirits and enemies, and to grant protection to the individual who recites or wears it.
This text consists of a short mantra for incanting medicines that has been extracted from Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm (Toh 558). Dharmacakra Translation Committee, trans., Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm, Toh 558 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2016).
The Jewel Garland of Yoga is a commentary on the Hevajra Tantra, one of the most important texts of the Yoginī Tantra class of esoteric Buddhist literature. Written by the master and scholar Kāṇha, who himself was a holder of a Hevajra transmission lineage within the first two hundred years of the appearance of the root text, it is now one of the most highly regarded commentaries of the Hevajra system. It is written in the pañjikā style, in which the root text is analyzed word by word lexically and grammatically, and is treated with an exhaustive exegetical analysis. The commentary not only analyzes the text itself, but also explains the most important tenets of the Yoginī Tantras broadly.
The Dhāraṇī of Siṃhanāda is a short work that teaches an Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda dhāraṇī and gives a short instruction for using it to cure illness.
The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines is a detailed explanation of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, presenting a structural framework for them that is relatively easy to understand in comparison to most other commentaries based on Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Ornament for the Clear Realizations. After a detailed, word-by-word explanation of the introductory chapter common to all three sūtras, it explains the structure they also all share in terms of the three approaches or “gateways”—brief, intermediate, and detailed—ending with an explanation of the passage known as the “Maitreya chapter” found only in the Eighteen Thousand Line and Twenty-Five Thousand Line sūtras. It goes by many different titles, and its authorship has never been conclusively determined, some Tibetans believing it to be by Vasubandhu, and others that it is by Daṃṣṭrāsena.
This short commentary, ascribed to Vasubandhu, explains The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Four Factors (Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra, Toh 251), a discourse on a set of four factors of the path of a bodhisattva: the thought of awakening, the spiritual friend, the twin qualities of tolerance and lenience, and dwelling in the forest. The commentary proposes various reasons for the sūtra’s composition and explains why it refers to bodhisattvas as followers of the Great Vehicle. It also specifies the four factors, which obstructive elements these factors overcome, which beneficial elements they support, and why śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not called bodhisattvas.
This is the third chapter of the Degé Kangyur Catalog, which describes the publication history of the Degé Kangyur. Authored by the Degé Kangyur’s main editor, Situ Paṇchen Chökyi Jungné, at the conclusion of the five-year project in 1733, it is a document rich in historical detail. First it covers the history of the Degé region and the royal family of Degé. Then it offers extensive praise for the qualities of Tenpa Tsering, the king of Degé and throne holder of Lhundrup Teng Monastery, who was the project’s main sponsor. After that is an erudite history of previous collections of translated Buddhist scriptures in Tibet since the time of the earliest translations during the Tibetan imperial period, and finally it describes the editorial process and practical challenges involved in producing a xylograph Kangyur of such quality.