The Essence of Dependent Arising
Toh 521
Degé Kangyur, vol. 88 (rgyud 'bum, na), folio 42.a (in par phud printings), folio 59.a (in later printings)
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Table of Contents
Summary
This brief dhāraṇī text presents a translation and transliteration of the well-known Sanskrit ye dharma formula, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings on dependent arising. The text also describes several benefits of reciting this dhāraṇī, including the purification of negative actions.
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. Bruno Galasek-Hul produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Ryan Damron edited the translation and the introduction, and Ven. Konchog Norbu copyedited the text. Sameer Dhingra was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
The short dhāraṇī The Essence of Dependent Arising presents a Tibetan translation and transliteration of the well-known ye dharma formula, which is considered the essence of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s teachings on dependent arising. The dhāraṇī then concludes with a statement of the specific benefits that accrue from its recitation: the purification of all negative actions, the neutralization of adversity, and the multiplication of offerings. As the formula is considered to contain the very essence of the Buddha’s teaching and to represent the Buddha himself, the text states that any object visualized while reciting the dhāraṇī will become either the body of the Buddha or a stūpa.
This verse on the essence of dependent arising is closely associated with the conversion of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana to the Dharma. In the Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins,1 Upatiṣya, the ascetic who would later be known as Śāriputra, encounters the Buddha’s disciple Aśvajit, who summarizes for him the essence of Buddha’s teaching with the ye dharma verse. Upatiṣya gains deep insight into the Dharma through this formula, and subsequently shares it with his fellow ascetic Kaulita, who later became known as Maudgalyāyana. In the Pali canon, a version of this story of the transmission of the ye dharma formula is found in the Mahāvagga of the Khandhaka section of the Vinaya. Here again Śāriputra (Pali Sāriputta) and Maudgalyāyana (Pali Moggallāna) hear the verse from Aśvajit (Pali Assaji), who presents it as a summary of his understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.2 Yet another version of the story occurs in The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī (Toh 138). In this text, the essence of the Buddha’s teaching on dependent arising is verbalized in an alternative, extended version of the ye dharma formula.3 In The Sūtra on Dependent Arising (Pratītyasamutpādasūtra, Toh 520), the verse was taught by the Buddha himself in Heaven of the Thirty-Three to an audience of gods, bodhisattvas, and śrāvakas, among whom was the great śrāvaka Aśvajit.
The ye dharma formula has evolved to become a popular and widespread Buddhist dhāraṇī formula that is frequently used as an auspicious and benedictory refrain appended to the end of texts, inscribed on votive plaques and statues, and written down and deposited in caityas, stūpas, and other structures throughout the Buddhist world.4
The topic of dependent arising is explained at length in sūtras such as The Rice Seedling Sūtra (Śālistambhasūtra, Toh 210) and The Sūtra Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising (Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśasūtra, Toh 211), which detail the twelve links of dependent arising. Additional presentations of the ye dharma verse as a dhāraṇī formula can be found in works such as The Sūtra on Dependent Arising (Toh 520) and The Dhāraṇī Containing the Rite of the Essence of Dependent Arising (Toh 519).5 These latter texts, and The Essence of Dependent Arising (Toh 521) translated here, are categorized as Action Tantras (kriyātantra, bya rgyud) in the Degé Kangyur, thus underscoring the development of this famous verse into an esoteric, spell-like formula that can bring material and spiritual benefits through its recitation.
Two virtually identical versions of The Essence of Dependent Arising are found in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (rgyud sde, Toh 521) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (gzungs ’dus, Toh 981).6 It is likewise included in both the Tantra and Compendium of Dhāraṇīs sections in the other Tshalpa Kangyurs that have a separate Dhāraṇī section, and is found in the Tantra section of Tshalpa Kangyurs that do not contain a Dhāraṇī section.7 It is not included in any of the Thempangma Kangyurs. It thus appears this text may have been added to some Kangyurs specifically because it was included in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, which may have been compiled on the basis of an earlier collection or collections of dhāraṇīs and associated ritual texts.8 Since both iterations of the text (Toh 521 and Toh 981) lack a translator colophon, we have no information about who translated it and when. A Sanskrit source of The Essence of Dependent Arising does not seem to have survived, and it has no Chinese translation.
English translations of The Essence of Dependent Arising, along with The Sūtra on Dependent Arising have been published in Peter Skilling’s anthology Questioning the Buddha.9 The English translation presented here is based on the two Degé witnesses (Toh 521 and Toh 981) in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma) and the Narthang Kangyur.
Text Body
Essence of Dependent Arising
The Translation
ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat | teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃvādī mahāśramaṇaḥ ||
By reciting this essence once, all negative actions will be purified and all adverse conditions will be pacified and averted. Any object that one envisions13 while reciting it will become the body of the Buddha or a stūpa, and any offering one envisions while reciting it will be offered as if they fill an entire world realm.
The Essence of Dependent Arising is complete.
Notes
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 981 version of this text within vol. 101 or 102 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 981, n.6, for details.
Two sets of folio references have been included in this translation due to a discrepancy in volume 88 (rgyud ’bum, na) of the Degé Kangyur between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings. In the latter case, an extra work, Bodhimaṇḍasyālaṃkāralakṣadhāraṇī (Toh 508, byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs), was added as the second text in the volume, thereby displacing the pagination of all the following texts in the same volume by 17 folios. Since the eKangyur follows the later printing, both references have been provided, with the highlighted one linking to the eKangyur viewer.
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
’phags pa rten cing ’brel par ’byung ’ba’i snying po zhes bya ba (Āryapratītyasamutpādahṛdayanāma). Toh 521, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud, na), folio 42.a.
’phags pa rten cing ’brel par ’byung ’ba’i snying po zhes bya ba (Āryapratītyasamutpādahṛdayanāma). Toh 981, Degé Kangyur vol. 102 (gzungs, waṃ), folios 99.b–100.a.
’phags pa rten cing ’brel par ’byung ’ba’i snying po zhes bya ba (Āryapratītyasamutpādahṛdayanāma). Narthang Kangyur vol. 92 (rgyud, pa), folios 293.b–297.a.
’phags pa rten cing ’brel par ’byung ’ba’i snying po zhes bya ba. 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, pp. 187–88.
Subhūticandra. ’chi ba med pa’i mdzod kyi rgya cher ’grel pa ’dod ’jo’i ba mo zhes bya ba (Amarakoṣaṭīkākāmadhenunāma). Toh 4300, Degé Tengyur vol. 197 (sgra mdo, se), folios 244.b–318.a.
Modern Works
The Chapter on Going Forth (Pravrajyāvastu, Toh 1-1). Translated by Robert Miller and team. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018.
Dietz, Siglinde, and Helmut Eimer. “Tibetan Versions of the ye dharma hetaprabhavā Stanza.” In Unearthing Himalayan Treasures: Festschrift for Franz-Karl Ehrhard, edited by Volker Caumanns, Marta Sernesi and Nikolai Solmsdorf, 133–41. Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2019.
Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings (Arthaviniścayasūtra, Toh 317). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Mahāvagga, GRETIL edition input by the Dhammakaya Foundation, Thailand, 1989–1996, based on the edition by Hermann Oldenberg: Vinaya-Pitaka. Vol. 1: Mahavagga. London: Pali Text Society 1879 (Reprinted 1929, 1964, 1997). Version December 3, 2014.
Orosz, Gergely. A Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts and Block Prints in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest: Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2008.
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī (Mahāsannipātaratnaketudhāraṇī, Toh 138). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Resources for Kanjur & Tanjur Studies. Universität Wien. Accessed April 17, 2023.
The Rice Seedling (Śālistamba, Toh 210). Translated by the Dharmasāgara Translation Group. Online publications, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018.
Skilling, Peter. “Traces of the Dharma: Preliminary Reports on Some Ye Dhammā and Ye Dharmā Inscriptions from Mainland South-East Asia.” Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 90/91 (2003): 273–87.
———. Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2021.
Teaching the Fundamental Exposition and Detailed Analysis of Dependent Arising (Pratītyasamutpādādivibhaṅganirdeśa, Toh 211). Translated by Annie Bien. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Glossary
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Attested in source text
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Attested in other text
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Attested in dictionary
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Approximate attestation
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Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
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dependent arising
- rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ།
- pratītyasamutpāda AD