This rendering does not include the entire published text

The full text is available to download as pdf at:
https://read.84000.co/data/toh686_84000-the-sovereign-ritual-of-amoghapasa.pdf

དོན་ཡོད་པའི་ཞགས་པའི་ཆོ་ག་ཞིབ་མོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།

The Sovereign Ritual of Amoghapāśa

Amoghapāśakalparāja

འཕགས་པ་དོན་ཡོད་པའི་ཞགས་པའི་ཆོ་ག་ཞིབ་མོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།

’phags pa don yod pa’i zhags pa’i cho ga zhib mo’i rgyal po

The Noble Sovereign Ritual of Amoghapāśa

Āryāmoghapāśakalparāja

Toh 686

Degé Kangyur, vol. 92 (rgyud, ma), folios 1.b–316.a; vol. 93 (rgyud, tsa), folios 1.b–57.b

Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

First published 2022
Current version v 1.0.8 (2022)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.17.7

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Summary

s.1

The Amoghapāśakalparāja is an early Kriyātantra of the lotus family. Historically, it is the main and largest compendium and manual of rites dedicated to Amoghapāśa, one of Avalokiteśvara’s principal emanations, who is named after and distinguished by his “unfailing noose” (amoghapāśa). The text is primarily soteriological, with an emphasis on the general Mahāyāna values of compassion and loving kindness for all beings. It offers many interesting insights into early Buddhist ritual and the development of its terminology.

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Acknowledgements

ac.1

This translation was produced by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Wiesiek Mical translated the text from a complete Sanskrit manuscript and wrote the introduction. Anna Zilman compared the translation draft against the Tibetan versions found in the Degé and other editions of the Kangyur. The project is greatly indebted to Prof. Ryugen Tanemura and his team of scholars at Taisho University, Tokyo, for making available to us a copy of the Sanskrit manuscript and its transcript.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

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The generous sponsorship of Sun Ping, Tian Xingwen, and Sun Fanglin, which helped make the work on this translation possible, is most gratefully acknowledged.

Introduction

i.1

The Amoghapāśakalparāja (AP) is a ritual text dedicated entirely to the deity Amoghapāśa, a form of Avalokiteśvara who appears in both peaceful and wrathful iconographies. He is sometimes referred to in the text as Avalokiteśvara-Amoghapāśa, as the two are considered identical. One could perhaps say that Amoghapāśa is distilled from Avalokiteśvara, with certain qualities of the latter being enhanced in the former, in particular his “unfailing” (amogha) ability to rescue beings drowning in the ocean of saṃsāra by means of his namesake “noose” (pāśa). The form of Amoghapāśa who, in addition to a noose, holds a goad is similarly called Amoghāṅkuśa (Unfailing Goad). As is true of the Kriyātantras in general, the names of Amoghapāśa apply equally to the mantras that correspond to the different deities. Thus, in the AP we find mantras that include expanded or paraphrased renderings of the name Amoghapāśa, depending on the specific form and function of the deity, such as Amoghāvalokitapāśa (Amogha-Gaze-Noose), Amoghavilokita (Amogha-Gaze), or Adbhutāvalokitāmogha (Wondrous-Amogha-Gaze).

The Translation

The Noble Sovereign Ritual of Amoghapāśa

Part 1

Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas! Homage to Noble Avalokiteśvara, the great bodhisattva being!

1.2

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One stayed on Potala Mountain, in the palace of Avalokiteśvara adorned with various trees such as sal, tamāla, campaka, aśoka, and atimuktaka.13 He stayed there together with the congregation of eight thousand monks,14 surrounded and attended upon by nine hundred and ninety quadrillion crores of bodhisattvas and many hundreds of thousands of gods of the Pure Abode. He was explaining the Dharma, chiefly to the gods such as Īśvara, Maheśvara, and Brahmā. [F.2.a]

Part 2

2.1

Noble Avalokiteśvara,79 the great bodhisattva being, rose from his seat, draped his upper garment over one shoulder, knelt with his right knee on the ground, and bowed with folded hands in the direction of the Blessed One, whose body blazed with thousands of light rays of different colors, bright as the sun. [F.7.a] He smiled, his face resembling the orb of the full moon, and, reflecting on the power of loving kindness and compassion, he addressed the Blessed One for the benefit of and to show compassion to the members of the four castes and for the sake of obtaining all the supreme accomplishments of vidyā holders, such as the accomplishments of the true nature, and obtaining the boons that these accomplishments bestow.

Colophon

Primary Colophon

c.1

The Tathāgata has explained the causes of those dharmas that arise based on causes. The great monk also explained that which constitutes their cessation.2964

This excellent Dharma teaching should be presented to the followers of Mahāyāna.2965 [F.57.b]

Tibetan Addition to the Colophon

c.2

Following the text’s primary colophon, a lengthy colophon was added by later redactors of the Tibetan translation to describe how an initial version of the translation was emended and improved based on a more complete Sanskrit manuscript. No attempt has been made here to match the sections listed in the Tibetan colophon with the Sanskrit manuscript used for this translation, and we have not aligned the phrasing of the Tibetan with the extant Sanskrit translated above. This was done for the sake of preserving this unique colophon as written. It reads:

c.3

This text was apportioned to and translated by four learned translators of the past, but because there were omissions throughout the text and because the concluding chapters were missing, the omissions were later incorporated and the concluding chapters translated with the encouragement of the great Kālacakra master Chödrak Pel Sangpo based on a Sanskrit manuscript he had acquired. In book 10,2966 material was added beginning with the words “it can accomplish the goal of any activity” and ending with “perform the mantra recitation excellently.” In book 12, material was added beginning with the words “moreover, Blessed One, for the sake of the distinctive purpose” and ending with “the body of the vidyā holder will blaze.” In book 13, material was added beginning with the words “by merely hearing this maṇḍala rite” and ending with “excavate an area the size of a human.” In book 14, material was added beginning with the words “incant lotus, water, and mustard seeds” and ending with “wash with a white cloth.” At the transition to book 15, material was added beginning with the words “eight silver vessels” and ending with “in all other types of places he will perform any tasks he sets his mind to.” At the break between books 16 and 17, material was added beginning with the words “now I will teach the homa procedure” and ending with “the mudrā rite and the rite for practice.” Finally, at the break between what was called book 17 and book 18, material was added beginning with “now I will teach a maṇḍala rite that involves continuous recitation” and ending with “the homa will release the light rays of the protector of the world.” These omissions were rectified, and the conclusion completed by the Śākya monk Rinchen Drup. The scribe was the accomplished Yoga practitioner Pel Sangpo. The text starting with “all goddesses everywhere” up to “if the treasure trembles” is not in the Sanskrit manuscript. May this be of benefit to all wandering beings!

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Abbreviations

Abbreviations and sigla

A	Sanskrit manuscript of the AP (China Library of Nationalities)
AP	Amoghapāśakalparāja
APH	Amoghapāśahṛdaya
F	Tibetan Degé translation of the AP
T	Kimura 1998 and Kimura 2015
[#]	Mantra numbers in Kimura 1998
[B]	Bampo

Codes in Sanskrit quotations

° (ring above)	truncated text
• (middle dot)	lack of sandhi or partial sandhi

Notes

n.1

A deity mantra, regarded as the heart essence of the deity, is “coextensive” with the mind. Cf. the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa (Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī [Toh 543], 38.43–38.44): “The mantra is coextensive with the mind / And never separate from the mind. / One who employs the mantra, / Blending it with the mind, will succeed.”

n.2

The first chapter, at the time an independent work called Amoghapāśahṛdayasūtra, was translated into Chinese by Jñānagupta in 587 as Bukong juansuo zhou jing (不空胃索咒經 = Amoghapāśa Dhāraṇī Sūtra, Taishō 1093). It was translated again by Xuanzang in 659 (Taishō 1094), by Bodhiruci in 693 (Taishō 1095), and by Dānapāla in the tenth century (Taishō 1099), with the titles varying slightly as Xuanzang and Bodhiruci called their translations not dhāraṇī- but hṛdaya-sūtra. The remainder of the work was translated by Bodhiruci from 707–9 as Bukong juansuo shenbian zhenyan jing (不空胃索神變真吉經 = Amoghapāśa Supernatural Display Mantra Sūtra, Taishō 1092); however, this Chinese version diverges significantly from the Sanskrit manuscript and Tibetan translation (Toh 686) that have been used in our translation.

n.3

The mantra taught repeatedly is numbered in the text as 1, 167, and 310. The differences between these three are small enough to be safely dismissed as inevitable scribal corruptions. Mantra 256 is the same mantra with minor adaptations to make it into a mantra of Padmoṣṇīṣa. Mantra 168 is again the same mantra, this time much shortened and made into a mantra of Krodharāja that serves as a mantra of consecration.

n.4

Like other Kriyātantras, the AP recognizes four tathāgata families: the tathāgata, lotus (padma), vajra, and jewel (maṇi) families. Alternative classifications in this group of tantras mention six, seven, or eight families, sometimes with a stipulation that the number of families is, in fact, infinite.

n.5

Uṣṇīṣa deities, such as the celestial tathāgatas or cakravartin deities, are inaccessible to ordinary senses. They are sometimes described as emanating from the uṣṇīṣa of the Buddha, and they themselves are depicted with an uṣṇīṣa on their head, signifying complete and perfect buddhahood.

n.6

Some of these terms and phrases could be unique to the AP, but this could only be ascertained after a comprehensive study of all Kriyātantras. The Kriyātantras are the least studied genre of Buddhist tantric literature, despite being by far the largest group in terms of both number and volume.

n.7

We use the masculine pronoun “he” to reflect the masculine gender of vidyādhara, the term referring to the practitioner. The feminine form would be vidyādharī.

n.8

This undated manuscript was written in the Māgadhī script, possibly in Nepal, and appears to be not more than a few hundred years old. It was once kept at the Shalu (zhwa lu) monastery in Tibet, where it was discovered by the Indian scholar Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana in 1936 and described in his Second Search of Sanskrit Palm-Leaf Mss. in Tibet (see Sāṅkṛtyāyana 1937, p. 42, entry 29). It was later appropriated by the government of China and is now held at the China Library of Nationalities (中国民族図書館) in Beijing.

n.13

These tree species could be, respectively, Shorea robusta, Garcinia xanthochymus, Michelia champaka, Jonesia asoka, and Dalbergia oojeinensis.

n.14

The Tib. reads “one hundred thousand.”

n.79

The Tib. text includes an homage at the beginning of this part: “Homage to the entire vast ocean of tathāgatas.”

n.2964

Skt. ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat / teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃvādī mahāśramaṇaḥ // This statement, customary at the end of written works, is missing from the Tib.

n.2965

This last sentence was likely added by the scribe of the extant manuscript. It is not found in the Tib. translation.

n.2966

“Books” are marked in the above translation with [B#].

Bibliography

Primary sources (Sanskrit)

Āryāmoghapāśahṛdaya [The first part of the Amoghapāśakalparāja]

Kimura, Takayasu, ed. (1979). “Āryāmoghapāśanāmahṛdayaṃ Mahāyānasūtram.” Taisho Daigaku Sogo Bukkyo Kenkyujo Kiyo 1 (1979): 1–15.

Āryāmoghapāśakalparāja

Manuscript no. 69 in the Catalogue of Sanskrit Palm-Leaf Manuscripts Preserved in the China Library of Nationalities. Beijing.

Kimura, Takayasu et al., eds. (1998–2011). “Transcribed Sanskrit Text of the Amoghapāśakalparāja.” Taishō Daigaku Sōgō Bukkyō Kenkyūjo Nenpō (大正大學綜合佛教研究所年報) [parts 1–7:] 20 (1998): 1–58; 21 (1999): 81–128; 22 (2000): 1–64; 26 (2004): 120–83; 32 (2010): 170–207; (2011): 32–64.

‍—‍—‍—, eds. (2015–17). “Amoghapāśakalparāja: A Preliminary Edition and Annotated Japanese Translation.” Taishō Daigaku Sōgō Bukkyō Kenkyūjo Nenpō (大正大學綜合佛教研究所年報) [parts 1–3:] 37 (2015): 41–68; 38 (2016): 95–126; 39 (2017): 79–97.

不空羂索神變眞言經 (Bukong juansuo shenbian zhenyan jing). [Facsimile edition of the manuscript owned by the China Library of Nationalities, Beijing.] Tokyo: Taisho University, 1997.

Primary sources (Tibetan)

don yod pa’i zhags pa’i cho ga zhib mo’i rgyal po (Amoghapāśakalparāja). Toh 686, Degé Kangyur vol. 92 (rgyud, ma), folios 1.b–316.a; vol. 93 (rgyud, tsa), folios 1.b–57.b.

don yod pa’i zhags pa’i cho ga zhib mo’i rgyal po. 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. 92, pp. 3–928.

don yod zhags pa’i snying po (Amoghapāśahṛdayasūtra). Toh 682, Degé Kangyur vol. 106 (rgyud, ba), folios 1.b–515.b.

’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud (Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa). Toh 543, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud ’bum, na), folios 88.a–334.a (in 1737 par phud printing); 105.a–351.a (in later printings). English translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2020.

ting nge ’dzin gyi rgyal po (Samādhirāja). Toh 127, Degé Kangyur vol. 55 (mdo sde, da), folios 1.b–170.b. English translation in Roberts 2018.

sdong po bkod pa (Gaṇḍavyūha). Toh 44, ch. 45, Degé Kangyur vol. 37 (phal chen, ga), folios 274.b–336.a; vol. 38 (phal chen, a), folios 1.b–363.a. English translation in Roberts 2021.

mdzangs blun gyi mdo (Damamūkasūtra). Toh 341, Degé Kangyur vol. 74 (mdo sde, a), folios 129.a–298.a.

Secondary literature

Barua, Ankur, and M. A. Basilio. Amoghapāśa: The Bodhisattva of Compassion. Riga: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2010.

Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī (Toh 543, Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.

Meisezahl, R. O., ed. and trans. “The Amoghapasahrdaya-Dharani. The Early Sanskrit Manuscript of the Reiunji Critically Edited and Translated.” Monumenta Nipponica 17, no. 1/4 (1962): 265–328.

Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2005.

Otsuka, Nobuo et al. 『不空羂索神変真言経楚文写本影印版』序 [Introduction to the Facsimile Edition of the Amoghapāśakalparāja Sanskrit Palm-Leaf Manuscript]. Includes a summary in English. Tokyo: The Institute for Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism, Taisho University, 1997.

Pal, Pratapaditya. “The Iconography of Amoghapāśa Lokeśvara.” Oriental Art 7, no. 4 (1966): 234–39.

Reis-Habito, Maria. “The Amoghapāśa Kalparāja Sūtra: A Historical and Analytical Study.” Studies in Central and East Asian Religions 11 (1999): 39–67.

Roberts, Peter Alan, trans. (2018). The King of Samādhis Sūtra (Toh 127, Samādhirājasūtra). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018.

‍—‍—‍—, trans. (2021). The Stem Array (Toh 44-45, Gaṇḍavyūha). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.

Sāṅkṛtyāyana, Rāhula. “Second Search of Sanskrit Palm-Leaf Mss. in Tibet.” Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 23, no. 1 (1937): 1–57.

Shinohara, Koichi. Spells, Images, and Maṇḍalas: Tracing the Evolution of Esoteric Buddhist Rituals. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.