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སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཡུམ་གི་གཟུངས།

The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
Summary

Avalokiteśvara­mātā­dhāraṇī
འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་ཡུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།
’phags pa spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug gi yum zhes bya ba’i gzungs
The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”
Āryāvalokiteśvara­mātā­nāma­dhāraṇī
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Toh 909

Degé Kangyur, vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 240.a–241.b

Translated by Samye Translations
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

First published 2021
Current version v 1.1.11 (2023)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.19.1

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co.

Table of Contents

ti. Title
im. Imprint
co. Contents
s. Summary
ac. Acknowledgements
i. Introduction
tr. The Translation
+ 2 sections- 2 sections
1. The Mother of Avalokiteśvara
c. Colophon
n. Notes
b. Bibliography
+ 2 sections- 2 sections
· Primary Sources
· Secondary Sources
g. Glossary

s.

Summary

s.­1

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.


ac.

Acknowledgements

ac.­1

Translated by Samye Translations under the guidance of Phakchok Rinpoche. The translation and introduction were produced by Lowell Cook and Stefan Mang. The translation was checked against the Chinese by Dr. Jeffrey Kotyk.

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



i.

Introduction

i.­1

The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara”1 begins in the city of Vaiśālī, where the Buddha is residing amidst an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra requests that he reveal the powerful dhāraṇī known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, and the Buddha agrees. The Buddha first relates how he had himself received this dhāraṇī in a past life from the brahmin Prabheśvara, who benefited millions of beings by teaching it in Sukhāvatī, the pure land of the Buddha Amitābha. Following this account, Samantabhadra magically speaks the dhāraṇī to the assembly, after which the Buddha encourages the audience to recite it and praises its efficacy. Thus, the dhāraṇī can be divided into four sections: the request to teach the dhāraṇī, the dhāraṇī’s origin story, the dhāraṇī itself, and a praise of the dhāraṇī’s benefits.

i.­2

As indicated by the text’s title, the dhāraṇī concerns a goddess named or bearing the title Avalokiteśvaramātā, “the mother of Avalokiteśvara.” In the Degé Kangyur,2 the dhāraṇī belongs to a cycle of eight Kriyātantra (bya rgyud) texts (Toh 724–31) dedicated to the goddess Tārā. Based on this categorization, we may infer that the Tibetan scholars understood Avalokiteśvaramātā to be the goddess Tārā, but there is no further evidence to confirm this identification.

i.­3

According to the Tibetan colophon, The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara” was originally translated by the monk and translator Yeshé Dé and the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla, who were regular collaborators in the late eighth- and early ninth-centuries. The dhāraṇī is accordingly found in the Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (’phang thang ma) catalogs of translations made during Tibet’s imperial period.3 The dhāraṇī was translated into Chinese by Fǎxián ( 法 賢, 973-1001) under the title Fo shuo guanzizai pusa mu tuoluoni jing (观自在菩萨母陀罗尼经, Taishō 1117). There is to our knowledge no extant Sanskrit version of this work.

i.­4

This English translation is based on the Tibetan version in the Degé Kangyur collection, in consultation with the Stok Palace and Phukdrak Kangyurs, as well as the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur. The English translation was compared with the Chinese translation before being finalized.


The Noble Dhāraṇī
The Mother of Avalokiteśvara

1.

The Translation

[F.240.a]


1.­1

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas!


1.­2

Thus did I hear at one time. In the city of Vaiśālī, the Blessed One was surrounded and honored by a great assembly as he sat upon a seat arranged for him. He was surrounded and honored by five hundred fully ordained monks headed by the great śrāvaka Śāriputra, and many bodhisattva great beings headed by Maitreya. Present among this assembly was the bodhisattva great being known as Samantabhadra. Rising from his seat, Samantabhadra draped his upper robe over one shoulder, knelt on his right knee, bowed his head at the feet of the Blessed One, and said:

1.­3

“Blessed One, the great dhāraṇī of the vidyāmantra, the mantra formula, known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, has been taught and is being taught by the blessed buddhas of the past, present, and future. It had previously been taught when the Blessed One was a bodhisattva seeking awakening, and it was taught in order to benefit and care for all beings, up to and including the bodhisattvas. [F.240.b] The dhāraṇī is a refuge for all beings who lack refuge, beings who have been the fathers and mothers of the noble sons and daughters who follow the bodhisattva vehicle. It is an ally to those without allies and a protector to those without protection. It brings all misdeeds to an end. All wishes are fulfilled as soon as this dhāraṇī is heard, and through it all vidyāmantras are successful.”4

1.­4

The Blessed One replied, “Bodhisattva great being, in the past when I was a bodhisattva seeking awakening, the Thus-Gone worthy, complete, and perfect Buddha Amitābha lived, prospered, and taught the Dharma in Sukhāvatī, a world system far beyond as many world systems as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges. He lives there even now. Among his retinue was a brahmin known as Prabheśvara who had attained the third bodhisattva level. It was he who proclaimed, expounded, and taught this great queen of vidyāmantras, the dhāraṇī known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, to many hundreds of thousands of brahmins and numerous billions of sentient beings. As soon as they heard this dhāraṇī, they were freed from all misdeeds and transgressions and remembered their rebirths. This I recall.

1.­5

“Great bodhisattva, recite the dhāraṇī! At a later time, the numerous trillions of misdeeds of sentient beings, throughout defiled worlds, who have performed misdeeds and the actions with immediate retribution will be exhausted. They will be well and be happy. It will serve as a protector to those without protection. I also approve and rejoice.” [F.241.a]

1.­6

The bodhisattva great being Samantabhadra then spoke the great dhāraṇī of the vidyāmantra, the mantra formula, known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara.

1.­7

“Homage to the Three Jewels. Homage to the Blessed, thus-gone Amitābha. Homage to the bodhisattva great being endowed with great compassion, Noble Avalokiteśvara. Having paid homage to them, I shall recite the great vidyāmantra, the mantra formula, the noble dhāraṇī known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara. May I accomplish this vidyā!

1.­8

tadyathā | ili mili | cili mili | kuntule kuntule kuntule | śire śiśire viśire | vīrāyai gauri gāndhāri drāmiṭe mātaṅgi pukkasi kaṣṭaya māṃ | caṇḍāli huttu mālini hūṁ | dhu dhu mālini | cile mile | gṛhṇa saumyadarśani | kuru candra­mukhi | laghu­mānayante ārya­dakṣiṇa­bhuje | sarvavidyānām prasādhane | sarva­vidyānām īśvari svāhā ||

1.­9

The Blessed One then said,5 “This is the rite for this dhāraṇī that is mastered through recitation. As soon as it is heard, all karmic obscurations will be purified, and one will be protected from all fears. If one recites it during the three periods of the day, one will see the bodhisattva great being Samantabhadra within seven days. If one mentally recites it without thinking of anything else, the great vidyā herself, the mother of Noble Avalokiteśvara, will be revealed within one month, and noble Amitābha will also be seen. One’s progress to unsurpassed awakening will be irreversible. [F.241.b] One will also remember one’s rebirths and retain whatever has been learned. No matter where one is born, one will not be separated from the sacred Dharma, and one will be affluent.”

1.­10

After the Blessed One spoke these words, the entire assembly, including the bodhisattva great being Samantabhadra, the bodhisattvas, and the fully ordained monks, rejoiced and praised what the Blessed One had taught.

1.­11

This completes the noble dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara.”


c.

Colophon

c.­1

Translated and edited by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla and the translator-editor Bandé Yeshé Dé, revised according to the new lexicon, and finalized.


n.

Notes

n.­1
Following the general application of the honorific “noble” (Skt. ārya; Tib. ’phags pa) in Buddhist literature, the term seems likely to apply to the text itself, not the deity. However, this honorific is so frequently prefixed to Avalokiteśvara’s name that many readers of the Tibetan text may naturally and optionally interpret it in that way instead.
n.­2

This text, Toh 909, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs, e), are listed as being located in volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). However, several other Kangyur databases‍—including the eKangyur that supplies the digital input version displayed by the 84000 Reading Room‍—list this work as being located in volume 101. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that the two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section are an added supplement not mentioned in the original catalog, and also hinges on the fact that the compilers of the Tōhoku catalog placed another text‍—which forms a whole, very large volume‍—the Vimalaprabhā­nāmakālacakra­tantraṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od, Toh 845), before the volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur, numbering it as vol. 100, although it is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts as volume 102; indeed its final fifth chapter is often carried over and wrapped in the same volume as the Kangyur dkar chags (catalog). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.

n.­3
Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 221–22. See also Denkarma, 302.b.6.
n.­4
The implication is that Buddhist dhāraṇīs such as this have the capacity to accomplish all other Buddhist and non-Buddhist spells, whatever their purpose.
n.­5
There is no indication at this point in the text that Samantabhadra has finished speaking and that the Buddha begins, but considering that the following quote concludes with the statement, “After the Blessed One spoke these words,” inserting this line for clarity seems warranted.

b.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

spyan ras gzigs yum gyi gzungs (Avalokiteśvara­mātā­dhāraṇī). Toh 725, Degé Kangyur vol. 94 (rgyud, tsha), folios 200.b–202.a.

spyan ras gzigs yum gyi gzungs (Avalokiteśvara­mātā­dhāraṇī). Toh 909, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 240.a–241.b.

spyan ras gzigs yum gyi 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. 94, pp. 511–16.

pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag [Denkarma]. Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.

Secondary Sources

Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.


g.

Glossary

Types of attestation for Sanskrit names and terms

AS

Attested in source text

This term is attested in the Sanskrit manuscript used as a source for this translation.

AO

Attested in other text

This term is attested in other Sanskrit manuscripts of the Kangyur or Tengyur.

AD

Attested in dictionary

This term is attested in Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionaries.

AA

Approximate attestation

The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where Tibetan-Sanskrit relationship is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.

RP

Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.

RS

Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering

This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.

SU

Source Unspecified

This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.

g.­1

Amitābha

  • ’od dpag med
  • འོད་དཔག་མེད།
  • amitābha

The buddha residing in the western buddha realm Sukhāvatī.

6 passages contain this term:

  • i.­1
  • 1.­4
  • 1.­7
  • 1.­9
  • g.­13
  • g.­17
g.­2

Avalokiteśvara

  • spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug
  • སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག
  • avalokiteśvara

One of the eight main bodhisattvas, the heart sons of the Buddha.

5 passages contain this term:

  • i.­2
  • 1.­7
  • 1.­9
  • 1.­11
  • n.­1
g.­3

Bandé Yeshé Dé

  • ban+de ye shes sde
  • བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།
  • —

A prolific Tibetan translator active during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. He is credited with translating no fewer than 380 works.

4 passages contain this term:

  • i.­3
  • c.­1
  • g.­5
  • g.­9
g.­4

blessed one

  • bcom ldan ’das
  • བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
  • bhagavat

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”).

6 passages contain this term:

  • 1.­2-4
  • 1.­9-10
  • n.­5
g.­5

Dānaśīla

  • da na shi la
  • ད་ན་ཤི་ལ།
  • dānaśīla

An Indian preceptor from Kashmir who was resident in Tibet during the late eighth- and early ninth-centuries. He was a frequent collaborator of Yeshé Dé.

2 passages contain this term:

  • i.­3
  • c.­1
g.­6

dhāraṇī

  • gzungs
  • གཟུངས།
  • dhāraṇī

The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and as such can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings‍—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulae.

13 passages contain this term:

  • s.­1
  • i.­1-3
  • 1.­3-5
  • 1.­7
  • 1.­9
  • 1.­11
  • n.­4
  • g.­13
  • g.­21
g.­7

dhāraṇī of the vidyāmantra

  • gzungs kyi rig sngags
  • གཟུངས་ཀྱི་རིག་སྔགས།
  • vidyāmantradhāraṇī

2 passages contain this term:

  • 1.­3
  • 1.­6
g.­8

Ganges

  • gang ga
  • གང་ག
  • gaṅgā

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The Gaṅgā, or Ganges in English, is considered to be the most sacred river of India, particularly within the Hindu tradition. It starts in the Himalayas, flows through the northern plains of India, bathing the holy city of Vārāṇasī, and meets the sea at the Bay of Bengal, in Bangladesh. In the sūtras, however, this river is mostly mentioned not for its sacredness but for its abundant sands‍—noticeable still today on its many sandy banks and at its delta‍—which serve as a usual metaphor for infinitely large numbers.

According to Buddhist cosmology, as explained in the Abhidharmakośa, it is one of the four rivers that flow from Lake Anavatapta, and cross the southern continent of Jambudvīpa‍—the known human world or more specifically the Indian subcontinent.

1 passage contains this term:

  • 1.­4
g.­9

Jinamitra

  • dzi na mi tra
  • ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ།
  • jinamitra

An Indian preceptor from Kashmir who was resident in Tibet during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. He was a frequent collaborator of Yeshé Dé.

2 passages contain this term:

  • i.­3
  • c.­1
g.­10

Maitreya

  • byams pa
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • maitreya

One of the eight main bodhisattvas, the heart sons of the Buddha.

1 passage contains this term:

  • 1.­2
g.­11

mantra formula

  • gsang sngags kyi gzhi
  • གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གཞི།
  • mantrapada

3 passages contain this term:

  • 1.­3
  • 1.­6-7
g.­12

mother

  • yum
  • ཡུམ།
  • mātā

3 passages contain this term:

  • i.­2
  • 1.­9
  • 1.­11
g.­13

Prabheśvara

  • dbang phyug ’od
  • དབང་ཕྱུག་འོད།
  • prabheśvara

A brahmin who teaches the dhāraṇī known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara in Sukhāvatī, the realm of the Buddha Amitābha.

2 passages contain this term:

  • i.­1
  • 1.­4
g.­14

Samantabhadra

  • kun tu bzang po
  • ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ།
  • samantabhadra

One of the eight main bodhisattvas, the heart sons of the Buddha.

7 passages contain this term:

  • s.­1
  • i.­1
  • 1.­2
  • 1.­6
  • 1.­9-10
  • n.­5
g.­15

Śāriputra

  • sha ri’i bu
  • ཤ་རིའི་བུ།
  • śāriputra

One of the closest disciples of the Buddha, known for his wisdom and pure observance of discipline.

1 passage contains this term:

  • 1.­2
g.­16

śrāvaka

  • nyan thos
  • ཉན་ཐོས།
  • śrāvaka

The word, based on the verb “to hear,” means “disciple” in general, and is more specifically applied to the followers of the non-Mahāyāna traditions of Buddhism.

1 passage contains this term:

  • 1.­2
g.­17

Sukhāvatī

  • bde ba can
  • བདེ་བ་ཅན།
  • sukhāvatī

The pure realm of the Buddha Amitābha.

4 passages contain this term:

  • i.­1
  • 1.­4
  • g.­1
  • g.­13
g.­18

Tārā

  • sgrol ma
  • སྒྲོལ་མ།
  • tārā

A goddess whose name can be translated as “Savior.” She is known for giving protection and is variously presented in Buddhist literature as a great bodhisattva or a fully awakened buddha.

1 passage contains this term:

  • i.­2
g.­19

thus-gone one

  • de bzhin gshegs pa
  • དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
  • tathāgata

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A frequently used synonym for buddha. According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata, literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata, “one who has thus come.” Gata, though literally meaning “gone,” is a past passive participle used to describe a state or condition of existence. Tatha­(tā), often rendered as “suchness” or “thusness,” is the quality or condition of things as they really are, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms. Therefore, this epithet is interpreted in different ways, but in general it implies one who has departed in the wake of the buddhas of the past, or one who has manifested the supreme awakening dependent on the reality that does not abide in the two extremes of existence and quiescence. It also often used as a specific epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.

2 passages contain this term:

  • 1.­4
  • 1.­7
g.­20

Vaiśālī

  • yangs pa can
  • ཡངས་པ་ཅན།
  • vaiśālī

A major city during the Buddha’s time, the capital of the Licchavi republic. It was an important location where a number of Buddhist sūtras are said to have been taught.

2 passages contain this term:

  • i.­1
  • 1.­2
g.­21

vidyā

  • rig pa
  • རིག་པ།
  • vidyā

A term that at once refers to a type of spell or dhāraṇī and to the goddess it invokes, thereby reflecting their inseparability.

2 passages contain this term:

  • 1.­7
  • 1.­9
g.­22

vidyāmantra

  • rig sngags
  • རིག་སྔགས།
  • vidyāmantra

The formula associated with and identical to the goddess it invokes.

3 passages contain this term:

  • 1.­3-4
  • 1.­7
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