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དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས།

The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch

Ratnolkādhāraṇī

འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

’phags pa dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch”

Āryaratnolkānāmadhāraṇīmahāyānasūtra

Toh 145

Degé Kangyur, vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 34.a–82.a.

Translated by David Jackson
 under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

First published 2020
Current version v 1.4.20 (2022)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.15.4

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co.

Summary

s.1

The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch starts with a profound conversation between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī on the nature of the dharmadhātu, buddhahood, and emptiness. The bodhisattva Dharmamati then enters the meditative absorption called the infinite application of the bodhisattva’s jewel torch and, at the behest of the millions of buddhas who have blessed him, emerges from it to teach how bodhisattvas arise from the presence of a tathāgata and progress to the state of omniscience. Following Dharmamati’s detailed exposition of the “ten categories” or progressive stages of a bodhisattva, the Buddha briefly teaches the mantra of the dhāraṇī and then, for most of the remainder of the text, encourages bodhisattvas in a long versified passage in which he recounts teachings by a bodhisattva called Bhadraśrī on the qualities of bodhisattvas and buddhas. Some verses from this passage on the virtues of faith have been widely quoted in both India and Tibet.

ac.

Acknowledgements

ac.1

Translated by David Jackson and edited by the 84000 editorial team. The introduction, also by the 84000 editorial team, expands on an original version by David Jackson. The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

ac.2

The generous sponsorship of Make and Wang Xiao Juan (馬珂和王曉娟), which helped make the work on this translation possible, is most gratefully acknowledged.

Introduction

Overview

i.1

In this profound Mahāyāna sūtra, The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch, the Buddha Śākyamuni explains, with the help of the bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and Dharmamati, how bodhisattvas progress toward awakening.

i.2

Although seen as a sūtra in its own right, it is closely connected to the family of texts belonging to the Avataṃsakasūtra, two chapters of which it shares. As its title suggests, it can also be seen as a dhāraṇī, or as a sūtra about a dhāraṇī.

Narrative and Doctrinal Content

The Sūtra, the Avataṃsaka, and the Chinese Translation

Why Is the Sūtra Also a Dhāraṇī?

The Title and Its Variants

The Sūtra in Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya and Other Treatises

The Sūtra’s Impact on Tibetan Works

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch

Chapter 1

[B1] [F.34.a]

1.1

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas!

1.2

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling on the Vulture Peak of Rājagṛha, seated together with a great gathering of fully ordained monks, all of whom had perfected virtuous qualities, roared mighty lion’s roars as great teachers, and were expert in seeking an immeasurable accumulation of gnosis, in all more than a thousand fully ordained monks.

Chapter 2

2.1

Then the venerable Ānanda arose from his seat and, covering one shoulder with his robe, knelt on one knee. Bowing with folded hands toward the seat of the Blessed One, he said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, this Dharma discourse is profound.”

2.2

The Blessed One said, “Ānanda, so it is. Because the aggregate of form is profound, it is profound. Because the aggregates of feeling, perception, mental forces, and cognition are profound, it is profound. Because emptiness is profound, it is profound. Because the element of space is profound, it is profound.”

Colophon

c.1

Translated, checked, and verified by the Indian preceptor Surendrabodhi and the chief editor and translator, Bandé Yeshé Dé.

Notes

n.1

It is from this section that the long passage of some two hundred and thirty stanzas making up much of the eighteenth chapter of the Śikṣāsamuccaya is quoted, constituting the longest quotation of any scripture in Śāntideva’s text; see below.

n.2

See Denkarma F.297.b.4.

n.3

See Phangthangma (F.2) p. 5. The other texts in the Phangthangma list, apart from the 105 bam po Buddhāvataṃsaka itself, are the Lokottaraparivarta (ch. 44 in the Degé version of Toh 44), the Daśabhūmika (ch. 31), and the Tathāgatotpattisambhavanirdeśa (ch. 43).

n.4

See Skilling and Saerji (2012).

n.5

See Skilling and Saerji (2013) p. 199, n35.

n.6

See n.34 and n.81.

n.7

See also n.100 and n.141. The equivalent passage in the Tibetan Avataṃsakasūtra starts on Degé Kangyur vol. 35 (phal po che, ka) F.219.b.

n.8

大方廣總持寶光明經 (Da fangguang puxian suoshuo jing).

Bibliography

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’phags pa dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs (Ratnolkānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 847, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 3.b–54.b.

’phags pa dkon mchog ta la la’i gzungs. 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), 2006–2009, vol. 57, pp. 94–207.

Dzamthang Lama Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa. dpal ldan jo nang pa’i chos ’byung. Beijing: krung go’i bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1992.

‍—‍—‍—. dpal ldan jo nang pa’i chos ’byung. Bir: Tsondu Senghe, 1983.

Drolungpa Lodrö Jungné. bstan rim chen mo. gsung ’bum: blo gros ’byung gnas. 2 volumes. n.p., n.d.

Bendall, Cecil (ed.). Çikshāsamuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhistic Teaching Compiled by Çāntideva Chiefly from Earlier Mahāyāna-Sūtras. Bibliotheca Buddhica I. St. Petersburg: Académie Impériale des Sciences, 1902.

Other Sources

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Braarvig, Jens. “Dhāraṇī and Pratibhāna: Memory and Eloquence of the Bodhisattvas.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 8, no. 1 (1985): 17–30.

Burchardi, Anne, trans. The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata (Toh 147, Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.

Buswell, Robert E. and Donald S. Lopez, eds. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.

Davidson, Ronald M. “Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature I: Revisiting the Meaning of the Term Dhāraṇī.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 37 (2009): 97–147.

‍—‍—‍—. “Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature II: Pragmatics of Dhāraṇīs.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77 (2014): 5–61.

“Dharani.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed September 15, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/dharani-Buddhism-and-Hinduism.

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Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. 2 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977.

Fischer-Schreiber, Ingrid, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, and Michael S. Diebner. The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1991.

Goldstein, Melvyn C. The New Tibetan-English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

Goodman, Charles. The Training Anthology of Śāntideva: A Translation of the Śikṣā-samuccaya. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Gyatso, Janet. “Letter Magic: A Peircean Perspective on the Semiotics of Rdo Grub-chen’s Dhāraṇī Memory.” In In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Inagaki, Hisao. A Tri-Lingual Glossary of the Sukhāvatāvyūha Sūtras: Indexes to the Larger and Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtras. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 1984.

Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetans. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

Krang Dbyi-sun, et al. Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo [Great Tibetan–Chinese Dictionary]. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 1985.

Lokesh Chandra and Raghu Vira. Sanskrit texts from the imperial palace at Peking, in the Manchurian, Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan scripts. Śata-piṭaka Series, vol. 71. New Delhi: Institute for the Advancement of Science and Culture, 1966–1976.

McBride, Richard D. “Dhāraṇī and Spells in Medieval China.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28, no. 1 (2005): 85–114.

Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899.

Nattier, Jan. “The Heart Sūtra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15, no. 2 (1992): 153–223.

Negi, J. S. Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary. 16 vols. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1993–2005.

The Nyingma Edition of the sDe-dge bKa’-’gyur and bsTan-’gyur: Research Catalogue and Bibliography. Oakland: Dharma Publishing/Dharma Mudranālaya, 1977–1983.

Pagel, Ulrich. Mapping the Path: Vajrapadas in Mahāyāna Literature. Studia Philologica Buddhica Monograph Series, XXI. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2007.

Red Pine. The Heart Sūtra: The Womb of the Buddhas. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2004.

Roberts, Peter, and Emily Bower, trans. The Basket’s Display (Toh 116, Kāraṇḍavyūha). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2013.

Roesler, Ulrike, Ken Holmes, and David Jackson. Stages of the Buddha’s Teachings: Three Key Texts. Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2015.

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Skilling, Peter, and Saerji. “ ‘O Son of the Conqueror’: a note on jinaputra as a term of address in the Buddhāvataṃsaka and Mahāyāna sūtras.” In Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology (ARIRIAB), vol. XV, pp. 127–130. Tokyo: Soka University, 2012.

‍—‍—‍—‍—. “The Circulation of the Buddhāvataṃsaka in India.” In Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology (ARIRIAB), vol. XVI, pp. 193–216. Tokyo: Soka University, 2013.

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Glossary

g.1

Absence of conceptual elaborations

spros med
spros pa med pa

སྤྲོས་མེད།
སྤྲོས་པ་མེད་པ།

Also translated here as “without conceptual elaborations.”

g.2

Absence of entities

dngos po med pa

དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ།

g.3

Absence of phenomenal marks

mtshan ma med pa

མཚན་མ་མེད་པ།

g.15

Ānanda

kun dga’ bo

ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།

Ānanda

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu, he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son of Amṛtodana, another brother of King Śuddhodana, which means he would have been a brother of Aniruddha).

Ānanda, having always been in the Buddha’s presence, is said to have memorized all the teachings he heard and is celebrated for having recited all the Buddha’s teachings by memory at the first council of the Buddhist saṅgha, thus preserving the teachings after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The phrase “Thus did I hear at one time,” found at the beginning of the sūtras, usually stands for his recitation of the teachings. He became a patriarch after the passing of Mahākāśyapa.

g.36

Bhadraśrī

bzang po’i dpal
bzang po dpal

བཟང་པོའི་དཔལ།
བཟང་པོ་དཔལ།

Bhadraśrī

g.38

Blessed one

bcom ldan ’das

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།

bhagavān

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

In Buddhist literature, an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possession of six auspicious qualities (bhaga) associated with complete awakening. The Tibetan term‍—where bcom is said to refer to “subduing” the four māras, ldan to “possessing” the great qualities of buddhahood, and ’das to “going beyond” saṃsāra and nirvāṇa‍—possibly reflects the commentarial tradition where the Sanskrit bhagavat is interpreted, in addition, as “one who destroys the four māras.” This is achieved either by reading bhagavat as bhagnavat (“one who broke”), or by tracing the word bhaga to the root √bhañj (“to break”).

g.78

Dharma discourse

chos kyi rnam grangs

ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།

g.79

Dharmadhātu

chos kyi dbyings

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།

dharmadhātu

g.80

Dharmamati

chos kyi blo gros

ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས།

Dharmamati

g.96

Emptiness

stong pa nyid

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།

śūnyatā

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

Emptiness denotes the ultimate nature of reality, the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. According to this view, all things and events are devoid of any independent, intrinsic reality that constitutes their essence. Nothing can be said to exist independent of the complex network of factors that gives rise to its origination, nor are phenomena independent of the cognitive processes and mental constructs that make up the conventional framework within which their identity and existence are posited. When all levels of conceptualization dissolve and when all forms of dichotomizing tendencies are quelled through deliberate meditative deconstruction of conceptual elaborations, the ultimate nature of reality will finally become manifest. It is the first of the three gateways to liberation.

g.122

Gnosis

ye shes

ཡེ་ཤེས།

jñāna

g.150

Jewel torch

dkon mchog ta la la

དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏ་ལ་ལ།

g.177

Mañjuśrī

’jam dpal

འཇམ་དཔལ།

Mañjuśrī

Also rendered here as “Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta.”

g.239

Rājagṛha

rgyal po’i khab

རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ།

Rājagṛha

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The ancient capital of Magadha prior to its relocation to Pāṭaliputra during the Mauryan dynasty, Rājagṛha is one of the most important locations in Buddhist history. The literature tells us that the Buddha and his saṅgha spent a considerable amount of time in residence in and around Rājagṛha enjoying the patronage of King Bimbisāra and then of his son King Ajātaśatru. Rājagṛha is also remembered as the location where the first Buddhist monastic council was held after the Buddha Śākyamuni passed into parinirvāṇa. Now known as Rajgir and located in the modern Indian state of Bihar.

g.258

Samantabhadra

kun tu bzang po

ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ།

Samantabhadra

g.281

Surendrabodhi

su ren+d+ra bo d+hi

སུ་རེནྡྲ་བོ་དྷི།

Surendrabodhi

g.323

Vulture Peak

bya rgod kyi phung po’i ri

བྱ་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོའི་རི།

Gṛdhrakūṭaparvata

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The Gṛdhrakūṭa, literally Vulture Peak, was a hill located in the kingdom of Magadha, in the vicinity of the ancient city of Rājagṛha (modern-day Rajgir, in the state of Bihar, India), where the Buddha bestowed many sūtras, especially the Great Vehicle teachings, such as the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. It continues to be a sacred pilgrimage site for Buddhists to this day.

g.339

Yeshé Dé

ye shes sde

ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

Yeshé Dé (late eighth to early ninth century) was the most prolific translator of sūtras into Tibetan. Altogether he is credited with the translation of more than one hundred sixty sūtra translations and more than one hundred additional translations, mostly on tantric topics. In spite of Yeshé Dé’s great importance for the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet during the imperial era, only a few biographical details about this figure are known. Later sources describe him as a student of the Indian teacher Padmasambhava, and he is also credited with teaching both sūtra and tantra widely to students of his own. He was also known as Nanam Yeshé Dé, from the Nanam (sna nam) clan.

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The Dhāraṇī of the Jewel Torch

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