Toh 536Recollecting the Common Essence of the Tathāgatas

Summary

Recollecting the Common Essence
of the Tathāgatas includes a short dhāraṇī and a
brief statement on the benefit of its recitation for the
purpose of purifying karmic obscurations.

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. Catherine Dalton produced the
translation and wrote the introduction. Nathaniel Rich
edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn
Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of
the digital publication process.

Introduction

Recollecting the Common
Essence of the Tathāgatas includes a short
dhāraṇī that is identified as the common essence of all
tathāgatas, along with a statement that reciting it even
once brings an end to the obscurations of eight hundred
million eons.

The work lacks a Sanskrit title as well as a
colophon and is not listed in any of the imperial-period
catalogs. However, a text bearing the same title does
appear at Dunhuang, suggesting that the text was
translated into Tibetan and circulated in Tibet in a
relatively early period.

This translation was made on the basis of the
two Degé Kangyur recensions of the text (Toh 536 and Toh 869 ), with reference to the Stok Palace edition as
well as the notes to the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). There are
no major discrepancies among the recensions consulted.
The dhāraṇī itself has been transcribed exactly as it
appears in Toh 536.

The Translation

Recollecting the Common Essence

of the Tathāgatas

This completes “Recollecting the Common Essence of the
Tathāgatas.”

Notes

Bibliography

Source Texts

Secondary Sources