Toh 545The Noble Dhāraṇī “Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself”

Summary

Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself provides an incantatory practice taught by Mañjuśrī. The dhāraṇī
has two sections: the first extols Mañjuśrī as a tathāgata, an arhat, and a perfectly awakened buddha, and the second invokes a
bhagavatī who is praised as an illuminator and supplicated for protection.

Acknowledgements

Translated by David Mellins, Kaia Fischer, and Erin Sperry, with Geshé Lobsang Dawa and Phakyab Rinpoche (Geshé Ngawang
Sungrab), under the auspices of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York. Introduction by David Mellins and Kaia
Fischer. Special thanks to Paul Hackett for generously sharing his bibliographic expertise and resources. This translation would
not have been possible without the kind and dedicated tutelage of Gen Lozang Jamspal, Executive Director, Tibetan Classics
Translators Guild of New York.

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

Introduction

The Noble Dhāraṇī “Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself” is the first of six dhāraṇī scriptures (Toh
545–550) gathered together within the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur that provide instruction in incantatory practices
that feature the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Five of these scriptures (Toh 547 omitted) also appear in the Dhāraṇī section of the
Degé Kangyur as Toh 892–896.

The dhāraṇī proper has two sections: the first extols Mañjuśrī as a tathāgata, an arhat, and a perfectly awakened
buddha, and the second invokes a bhagavatī who is praised as an illuminator and
supplicated for protection. The scripture then details the extraordinary benefits accrued by even a single recitation of the
dhāraṇī—the eradication of karmic obscurations collected over a thousand eons and, at death, the sight of Mañjuśrī and
Avalokiteśvara. Although the title indicates that the dhāraṇī was spoken by Mañjuśrī, the text does not include a framing
narrative.

The colophon to the Tibetan translation states that it was translated from Sanskrit by the Indian preceptor
Jñānagarbha and the translator Bandé Lui Wangpo and finalized by the Indian preceptor Viśuddhasiṃha and the editor-translator
Bandé Devacandra. This allows us to date the text to the late eighth or early ninth century ce,
when these scholars and translators flourished. This dating is also supported by the text’s inclusion in the Denkarma and
Phangthangma imperial catalogs. A Sanskrit version of this work is, to our knowledge, no longer extant, and it appears that the text was
never translated into Chinese.

This English translation is based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (Toh 545) and the
other in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 892), in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition
(dpe bsdur ma) and with the Stok Palace Kangyur.

The Translation

The Noble Dhāraṇī

Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself

Homage to the Three Jewels! Homage to noble Mañjuśrī!

tadyathā | oṁ jñānāloke triratnavaṃśasaṃdhāraṇi bhagavati abhayaṃ
dādi abhayaṃ datte me bodhicittavajraparipālaya
samantāvabhāsena hana hana sarvasattvasaṃtānapatitaṃ kleśān ucchedaya
varalakṣaṇālaṃkṛtaśarīre bodhisattvaśiśūn paripālaya buddhān ādeśaya
devanāgayakṣagandharvāsuragaruḍakinnaramahoragān vaśe sthāpaya
abhayaṃ dadati svāhā ||

As for the benefits of this dhāraṇī, even a single recitation will purify the karmic obscurations accrued over a
thousand eons, and at the time of death one will
behold noble Mañjuśrī. One will also behold the body of noble Avalokiteśvara, his head adorned with a topknot. In short, the benefits
of this dhāraṇī are limitless.

This concludes the noble dhāraṇī “Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself.”

Colophon

Translated by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and the translator Bandé Lui Wangpo and finalized by the Indian
preceptor Viśuddhasiṃha and chief editor-translator Bandé Devacandra.

A recitation of the complete text "Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself" in Tibetan.

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan Sources

Western Language Sources

tathāgata
de bzhin gshegs pa
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
tathāgata
“Thus-gone one,” an epithet of the buddhas. The Sanskrit compound may be ambiguously parsed to
mean either “thus-gone one” (tathā + gata) or “thus-come one” (tathā + āgata); this concurs with the Tibetan translation using the verb gshegs, which can mean either “to come” or “to go.” The Sanskrit
root √gam also often denotes the meaning “to understand,”
while tathā refers to “thusness,” “suchness,” or “the way things
really are,” so the tathāgata can be rendered as “one who understands
things as they really are” or “one who has gone to such a state.”