Published Translations
For quick and easy access, this list gathers into a single page the texts completed and published so far, as well as showing which sections of the Kangyur they are found in.
| Publications: 40 | Total Pages: 220 |
Published Translations Filtered by: Recited Texts
The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ། · bcom ldan ’das ma shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i snying po
Bhagavatīprajñāpāramitāhṛdaya
Summary
In this famous scripture, known popularly as The Heart Sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni inspires his senior monk Śāriputra to request instructions from the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara on the way to practice the perfection of wisdom. Avalokiteśvara then describes how an aspiring practitioner of the perfection of wisdom must first understand how all phenomena lack an intrinsic nature, which amounts to the realization of emptiness. Next, Avalokiteśvara reveals a brief mantra that the practitioner can recite as a method for engendering this understanding experientially. Following Avalokiteśvara’s teaching, the Buddha offers his endorsement and confirms that this is the foremost way to practice the perfection of wisdom.
Title variants
- The Heart of the Illustrious Perfection of Wisdom
- The Heart Sūtra
- The Essence of the Perfection of Wisdom
- shes rab kyi snying po
- 《薄伽梵母般若波羅蜜多心經》（大正藏：《佛說聖佛母般若波羅蜜多經》）
Tibetan translation:
- Vimalamitra
- Rinchen Dé
- Gelo
- Namkha
The Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ། · lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
Śrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
Summary
This sūtra recounts an event that took place in the buddha realm of Sukhāvatī. The discourse commences with the Buddha Śākyamuni relating to the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara the benefits of reciting the various names of Śrī Mahādevī. The Buddha describes how Śrī Mahādevī acquired virtue and other spiritual accomplishments through the practice of venerating numerous tathāgatas and gives an account of the prophecy in which her future enlightenment was foretold by all the buddhas she venerated. The Buddha then lists the one hundred and eight blessed names of Śrī Mahādevī to be recited by the faithful. The sūtra ends with the Buddha Śākyamuni giving a dhāraṇī and a brief explanation on the benefits of reciting the names of Śrī Mahādevī, namely the eradication of all negative circumstances and the accumulation of merit and happiness.
Title variants
- The Noble Prophecy of Śrī Mahādevī
- Āryaśrīmahādevīvyākaraṇa
- འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་མོ་ཆེན་མོ་དཔལ་ལུང་བསྟན་པ།
- ’phags pa lha mo chen mo dpal lung bstan pa
Tibetan translation:
- Unknown
Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations
དཔང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་བརྒྱ་པ། · dpang skong phyag brgya pa
Summary
Calling Witness with a Hundred Prostrations is widely known as the first sūtra to arrive in Tibet, long before Tibet became a Buddhist nation, during the reign of the Tibetan king Lha Thothori Nyentsen. Written to be recited for personal practice, it opens with one hundred and eight prostrations and praises to the many buddhas of the ten directions and three times, to the twelve categories of scripture contained in the Tripiṭaka, to the bodhisattvas of the ten directions, and to the arhat disciples of the Buddha. After making offerings to them, confessing and purifying nonvirtue, and making the aspiration to perform virtuous actions in every life, the text includes recitations of the vows of refuge in the Three Jewels, and of generating the thought of enlightenment. The text concludes with a passage rejoicing in the virtues of the holy ones, a request for the buddhas to bestow a prophecy to achieve enlightenment, and the aspiration to pass from this life in a state of pure Dharma.
Title variants
- དཔང་སྐོང་ཕྱག་བརྒྱ་པ།
- dpang skong phyag brgya pa
Tibetan translation:
- Thönmi Sambhoṭa
The Seven Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ། · sangs rgyas bdun pa
Saptabuddhaka
Summary
The Seven Buddhas opens with the Buddha Śākyamuni residing in an alpine forest on Mount Kailāsa with a saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha notices that a monk in the forest has been possessed by a spirit, which prompts the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha to request that the Buddha teach a spell to cure diseases and exorcise demonic spirits. The Buddha then emanates as the set of “seven successive buddhas,” each of whom transmits a dhāraṇī to Ākāśagarbha. Each of the seven buddhas then provides ritual instructions for using the dhāraṇī.
Title variants
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas bdun pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Seven Buddhas”
- Āryasaptabuddhakanāmamahāyānasūtra
The Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”
བསམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ། · bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs pa’i yongs su bsngo ba
Summary
This text is a prayer of dedication, and is meant to be recited. Its structure partly reflects the liturgy of “seven branches” or “seven limbs,” a set of practices that serves as the basic structure of many Mahāyāna Buddhist prayers and rituals. In this instance, however, the text consists of two sections: the first is a detailed prayer of confession, and the second a prayer of rejoicing, requesting that the wheel of the Dharma be turned, beseeching the buddhas not to pass into nirvāṇa, and extensively dedicating the merit.
Title variants
- ’phags pa bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs par byed pa zhes bya ba’i yongs su bsngo ba
- The Noble Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations”
- འཕགས་པ་བསམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
The Dedication “Protecting All Beings”
འགྲོ་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ། · ’gro ba yongs su skyob par byed pa’i yongs su bsngo ba
Summary
This text is a prayer of dedication that strongly resonates with the later Tibetan literature of mind training (blo sbyong). In addition to the classic element of dedication of merit to all beings, a substantial part of the text comprises a passage that enumerates the many faults, shortcomings, and afflictions that burden sentient beings, as well as the many possible attainments that they consequently may not have realized, and culminates in the wish that everything negative that would otherwise ripen for sentient beings may ripen instead for the reciter, so that all sentient beings may thus be liberated and purified.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ’gro ba thams cad yongs su skyob par byed pa zhes bya ba’i yongs su bsngo ba
- འཕགས་པ་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཡོངས་སུ་བསྔོ་བ།
- The Noble Dedication “Protecting All Beings”
The Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ། · yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
Vaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Summary
Invited to visit the city of Vaiśālī, which has been ravaged by a terrible epidemic, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to stand at the city’s gate and recite a proclamation, a long mantra, and some verses that powerfully evoke spiritual well-being. Ānanda does so, and the epidemic comes to an end. One of the mahāsūtras related to the literature of the Vinaya, this text, like other accounts of the incident, has traditionally been recited during times of personal or collective illness, bereavement, and other difficulties.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yangs pa’i grong khyer du ’jug pa’i mdo chen po
- འཕགས་པ་ཡངས་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་འཇུག་པའི་མདོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- The Noble Mahāsūtra “On Entering the City of Vaiśālī”
- Āryavaiśālīpraveśamahāsūtra
Tibetan translation:
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage
སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་གིས་བསྟོད་པ། · sgrol ma la phyag ’tshal nyi shu rtsa gcig gis bstod pa
Namastāraikaviṃśatistotra
Summary
Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage is a liturgy that consists of twenty-seven verses of praise and reverence dedicated to the deity Tārā. The first twenty-one verses are at once a series of homages to the twenty-one forms of Tārā and a poetic description of her physical features, postures, and qualities. The remaining six verses describe how and when the praise should be recited and the benefits of its recitation.
Title variants
- sgrol ma la phyag ’tshal nyi shu rtsa gcig gis bstod pa phan yon dang bcas pa
- སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་གིས་བསྟོད་པ་ཕན་ཡོན་དང་བཅས་པ།
- Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage and Their Benefits
- Namastāraikaviṃśatistotraguṇahitasahita
- Tārānamaskāraikaviṃśatistotra
Tibetan translation:
- Nyen Lotsawa Darma Drak
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌུརྱའི་འོད་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ། · bcom ldan ’das sman gyi bla bai Dur+ya’i ’od gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa
Bhagavānbhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra
Summary
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha centers on the figure commonly known as the Medicine Buddha. The text opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a large retinue of human and divine beings. The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī asks Śākyamuni to teach the names and previous aspirations of the buddhas, along with the benefit that buddhas can bring during future times when the Dharma has nearly disappeared. The Buddha gives a teaching on the name and previous aspirations of the Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha, and then details the benefits that arise from hearing and retaining this buddha’s name.
Title variants
- The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha”
- Āryabhagavānbhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāranāmamahāyānasūtra
- ’phags pa bcom ldan ’das sman gyi bla bai Dur+ya’i ’od gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- འཕགས་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌུརྱའི་འོད་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- The Shorter Medicine Buddha Sūtra
- 《藥師琉璃光如來本願功德經》
- sman mdo chung ba/
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas
སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་གཟུངས། · sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yan lag dang ldan pa’i gzungs
Sarvabuddhāṅgavatīdhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas details a brief exchange between the Buddha and the four guardian kings of the world, that is, the four divine beings who rule over the cardinal directions in the Indian Buddhist tradition. Pursuant to a description of the fears that plague mankind, the Buddha declares that he will provide remedies for them. Invoking the presence of numberless buddhas in the limitless world systems described in Buddhist cosmology, the Buddha and the four kings provide several mantras of varying lengths meant for daily recitation, with the stated benefits not only of averting all manner of calamities—untimely death, illness, and injury chief among them—but of attracting the attention and blessings of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and ensuring good health and benefit for the practitioner and all beings.
Title variants
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas”
- Āryasarvabuddhāṅgavatīnāmadhāraṇī
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yan lag dang ldan pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · sangs rgyas snying po’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs
Buddhahṛdayadhāraṇīdharmaparyāya
Summary
The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence is a short work in which the Buddha Śākyamuni, addressing an immense gathering of bodhisattvas, teaches two dhāraṇīs to be recited as a complement to the practice of recollecting the Buddha, and then explains the beneficial results of reciting them. The significance of the teaching is marked by miraculous signs, and by the gods offering flowers and ornaments. The text also provides a set of correspondences between the eight ornaments offered by the gods and eight qualities that ornament bodhisattvas.
Title variants
- འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- ’phags pa sangs rgyas kyi snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs
- The Noble Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence
- Āryabuddhahṛdayanāmadhāraṇīdharmaparyāya
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka
ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · ye shes ta la la’i gzungs
Jñānolkadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka opens with a description of a group of four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas, who are seated in the celestial palace of the Sun and the Moon. The deities of the Sun and Moon return to their celestial palace from elsewhere and, seeing these tathāgatas and bodhisattvas, both wonder whether they might obtain a dhāraṇī that would allow them to dispel the darkness and shine a light upon all beings. The tathāgatas, perceiving the thoughts of the Sun and Moon, provide them with the first dhāraṇī in the text. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra then provides a second dhāraṇī and instructs the deities of the Sun and Moon to use it to free beings who are bound for rebirth in the lower realms—even those who have been born in the darkest depths of the Avīci hell.
Title variants
- ’phags pa ye shes ta la la zhes bya’i gzungs ’gro ba thams cad yongs su sbyong ba
- Āryajñānolkanāmadhāraṇīsarvagatipariśodhanī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka that Purifies All Rebirths
- འཕགས་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལ་ཞེས་བྱའི་གཟུངས་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱོང་བ།
The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1)
ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་མདོ། · tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i mdo
Aparimitāyurjñānasūtra
Summary
The Buddha, while at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvastī, tells Mañjuśrī of a buddha realm far above the world, in which lives the Buddha Aparimitāyurjñāna. He states that those who recite, write, hear, and so on, the praise of this buddha, or make offerings to this text, will have numerous benefits, including a long life and a good rebirth. As vast numbers of buddhas recite it, the mantra, or dhāraṇī, of this buddha is repeated numerous times. This is the best known of the two versions of this sūtra in the Kangyur.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra of Aparimitāyurjñāna
- Āryāparimitāyurjñānanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Aparimitāyurjñānamahāyānasūtra
- ཚེ་གཟུངས།
- ཚེ་མདོ།
- tshe gzungs
- tshe mdo
Tibetan translation:
- Patsap Nyima Drak [?]
The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (2)
ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་མདོ། · tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i mdo
Aparimitāyurjñānasūtra
Summary
The Buddha, while at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvastī, tells Mañjuśrī of a buddha realm far above the world, in which lives the Buddha Aparimitāyurjñāna. He states that those who recite, write, hear, and so on, the praise of this buddha, or make offerings to this text, will have numerous benefits, including a long life and a good rebirth. As vast numbers of buddhas recite it, the mantra, or dhāraṇī, of this buddha is repeated numerous times. This is the lesser known of the two versions of this sūtra in the Kangyur, but possibly represents the earlier translation.
Title variants
- The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra of Aparimitāyurjñāna
- Āryāparimitāyurjñānanāmamahāyānasūtra
- འཕགས་པ་ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
- ’phags pa tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
- Aparimitāyurjñānamahāyānasūtra
- āryāparimitāyurjñānanāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom”
ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po’i gzungs
Aparimitāyurjñānahṛdayadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom” opens at a pool by the Ganges, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with five hundred monks and a great saṅgha of bodhisattvas. The Buddha begins with a short set of verses on the Buddha Aparimitāyus, who dwells in the realm of Sukhāvatī, telling the gathering that anyone who recites Aparimitāyus’ name will be reborn in that buddha’s realm. He then provides a unique description of Sukhāvatī, followed by instructions for two practices, related to the text’s dhāraṇī, that can grant rebirth in Sukhāvatī in the next life.
Title variants
- ’phags pa tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāparimitāyurjñānahṛdayanāmadhāraṇī
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Essence of Immeasurable Longevity and Wisdom”
- འཕགས་པ་ཚེ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- 阿彌陀鼓音聲王陀羅尼經
- ’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo
- ’chi med rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i gzungs
- rnga sgra’i rgyal po’i mdo
- The Sūtra [or Dhāraṇī] of [Amṛta-]Dundubhisvara-rāja
- འཆི་མེད་རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
- འཆི་མེད་རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་གཟུངས།
- རྔ་སྒྲའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ།
The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
ཡོན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་གཟུངས། · yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa’i gzungs
Aparimitaguṇānuśāṁsadhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī that Praises the Qualities of the Immeasurable One contains a short dhāraṇī mantra praising the tathāgata Amitābha and brief instructions on the benefits that result from its recitation.
Title variants
- ’phags pa yon tan bsngags pa dpag tu med pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- འཕགས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་བསྔགས་པ་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- Āryāparimitaguṇānuśāṁsanāmadhāraṇī
- Noble Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཡུམ་གི་གཟུངས། · spyan ras gzigs yum gyi gzungs
Avalokiteśvaramātādhāraṇī
Summary
In this short sūtra, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra asks the Buddha to reveal The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, a powerful dhāraṇī that helps practitioners progress on the path to awakening. The Buddha grants his request and relates how he had himself received the dhāraṇī. Samantabhadra then speaks the dhāraṇī, after which the Buddha states its benefits.
Title variants
- ’phags pa spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gi yum zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- Āryāvalokiteśvaramātānāmadhāraṇī
- འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་ཡུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
Tibetan translation:
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé De
The Dhāraṇī of Tārā
སྒྲོལ་མའི་གཟུངས། · sgrol ma’i gzungs
Tārādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Tārā is a short dhāraṇī that invokes the goddess Tārā, seeking her intervention in the face of obstacles and negative forces.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma sgrol ma’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of Tārā
- Āryatārādhāraṇī
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise”
སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དམ་བཅས་པའི་གཟུངས། · sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa’i gzungs
Tārāsvapratijñādhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” is a short dhāraṇī invoking the goddess Tārā.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དམ་བཅས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise”
- Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī
Tārā Who Protects from the Eight Dangers
སྒྲོལ་མ་འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ། · sgrol ma ’jigs pa brgyad las skyob pa
*Tārāṣṭaghoratāraṇī
Summary
In this sūtra, the goddess Tārā warns the gods of the desire realm about the miseries of saṃsāra and offers a pithy Dharma teaching to free them from harm. Tārā begins by vividly portraying the various kinds of suffering endured by beings in each of the six realms of saṃsāra and then points out the futility of reciting mantras without maintaining pure conduct. She goes on to encourage the listeners to engage in virtue, which puts an end to saṃsāra, and she bestows on them a dhāraṇī that will help them to achieve this goal, a praise of her qualities, and a request for her divine protection that they should recite. Finally, she enjoins the audience to read and practice the teaching and share it with others.
Title variants
- ’phags ma sgrol ma ’jigs pa brgyad las skyob pa’i mdo
- The Noble Sūtra “Tārā Who Protects from the Eight Dangers”
- *Āryatārāṣṭaghoratāraṇīsūtra
- འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པའི་མདོ།
The Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī
རི་ཁྲོད་ལོ་མ་གྱོན་མའི་གཟུངས། · ri khrod lo ma gyon ma’i gzungs
Parṇaśavarīdhāraṇī
Summary
The Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī is a short dhāraṇī dedicated to the piśācī Parṇaśavarī, who is renowned in Buddhist lore for her power to cure disease, avert epidemics, pacify strife, and otherwise protect those who recite her dhāraṇī from any obstacles they may face.
Title variants
- འཕགས་མ་རི་ཁྲོད་ལོ་མ་གྱོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
- ’phags ma ri khrod lo ma gyon ma zhes bya ba’i gzungs
- The Noble Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī
- Āryaparṇaśavarīnāmadhāraṇī
- ri khrod lo ma gyon ma’i gzungs/
- parṇaśabarīdhāraṇī
- ’phags ma ri khrod lo ma gyon pa’i gzungs/
- āryaparṇaśabaridhāraṇī
The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ། · stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa’i smon lam
Summary
This short text contains a set of verses spoken by the Buddha as he put an end to the epidemic of Vaiśālī, extracted from one of the two main accounts of that episode. The verses call for well-being, especially by invoking the qualities of the Three Jewels and a range of realized beings and eminent gods. The text comprises two passages from the parent work, and of these the first and longest corresponds closely to a well-known Pali text, the Ratana-sutta, widely recited for protection and blessings.
Title variants
- སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ་ལས་གསུངས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ།
- stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa las gsungs pa’i smon lam
- The Aspiration Prayer from the Words Spoken in “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
The Threefold Invocation Ritual
སྤྱན་འདྲེན་རྒྱུད་གསུམ་པ། · spyan ’dren rgyud gsum pa
Summary
The Threefold Invocation Ritual invokes all the deities of the threefold world that have “entered the path of compassion” and are “held by the hook of the vidyāmantra” to gather, pay heed to the person reciting this text (or the person for whom it is recited), and bear witness to the proclamation of that person’s commitment to the Buddhist teachings. A profound aspiration to practice ten aspects of a bodhisattva’s activity is then followed by a dedication and a prayer for the teachings.