Toh 686The Noble Sovereign Ritual of Amoghapāśa

Summary

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.

Acknowledgements

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.

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

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).

As a Kriyātantra, the AP firmly adheres to
Mahāyāna principles and declares itself, explicitly
and implicitly, to be part of the Mahāyāna system.
The Mahāyāna philosophical tenets reflected in the
tantras of this class tend to fall into the category
of Yogācāra rather than Madhyamaka, as it is the
illusory aspect of things and its corollary, the
ability to produce miraculous displays, that is
prominent in these texts. The efficacy of the Kriyā
ritual is itself
founded upon the notion of the indivisibility of
mind, mantra, and deity. The AP’s Yogācāra
affiliation is also confirmed by explicit statements
such as “If [the practitioner] casts the seeds among the
leaders of assemblies, they will become followers of
Yogācāra.”

The exact date when the AP began circulating is
unknown. The dates of its Chinese translations,
however, provide us with the terminus ante quem: the
second half of the sixth century ce for the first chapter
(“part 1” in our presentation), and about a century
later for the remainder of the work. Internal
evidence suggests an even earlier provenance; the
recurrent use of the word dīnāra (Lat. denarius), a
well-attested term for a coin used in India in the
fourth or fifth century, may indicate that
Amoghapāśa material originated at that time.

Dating the AP in its present form is complicated
by the fact that it may be a compilation of
Amoghapāśa materials that originally existed as
independent but closely related ritual texts. The section of the AP
referred to as part 1 in our translation still
exists as an independent but slightly different text
that is included in the Tibetan canon with the title
’phags pa don yod zhags
pa’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i
mdo (Toh 682, Skt. Āryāmoghapāśahṛdayanāmamahāyānasūtra). It is possible that this work originally
circulated independently of the AP and was later
compiled along with other materials into the text’s
current form. That the various rites recorded in the AP were once
independent of one another is further supported by
the fact that the main dhāraṇī mantra is taught in
the text no less than three times, each time with a preamble
presenting it as if for the first time. It is taught
in part 1 and another two times in the remaining
part of the text, suggesting that the entire text
could be a compilation of at least three independent
works. As they all are centered around the same
dhāraṇī, they could almost be regarded as different
variations on the same theme. On all three
occasions, the dhāraṇī in question is referred to as
Amogharāja (Amogha King), the “heart essence of
Amoghapāśa” (
amoghapāśahṛdaya), and a
“maṇḍala of liberation.” But the structure of the
text is far more complex than this, with hundreds of
minor rites grouped in
larger interrelated units. The compiled materials
seem to be not always fully integrated, nor is it
always clear where a particular set of rites ends and another
begins. Another indicator that the text is likely a
compilation is the distribution of certain technical
terms—for example, the recurrent term “sameness of
families” (kulasāmānya) is completely absent in
the first half of the text. The composite nature of
the text thus makes it difficult to arrive at
anything but an approximate date of its origin.

The Amoghapāśakalparāja comprises a
teaching on the practices of Amoghapāśa delivered by
various speakers as part of a dialogue. The main
speaker is Noble Avalokiteśvara who delivers the
majority of the teachings, with contributions from
Noble Tārā as well. Avalokiteśvara teaches the
practices and rites of
the peaceful and wrathful emanations of Amoghapāśa,
who are ultimately his own heart essence (hṛdaya).
Tārā gives a short teaching on the dhāraṇī of
Amoghatārā, the female counterpart of Amoghapāśa.
Both Avalokiteśvara and Tārā are exhorted to teach
by the Buddha Śākyamuni—the supreme spiritual
authority in the text—who blesses the speakers and
authenticates their teachings. The fourth
interlocutor is Vajrapāṇi, referred to throughout
the text as the “great general of the yakṣa army.”
He elicits additional teachings with his questions
and makes a pledge to protect Amoghapāśa
practitioners in the future.

Indeed, the spirit of “sovereignty” or
independence pervades the work as a whole. Each
rite, often extolled as
“supreme” (uttama) or “unsurpassable” (anuttara),
is considered sufficient on its own for
accomplishing all worldly goals and the attainment
of buddhahood. The quality of “sovereignty” extends
even further; although all the rites of the AP belong, just like the
titular deity, to the lotus family, the realization
attained thereby transcends the family divisions,
applying to all tathāgata families. This is expressed by the
recurrent phrase, “the sameness/equality of all
families” (sarvakulasāmānya). Thus, by
accomplishing any “sovereign ritual” of Amoghapāśa,
the practitioner establishes a bond (samaya)
with not just the lotus family but all the tathāgata
families equally (sarvakulasāmānyasamaya
).

The concept of the “sameness of families”
(kulasāmānya), ubiquitous in all Kriyā
rites and practices of
the supramundane (lokottara) type, deserves
special attention, as it is prominent in the AP and
is possibly one of the most important concepts in
the Kriyātantras. As this concept is absent in the
(possibly older) part 1 but prominent in part 2 of
the AP, it probably entered the Kriyā practice
system around the time when part 2 was being
composed and might have been introduced in this text
for the first time. The term defines the Kriyā
pantheon of tathāgatas and other uṣṇīṣa
deities, who are
otherwise grouped according to specific families, by
introducing an essential cohesion among them and
among all supramundane Kriyā practices. The term
kulasāmānya has two functions, one
classificatory and the other hermeneutic. As a
qualifier, the term is most often combined with
ritual terms such as
“accomplishment,” “maṇḍala of liberation,” or “rite” (karman).
The concept is intrinsically soteriological inasmuch
as all tathāgata families share in the same ultimate
nature, the dharmakāya, and so are subsumed within
buddhahood. Thus, regardless of which deity family
or practice one accomplishes, one automatically
accomplishes all tathāgata families, is blessed by
all of them, and enters the samaya bond with all of
them. This convergence is called the “sameness of
all tathāgata families” (sarvatathāgatakulasāmānya) or, in
short, the “sameness of families” (kulasāmānya). Any deity or mantra
practice that leads to full buddhahood is, by
definition, kulasāmānya, and, inversely, any
practice that is kulasāmānya leads to full
buddhahood. The broadness of the concept allows for
variations in translating sāmānya (“sameness”)
depending on context. For example, kulasāmānyatattvasiddhi
could be translated as
“the realization of the reality of the
sameness of all the families.”
Kulasāmānyasamayānupraveśa could be
translated, descriptively, as “entering the samaya
bond with all the families equally.”
The term becomes more difficult to translate when
used strictly as an adjective, as, for example, in
the phrase “sarvatathāgatakulasāmānya rite”
that describes a rite (kalpa) that simply falls
into the category of kulasāmānya. One way out of
the problem is to translate this phrase as “a rite
that is shared by all tathāgata
families.” This translation, however, could be
misleading, as most practices and rites described as kulasāmānya are actually
family-specific, as is the case in the AP, where
virtually all of them belong to the lotus family. It
is helpful to understand that being family-specific
does not preclude being kulasāmānya—a
family-specific rite or
practice is kulasāmānya if it results in an
accomplishment that establishes the samaya bond with
all the families. Thus, it is only when a practice
is fully accomplished that family divisions are
transcended, and one truly realizes the
kulasāmānya.

The AP employs technical vocabulary and stock
phrases that are common to the Kriyātantras and need
some introduction to be properly understood in the
context of this genre of tantric literature. One such term is vidyādhara, which means “vidyā holder”
when it refers to the practitioner of the rites described in this text.
Vidyā implies that he is a follower of the
mantra method, while dhara (“holder”) implies
that he is an upholder of this method and also
partakes of the magical power (vidyā)
that the method bestows. We have used the phrase
“vidyā holder” to translate vidyādhara
when it refers to the practitioner and left it
untranslated as “vidyādhara” when
referring to the eponymous class of nonhuman beings.
In fact, there is a connection between the two: the
vidyā holder who accomplishes the vidyā ascends to
the vidyādhara realm and becomes an
“emperor of the vidyādharas” (
vidyādharacakravartin).

The text of the AP exists today in Sanskrit and
in Tibetan and Chinese canonical translations. There
is only one complete Sanskrit manuscript (China
Library of Nationalities, manuscript 69), which has
been published as a transcript (Kimura 1998) and as
an edition (Kimura 2015). The transcript, however,
covers only part of the manuscript, from the
beginning to folio 97 (out of the 162 folios), and
the edition, still in process, consists only of a
short section from folio 97 to folio 101. The names
of the Tibetan translators of the AP, described in
the final colophon of the Tibetan translation as the
“four learned translators of the past,” are not
available. The same colophon gives the names of two
later translators, both active in the fourteenth
century, Chödrak Pel Sangpo and Rinchen Drup. These
two lotsāwas added and translated
additional material not found in the existing
canonical translation.

The translation that follows is of the complete
text of the AP as preserved in the extant Sanskrit
manuscript. The Tibetan canon preserves a version of
the text that is substantially longer, consisting of
about 102 Degé folio sides of material, that has not been included in
full in our translation. At several points the
Tibetan is rendered in verse while the corresponding
Sanskrit is not, in which case we have followed the
Sanskrit and translated as prose. Our translation
does include passages from the Sanskrit manuscript
that are absent in the Tibetan, but these are rather
short, the longest being about two folios of the
Sanskrit manuscript, and the junctures where the two
versions fall out of alignment are indicated in the
notes. The Chinese canonical translation represents
a version of the AP that is shorter than both the
Sanskrit and Tibetan versions. The differences in
composition between all three versions are listed in
the collation tables in Kimura 1997.

One particular challenge in preparing this
translation was the precise identification of the
various mantras that are repeatedly referred to in
the text by a name or a descriptive phrase shared by
more than one mantra—the same name or epithet,
notably “heart essence of Amoghapāśa,” may refer to
different mantras. Some of the confusion should
perhaps be attributed to the fact that the AP is a
compilation with a cumulative nomenclature that had
not been completely integrated or fully harmonized.
For ease of cross-referencing, the mantras are given
the numbers corresponding to those in Kimura
1998, but without a comprehensive
table of mantra concordances it would be impossible
to consistently decide which specific mantra is
referred to in a particular context.

So that readers can correlate our translation
with passages in the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts, we
have included page numbers from the published
Sanskrit edition (Kimura 1998 and Kimura 2015) using
the siglum T, with Ti–Tvii referring to Kimura 1998,
and Tviii–Tix to Kimura 2015. Folio numbers using
the siglum A refer to the Sanskrit manuscript held
in the China Library of Nationalities, and folio
numbers from the Degé edition of the Tibetan are
indicated with F. Because of their alignment with
some sections of the Tibetan text, the page numbers
from Kimura do not always appear in sequential
order.

The Translation

The Noble Sovereign Ritual of

Amoghapāśa

##

Part 1

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. He stayed there
together with the congregation of eight thousand
monks, 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.

At that time, Noble Avalokiteśvara, the
bodhisattva great being, rose from his seat, draped
his upper garment over one shoulder, knelt with his
right knee on the ground, and bowed toward the
Blessed One with folded hands. Smiling, he said to
the Blessed One, “Ninety-one eons ago, in the world
sphere called Vilokitā, I obtained from the
Tathāgata Lokendrarāja this heart essence of
Amoghapāśa called Amogharāja. Through this heart
essence, many thousands of gods of the Pure
Abode, the chief of them being Īśvara and Maheśvara,
were established in perfect supreme awakening, and I
myself obtained tens of hundreds of thousands of
samādhis, the most important being the
display of unconfused knowledge. The
place where this heart essence is introduced, O
Blessed One, will be known as one where twelve
thousand gods, headed by Īśvara, Maheśvara, and
Brahmā, remain in order to guard, protect, and
preserve it, and where the Blessed One remains,
worshiped in the form of a caitya, and causes this
heart essence, the unfailing cause of good fortune,
to spread.

“Any being who hears this heart essence of
Amoghapāśa, O Blessed One, will have roots of virtue
planted in them by hundreds of thousands of millions
of billions of buddhas. O
Blessed One, any follower of an evil doctrine who
speaks ill of the noble ones, rejects the true
Dharma, opposes the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, the
śrāvakas, and the pratyekabuddhas, and is headed for
the Avīci hell because of the offenses he commits
will be stricken with remorse and will later take up the conduct
of restraint. If he occasionally fasts and recites this
mantra, he will purify, exhaust, and purge his karma
in this very life. He will thus exhaust the karma of
fever that returns every day, or every two, three,
four, or six days; the
karma of sore eyes, earache, sinusitis, toothache,
sore lips, tongue, or palate, chest pain,
stomachache, back pain, or pain in the flanks or in the limbs and
extremities; the karma of asthma attacks, dysentery,
problems with the hands, feet, or nose, headache,
leprosy, white leprosy, black leprosy, scabies,
lice, pus boils, fistula, or blisters; the karma of
epilepsy or attacks by kākhordas or other evil
spirits; and the karma of being killed, imprisoned,
beaten, threatened, or falsely accused. In short, O
Blessed One, he will completely remove any karma of
physical or mental pain or of nightmares. How much
more will this be true for beings who are pure and
have faith and trust!

“My
heart essence of Amoghapāśa, O Blessed One, will
become the cause of virtue for any beings in the
fourfold assembly or among the four castes, even the
crafty and the guileful, who hear it, uphold,
preserve, and propagate it, write it down,
commission a copy of it, study it, recite it close
to an animal’s ear, or contemplate its
words the way one should contemplate the Buddha,
that is, without distraction, form, concepts,
arising, duration, causality, stains, indifference,
or the five skandhas. It will become the cause of
virtue for any beings who visualize thousands of
buddhas from the ten directions appearing before
them and confess to them their wrongdoings … and so
on up to ‘write this mantra in the form
of a book and keep it safe in their homes.’ Even if,
O Blessed One, as anyone learned would know, they
listen to the heart essence because they fear their
master, have to comply with someone else, or fear ridicule, the words of the
heart essence will fall on their ears through the
blessing of Noble Avalokiteśvara.

“As an analogy, O Blessed One, if a person
swears or curses over sandalwood, camphor, or musk
and then
grinds it on a stone and smears it on themselves,
they should not think that the sandalwood, camphor,
or musk will not make them fragrant due to the
swearing or cursing. Rather, they will still be
fragrant.  Blessed One, the same is true
for my heart essence of Amoghapāśa. As for any being who laughs
at or makes fun of my heart essence of Amoghapāśa …
and so on until ‘worships it, even if done with
guile,’ for such unruly beings this heart essence
will become the cause of virtue. Those for whom this
heart essence arises become inseparable from it. It
makes them fragrant with moral discipline, as they
gather the accumulations of merit and wisdom through
discipline and samādhi.

“As for any son or daughter of noble family, a
monk or nun, a male or female lay practitioner, or anyone else
who performs, on
the eighth day of the bright fortnight, a ritual
fast dedicated to the heart essence of Amoghapāśa
and recites the heart essence of Amoghapāśa seven times
while refraining from conversation, such a person
will see twenty-one beneficial, much-desired
qualities. What are these twenty-one?

“They are as follows: ⁽¹⁾ No disease will occur in the
body. Should it occur because of the power of karma,
it will soon disappear. ⁽²⁾ One’s body will become
smooth and beautiful. ⁽³⁾ One will be loved by many
people. ⁽⁴⁾ One will be able to control one’s
senses. ⁽⁵⁾ One will acquire things, and when one
has thus accumulated wealth, ⁽⁶⁾ no thief will be
able to take it. ⁽⁷⁾ One’s wealth cannot be burned
by fire, borne away by flood, or forcefully seized
by the king. ⁽⁸⁾ One’s endeavors will be successful.
⁽⁹⁾ There will be no danger from fire or water.
⁽¹⁰⁾ There will be no danger from wind or rain. ⁽¹¹⁾
If one incants ash or water seven times with the
heart mantra of Amoghapāśa and demarcates the
borders of an area, thus delimiting the cardinal and
intermediate directions and above and below, all
calamities will be pacified. ⁽¹²⁾ No life-draining
spirits will be able to steal one’s vitality. ⁽¹³⁾
One will be dear to and captivate all beings. ⁽¹⁴⁾
There will be no danger from enemies, and should
such danger arise, it will soon fade away. ⁽¹⁵⁾
There will be no danger from nonhuman beings, ⁽¹⁶⁾
kākhordas, or ⁽¹⁷⁾ ḍākinīs. ⁽¹⁸⁾ No acute
afflictions and their subsidiaries will arise. ⁽¹⁹⁾
One will not die by fire, weapons, or poison. ⁽²⁰⁾ The deities
will stand by to guard, protect, and defend. ⁽²¹⁾
Wherever one may be born, one will never be
separated from loving kindness, compassion,
sympathetic joy, and equanimity. These are the
twenty-one benefits
that are highly desirable.

“One will obtain, in addition, eight qualities.
What are these eight? ⁽¹⁾ At the time of one’s
death, Noble Avalokiteśvara will appear before one
in the garb of a monk. ⁽²⁾ One will die with ease.
⁽³⁾ One will not stray from the right view. ⁽⁴⁾ When
dying, one’s hands and feet will not thrash about,
one will not soil oneself with excrement, and one
will not fall off the bed. ⁽⁵⁾ One will remain
completely lucid. ⁽⁶⁾ One will not die face down.
⁽⁷⁾ One’s presence of mind will not fail. ⁽⁸⁾ One
will be reborn in whatever buddha field one aspires
to, and there one will not be separated from a
virtuous friend.

“A serious practitioner should
recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa three times,
at the three junctions of the day, every day. He
should avoid food that contains alcohol, meat,
onions, leeks, or garlic, as well as stale food.
Knowing the strengths and
weaknesses of sentient beings, he should teach to
them the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa as part of a
Dharma discourse. The teacher must not be tight
fisted, as only those who
are free from greed and jealousy can become
bodhisattvas who bring benefit to beings; they
attain the realization of the Buddha and are then
counted among the bodhisattvas. Bodhi is
said to be wisdom, and sattva is the means. Lest
sentient beings not obtain these two qualities, may
the Blessed One permit me to chant in front of the
Tathāgata this heart mantra for the benefit,
welfare, and happiness of the fourfold assembly and
the others who commit evil.”

The noble bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, his eyes
unblinking, said to the Blessed One, “Please listen,
O Blessed One, to my maṇḍala of liberation that is
revered by all the bodhisattvas; listen for the
welfare and happiness of many people, in order to
embrace the world with compassion and to benefit vast
numbers of people!

“Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of
the three times! Homage to all the past, present,
and future pratyekabuddhas and congregations of
noble śrāvakas! Homage to those who are set on and
follow the right path! Homage to Śāradvatīputra!
Homage to the bodhisattvas headed by Maitreya and to
the hosts of great bodhisattvas! Homage to the noble
Tathāgata Amitābha, the worthy one, the fully
realized Buddha! Homage to the Three Jewels! Homage
to Noble Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva great being
of great compassion! The mantra is:

“He who completes the recitation will accomplish
his activities. If he recites this mantra three
times, he will purify the five acts of immediate
retribution and every karmic obscuration.

“One should delimit a sacred area using water
infused with ashes of aloe incense, mustard
seeds, and pegs made of cutch tree wood. To cure any type
of fever, one should use a thread, and for all other
diseases use ghee, oil, or water, incanting them and
then giving them to the patient. To destroy the
kākhordas, one should use an incanted weapon, and
for stomachache, a protection thread. To neutralize
poison, one should use water with fresh salt, clay,
or just water. If one suffers from eye ailments, one
should tie an incanted white thread around one’s
ear. If one has a toothache, one should use an
incanted tooth stick made from oleander wood.

“To delimit a large sacred area, one should
incant a five-colored thread twenty-one times and
tie it on the four pegs of cutch-tree wood nailed in
the four corners. Using thread, water, or ashes
affords protection against anything. For all types
of epileptic seizures, one should use a five-colored
thread; for all fevers, a white thread; and for all
types of insects,
ringworm, pus boils, and asthma attacks, a mixture
of honey and black pepper. For eye ailments, one
should use perfumed water, water with
flame-of-the-forest, or water infused with
licorice. For an earache one should use oil. In the
case of quarrels, disputes, discord, disagreements,
or false accusations, one should incant water and
rinse one’s mouth with it.

“To protect a country, a kingdom, or a realm
from an army, one should arrange ritual jars
and, after donning clean white garments, offer a
large pūjā. If one recites the
Amoghapāśa mantra over them, there will be lasting peace. If
one sprinkles them with incanted water, all beings
will be protected. All misfortunes and calamities
will cease for those afflicted by them if they smear
on their chest sandalwood paste incanted twenty-one
times. The karma of all the acts of immediate
retribution will be purified if one recites the
mantra continually. A homa of lotuses will ensure
the protection of the house. A homa of sandalwood
will ensure a means of livelihood for all beings and
protect them against all bhūtas and grahas.

“If one incants jayā,
vijayā, nākulī,
gandhanākulī, vāruṇī, abhayapāṇi, indrapāṇi, mahaleb cherry, tagara, cakrā, mahācakrā, viṣṇukrāntā, somarājī, or sunandā one hundred
and eight times, makes it into a pill, wears it tied
onto one’s head or arm, or ties it around a child’s
neck or a woman’s waist, it will bring prosperity
and pacify bad luck. With the pill tied on, one
becomes protected in every way. One will not meet
with fire or poison and will not be poisoned. If one
is, it will not cause any distress and will soon go
away. Using an incanted vine of araṇī, one can pacify grahas and
arrest winds, hailstorms, and flooding. This heart
mantra of Noble Avalokiteśvara can do anything,
including producing the supreme accomplishment. If
it is mastered, it can certainly accomplish these
acts.

“The vidyā holder who wishes to accomplish this
heart mantra should follow this procedure: Using
uncontaminated paints and a piece of cloth, he
should paint Noble Avalokiteśvara in
his form of a buddha and wearing the garb of
Paśupati that includes a diadem upon his topknotted
hair, a tunic of antelope skin, and all the
ornaments. The painting should be done by a painter
observing the ritual fast. The vidyā holder should
then make a maṇḍala in front of it with cow dung,
bestrew it with white flowers, and place eight jars
filled with eight offerings there. He should also offer a bali made
of another sixty-four articles, but without meat or
blood. Burning incense of agarwood, he should recite
the vidyā one thousand and eight
times. He should fast for one day and night, or for
three days, eat three white things, bathe three times a day, and wear
clean clothes. Avalokiteśvara will then arrive in
person and fulfill every wish.

Thus concludes the “Amoghapāśa.”

Part 2

Noble Avalokiteśvara, 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. 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.

“This Amogharāja, O Blessed
One, is the
quintessence of my sovereign ritual. In it, there is
a very secret, quintessential part that teaches the
secret samaya practice of the great maṇḍalas,
mudrās, and mantras that together constitute an
ultimate maṇḍala of liberation. It brings the
realization of reality that arises out of the great
essence of reality itself by the means of the great
lotus maṇḍala. I will now proclaim these teachings
before the Blessed One.

“I will proclaim these teachings here, in the
midst of this great assembly, before the devas,
nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, and mahoragas, and before the circle of
the accomplished vidyā deities. I will proclaim them
before the deities such as Īśvara, Maheśvara, and
Brahmā, before Yama, Varuṇa, Kubera, the hosts of
ṛṣis, Candra, Sūrya, stars and stellar
constellations, siddhas, and celestial
vidyādharīs. I will proclaim them before the Blessed
One, who embodies the transcendent accomplishment of
the true essence of reality that is won through the
successful practice of recitation and visualization.
I will proclaim them before the retinue-hosts of the
great vidyādharas. I will teach the
supreme secret of the essence of reality.”

The blessed Tathāgata Śākyamuni, adorned with
hundreds of thousands of merits and splendorous with
the major and minor marks of perfection, extended
his golden arm, which was fragrant
like a rutting elephant and haloed with many light
rays, placed his
hand on the head of Noble Avalokiteśvara, the great
bodhisattva being, and stroked him, saying, “Please
speak, O great compassionate, supremely pure being!
You are blessed by the tathāgatas, and now also by
me. Teach the most secret samaya that is delighted
in and blessed by all the tathāgatas in the ten
directions as numerous as atoms in the universe or
the hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of
sand grains in the Gaṅgā river. They rejoice and
cheer you on.”

This mantra is the essence and innate nature of
Amoghapāśa; it is a secret heart mantra of Noble
Avalokiteśvara, the great bodhisattva being. As soon
as it was spoken, Potala, the king of mountains,
quaked in six different ways, along with all the
mountains, forests, and groves, including Mount
Sumeru with its inner and outer encircling ranges.
All the palaces of gods swayed, as did the dwellings
of nāgas, yakṣas, and rākṣasas. The great oceans
swelled with waves, and the bodies of water shook.

Avalokiteśvara replied, “It is so, O Blessed
One! This secret heart dhāraṇī, even if it is
repeated just once, will cause each and every single
tathāgata everywhere in the ten directions, equal in number to
millions of billions times the number of sand
particles in the Gaṅgā river, to extend his arm and
hold the reciter’s head, giving him comfort. The
reciter will perceive every tathāgata. By merely pronouncing this
mantra, he will be freed from disease for hundreds of thousands of
eons. Hells will no longer exist for him, and his
wrongdoings will be purified. All his
diseases and ailments will cease, as will all
wickedness. Wicked beings, enemies, and adversaries
will perish; there is no doubt about this. Noble
Avalokiteśvara will grant him boons and appear to
him continually.

“For this vidyā, there is the following worship
procedure and the samaya of conduct.

“The vidyā holder should purify himself, bathe
thoroughly, and put on clean clothes. He should give
rise to loving kindness and compassion and be solely
motivated by kindness for all beings. He should make
offerings before a cloth painting of Noble
Avalokiteśvara, with flowers, incense, perfume,
garlands, scented oils, and lamps, on either the
eighth or the fifteenth day of the bright fortnight.
The recitation procedure requires the vidyā holder
to recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa one hundred
and eight times while sitting in a cross-legged
posture in front of the painting and refraining from
other talk. He should then recite the mantra of
Krodharāja one hundred and eight times, while
sprinkling the painting with water and mustard seeds
and forming his mudrā twenty-one times in
succession. One thus performs the mantra and mudrā
empowerments of the painting.

“After that, he should recite the heart mantra
of the secret amogha samaya one thousand and eight
times. When this mantra is thus repeated one hundred
thousand times together with the heart mantra of
Amoghapāśa and the mantra of Krodharāja, the
recitation procedure is complete. Upon its
completion, the cloth painting will blaze with light
and the earth will quake. Light rays of various
colors will radiate from the body of Noble
Avalokiteśvara. The noose held in Amoghapāśa’s
hand will also
blaze with light. The vidyā holder will be thrilled,
his body hair will bristle, and the top of his head
will emit light. This is the sign of success—the
ritual seal of the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa has
been accomplished.

“Subsequently, all activities and all tasks will
be accomplished by merely pronouncing the mantra.
Hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of
tathāgatas, as numerous as the grains of sand in the
Gaṅgā river, will simultaneously appear before the
vidyā holder and place their golden hand on his
head. Noble Avalokiteśvara will appear in
his body of secret essence, which is by nature
completely pure, without stains or blemishes.
Standing before the vidyā holder, he will grant all
desirable things and all accomplishments, including
the accomplishment of the ritual seal of the heart
mantra of Amoghapāśa. They will protect the vidyā
holder as their heart son, until he has attained the
awakening of a buddha.

“A vidyā holder who wishes to see the world
system named Sukhāvatī in its entirety, adorned with
perfect buddha fields, and to see Noble Amitābha,
the best of victors, with the retinue-hosts of
bodhisattvas and
sitting on a
lion seat in an ornamented palace, his body ablaze
with hundreds of thousands of billions of light rays
as he teaches the Dharma,
should purify himself as required for a vidyā
holder, keep his heart and mind completely
pure, and cultivate, throughout the
prātihāra fortnight,
thoughts of loving kindness, faith, respect, a heart
of compassion, and regard for his master. He should
offer to the great cloth painting of Noble
Avalokiteśvara whatever articles are available, such
as flowers, incense, perfume, garlands, unguents,
scented powders, robes, cloth, and banners. From the
eighth day of the bright fortnight through the
thirteenth, he should live on the three ‘white’
foods and recite daily, and he should
recite the secret heart mantra of Amoghapāśa
twenty-one
times in front of the painting. He should refrain
from other talk. He should likewise recite the heart
and the auxiliary heart mantras of Krodharāja one
hundred and eight times in front of the
painting. A
welcome offering of water, placed in front of the
painting, should be offered at the three junctions
of the day. The vidyā holder should, at that time,
‘wake up’ the deity using the incense of agarwood,
sandalwood, olibanum, and bdellium, together with
essential flower-oils and musk, and recite the
summoning mantra one thousand and eight times.

“If one uses the supreme king of incense
called unfailing purity in the three
worlds, all the world systems in the ten
directions of the great trichiliocosm will fill, as
soon as the incense is lit, with great clouds of
incense, including all the buddha fields where all
the buddhas and bodhisattvas dwell and the realms of
the devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras,
garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, and other human and
nonhuman beings. As soon as the incense reaches them
during the performance of the incense worship with
this great king of fragrances, all diseases will
cease, and all nightmares and bad dreams will be
completely pacified. Even
animals who smell the
fragrance of the incense will have the wrongdoings
and karmic obscurations that lead to rebirth in the
lower realms completely purified. All disputes,
quarrels, famines, wars, riots, public unrest,
nightmares—all such misfortunes, calamities, and
annoyances, including all diseases and ailments—will
be completely pacified. So will all hurricanes,
hailstorms, heat, and cold waves. All nonvirtue will
be destroyed, including all the mantras that employ
kākhordas and kiraṇas, and all poisons both liquid
and powdered. All grahas, apasmāras, fevers,
indigestion, eating disorders, and evil eye will be cleared up or dispelled
when they smell the fragrance of the incense. They
will disappear and will never recur up until the final
attainment of the seat of awakening. One should
always use this king of incense.

“Then, on the fourteenth lunar day, the vidyā
holder should fast for the whole day and night, recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa
one hundred and eight times, and recite the mantra
of Krodharāja the same number of times. He should
offer a bali of three ‘white’ foods, as available,
and burn a lamp with fragrant oil while reciting the
heart and auxiliary heart mantras of Krodharāja. He
should sleep in front of the painting until, at
dawn, he sees golden treasures in his dreams. He
will see the world system of Sukhāvatī with its
palaces, jeweled trees, and jeweled mountains, and also
Puṣkiriṇī with its residences, temples, palaces, and
all its magical and
marvelous displays. He will see the Tathāgata
Amitāyus sitting inside his palatial temple,
surrounded by the retinue-hosts of bodhisattvas, and
also the congregations of
devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, and mahoragas.

“The blessed Tathāgata Amitāyus, a worthy, fully
realized buddha, will, for his part, encourage and
applaud the vidyā holder by saying, ‘Great! It is
great, O good man! You have performed many honorable
acts, O vidyā holder, and planted many roots of
virtue. By performing what is worth performing, you
have acquired much authority. You have accomplished,
O vidyā holder, the essence of Amoghapāśa, the
maṇḍala of liberation, the great seal, the essence
of the mantra speech, and buddhahood itself. This is
your last birth from a womb; when this birth runs
its full course, you
will be reborn in a buddha field and will pass on
from one buddha field to another, until you finally
attain the seat of awakening.’ Amitāyus will then
place his right hand on the vidyā holder’s head,
granting him all the mundane accomplishments and the
accomplishment of the path that leads beyond this
world.

“This is the supreme practice, whereby the vidyā
holder, thrilled with joy, will see for himself that
he is fully realized. With all his karmic
obscurations dispelled, he will be completely pure.
Noble Avalokiteśvara, in the garb of a brahmin, will
remain in front of him and provide all desirable
things. The cloth painting will blaze and emit
light. He will also obtain hundreds of thousands of
other benefits and worldly splendor.
All people, kings,
ministers, brahmins, and householders will remain in
his thrall, and he will be greatly venerated. In
return, he will receive great amogha accomplishment
from monks and brahmins. To bring this about, he
should form the mudrā three times a day, and then,
on the fourteenth day, he should make whatever
offerings of money and food are available to monks
and brahmins, and only then should he himself
eat.

“If the vidyā holder seeks to see a buddha, a
bodhisattva, or a deity, he should incant the king
of incense twenty-one times with the mantra of
summoning and offer the incense to the blessed
Buddha. The summoned being will show itself as the
result of merely burning the incense. It will
explain what is auspicious and what is not, and what
will bring loss and what will bring gain. It will
explain everything, including the duration of the
vidyā holder’s life and its own death and
rebirth.

“This is the auxiliary heart mantra to the heart
mantra called Amogharāja.

“This is the impelling mantra. One should incant
mustard seeds with it twenty-one times, mix them
with water, and throw the water in the ten
directions. All the tathāgatas, bodhisattvas, devas,
nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, mahoragas, and other human and nonhuman
beings everywhere will become aroused when fumigated
with the king of incense and sprinkled with this
water.

“This is the invitation mantra—a vidyā of
invitation from anywhere—for all the tathāgatas,
bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and pratyekabuddhas, for all
the deities who dwell in the maṇḍalas, and for the
devas, nāgas, and so forth. One should fumigate
the vase, the water, the flowers, and the tooth
sticks with the king of incense incanted with this
mantra one hundred and eight times.

“This is the mantra of securing the maṇḍala on
the ground. One should incant water and mustard
seeds with this mantra one hundred and eight times
and cast them to the ground. This will consecrate a
circular maṇḍala on the ground, one hundred
leagues in diameter, so
that the ground is composed of vajras, everything
there is protected, and the beings there become
stable minded. The vidyā holder will become
invisible to all the enemies—to all the vighnas,
vināyakas, yakṣas, rākṣasas, bhūtas, piśācas, and
apasmāras, and to the ḍākinīs who can assume any
shape at will. He will become invisible and as
inviolable as vajra.

“Using this mantra for the seat, one should
incant some mustard seeds one thousand and eight
times and cast them at the ground. This will
magically create a great lotus and consecrate it as
a seat. The seat, made of the seven precious jewels
and blessed by all the tathāgatas, is a supreme
offering. The
vidyā holder should also sprinkle his own seat with
water and mustard seeds incanted twenty-one times
with this mantra. This will purify the seat, making
it into a lotus seat of an accomplished vidyā
holder.

“With this mantra the vidyā holder can
completely purify the entire maṇḍala, including
houses, forests, pleasure groves, monasteries,
shelters, walking areas, and secret retreat places
in the forest. He can completely purify all places
by sprinkling them with perfumed water and mustard
seeds incanted one hundred and eight times. All the
wicked vighnas, vināyakas, yakṣas,
rākṣasas, and bhūtas will be warded off. This mantra
is for purifying the place.

“The vidyā holder should wind a five-colored
thread onto five iron stakes that are eight fingers
long, incant them with this mantra one thousand and
eight times, and drive them into the ground in the
four corners, with the center being the fifth. This
will create an enclosing outer boundary at the
distance of seven leagues. This great boundary will
remain until the stakes are pulled out.

“This is the mantra for securing the maṇḍala.
One should incant water and mustard seeds with it
one hundred and eight times and sprinkle the entire
maṇḍala, including above and below. This will secure a
great outer maṇḍala. No vighnas, vināyakas, yakṣas,
rākṣasas, bhūtas, or piśācas will be able to cross
it. All the wicked beings there are, such as wicked
gods or nāgas, will be prevented
from coming. All worldly or unwholesome
activities, defective mantras, and the vile acts of
wicked beings will be completely eradicated.

“The vidyā holder should use this mantra to
incant, one thousand and eight times, water prepared
with the five products of the cow, and then sprinkle
the entire area, whether it is a monastery, a forest
hermitage, a secret cave, a hidden place in a
thicket, a walking area, a grove, a tended garden, a
pleasure grove, a residence, a shelter, or a house.
All swamps and cesspools, whether filled on not,
will be cleared of any bhūtas, piśācas, pretas, and
so forth who feed on refuse, as well as any savages.
They will be expelled, and the area will become
pure.

“If the vidyā holder sprinkles himself with the
same water, he will be free from problems such as
indigestion, eating disorders, or the evil eye. Unhealthy
residences and dwelling places will become pure.
Those who are dirty will become clean, the impure
will become pure, the sexually incontinent will
become continent, and those who do not fast will
begin to do so. All the deities will stand by to
guard, protect, and defend the vidyā holder. Īśvara,
Maheśvara, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara, Yama, Varuṇa, Kubera,
and so forth will remain attentive in guarding,
protecting, and defending him. He will be loved and
venerated by the entire world, and his speech will
be treated as command. All his diseases will clear
up, and he will be freed from his nonvirtue,
obscurations, wrongdoings, and so forth.

“If the vidyā holder sprinkles all four
quarters, all quarrels,
disputes, fights, disagreements, famines, and
pestilence—all such misfortunes, calamities, and
troubles—will be completely pacified. If he
sprinkles himself or sips the water every day, he
will obtain great success in the rites involving
vidyās, mudrās, and maṇḍalas. He will obtain great
amogha accomplishment. Wherever he goes, he will be
honored and his progress never obstructed. Every
night he will have splendorous dream-visions of
great places and many extraordinary things.

“The vidyā holder will obtain great boons on
all occasions. All monks, brahmins, kṣatriyas,
householders, kings, ministers, royal harems, and
attendants will fall under his thrall. Always
maintaining perfectly pure conduct, he will be
greatly venerated. He will be able to see Noble Avalokiteśvara any
time, whenever he wishes, and will obtain all the
most desirable boons. In his sleep he will perceive
the Tathāgata Amitābha, the worthy, fully realized
Buddha. When he dies, he will be reborn in the world
system of Sukhāvatī.

“This is the mantra of the secret great
samaya.

“This is the mantra of entry.

“This is the mantra of the disciple.

“This is the mantra for binding the topknot. It
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for tossing the water. It
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the water pitcher. It
should be recited one hundred and eight times.

“This is the mantra for containing water. It
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the hands. One should
incant both hands with it one thousand and eight
times and commence whatever activities need to be
accomplished that involve maṇḍala, mantra, and mudrā
procedures. This procedure will make all practices
successful, and it should always be included in all
rites.

“This is the mantra for purifying the tongue.
The vidyā holder should incant perfumed water with
it one thousand and eight times and rinse the front
of his mouth. It will remove all impurities from the
tongue, which will then become delicate like the
petal of a pink or red lotus. Similarly, it will
purify the teeth, the palate, and the throat.

“With this mantra, the vidyā holder should
prepare a fragrant pill to be kept at the front of
the mouth. He should grind sandalwood, nalada, fenugreek, water
lily, saffron, and musk into a fine powder and, adding honey, make
a pill the size of an eyeball. Reciting the above
mantra with full voice, he should place the pill in
a copper container, place the container in the
mouth, and keep it there until he completes one
thousand and eight recitations. After a while, the
pleasant fragrance of a water lily will continually
issue forth from his mouth for hundreds of yards.
There is no doubt about this.

“All the tathāgatas and bodhisattvas will
rejoice, and Noble Avalokiteśvara, the boon-granting
lord, will be extremely pleased. This supreme vidyā of
Amoghapāśa will be easily accomplished through
recitation. The vidyā holder
who recites it will always be free from bad odor,
bile, phlegm, and nasal mucous, which will all be
swiftly cleared away, and divine fragrance
will issue forth from his mouth. Whomever he targets
with this formula will quickly be enthralled. All
the gods including Śacī’s husband Indra, Yama,
Varuṇa, Kubera, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśvara, the Four
Guardians of the World, Candra, and Sūrya will
remain in his thrall.

“If the vidyā holder keeps this pill in his
mouth, Sarasvatī will dwell at the tip of his
tongue. His words will become clear, and his voice
will be like that of kinnaras. He will always be
free from dirt and blemish, and he will be able to
memorize one thousand verses after the first
recitation. If
he utters the syllable hūṁ, all the deities will
arrive, including those who dwell within the
maṇḍala. With the syllable phaṭ, all the wicked
vighnas and vināyakas will perish, and all yakṣas,
rākṣasas, pretas, apasmāras, bhūtas, and
guhyakas will immediately flee and fall with their
faces down. If he holds the pill in his mouth, he
will be a scholar at all times. He will swiftly
obtain all accomplishments, including long life.
While carrying the pill in this way, his speech will
be endearing, sweet, and soft. The magical
accomplishment of this pill is called the
lotus-like amogha purity.

“The vidyā holder should take some bark of
nāgapuṣpa,
the root of khas-khas, sandalwood, lotus
filaments, cloves, the kākolaka plant, spikenard,
tagara powder, saffron, white
lotus root, and cardamom and mix them together with
an equal amount of ugrasugandhi. He should grind all this into a fine powder,
make it into a pill, and incant the pill with
this mantra one thousand and eight times. He should then
wash the pill well and mix it with rainwater.
By simply
heating up and then bathing in this
water, he will be released from previously
accumulated terrible karma, remove all diseases, and
effectively destroy all ailments. He will be freed
from terrible afflictions, desire, hatred, and the
darkness of ignorance; they will be removed. All
impurities will be pacified by merely bathing; there
is no doubt. Divine splendor will shine forth, and
his store of merit will increase. The vidyā holder
will always glow with an abundance of vital energy,
a radiance resembling the sun. His body will be radiant
and pure.

“An unclean vidyā holder will become clean; an
impure one, pure. One who is sexually incontinent
will become continent, and one who breaks one’s vow
of silence will restore it. The
vidyā holder’s hair will never turn grey, and he will never fall ill. His
body will emit a divine fragrance that will precede
him by the length of an arrow;
there is no doubt. The body will emit a divine
fragrance of sandalwood and will be as lovely as
lotuses or water lilies. He will always fall asleep
with ease and wake up with ease. No wicked beings
such as yakṣas, rākṣasas, bhūtas, asuras, miscreant
vināyakas, and vighnas will be able to harm him.
There will be no dread of enemies.

“The vidyā holder should prepare realgar,
bovine bezoar, bones of cuttle fish, lotus, and
honey into a mixture that can be applied with an eye
brush.
He should incant them by reciting this mantra one
thousand and eight times, thrice. The tathāgatas
praise this eye ointment as divine. It is the lord of the
world and the
auspicious granter of boons. With it, the vidyā
holder will pacify all eye diseases. He will
experience divine visions in his dreams, he will
never see unpleasant sights or anything ugly, and
his vision will never be distorted. He will never
see cruel murderers or savages. All spirits that
cause dyspepsia,
overeating, indigestion, eating disorders, or
unhealthy complexion, and all yakṣas, rākṣasas, and
pannagas, will stay away all day and night; there is
no doubt. One will perceive what is auspicious with
one’s physical eyes and will dream auspicious
dreams. Within one month of practice, one will obtain the divine
eye.
This mantra is for the purification of the eyes.

“The vidyā holder should incant bovine bezoar
one thousand and eight times with this vidyā,
twenty-one times with the Amogharāja, seven times
with the Krodharāja, and one hundred and eight times
each with the heart and auxiliary heart mantras of
Amoghapāśa. When still reciting, he should take the
bezoar and make a single bindi mark on the forehead
between the eyebrows. Above it on the forehead he
should make another bindi in the form of a star. All
wicked beings will come under his control, and all
yakṣas, bhūtas, rākṣasas, vighnas, and vināyakas
will perish; there is no doubt. Unable to bear the
power of the bindi, all these beings with evil
intentions will disappear together. Like a moth to a
flame, kings will fall under the control of the
vidyā holder, along with their attendants, retinues,
ministers, priests, and harems. They
will all remain in his thrall. Also, all ordained
monks, brahmins, kṣatriyas, and śūdras will come
under his control, and he will be greatly revered.
All the vidyā deities, including those who dwell
within the maṇḍala, will abide by their samayas and,
guarding the ten directions, will protect beings.
They will grant the supreme accomplishment.

“The vidyā holder should apply this bindi when
imperiled on merchant trips.
All dangers will disappear—there is no doubt—as will
all thieves, robbers, mercenaries, skirmishes, and
fights. All ferocious and frightening lions, tigers,
wolves, elephants,
jackals, and other troublesome creatures, as well as
all snakes, such as āśīviṣa snakes and vipers, and
other venomous creatures, will hide and not appear
again. Lightning, fires, downpours, danger from
weapons, floods, kākhordas, and house collapses will
all pass without causing harm to one’s body, if one
wears the bindi. All the undertakings and endeavors
of the vidyā holder will be accomplished
auspiciously and in full; there is no doubt.

“As soon as
the vidyā holder remembers the essence of
Amogharāja, I will, O Blessed One, immediately
appear before him and fulfill all his hopes and wishes, grant all
the boons previously described, and accomplish all
his activities. I will grant him the amogha
accomplishment and faithfully protect the samaya. I
have been authorized to do this, O Blessed One, by
the Tathāgata’s words and blessings. I will deliver
all this.

“If, O Blessed One, the vidyā holder
performs the ritual practices as described, and
displays the dhiṇi
mudrās, he will,
because of the way the mudrās function, accumulate a
lot of merit. He will be blessed by all
bodhisattvas, who will prophesy his future
awakening. He will be protected by all deities, be
worshiped as unique by the entire world, and become
the one and only teacher of every living being. He
will obtain the samaya for all rites and for their
maṇḍalas and mudrās. Furthermore, he will obtain
long life and amogha accomplishments. His words will
be heeded, and he will develop good memory,
intelligence, and fearlessness. The power of his
intellect will be invincible.

“At the time of death, he will really see the
tathāgatas. Noble Avalokiteśvara will also appear to
him. They will all comfort him, saying, ‘Come son,
follow us to the realm of Sukhāvatī!’ He will thus
die fully aware of where he is going. The gates of
all the hells will be closed, he will be saved from
all unhappy destinies, and his current birth will be
his last. He will have complete recall of his
successive past births. Wherever he steps, a lotus will
spring up under his shoe. He will pass from one
buddha field to another until he reaches ultimate
and final awakening.

“However, if someone has
failed to accomplish the practices of a vidyā
holder, it is not me who will be at fault. For this
reason, as a vidyā holder, one should engage in the
formal practice that involves the mantra and the
mudrā according to the ritual procedure as
described. One will then magically accomplish all
one’s tasks; there is no doubt about this.

“One should repeat the following mantras:

“This is the mantra of the sacred thread. One
should incant a thread spun by a young girl with
this mantra one hundred and eight times and wind it
around one’s neck three times.

“This is the mantra for the garments; it should
be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for casting off clothes; it
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for bathing; it should be
recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for ablutions; it should be
recited twenty-one times.

“This is the samaya mantra; it should be
repeated seven times.

“This is the mantra for positioning the feet in
a stride; it should be recited twenty-one times.

“One should incant a five-colored thread seven
times with this mantra and wind the thread.

hūṁ!

“This is the mantra for the banner; it should
be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the arrow; it should be
recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the full jar; it should
be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the sacrificial incense
vessel; it should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the bali offered in a
water jar; it should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the pot with a lid; it
should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the water basin; it should be
recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the vase; it should be
recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the paints; it should
be recited seven times.

“One should recite this mantra twenty-one times
and then do the dividing.

“One should draw the relevant emblems and
recite the mantra seven times.

“This mantra should be recited
seven times.

“This mantra should be recited twenty-one
times.

“This is the mantra for the welcome offering;
it should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the perfume; it should
be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the scented oils; it
should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the scented powders; it
should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the unguents; it should be recited seven
times.

“This is the mantra of the many-flavored bali;
it should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the food; it should be
recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for fruit; it should be
recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the flowers; it should
be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the flowering vines; it
should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the incense; it should
be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the fire; it should be
recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the adornments; it
should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the añjali gesture; it
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra of salutation; it should be
recited seven times.

“This is the mantra for the lamp; it should be
recited one hundred and eight times.

“This is the samaya mantra; it should be
recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the rosary; it should
be recited one hundred and eight times.

“This is the mantra of the garland; it should
be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra of summoning; it should be recited twenty-one
times.

“This is the mantra for dismissing; it should be
recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the monk’s staff; it
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the alms bowl; it
should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra of the bed of darbha grass;
it should be recited twenty-one times.

“This is the mantra for the homa offering; it
should be recited one hundred and eight times.

“This is the mantra for the river and lake; it
should be recited seven times.

“This is the mantra of taking; it should be
recited one hundred and eight times.

“This is the mantra of empowerment; it should be
recited twenty-one times.

“The vidyā holder should employ all these
mantras individually, one after the other, as part
of his practice. They must be performed according to
procedure, following in detail the practice rules
prescribed for the individual rites. After he has
done so, great powers and riches will manifest, such
as great jewel palaces, various colorful jewel
objects, flowers, incense, perfume, garlands, and
scented oils. Various divine flowers,
streamers, and banners will appear,
as will the choicest foods of hundreds of exquisite
flavors and various oblatory articles. There will
appear palaces fit for tathāgatas, bodhisattvas,
devas, nāgas, yakṣas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and
mahoragas; these palaces will manifest to suit each
particular class. All the palaces and fine foods
will manifest exactly as appropriate for humans’
individual needs.

“All the ritual tasks need to be performed as
specified for accomplishing reality. The mantra
practices must be done according to the correct
procedure, and only then will the vidyā holder
obtain the full range of supreme accomplishments. If
he performs all the ritual tasks in full, then I
will appear before him in person as soon as he
recites the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa. I will
completely fulfill all his hopes and wishes, remove
all his wrongdoings, obscurations, and negativity,
and purify his body so that it becomes a divine,
completely pure form.

“The vidyā holder should not be preoccupied
with other things but should feel
love and compassion for all beings with all his
heart, rejoicing at their happiness and treating
them with equanimity. He should treat each and every
being with the same care that he has for his only
son. Delighting in truth, he should speak the truth,
and his words should be pleasant to hear. Having
developed the heart of compassion, he should
memorize the heart essence of Amoghapāśa,
perform
recitation according to procedure, and employ both
the mudrās and the mantras. He should contemplate
all the tathāgatas in the buddha fields in the ten
directions. He should recollect the Buddha and pay
homage to him and all the bodhisattvas. He should also
visualize Noble Avalokiteśvara in front of himself
and pay homage to him. He should sit cross-legged on
a bed of darbha grass in front of a cloth painting
of Noble Lord Avalokiteśvara and recite
the mantra without saying anything else, as this
will bring the realization of secret reality.

“The Lord may instantly appear as
the victorious guide Amitābha in his realm of
Sukhāvatī, surrounded by a retinue of bodhisattvas.
The vidyā holder will also see thousands of other
buddha fields, as numerous as the grains of sand in
the Gaṅgā river. He will see hundreds of thousands
of millions of billions of tathāgatas there,
surrounded by hosts of bodhisattvas, as soon as he
displays the mudrā of the Lord. Every
day he will see many other great things, such as the
seat of awakening, the Dharma wheel, the vajra seat,
and the defeat of Māra. He will see them in his dreams at
night; one should not harbor any doubts about this
or call it into question.

“Those who display this mudrā will not be
decried by the buddhas, even if they were destined
for rebirth in the Avīci hell because they committed
the five acts of immediate retribution, obstructed
the great bodhisattva lords out of wickedness,
reviled the noble ones, disputed the true Dharma, or
rejected the teachings of the victors. Even all
those trapped in the sixteen terrible hells for
millions of eons will be instantly liberated.

“As soon as the vidyā holder employs this mudrā
and mantra and focuses on Amoghapāśa’s name, all his
wrongdoings will be purified; there is no doubt
about this. Seeing this heart mudrā of Amoghapāśa is
the same as seeing Lord Amoghapāśa
himself. Furthermore, he will see thousands of
billions of buddhas equal to the number of water
drops in hundreds of thousands of Gaṅgā rivers, all
of them sitting on the seat of awakening and turning
the wheel of Dharma. This mudrā, no different from
the heart essence of Amogharāja, is a visual
representation of his mantra. Upon seeing it, the
vidyā holder will accumulate a lot of merit, its store ever
increasing. His lifespan will increase infinitely;
there is no doubt about this.

“In preparation for the rite, the vidyā holder
should purify himself ritually, put on clean
clothes, and, remaining pure, practice pure conduct
at all times. He should smear his body with various
fragrances, anoint his arms and hands with fragrant
unguents, and perfume it with various types of
incense. Sitting in a cross-legged posture in a clean place on
a clean seat of spread grass, he should engender
thoughts of loving kindness and the true spirit of
compassion. He should continuously salute the
buddhas of the ten directions and the three times
and make offerings
to the Lokeśvara and to
his master, his thoughts focused on the Dharma.
Refraining from speaking, the vidyā holder who is
acquainted with the procedure should then perform
the rite of protection. In the spirit of reverence
for the master, he should follow the rules
impeccably, speak the truth, speak pleasantly, feel
compassion for all beings, and always practice
kindness.

“Immediately, the king of mudrās present
throughout the three times will magically manifest
the open, blazing amogha lotus, one that is
perceived throughout the three times. The
surrounding buddha fields, as numerous as the atoms
in the universe, will quake violently. The blessed
buddhas of the three times who dwell there will send
forth many hundreds of thousands of millions of
multicolored rays of light. Each of these
tathāgatas, thrilled with joy and filled with great
compassion, will extend his golden arm and, with
buddha-like care, place it upon the head of the
vidyā holder. Each of them will grant him the
supreme accomplishment and give him the blessings
that arise from the miraculous amogha manifestation.
The gods Īśvara, Maheśvara, and Brahmā, and other
deities such as Yama, Varuṇa, Kubera, Vāsava, and
Sanatkumāra, will stand by to guard, protect, and
defend him. This mudrā, through merely being
displayed, can remove all negativity and
obscurations and deliver the vidyā holder from the eight
great fears. With the obscurations gone,
the desired accomplishment will follow. This mudrā,
supreme in every respect, is said to accomplish
every activity.

“Immediately after the vidyā holder forms the
mudrā and pronounces the mantra, the blessed buddhas
of the three times will applaud him. All the
tathāgatas, uplifted with joy, pleased, and with
great compassion swelling in their hearts, will
grant the vidyā holder the supreme accomplishment.
They will appear to him again and again, bestow upon
him every boon, and grant him the accomplishment of
the amogha samaya. Once he comprehends the maṇḍala
of liberation consisting in the rites, mudrās,
mantras, and dhāraṇīs of secret maṇḍala of
all the tathāgatas, he will enter into the samaya.
He will then understand this secret maṇḍala of Noble
Avalokiteśvara in every respect and will fully
accomplish the mantras for the necessary tasks.
Noble Avalokiteśvara will become the giver of boons,
appearing to him and granting his wishes.

“The vidyā holder should form the shape of the
lotus with the palms of his hands. The middle
fingers and the thumbs should be joined, forming a
vajra point, and the little fingers should be
outstretched. While forming this mudrā, he should
offer incense, flowers, perfume, garlands, unguents, scented
powders, silken clothes, and adornments to the lotus
bearer. He should
offer a bali and a welcome offering including jars
filled with perfume and so forth.
He should also use the five-colored threads and
various food articles. This mudrā is always supreme,
supreme for conveying the articles of offering. This
mudrā, empowered by Padmapāṇi, is for making amogha
offerings.

“This mantra is for supplicating and
inviting the buddhas who appear
throughout the three times. It is for supplicating
all bodhisattvas and for inviting Padmahasta. It is
also for summoning all the gods and maṇḍala deities.
When this
mudrā is displayed, all the buddhas who dwell in the
ten directions will arrive together, as will the
bodhisattvas, devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas,
asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas. They will
all arrive instantaneously to offer protection;
there is no doubt about this.

“When the hands form the shape of the vajra,
the small fingers mark the edges of the lotus, and
the middle fingers are contracted, this is the mudrā
for demarcating the boundary. This mudrā
is effective in the rites of binding the directions,
securing the maṇḍala, and protection. By merely
forming this mudrā and reciting the mantra one
thousand times, the boundary will be set with the
radius of seven leagues; the maṇḍala will be
secured, and the protection applied. The mantra to
recite is:

“Now I will teach the amogha mudrā that
produces accomplishments, with particular regard to
bringing benefit to all sentient beings. The vidyā holder
should form the vajrāñjali gesture,
enclosing a hollow space between the palms. The
fingers, aligned against each other lengthwise,
should curve toward the center, and the small
fingers and the thumbs should be outstretched. The
index fingers should be folded in. This great amogha mudrā is
known as the royal universal
lotus. It is suitable
for all activities and can be safely employed in any
rite. It is said to be the best mudrā for effecting
entry into any maṇḍala. The
vidyā holder will receive supreme protection if he
merely displays this mudrā and recites the mantra.
He will obtain the supreme accomplishment of the
maṇḍala of liberation of the three times. The mantra that belongs with this
mudrā is:

“When this mudrā is displayed, the buddha
fields in the ten directions, inhabited by those who
realized the true nature, will quake six times; there is no
doubt. The body of Padmapāṇi will blaze up, and an
intense joy will be felt. Padmapāṇi will certainly
appear to the vidyā holder with a smiling face and
will stand before him. He will open the heavenly
doors to all buddha fields for him. The gods of the
realm of Thirty-Three will keep the doors of their
realm open. All the doors to the Sukhāvatī, and all
the palaces there, will be open for him as well. He
will be able to enter them as soon as he displays
the mudrā.

“The mudrā will remove all nonvirtue and
destroy all afflictions. The vidyā holder will thus
be free from all suffering and vice. He will be saved from
the sixteen hells and the eight great fears. As soon
as this mudrā is displayed, all his wrongdoings will
be destroyed, the doors of hells will be closed, and
he will be saved from fear and terror. By merely
displaying this mudrā, all the wrongdoings of the
vidyā holder will be
purified, including the five acts of immediate
retribution. He will be loved
by all beings and blessed by all the tathāgatas.

“The vidyā holder should fold the thumbs in
while holding their tips, make the middle fingers
into the shape of a lotus braid, and position the
hands at his topknot. This is the mudrā of the lotus
braid called amogha hand. For the good of
all beings, he should recite the mantra:

“Placing this mudrā at his head, the vidyā
holder should perform ablutions with clean water
incanted with the mantra one hundred and eight
times. Once the ablutions are performed, the mudrā
and mantra will have the power to make the unclean
clean, and the impure pure. Vows of
celibacy or silence will be mended in those who have
broken them. The vidyā holder’s heap of merit will
shine as bright as the sun and the moon. He will be
loved by the whole world and will certainly win the
supreme mantra accomplishment—the accomplishment of
Amoghapāśa that comes from realizing the amogha
nature. All the deities will arrive to protect him;
there is no doubt. He will certainly obtain all
kinds of boons from Noble Lord
Avalokiteśvara, the giver of boons to pure beings,
and will see him every day. His lifespan will
increase, and he will
be forever free from ailments as he never has been
before. He will be happy and prosperous. He will be
successful in every activity and free from all
disease. With
all the obscurations cleared away, everything will
be supremely auspicious. This ablution is very
special; it is a supreme amogha ablution.

“The vidyā holder should join his hands evenly
in the añjali gesture, pressing the index fingers
between the palms. The front portions
of the thumbs should form the shape of an open
lotus. This mudrā should be formed in front of Noble
Avalokiteśvara while reciting the following mantra
of Lord Amogharāja:

“The vidyā holder should first recite this
mantra twenty-one times. Then, forming the mudrā, he
should recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa with
one-pointed concentration, immersed in its reality.
If the mantra is repeated mindfully just one time,
the earth will quake. Hundreds of thousands of
millions of buddhas of the three times—the
tathāgatas, the worthy, fully realized buddhas
equaling the grains of sand in the Gaṅgā river—will
applaud the vidyā holder and give him comfort. They will bathe him in
multicolored light. Noble Lord
Avalokiteśvara will appear before him as soon as he
thinks of him.

“By merely displaying this mudrā, the vidyā
holder will master the six perfections. He will
become fully endowed with the ten perfections, the
eighteen unique qualities of a buddha, and the ten
strengths of a tathāgata. He will also obtain the
four types of fearlessness. His practice of the noble eightfold path will
be completely pure. As soon as he
forms this mudrā and recollects the heart mantra of
Amogharāja, the vidyā holder will obtain great
qualities and benefits.

“If the vidyā holder performs a ritual fast for
one day while reciting
the mantra one hundred and eight times and
displaying the mudrā as many times, Noble
Avalokiteśvara will appear before him in person, in
his true form, and will applaud him, saying, ‘Good!
It is good, vidyā holder, that you have performed
this supreme recitation!’ He will then extend his
right arm, place his hand on the vidyā holder’s
head, and encourage him, saying, ‘Come, son, I will
grant you magical boons, the best that you may wish
for! Accept them and become, through my blessing, my
eldest vidyādhara-son. You have
accomplished a maṇḍala of liberation that is the
essence of Amoghapāśa. You should steadfastly uphold
this sovereign rite that involves his mudrā. May your thoughts be suffused with
great compassion for all beings. This is your last
birth from a womb; when you die you will go to the
realm of Sukhāvatī, where you will be spontaneously
born from a lotus flower.
You will be
adorned with every ornament and graced with the
major and minor marks of perfection. Your lifespan
will be inexhaustible, continuing until you finally
ascend the seat of ultimate awakening.’

“If the vidyā holder recites the mantra one
thousand and eight times and displays the mudrā one
hundred and eight times without engaging in other
talk, he will ascend through space after the one
thousand and eight recitations are complete. He will
become a wheel-turning monarch in the magically
created, pure amogha maṇḍala, where his lifespan
will be infinite and he will be attended upon by a
retinue of eighteen hundreds of thousands of
millions of billions of vidyādharas. He
will obtain the magical power called the
great and wide amogha splendor, whereby he will be
able to visit any realm in the
great trichiliocosm in the time it takes to extend
and contract one’s arm.

“If the vidyā holder recites the mantra one
hundred thousand times and displays the mudrā as
many times, he will become like Noble Avalokiteśvara
in this very life. Transformed through the samādhi
of the illusory nature of phenomena, he will obtain
the completely pure, divine amogha vision. He will
thus be able to see gods such as Īśvara, Maheśvara,
and Brahmā, and also Rudra, Vāsava, Soma, Āditya,
Kumāra, Yama, Varuṇa, Kubera, and so forth, up to
and including the different nāga kings with their
various forms. He will see the forms of different
beings according to their level of development. This
worldly sādhana requires one hundred thousand
repetitions of the mantra. If the vidyā holder
recites the mantra one hundred thousand times as
part of a transcendent sādhana, he will be able to
see, face-to-face, all the tathāgatas in all the
buddha fields in the ten directions. He will obtain
a prophecy of his own future awakening from each of
them, and he will be established on the level from
which he will not turn back until ultimate awakening
is attained.

“The vidyā holder should sit in the
cross-legged posture and form the mudrā. Assuming an
attitude of kindness, love, and compassion for all
sentient beings, he should recite the heart mantra
of Amoghapāśa a single time. If this recitation is
done in combination with the mudrā, it will be the
same as reciting the mantra eighty-eight times. He will receive
comfort from all the tathāgatas, who will grant him
intelligence and good memory and will charge his
body with energy. By reciting only the words of the
mantra, he will accomplish
the six perfections. Rays of light will issue forth
from the form of Noble Avalokiteśvara in the
painting.

“When the vidyā holder is asleep, Noble
Avalokiteśvara will appear to him in his pure body
and grant him every boon as requested. All the vidyā
holder’s karmic obscurations will be completely
purified. The obscurations caused by his wrongdoings
will diminish and completely go away. All his
diseases will end. The practices undertaken to
fulfill worldly duties will be fully accomplished. He
should continually maintain the recollection of the
Buddha.

“This mudrā activates the heart essence of the
lotus holder. It effectively actualizes the
amogha essence as it really is; there is no doubt
about this. It accomplishes,
without a doubt, all activities in every way. The
vidyā holder should display this mudrā in secret and
recite the mantra in utter secrecy. He should be
well washed, wear clean clothes, have pure thoughts,
feel compassion for all beings, and have devotion
for his master. With complete faith, he should
always delight in the worship of Padmapāṇi. He will
swiftly accomplish the activities and attain
buddhahood. He will swiftly become a lokeśvara and
will have the capacity to benefit all beings.

“This mudrā should be displayed and the mantra
recited twenty-one times. After that, the vidyā
holder should make the casting movement with the
right hand—the one that displays the noose
mudrā—while reciting the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa,
and then bring it back to the same position. The
mantra should be recited, and the casting movement
repeated, seven times. The vidyā holder should
recite the Amogharāja and
maintain a pure heart. As soon as the mudrā of the
noose is displayed—the great unfailing noose—it will
elicit complete awakening and effect an instant
realization of buddhahood. Whatever other tasks the
vidyā holder may have in mind, the mudrā will elicit
instant and complete success in them that cannot be
matched. Devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, and mahoragas will all arrive that very
moment in order to see the vidyā holder. All the
buddhas in the ten directions will direct their gaze
at him and appear to him in person. The
bodhisattvas, too, will arrive in order to honor
him. Noble Avalokiteśvara, the boon-granting lord,
will place his hand on the vidyā holder’s head. He
will instantly manifest before the vidyā holder in
his pure body.

“If any beings—such as those destined to be
reborn in the Avīci hell because of committing the
five acts of immediate retribution, criticizing the
noble ones, or rejecting the true Dharma—see this
mudrā displayed and employed, all their wrongdoings
will be quashed, and they will instantly behold the
Guide. All their tasks will be accomplished as soon
as the mudrā is formed. When the vidyā holder
displays this mudrā while reciting the mantra, it is
the same as if he were displaying the face of Noble
Avalokiteśvara. By merely displaying or seeing this
mudrā, all his wrongdoings and karmic obscurations
accumulated over hundreds of thousands of births,
eon after eon, will be purified; there is no doubt
about this.

“The wise vidyā holder should form the shape of
a lotus by firmly joining his hands with the fingers
arranged symmetrically. His index fingers should
form the shape of a jewel, and the middle fingers
should be folded. His arms should be extended
upward, forming a banner topped by the great
wish-fulfilling jewel. The vidyā holder should
consecrate the crown of his head while reciting the
mantra:

“With this mudrā and mantra alone, the vidyā
holder is consecrated by all the tathāgatas. He is
consecrated by Noble Avalokiteśvara’s own hand, becomes the great
king of vidyādharas, and accomplishes
all vidyās. All his afflictions and obscurations are
purified, and he becomes the most exalted person in
the world.

“The vidyā holder should form a vajra lotus on
his head with the tips of his extended fingers. His
index fingers should form the shape of a hook, and
he should knit his eyebrows. This is the mudrā of
Krodharāja that accomplishes all activities; it
brings all accomplishments. Recollecting this
supremely efficacious mantra is the ultimate way of
accomplishing everything.

“It is sufficient to merely recollect this
mantra while displaying the mudrā, as it has great
power. The vidyā holder will be able to destroy all
wicked beings and even shatter Mount Sumeru. When
this mudrā is displayed, all miscreants and evil
beings will perish, and all the wicked nāgas,
vighnas, and vināyakas will be pacified. As soon as
the mudrā is formed, they all come under the vidyā
holder’s control and will remain so. All devas,
humans, monks, brahmins, śūdras, and kṣatriyas will
fall under his thrall and will remain so; there is
no doubt about this.

“The well-focused vidyā holder should join his
thumbs together, so that they are evenly aligned,
and stretch out his middle fingers while bending
them upwards. This is the great lotus mudrā of the
goddess Tārā that is supreme in every respect. It
brings unexcelled accomplishments.

“The wise vidyā holder should firmly lock his
hands in a vajra-shaped añjali gesture, close his
right hand, and put a frown on his face. This is the
great mudrā of Bhṛkuṭī that grants all wishes.

“The vidyā holder should form a tightly
clenched vajra fist with his middle fingers folded
in. His remaining fingers, including the thumbs,
should form the shape of a lotus close to his
mouth. This mudrā is known as
the seven stars. It will produce
unexcelled accomplishment in every respect. It will
cause all evildoers to perish and will remove all
afflictions and diseases; there is no doubt. It will
accomplish all the rites and will bring the supreme
amogha accomplishment.

“The vidyā holder should join his hands in the
añjali gesture to form the shape of a lotus. His
middle fingers, formed into hooks, should touch the
joints of his index fingers. His ring fingers should
be extended as one. This is the
mudrā of Amoghapāśa—the mare’s
mouth. With it, one can bite diamond.
This mudrā is said to accomplish all activities and
grant all unexcelled accomplishments.

“If the vidyā holder forms the ‘lotus fist’
with both his left and right hands and assumes a
gentle expression with a loving pair of eyes, he
forms the mudrā of the eleven-headed Avalokiteśvara;
it is completely inviolable.

“If the left hand is extended out with the
fingers bent upward, and the right hand placed near
the heart with the thumb and the small finger folded
in and the remaining fingers extended, this is the
great mudrā of Varuṇa. It has the power to summon
nāgas.

“If the hands are firmly joined so that the
fingers of each hand are wrapped around the opposite
hand—the fingers of the right hand wrapped around
the left and vice versa—and the hands are then
folded at the heart, this is the mudrā of Kubera. It
has the power to destroy all the yakṣas.

“The same mudrā formed with three fingers
squeezed and the remaining two extended is said to
be the mudrā of Soma adorned with a multitude of
stars.

“For these mudrās, there are the following
great mantric formulas that make the practice
effective and accomplish the aims of all activities.
They remove all wrongdoings and afflictions and are
used to purify all the obscurations and exhaust all
karma. They bring the amogha accomplishment and
fulfill the amogha activity:

“These are the mantras for the mudrās that have
been taught, with each mudrā having a corresponding
mantra. The vidyā holder should always
perform each rite in full as instructed. He should
follow the rules of ritual purity, be clean and well
washed, and wear clean clothes. He should anoint his
arms and hands with fragrant unguents and practice
the mudrās one at a time. If he
mindfully repeats a mantra when displaying its
corresponding mudrā, it will be the same as
displaying this mudrā hundreds of thousands of
millions upon millions of times.

“The vidyā holder who displays a mudrā acquires
a great amount of merit and receives a prophecy from
all the buddhas and
bodhisattvas of his future awakening, as well as
their blessing. He is protected by all deities,
receives unparalleled worship from the entire world,
and becomes the favorite teacher of all beings. He
enters the samaya bond required for the entire range
of mudrā-based rites in every maṇḍala. His lifespan
becomes infinite, and he becomes a
vidyādhara whose accomplishment
cannot fail and whose speech is always heeded. He
also acquires the powers of recollection,
intelligence, and confidence. His intelligence becomes
perfect.

“Such a vidyā holder will receive boons from
Noble Avalokiteśvara. The noble Lord
will appear according to the vidyā holder’s wish and
generously grant boons. All his enemies, opponents,
ill-wishers, and wicked beings, including the very
wicked, will be defeated. Victory will follow the
vidyā holder everywhere. All yakṣas, rākṣasas,
bhūtas, piśācas, vighnas, vināyakas, asuras, and
nāgas will want to see him. He will possess the
great fearlessness of all noble beings, and all
kings, royal ministers, royal harems, and retinues
will remain under his thrall. He will always be
their most cherished idol and favorite teacher. His
lifespan will be long, and he will be totally free
from all disease. His faults, defilements, jealousy,
and envy will be purified, his memory will be good, and his
body will be completely pure.

“At the time of death, the vidyā holder will be
able to see the great tathāgatas and Noble
Avalokiteśvara. They will all comfort him, saying,
‘Come, dear son! Follow us to the realm of
Sukhāvatī!’ He will retain his lucidity at the time
of dying. The doors to all the hell realms will be
closed, and he will be delivered from all unhappy
destinies. This birth will be his last birth from a
womb. Retaining the full memory of his previous
birth, he will be spontaneously reborn from a lotus
flower. He will in this manner move from one buddha
field to another until he finally attains the seat
of awakening.

“When the mudrās are drawn in the maṇḍala and
the mantras recited, the
yakṣas and rākṣasas will flee, and all grahas will
perish at the mere sight of the drawings; there is
no doubt. The vidyā holder will be freed from all
diseases and ailments. Unassailable by enemies, he
will always be virtuously victorious, whether over
an enemy army or while leading his own. He will
always have the ability to successfully destroy
rākṣasas. He
will truly attain the accomplishment whereby he can
experience the supreme pleasures of the
vidyādharas.

“The hand symbols above should be drawn at
their respective locations, as appropriate. These
forty symbols should be drawn as being
held in the hand, radiating light in all directions,
and adorned with jeweled ornaments. They should be drawn on a cotton cloth in
a circle. Alternatively, they can be drawn on a wall
or wherever appropriate. By merely seeing them, the
vidyā holder will be instantly purged of his
wrongdoings, including the five acts of immediate
retribution that warrant rebirth in the Avīci hell.
All his wrongdoings will be purged in an instant,
and the vidyā holder will become a so-called
pure being. He will be
established on the ten bodhisattva levels,
irreversibly established on the path to awakening.
This irreversible state is attained by seeing the
circle of the mudrās. Noble Avalokiteśvara, the boon
giver, will always keep his hand on the vidyā
holder’s head. The boon-granting
Lokeśvara will always appear to the vidyā holder
directly, face-to-face.

“Whichever mudrā-symbol the vidyā holder looks
at, he will attain the corresponding excellence. He
must memorize the following thirty-five mantric formulas. He
will then be successful at everything at all times.
He will not follow unhappy destinies; rather, with
the maṇḍala of liberation in sight, he will swiftly
attain buddhahood. He will become the eldest son of
Amitābha and of the Lord of the World without a
doubt. He will always be the foremost among
the heart sons of the Lord of the World. The Guide
will prophesy his future birth as a dharmatā
buddha. Being near the tathāgata, the
worthy, fully realized Buddha, the vidyā holder will
sow thousands of millions of billions of roots of
virtue, equal to the grains of sand in the Gaṅgā
river. Transformed by this, he will obtain a vast
amount of merit that is immeasurable and
incalculable.

“When these mudrās are
displayed with the hands in combination with the
following mantras, they will bring, it is declared,
great benefits.

^[141] “
Oṁ, suru suru, hūṁ!

“These mantras should be combined with their
corresponding hand gestures and recited just once
while displaying the mudrā. This will instantly
remove all wrongdoings and will swiftly bring buddhahood. One
will swiftly accomplish the ritual and the supreme
maṇḍala of liberation of Amoghapāśa.

“The above are the symbolic implements, as
taught by the guides of the world, known as the
secret maṇḍala of liberation that belongs to the
ritual of Amoghapāśa. They should be drawn on cotton
cloth, a tablet, a wall, or wherever is convenient.
The vidyā holder should select the paints and apply
them carefully, skillfully combining the colors. All
these symbols should be drawn resting upon lotuses,
radiating light in all directions. All of them are
endowed with life. They accomplish the aims of all
activities and instantly remove all wrongdoings,
always bringing the desired results.

“All these symbols are empowered by the
lokeśvara-guides. They have also been
empowered by all the tathāgata-buddhas, including
the king of the Śākyas. For this reason, the wise
vidyā holder should practice them with great
effort. As a result, he will be loved by the buddhas
as their eldest son; there is no doubt. The vidyā
holder who practices this collection of mudrā
symbols, which are the heart essence of Amoghapāśa
and together constitute his secret maṇḍala of
liberation, will become the eldest son of the Lord
of the World. He will swiftly obtain the
supreme accomplishment of Amoghapāśa’s dhāraṇīs,
mudrās, and mantras.

“Now I will teach the seven
nooses applicable to all amogha rites,
and how to follow the right procedure so the
practice will be truly effective. The vidyā holder
should learn the complete ritual for each noose
individually and how to practice them effectively according to
their individual characteristics. For the successful
performance of the noose sādhana, the vidyā holder
should prepare five required threads. He will obtain
instant success by merely holding the noose; there is no doubt.
The five threads are cotton thread, lotus thread, giant milkweed
thread, aśoka thread, and thread made from tree
bark. These threads should each be spun and made
into a noose, meeting the procedural requirements
for the practice to take effect. They should all be
spun using the cotton thread as the measure.

“The vidyā holder should fast, wear clean
clothes, be washed clean, observe celibacy, live on
the three ‘white’ foods, and stay in a clean place
with clean surroundings. In short, he should recite
the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa with thoughts of
loving kindness. Then he should take the separate
threads and, fully focused, twist them together into
a string of eight strands.

“He should prepare an effigy of the upper body of
Amogharāja with his hands joined in the añjali
gesture and holding a blossoming lotus. The figure
should be four fingers in height, crowned with a
diadem upon his topknot, and
adorned with all ornaments. The vidyā holder should
use silver or gold to make three forms of the
effigy—one peaceful, one frowning, and one in the
form of Krodharāja. He should attach a noose that is
sixteen cubits long to one side of the effigy, and a
trident with a myrobalan fruit to the other
side.

“Then, on the fifteenth day, the day of the
full moon, or on the eighth, the vidyā holder should
fast
for one day and one night and then bathe and put on
clean clothes. Sitting cross-legged, he should
worship the Buddha with offerings as prescribed.
Without uttering other words, he should incant the
noose with the mantra one thousand and eight times.
When the number of recitations is complete, he should arrange
a divine seat, place the noose on it, and consecrate
it with the mudrā of Amoghapāśa. He should perform a
pūjā fit for the gods, offering flowers, incense,
fragrances, garlands, unguents, scented powders,
cloth, and so forth. He should burn incense of
agarwood, sandalwood, and olibanum and light
lamps.

“He should then incant mustard seeds twenty-one
times and cast them upon the noose, and he should
worship a cotton painting of Avalokiteśvara with
whatever offerings are available. Sitting
cross-legged and undistracted in front of the noose,
he should
perform worship in the morning and then recite the
mantra. Incanting the mustard seeds just once, he
should throw them on the noose one thousand and
eight times. He should do this every day as much as
he can, reciting the mantra in the morning and
performing worship. He should avoid spoiled or
leftover food and wear clean clothes.

“When the vidyā holder has reached the number
one thousand and eight, the noose will blaze with
light. If the accomplishment that he has won is
worldly, the noose will blaze with the light of a
fire; if the accomplishment is supramundane, the
noose will blaze with multicolored light. The body
of Amoghapāśa will likewise emit light, and he will
utter the following words: ‘Good! Good it is, O
vidyā holder! You have attained a supramundane
accomplishment. With the noose of bodhicitta, you have drawn to
yourself the supreme bodhicitta. You have fully
developed the six perfections and are endowed with
the ten perfections.’

“From then on, the wishes of the vidyā holder
will be fulfilled, and his worldly practice will
become like a wish-fulfilling jewel. Any requests he
may have will be realized as soon as he flings his
hand.
Everything desirable will be drawn to him. If he
casts the noose in any direction while reciting the
heart mantra of Amoghapāśa seven times, anything he
wants from that direction will instantly be brought
to him. Even if he has committed the five acts of
immediate retribution and is destined to be reborn
in the Avīci hell, this practice will effectively
nullify it. There should be no doubt or uncertainty
in this regard.

“Wherever the vidyā holder casts the noose
attached to the frowning effigy, all devas, nāgas, yakṣas,
gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas,
and other
nonhuman and human beings will certainly be pulled
before the vidyā holder and will remain his servants
for as long as he lives. All the kings and royal
ministers with their harems and retinues will remain
in his thrall, and he will be much venerated by the
entire world. Whatever his purpose for casting the
noose, that purpose will be realized.

“If the vidyā holder incants the
Krodharāja twenty-one
times and casts the noose attached to him, then, as
soon as it is cast, all the vighnas, vināyakas, and
other wicked beings will be bound by the noose and
will remain so, according to the vidyā holder’s
wish, for a year, a hundred years, a thousand years,
or a hundred thousand eons. When he feels pity and
love for them, he should recite the heart mantra of
Amoghapāśa three times to free them. If he casts the
noose of Krodharāja into the thick of a battle, all weapons and
arms, such as bows, arrows, spears, swords, clubs,
musuṇḍis, discuses, lances, shields,
and armor, will be bound by the noose. He can free
them by casting onto the, water and mustard seeds
incanted seven times. He should make offerings to
the noose every day according to his means, to
succeed in whatever venture he undertakes. This
ritual procedure to be thus performed is called
the unfailing noose.

“If the vidyā holder wants to become invisible,
he should do as follows. He should form his right
and left hands into the mudrā of Amoghapāśa as
previously described. He should then hold the noose
and recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa one
hundred and eight times. If he recites the mantra
one hundred and eight times twice, he will be able
to travel through space and will become the great
emperor of the unfailing noose
vidyādharas with a retinue of one hundred
thousand million. He will live one hundred million years. His hair
will become wavy and curly, and his strength,
energy, and valor can never be impaired.

“If there is need for rain, the vidyā holder
can perform the appropriate pūjā, and it will rain
as much as necessary. If it rains too much, he can
perform the pūjā for stopping the rain, and the rain
will stop. If there is need to pacify any
misfortune, disasters, calamities, or deadly
pestilences, the vidyā holder should bathe, clean
himself, and put on clean clothes. He should climb to
an elevated spot with the noose in his hand and hold
the noose while displaying the mudrā of Amoghapāśa.
He should recite
the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa seven times into each
of the four directions while casting the noose. As
soon as the mantra is recited, all quarrels,
disagreements, disputes, and lawsuits will cease,
and armies, whether one’s own or those of the enemy,
and all opponents and adversaries will be appeased.
All fears, hostilities, misfortunes, deadly
pestilences, famines, and other dangers will be
pacified. Excessive or untimely rains, cold spells,
strong winds, heat waves, and all similar dangers
will not arise, and a protective boundary will be
created with the radius of one hundred leagues. The
vidyā holder will accomplish whatever wishes come to
his mind.

“He should cultivate loving kindness,
compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. He
should be wholly motivated by pity for all sentient
beings. He should worship Noble Avalokiteśvara and
feel respect for the Three Jewels. He should
contemplate all the tathāgatas and respect his
master. He should maintain pure conduct and have
pure morality. By its very nature, the prescribed
practice of Amoghapāśa, whereby one attracts the
principle of bodhi, is like a wish-fulfilling
jewel.

“I will now teach vidyā holders the ritual
practice of the wheel noose, the nature of which allows them
to enter passages to subterranean paradises.
This practice for
entering all passages is the supreme means to this
effect. The vidyā holder will be able to enter the
palaces of asuras, kinnaras, gandharvas, and devas.
He will be able to travel through space and enter
the realm of Thirty-Three and even travel as far as
the realm of Akaniṣṭha. He will also gain entry to
the palaces of the nāga kings and their subterranean
realms, as well as the abodes of the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the
nakṣatras. Whether it be forests, mountains, or
great rivers, the vidyā holder will be able to enter
any place he directs his thoughts, both in this
world and beyond. The ritual procedure of the noose
can accomplish this with little effort and little
practice. He should not harbor any questions or
doubts about this.

“The vidyā holder should be clean, bathe well,
wear clean clothes, and live on the three ‘white’
foods. He should chant the Buddhānusmṛti Gāthā
in the true spirit of devotion and
faith, cultivating thoughts of loving kindness, the
heart of compassion, and a pure mind. He should
start on the thirteenth lunar day and follow the
procedure until the full moon,
as is auspicious. He should offer a pūjā according
to his means three times a day and always recite the mantra one
hundred and eight times, three times a day. He
should do this at the three junctions of the day and
the three junctions of the night.

“He should procure three types of thread—cotton
thread, lotus thread, and giant milkweed thread—and
make the supreme wheel-noose. He should twine them
into a string with three strands exactly thirty-six
cubits long. He should also make a wheel four
fingers in diameter with three parts—hub, rim, and
spokes—distributed in a circle. The wheel should be
made of gold, silver, and copper. He should place
the wheel on a divine seat adorned as the Dharma
seat. It should be
strewn with the fragrant maṇḍūka flowers and adorned with full jars.
The vidyā holder should also provide bowls with an
argha offering, placing them opposite the cotton
painting.

“He should then place the noose on the Dharma
seat and, at the three junctions of the day, make
offerings of whatever articles he chooses while
reciting the mantra one hundred and eight times.
Then, on the fifteenth lunar day when the moon is
full, having fasted for one day and one night
without speaking, he should make offerings to the
cotton painting of Avalokiteśvara. He should burn
three types of incense—agarwood, sandalwood, and
bdellium. Sitting opposite the painting in front of
the Dharma seat, he should recite the heart mantra
of Amoghapāśa one thousand and eight times, each
time incanting a single mustard seed and casting it
upon the noose.

“The vidyā holder should then offer a large
pūjā and recite
the mantra of Amoghakrodharāja. After incanting
the noose one thousand and eight times, he should
grasp it. With the left hand displaying the mudrā of
the wheel he should grasp the wheel. With the right
hand displaying the mudrā of the noose he should
hold the noose. He should then cast the noose in each
of the four directions while reciting the heart
mantra of Amoghapāśa. Afterward, he should cast the
noose in the ten directions, each time reciting the
mantra of Krodharāja twenty-one times. He should then
swing the noose seven times to consecrate his body.
He will be consecrated as the great emperor of the
vidyādharas as soon as the noose is
swung and the mudrā displayed.

“Subsequently, he will obtain the supremely
great accomplishments. The king Sudarśana with his
great army will appear before him in
person, bow his head to his feet, and say, ‘Speak,
vidyā holder! I will carry out whatever you command
me to do.’ The vidyā holder should then specify what
he needs, and Sudarśana will do it all. He will
become a servant who performs all the tasks.

“Whenever the vidyā holder wishes to enter a
particular residence, he should fast for three
days and nights and then display the noose mudrā
with his hand. He should swing the noose three times
in the direction of the entrance or opening, and
cast it while reciting the Amogharāja. As soon as
the noose is cast, the entrances or openings to any
residence will open. All the locks and bolts will
unlock and fall away, and all the paths under the
great rivers or up the mountains that are made
difficult by the yakṣas and rākṣasas will become
gentle meanders. The bolts and door locks will break into pieces,
and chains will break, split, and fall off. They
will deteriorate and disintegrate.

“When he enters, a medicinal goddess named
Immaculate Amogha Purity will arrive in a female
form adorned with celestial ornaments, clothes, and
adornments, magnificent in her pure golden splendor
and endowed with great divine beauty, and will hold
out a citron. Upon seeing the female form of this
medicinal goddess, vitality and strength will be
granted to everyone within a radius of one league.
The vidyā holder should, at that time, hold up the
noose with the wheel of Amoghapāśa. As soon as she
sees it, all his vitality and
strength will be taken away, and he will feel weak.
The female being will laugh.

“At that moment, the vidyā holder should
suppress her with the sound of the syllable oṁ and
recite the mantra of Krodharāja. She will fall on
her face and ooze water. He should not sprinkle
himself with this water but recite the Amogharāja.
She will cast amorous glances. The vidyā holder
should tie her with the noose, whereupon she will
ooze the water of immortality. He should collect
this water and sprinkle himself. As soon as he does
this, he will rise into the air. At first, he will
travel upon the wind. If he anoints his eyes with
the water, he will be able to see everything in the
ten directions, including all the tathāgatas with
their retinues of bodhisattvas and all their
marvelous palatial compounds in the respective
buddha fields. He will see them as if in the palm of
his hand. He will see the buddhas who are presently
alive and those who have entered final nirvāṇa. He will see all
the buddhas of the past, the present, and the
future, as well as the great caityas with relics in
the inner sanctums and wooden posts in the pinnacles. He will see them all as houses and
retinues.

“He should rub his entire body with the water.
As soon as he rubs himself with the water from the
pot, his skin will turn a divine golden color. His
hair will be of deep blue color with nice, wavy
locks. His eyes will turn deep blue, like exquisite
celestial lotuses. His lifespan will increase to one
hundred thousand celestial eons, and he will have a
retinue of eighteen million vidyādharas
and hundreds of thousands of vidyādhara
emperors. In his immediate proximity there will be
seventy-two apsarases, kinnarīs, and
vidyādharīs
and hundreds of thousands of millions of gods. His
retinue will be as numerous as the grains of sand in
the Gaṅgā river.

“Whatever he wishes for will
materialize as soon he thinks of it. Divine food of one
hundred exquisite tastes will appear in front of
him, and the best divine beverages tasting of nectar
will appear. King Sudarśana with his great army will advance
ahead of him, crushing all the enemies and all
vighnas and vināyakas—breaking, cutting, tearing,
stopping, piercing, and destroying them—right up to
the moment of the vidyā holder’s ultimate
realization of bodhi. All medicinal goddesses will
pull out their hair to make it into sashes that will
turn whatever is bound with them into the seven
precious jewels. The vidyā holder will enter any
place invisibly. All deities will be his close
attendants, and all nāgas, asuras,
kinnaras, and vidyādharas will come
under the vidyā holder’s control. They will all,
along with their retinues, attach themselves to him
and follow close behind him until
the time of his ultimate realization of bodhi.

“If he wants to enter a residence and come out
again, he should neither speak to the medicinal
goddess nor touch her but instead form the mudrā of
the noose with his hands and
enter the grand residence. Afterward, all the
inhabitants of this residence—women, men, boys, and
girls—will come outside and stand before the vidyā
holder. Some will hold full jars in their hands;
some, parasols; some, divine clothes; some, great
celestial jewels; some, perfume; some, flowers;
some, garlands; some, ornaments and adornments of
various kinds; some, unguents; some, scented
powders; some, perfumed water; some, platters filled
with the seven types of jewels; some, various divine
fruits; and some will hold various divine flowers
such as white, pink, and blue lotuses and water
lilies, mandārava, great mandārava, mañjūṣaka, great
mañjūṣaka, rocaka, great rocaka, atimuktaka, champak, jasmine, nīla, great
nīla,
laran, sumanas, yūthikā, nāgapuṣpa,
kontagandha, and vārṣika. Some will hold divine
incense such
as the incense of gośīrṣa, uragasāra, candana,
agarwood, olibanum, or tamāla leaves.

“Some of the inhabitants will hold peacock
feathers
in their hands; some, a sword; some, a spear; some,
a diamond axe; some, a javelin; some, a spear; some,
a club; some, a trident; and some will hold a
musuṇḍi.
Some will arrive and stand nearby to provide
protection with armor, coats of mail, metal shields,
and cuirasses. Some will hold
plates with various jewels,
golden plates, silver plates, and also flowers made
entirely of jewels, gold, or silver. They will all
respectfully offer these things to the vidyā holder,
who, for his part, should visualize himself as
Avalokiteśvara in the form of Amoghapāśa. He should
feel intense compassion and loving kindness and
remember the Buddha. Wholly motivated by compassion,
attentive, and silent, he should give them comfort
and consolation and cause them to embark on the
right path.

“As soon as the vidyā holder sits down, the
residence will shake in six different ways, and a
loud sound will be heard. There will be cries of joy
and the divine sounds of the five types of
instruments. Deities will emerge from space in a
great aerial palace and consecrate the vidyā
holder’s head, investing him with a silk
turban. As soon as he
is consecrated, a rain of seven types of jewels will
fall, as will a rain of gold, riches, and clothes
and a rain of golden, silver, and various other
types of celestial flowers and celestial adornments.
Apsarases will then arrive and offer plates with
seven types of jewels and the elixir of longevity.
The vidyā holder
should accept the offerings while reciting the heart
mantra of Amoghapāśa and touch the elixir to his lips. As soon as the
vidyā holder sips it, he will obtain a divine,
completely pure body with a golden complexion. His
hair will turn deep blue, his eyes will be like
celestial lotuses, and he will obtain divine, pure
vision. His lifespan will increase to hundreds of
thousands of millions of billions of celestial
eons.

“If the vidyā holder wants never to return, he
should take as much of that supreme elixir as he
wishes, step into
rainwater perfumed with sandalwood, and bathe in it.
As soon as he has bathed, he will find himself at an
entry passage. He will look as beautiful as
Maheśvara and be the sole, foremost object of
worship in the entire world. Worshiped with
offerings and honored as master, he will be like
Noble Avalokiteśvara. If in this situation he
sprinkles himself with the supreme elixir, his body
will be as pure as the gold from the great river
Jambu. If he sprinkles a house, mountain, pillar,
tree, vessel, pitcher, pot, pill, missile, or clod of earth, it will become
refined gold like that from the great river Jambu.
Things will materialize as needed.

“If the vidyā holder wants a
vidyādhara girl, a nāga girl, an
apsaras, or perhaps a young kinnarī to arrive, he
should be clean, wear clean clothes, and wash
carefully. On the eighth, the fourteenth, or the
fifteenth lunar day, he should make offerings to
Noble Avalokiteśvara in the cotton painting and fast
for one day and one night. He should place the great
wheel-noose upon the divine seat adorned as the
Dharma seat and perform a pūjā before it while
refraining from talking. He
should recite the mantra one thousand and eight
times, incant a single mustard seed with each
recitation, and throw it at the noose. When he has
reached the number one thousand and eight, the noose
will coil up like a snake, and the wheel will assume
the shape of the snake’s hood. At that moment, the
vidyā holder should grasp the noose, stand next to a
cleft
leading to a palace of nāgas, kinnaras, or
apsarases, and
recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa. He should
cast the noose inside the palace and immediately
draw it back.
He will catch any girl he has in mind with the
noose, and she will do whatever he wishes.

“He should cast the noose at anything else he
may wish for, be it money, gold coins, gold bullion,
jewels, pearls, beryl stones, conch-like stones,
coral, silver, gold, clothes, ornaments, adornments,
or other things such as celestial palaces. He can
pull anything from anywhere. The objects will
manifest wherever he casts the noose. Whatever
objects he wishes for will manifest in full, and
nothing else will manifest.

“Whoever the vidyā holder wishes to attract—a
woman, man, boy, or girl from a royal, brahmin, or
kṣatriya family—will be pulled in as soon as he
utters their name and casts the noose. They will be
bound by the noose and brought into his presence. He
may also attract deer, birds, lions, tigers,
elephants, and buffalo. If he casts the noose in the
middle of a village while uttering someone’s name,
that person will be bound by the noose and brought
before him. All his wishes will be realized.

“If he wants the moon or the sun to descend to
earth,
he should stand
facing them and recite the heart mantra of
Amoghapāśa seven times. He should then cast the
noose toward the moon or the sun and draw it in
again. Bound by the noose, the moon and the sun will
be pulled down and descend from the sky and stand
before the vidyā holder. They will perform whatever
tasks he wants them to. If he wants to visit their
respective palaces, he should grasp the noose with
the hand that forms the noose mudrā and recite the
heart mantra of Amoghapāśa; he will then rise up
through space, share the seat with the moon or the
sun for as long as necessary, and descend back to
earth in good health, uninjured, unharmed, and
unaffected.

“If he wants to enter a passage leading to a
secret grove, he should be clean, wear clean
clothes, and bathe well. He should recite the mantra
near the opening of the passageway into the grove
twenty-one times and cast the noose. As soon as the
noose is released from his hand, all the nāgas that
dwell in the palatial residence behind the
passageway will come
out and stand before the vidyā holder. They will
say, ‘Please enter, vidyā
holder, into this supreme, great palace.’ At that
point, the vidyā holder should recite the
Amogharāja.
Displaying the noose mudrā with his hand, he should
enter the passageway in the grove. As soon as he
enters, the residence in the grove will shake in six
different ways. In the center of the area toward the
end of the grove there will be a lotus pond, built
with the seven types of jewels, whose water will
have the divine fragrance of sandalwood and will be
neither too cold nor too hot. It will taste sweet
when used for rinsing the mouth and will have the
properties of the elixir of longevity.

“The vidyā holder should incant some mustard
seeds with the heart mantra of Amogharāja twenty-one
times and cast them into the center of the lotus
pond. As soon as they
are cast, a girl resembling the jewel of a
woman
will emerge from
the pond, revealing the upper half of her body, holding a jar
filled with the seven types of jewels, and adorned
with divine flowers of various colors. She will
offer the jar to the vidyā holder. With her head
bowed low, she will say coyly, ‘May the venerable
vidyā holder please enter the house without further
delay!’ The vidyā holder can request three types of
magical accomplishment—entry into the world beyond,
the state of a vidyādhara, or the
worldly accomplishments with their attendant
pleasures. He can request the girl to be either
his mother, sister, or servant. He should say, ‘I
would like to enter the other world. Please grant
it, sister, so that I may enter.’ She will say,
‘Accept it, vidyā holder, and enter the house!’

“He should then display the noose mudrā with
his hands and enter, reciting the heart mantra of
Amogharāja. The supreme great palace—constructed
from the seven types of jewels and adorned with
divine wind chimes, lattices, golden hangings,
silken hangings, and garlands—will be open to view.
The girl will offer the vidyā holder a great
precious jewel, saying, ‘Accept this great precious
gem, O vidyā holder, if you wish to enter the world
beyond.’ The vidyā holder should accept it and
request a seat. Arranging the noose
nicely into a circle, he should place it on the seat
and place the great precious jewel on top of that.
He should offer flowers and incense and then recite
the heart mantra of Amogharāja.

“As soon as the mantra is recited, the noose
and the great precious jewel will emit light. The
jewel will also ooze milk. The vidyā holder should scoop
the milk and sprinkle himself with seven handfuls of
it. As soon as he sprinkles the milk, his entire body
will become pure and immaculate. It will acquire a
glow that is called the wide circular aura
of the effulgent amogha light. He will
be irreversibly established on the supreme path to
awakening and progress through the ten bodhisattva
levels. He will obtain the
mirage-like samādhi of Noble
Avalokiteśvara with its magical displays.

“This practice is known as the path
to liberation.

“If the vidyā holder wants to become a
vidyādhara instead, he should
offer golden flowers by taking them and placing them
on the head of the girl while suppressing her with
the syllable oṁ. As soon as the
syllable is positioned upright and its sound clearly
pronounced, the girl’s beautiful eyes will overflow
with tears. The vidyā holder should collect the
teardrops and sprinkle himself. As soon as he does,
he will become an emperor of the
vidyādharas. His hair will become
curly, and he will travel through space with the
wheel noose in his hand, surrounded by a retinue of
one trillion eight hundred billion
vidyādharas. He will be able to recall
seven thousand of his former births.

“Alternatively, the girl may offer the vidyā
holder the procedure for worldly practice, in which case she will say,
‘Accept my hair, vidyā holder.’ She will then cut
off her topknot and give it to him. He
should take all of it and use it to make a plait
with three strands. He should make twenty-one knots
in it and tie the plait around his head. Whatever he
thinks about will manifest as a magical display. He
will be able to conjure at will all the flowers and
fruits he desires, and he will cause whatever he
desires to appear in reality. If he ties the plait
around his neck, he will become invisible. All
yakṣas, rākṣasas, bhūtas, piśācas, kumbhāṇḍas,
mahoragas, and humans
will come under his control. If he ties the plait
around his forehead, all devas and nāgas will come
under his control. If he ties it around his right
arm, he will have the strength of ten elephants and
be unassailable by armies or any wicked opponents
and adversaries.

“If he ties the plait around his left arm, all
the members of the four castes will come to him and
remain under his thrall. If he ties the plait around
his left hand, whomever he touches will fall under
his thrall and place themselves and their wealth at
the vidyā holder’s disposal. If he ties the plait
around his right hand and knocks at the eastern gate
of the city three times, he will bring the king, his
harem, and his retinue, as well as the capital city
with all its women, men, boys, and girls, under his
thrall. They will place themselves and their wealth
at the vidyā holder’s disposal. All animals and
birds, both carnivorous and herbivorous, venomous
snakes, and other venomous creatures that are in his
vicinity will come under his control. If he ties the
plait around his right thigh, all medicinal
substances and herbs, and all the deities that live
in the forests, crevices, mountain wildernesses,
caves, or forest dwellings that he enters will
appear before him in their respective forms as soon
as he enters there.

“If he ties the plait around his right foot or
right calf, he will cross the great ocean by
foot, not to
mention the great rivers. The water will be just
knee-deep. If he ties the plait around his left
foot, he will be able to travel one hundred leagues
every single day and return without getting tired.
If he ties it around his left thigh and subsequently
enters a great charnel ground, all the beings who
live there will become naked and remain under his
thrall.

“If he wants to have sex right there in the
palace, he should grasp the full jar with his left
hand, and the girl with the right, and enter this
great supreme dwelling. That supreme place will have
a lotus pond in the center that is strewn with
flowers. They both should bathe in that lotus pond
and splash in the water. As soon as he has
bathed and performed his ablutions, the vidyā holder
will become the emperor of vidyādharas
with the wheel and the noose. He will have a retinue
of seven billion vidyādharas and will
live ten thousand eons. His hair will become wavy and
curly, and he will be the master of eight hundred
forty palatial dwellings in the grove.

“If he requests the girl to be his mother, she
will care for him as if for her own son, and will
procure money, grain, clothes,
ornaments, precious stones, pearls, coral, silver,
and gold for him. If he requests her to be his
sister, she
will provide all supplies and services without any
hesitation and will not neglect any detail. Every
single day she will procure a divinely-adorned
celestial woman and arrange for heavenly delights in
palatial mansions. She will provide a heavenly
residential palace. When dispatched, she will go
wherever she is asked to go,
whether it is to the palaces of the devas, nāgas,
yakṣas, rākṣasas, or bhūtas. She will perform
whatever other tasks come to the vidyā holder’s mind
and are assigned to her.

“This was the practice procedure of the
grove.

“If the vidyā holder wants to enter
subterranean paradises, he should clean himself,
bathe, put on clean clothes, and draw a four-sided
maṇḍala in a hidden place on a clean patch of
ground. He should smear the maṇḍala with various
fragrances, arrange a bali offering of various
tastes, and burn agarwood incense. After fasting for
three days and three nights, he should recite the
heart mantra of Amogharāja one thousand and eight
times while displaying the hand mudrā of the wheel
noose. When he has reached the number one thousand
and eight, incense smoke will issue forth from the
center of the maṇḍala. He should then recite the
mantra of Krodharāja seven times. When this is done,
a huge, black-colored man will emerge from inside
the maṇḍala, exposing the upper half of his body. He
will be grimacing, bearing his fangs, and his hair
will flow upward from his blazing head. He will have
red eyes, a red tongue and lips, red fingernails,
blue hair, firm and taut arms, and a protruding
belly. He will wear a white sacred cord, have a
five-headed venomous snake above his head, and have
a lolling tongue. He will be clad in a tiger’s skin
and hold an axe and a bell in his hands. He will
cast glances in the ten directions.

“The vidyā holder should not be afraid at this
time, but should remain steadfast and recite the
Krodharāja. He should cast the wheel noose and cut
off the head of the black-colored man. A lot of
blood will gush out, which he should smear all over
his body. As soon as he does this, his body will
turn into an unbreakable and infrangible vajra. Having gouged out
the eyes from the severed head, the vidyā holder
should anoint his own eyes by rubbing them with the
gouged eyeballs. He will then obtain the divine eye.
Having extracted the bone marrow from the corpse, he
should sprinkle it over himself; his lifespan will
increase to ten thousand eons. He will become an
ocean-like receptacle of sacred knowledge. He will remember
his former births stretching back for hundreds of
thousands of eons. If he eats a little bit of
the corpse’s heart, he will travel through space. If
he makes a bindi on his chest with the blood from
the corpse, he will become invisible. If he cuts out
the corpse’s tongue, it will turn into a sword that
can be used to destroy all enemies.

“If the vidyā holder wants to enter
subterranean paradises, he should incant the wheel
noose with the Krodharāja one hundred and eight
times, grasp the noose with the hand displaying the
mudrā, and strike the earth three times with the
wheel. The gates to the subterranean
paradise will fall open,
and he should enter as if he were entering his own
house. He will be able to visit it repeatedly and
perform any other task.
All the inhabitants of the paradise will
fall under his thrall.

“If, after that, he wants to travel through
space, he should direct his gaze upward and recite
the heart mantra of Amogharāja one thousand and
eight times. He should smear his body with mustard
oil incanted just as many times. By forming the hand
mudrā of the noose, he will ascend to the firmament
of the sky and remain there suspended in space. If
he wishes to enter the palace of a god, he should go
to a temple,
stand by the side of the god, and tie the noose
around the god’s neck. He should recite the
heart mantra of Amogharāja one thousand and eight
times. The god whom he ties and whose name he
recalls will descend to earth and stand before him.
Whether it is Brahmā, Viṣṇu, or Maheśvara, he will
say to the vidyā holder, ‘I will grant whatever you
wish for, O vidyā holder.’ The vidyā holder should
reply, ‘I intend to visit the god’s palace.’ That
god will also grant any other boons he might wish
for.

“The vidyā holder will then go to the abode of
the god. Held by the hand, he will, by the god’s
magical power, ascend through space up to the god’s
abode, and he will enjoy himself to his heart’s
content in the great celestial mansion. When he has
had enough, he can leave the
god’s abode and descend back to earth. Any other
wishes that he may have or tasks that he wants
performed will be accomplished in full; one should
not harbor any doubts or uncertainties about it.

“These are the ritual procedures for the
practice of the wheel noose.

“If the vidyā holder wants to accomplish the
practice of the lotus noose, he should bathe, put on
clean clothes, and fast for either three, five, or a
single day and night. He should procure the right
type of thread for the noose—either cotton or lotus
thread dyed the color of beryl and cut to the
measure of twenty-one cubits. The lotus should be made from the
three types of precious material, and its petals
should be open and measure four fingers. The
material to be used for the petals should be
gold plate or silver plate. Its kernels should be
made of either beryl or sapphire and surrounded by
pearl. The lotus should then be attached to the
noose, and the hand at the opposite side should
display the noose mudrā.

“The vidyā holder should then prepare a divine
seat adorned as the Dharma seat and draw a circle
with cow dung. Above the circle he should visualize
a lotus rich in fragrance and place the Dharma seat
within the circle. He should adorn the circle with
full jars, strew it with flowers, and burn incense
of agarwood, sandalwood, and olibanum in front of
it. He should also set out argha water for the feet.
The lotus noose should be placed on the Dharma
seat.

“The vidyā holder should sit cross-legged in
front of the painting of Noble Avalokiteśvara and
recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa ten thousand
times, incanting with each recitation a single
mustard seed and throwing it on the noose until he
has reached the number ten thousand. On the
fifteenth lunar day, the day of the full moon, after
fasting for one day and one night, he should make
offerings to Noble Avalokiteśvara and to the noose.
Then, displaying
the mudrā of Amoghapāśa, he should recite the heart
mantra of Amogharāja one hundred and eight times
and, after that, the heart mantra of Krodharāja one
hundred and eight times. He should recite at the
three junctions of the day and make offerings. The
lotus noose will then blaze with light of various
colors, and the words ‘Good! It is good!’ will be
heard. The painting of Noble Avalokiteśvara will
also radiate light of various colors. At that time,
the vidyā holder, displaying the mudrā, should sit
in the cross-legged posture without blinking, with a
smiling countenance and his heart filled with great
compassion.
Looking at Noble Avalokiteśvara’s face, he should
recite the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa three times.

“After this, Noble Avalokiteśvara will appear before
the vidyā holder in his true divine nature. He will
extend his right arm, place his hand on the vidyā
holder’s head, and applaud and comfort him, saying,
‘You, a vidyā holder, are my eldest son and very
close to me. This great ritual procedure of
recitation and offerings constitutes my ultimate
worship. This is the supreme way of reciting, and
the supreme practice. You have accomplished the
heart mantra of Amogharāja and mastered the practice
of the great lotus-noose. You have obtained the
desired boons and fulfilled all your wishes. You are
freed from the dreadful prison of saṃsāra. You are
freed from the terrible fears of birth, old age,
death, and despair. You are saved from the sixteen
great and terrible hells. You are saved from the
eight great fears and from terrible suffering and
pain. This is your last birth from a womb with its
dreadful suffering. After you die, O
vidyā holder, you will proceed to the realm of
Sukhāvatī, where you will be spontaneously born from
a lotus flower. This will continue until you attain
the ultimate and final awakening. You have planted
roots of great virtue in the presence of eighty-four
billion tathāgatas equal in number to the grains of
sand in the Gaṅgā river. Your store of merit, O
vidyā holder, is huge. You have performed many acts
of respectful service. You, O great vidyā holder,
are prophesied to attain liberation. You are saved
from all the terrors of the hells and cleansed of
all your past obscurations. You may request whatever
boon comes to mind.’

“At this point the vidyā holder will obtain a
boon according to his wish. He should grasp the
lotus noose and, in a clean place, make copious
offerings with reverence. Whenever a task needs to
be performed, he should grasp the noose with his
hand; he will then be able to perform any task. He
should place the lotus in the
left hand of Noble Avalokiteśvara, grasp the noose
with the right hand, and recite the heart mantra of
Amogharāja one hundred and eight times. Whatever being or
deity’s name he focuses on while reciting the
mantra, that being will arrive in front of the
bodhisattva when the number one hundred and
eight has been reached. The bodhisattva will grant
that being all the desired boons.

“If the vidyā holder wants his future awakening
to be prophesied, he should be well bathed and clean
and wear clean clothes. After fasting for one day
and one night, he should offer a large pūjā to the
blessed Buddha Śākyamuni and place the lotus
noose in the blessed Buddha’s hand. He should tie
the other end of the noose to his own neck and
recite the heart mantra of Amogharāja the full one
thousand and eight times. When this number is
reached, the blessed Buddha will arrive before the
vidyā holder in his golden body and
place his hand on the vidyā holder’s head. He will
comfort him, prophesy his future awakening, and make
all his wishes come true. He will remove all his
wrongdoings and obscurations accumulated over
hundreds of thousands of his former births; they
will be exhausted completely.

“The body of the vidyā holder will become
completely pure. His stains will be removed, and his
envy and jealousy will be gone. His current birth
will be his last birth from a womb. He will
experience the splendor of the celestial
realms. All
beings will treat him as their unique master and
offer due worship. The tathāgatas in the
ten directions will think about him at the time of
his death,
offer him comfort, and show him the right path.
Noble Avalokiteśvara, too, will appear before him
and give him comfort, placing his right hand on his
head. He will leave his body while facing Noble
Avalokiteśvara, who will be aware of his presence.
As soon as he dies he will, as is his destiny,
proceed to the realm of Sukhāvatī, where he will be
spontaneously born from a lotus flower. His body
will be adorned with all the ornaments, including
the major and minor marks of perfection. He will
recover the memories of his former births, going
back in time hundreds of thousands of eons, and this
Heart Essence of
Amoghapāśa
—this maṇḍala of liberation,
the ritual text complete with its collection of
mudrās—will remain prominent in his memory. He will be irreversibly
established on the ten bodhisattva levels, from
where there is no turning back. Until the moment of his ultimate
and final awakening, he will travel through all the
buddha fields in the ten directions, from one to
another, living in supremely great residences and
celestial palaces that have been miraculously
created through great magical power.

“If the vidyā holder wants to see the realm of
Sukhāvatī just as he sees
this temporal world, he should draw a four-sided
maṇḍala in a clean place in a house, forest, park,
garden pavilion, or a walking area, on a
mountaintop, or in a hut. It should be drawn in a
clean spot on the ground with a smooth, well-swept
surface. The maṇḍala should be one or two cubits
across, regular in shape, and with four corners and
four sides. It should be daubed with a mixture of
clay and cow dung, have a smooth surface, and be
adorned with green and tender medicinal grass. Using thread, the
skilled vidyā holder should demarcate the sections
of the maṇḍala, the perimeter, and the central area.
In the central area he should use paints of vivid
colors to expertly draw a lotus with one hundred
petals and one hundred and eight kernels.

“Around the perimeter of the lotus he should
draw various circular motifs and lotuses in a
variety of colors, each four fingers in size. He
should draw beautiful blue lotuses in the inner
corners of the main lotus and a circular jeweled
platform around it. He should draw a surrounding
ocean filled with divine water and palaces made of
various jewels. The ocean’s waters should be
strewn with various flowers and contain many nesting
birds such as geese, cranes, curlews, cakravāka
birds, jīvaka birds, cuckoos, and various other
birds. It should be filled with fish, crocodiles,
and dolphins. On the ocean’s shore he should draw
various jewel trees, blossom-bearing trees, and
fruit trees provided with benches. Outside the
circular platform, he should draw hand mudrās and
implements. The Four Great Kings should stand at the
four gates. A divine seat should be depicted on the
lotus in center of the maṇḍala, with the blessed
Amitābha seated upon it. The vidyā holder should
also draw Noble Avalokiteśvara and
Mahāsthāmaprāpta.

“The maṇḍala should be adorned with full jars,
strewn with flowers, smeared with scented oils, and
adorned with various divine banners. The vidyā
holder should offer a bali consisting of ‘white’
foods, drinking water, argha water for the feet, and
a row of lamps. He should place the lotus at the end of the lotus
noose in Amitābha’s hand. Clean, well washed, and
wearing clean clothes, he should sprinkle himself with
the five products of the cow. On the day of the full
moon, after fasting for one day and night, he should
sit cross-legged with his face toward the east while
displaying the noose mudrā with his hand and
reciting the heart mantra of Amoghapāśa. Dedicated
to caring and feeling pity for all beings, he should
cultivate loving kindness and compassion. He should
thus carry on reciting the heart mantra of
Amoghapāśa until, in the last watch of the night,
Amitābha will blaze with light. The great maṇḍala
will also emit light. The body of the vidyā holder
will move and blaze with golden light.

“At dawn, the noble Tathāgata Amitābha, a
worthy, fully realized buddha, will appear before
the vidyā holder in his golden tathāgata body, place
his right hand on the vidyā holder’s head, and
comfort him. He will make all his wishes come true
and then disappear. The vidyā holder will
subsequently have a dream called
stainlessly pure light. As
soon as he goes to sleep and closes his eyes, he
will see the realm of Sukhāvatī with its palatial
dwellings. He will see all the inhabited places in
the world and the full assembly of bodhisattvas. He
will see the Tathāgata Amitābha teaching the Dharma
and giving comfort to everyone in the assembly. He will see
miraculous creations appearing through the power of
magic. His current birth will be his last birth from
the womb, and when he dies he will, as is his
destiny, be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī. He
will retain his memories from one birth to another
and be able to recall seven thousand of his former
births.

“This was the procedure for the practice of the
lotus noose.

“If the vidyā holder wants to accomplish the
practice of the vajra noose, he should make a thread
twenty-one cubits long that combines equal measures
of tree-bark fibers, cotton, and silk. He should
make a vajra that is four fingers long
from white sandalwood. The vajra should be
five-pronged and bound with a rope made of a nāga
with a head.
It should be garlanded by flames like the nāga king
Nandopananda. The vidyā holder should attached the
vajra to the noose.

“He should be clean, wear clean clothes, bathe
thoroughly, and sprinkle himself with the five
products of the cow. He should sit on a seat of
grass opposite the painting. Pressing down on the
noose with his right hand, he should recite the
heart mantra of Amoghapāśa ten thousand times and,
afterwards, the mantra of Krodharāja one thousand
times. The noose will blaze with light. If he then
grasps it, he will ascend into the sky. All the
deities of the vajra, tathāgata, jewel, and lotus
families will meet him face-to-face. He will possess
beauty, strength, diligence, and
valor similar to that of Vajrapāṇi. He will live
twelve thousand celestial years.

“The vajra noose can accomplish all tasks and
destroy all enemies. Wherever the vidyā holder casts
this noose, whether up or down, he will bind any
being he has in mind and bring it into his presence.
If he casts the noose into the cardinal or
intermediate directions while reciting the
Krodharāja, he will quickly bind and draw any woman
or man, or any other being, whoever it is, with the
noose. There is no doubt about this. Whether it is a
deva, a nāga, a yakṣa, a rākṣasa, a gandharva, an
asura, a garuḍa, a kinnara, a bhūta, or a mahoraga,
he can swiftly summon any of them, bound by the
noose. There is no doubt.

“If the vidyā holder incants the noose with the
Krodharāja twenty-one times on the fourteenth day of
the dark fortnight, during a dark night, and casts
it in the four cardinal directions, all the vighnas,
vināyakas, wicked yakṣas, and rākṣasas will be bound
and brought into the presence of the vidyā holder as
soon as the noose is cast. They will perform all his
tasks and remain in his thrall as his servants for
the rest of their lives. All grahas will leave him
alone if they merely see the noose.

“This was the practice procedure of the vajra
noose that accomplishes all activities.

“If the vidyā holder wants to accomplish the
practice of the jewel noose, he should procure a
suitable jewel. It could be a diamond, beryl,
natural crystal, emerald, or sapphire the size of a
finger joint. Having cleaned it thoroughly with
utmost care, the vidyā holder should set it in a
golden setting shaped like a flower and surround it
with pearls. He should prepare a thread, cut to the
measure of exactly twenty-one cubits, from divine
cotton the beautiful orange color of champak
blossoms bristling with
filaments. At one end, the vidyā holder should
attach the jewel, which should be the size of the
middle finger, and at the other, a hook made of
precious stone or gold.

“The vidyā holder should live on the three
‘white’ foods and avoid bad food and drink, food and
drink that has been inappropriately stored, and
leftovers. He should then recite the heart mantra of
Amogharāja twenty-one thousand times. The noose should be placed
on the Dharma seat and pressed down with the right
hand. When the
vidyā holder has completed twenty-one thousand
recitations, he should recite the mantra of
Krodharāja a full one thousand and eight times. With
each repetition of the Krodharāja, he should cast a
single mustard seed onto the noose. When the number
one thousand and eight has been reached, he should
offer a large pūjā in front of the cotton painting
of Noble Avalokiteśvara. He should likewise offer a large
pūjā to the blessed Amitābha and the Tathāgata
Śākyamuni.

“During the full moon on the fifteenth lunar
day, after fasting for one day and one night, he
should worship the noose with elaborate offerings,
fully completing each stage of the ritual exactly as
required. He should incant the offerings with the
heart mantra of Amoghapāśa twenty-one times and
offer them. Then, sitting in a cross-legged posture
all day and all night, he should recite the same
mantra one thousand and eight times, casting, with
each recitation, a single mustard seed onto the
noose. When the number one thousand and eight has
been reached, there will be a great earthquake, and
Noble Avalokiteśvara in the cotton painting will
emit multicolored light. This light will make the
jewel noose blaze with light, and the body of
the vidyā holder will blaze too. The vidyā holder
should grasp the noose with the right hand as soon
as it blazes, whereupon a loud sound will be
heard.

“At that time, Noble Avalokiteśvara and the
tathāgatas Amitābha and Śākyamuni will appear before
the vidyā holder in their true divine forms. They
and the sovereign lord Avalokita will,
through their magical power, remain suspended in
space in their golden tathāgata-bodies and will
applaud the vidyā holder. Extending their golden
arm, each of them will place his hand upon the vidyā
holder’s head and comfort him,
saying, ‘Good! Good it is, vidyā holder! You have
accomplished the pure practice of the great
wish-fulfilling, unfailing jewel-noose. You have
accomplished the supreme procedure of this ritual
practice that has both worldly and supramundane
applications. Noble Avalokiteśvara will fulfill all
the wishes of the vidyā holder who holds the great
wish-fulfilling jewel-noose that brings amogha
accomplishments. You should strive, O vidyā holder,
with all your being, to demonstrate the successful
performance of the required tasks that are based on
worldly and supramundane procedures. You should
display, through your magical power, various magical
creations according to your wish. When you die, O
vidyā holder, you will proceed to the realm of
Sukhāvatī.’

“If the vidyā holder wants to see the realm of
Sukhāvatī and worship the tathāgatas, the worthy
ones, with heaps
of divine offerings suitable for them—offerings such
as divine flowers, fragrances, garlands, scented
oils, scented powders, clothes, parasols,
banners, flags, ornaments,
adornments, and fabrics—he should prepare a fragrant
maṇḍala at a prominent spot and offer flowers and
incense. With his left hand he should press down on
the great unfailing noose attached to the
wish-fulfilling jewel and grasp the wish-fulfilling
amogha jewel with his right hand. He should place
his right knee on the ground and, in the spirit of
great sincerity, bring to mind whatever heartfelt
wishes he may have. He should recite the heart
mantra of Amogharāja seven times while bowing to the
great wish-fulfilling jewel. Then, as his heart
overflows with great loving kindness and compassion,
he should recite the following heart mantra of Noble
Avalokiteśvara, which promotes great amogha
activity, one hundred and eight times, wholly motivated
by a sense of care for all beings. The mantra is:

“Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas
established throughout the three times, comparable
to the expanse of the ocean! Homage to all the
pratyekabuddhas and the hosts of the noble śrāvakas,
those of the past, present, and future! Homage to
those who follow the right path and have the right
understanding!
Homage to Śāradvatīputra, the great lord of
charity! Homage to the
great inhabitants of the supreme abode of Tuṣita,
headed by Noble Maitreya, together with the eminent
hosts! Homage to the noble Tathāgata Amitābha, who
dwells in the realm of Sukhāvatī! Homage to the
Three Jewels! Homage to Noble Avalokiteśvara, the
great and most compassionate bodhisattva being!
Homage to Avalokita who manifests all forms,
including those of the divine sons headed by Brahmā,
Viṣṇu, Maheśvara, and Īśvara!’

“The part of the mantra to be repeated is:

“Immediately after incanting the great
unfailing jewel-noose with this mantra one hundred
and eight times, the vidyā holder’s entire body will
blaze will light. If he then presses down on the
unfailing noose with his hand, he will magically fly
into the sky. Through his great magical power, he
will display illusion-like miraculous
creations. He will be able to see the realm of
Sukhāvatī,
where he will behold the Tathāgata Amitābha with his
retinue and the great gathering of bodhisattvas in
their palatial estates, surrounded by magical
creations. Great clouds of offerings will appear,
raining down.

“Through the power of the Tathāgata Amitāyus,
great clouds of offerings will continuously rain
down offerings upon all the inhabitants of
Sukhāvatī.
The Tathāgata
Amitāyus and all the inhabitants of Sukhāvatī will
congratulate the vidyā holder, who will hear all
their words and will see the clouds of offerings
raining down. If he wants to descend back to
earth, he will descend as soon as he
thinks of it. If he does not want to, he can remain
there in the sky and become the great emperor of all
the siddhas that live throughout the expanse of
space, and of the vidyādharas who hold
in their hands the great wish-fulfilling jewel that
grants the vast amogha accomplishments. He will live
there for eight billion great eons and then descend
to earth.

“On earth, he will live ten thousand years and
be a unique celebrity throughout the world,
receiving offerings and great respect like a
lokeśvara. The devas will descend to earth with him
and will make bountiful, excellent offerings to him.
All beings will joyfully welcome him as if he were
their only son and will honor him. All the deities
will protect him and praise him. He will become an
ocean-like receptacle of great learning.

“If the vidyā holder wants to make offerings to
all the tathāgatas of the three times and the ten
directions, who are surrounded by retinue-hosts of
bodhisattvas and the congregations of
pratyekabuddhas and noble śrāvakas, along with the
devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas,
kinnaras, and mahoragas who are favorably disposed
to the teachings of the Buddha; if he wants to
accumulate great merit equal to that of all the
tathāgatas of the three times and the ten
directions; if he wants to
plant the roots of great virtue; if he wants to
satiate all the tathāgatas, bodhisattvas,
pratyekabuddhas, and the hosts of noble śrāvakas
with the divine elixir of immortality and the best
of food and drink; if he wants to make large
donations or offer worship every single day with
clouds of offerings, he should bathe, purify himself
ritually, put on clean clothes, and prepare a
four-sided maṇḍala as is practicable. The vidyā
holder should then offer flowers and burn incense in
front of the painting of the Blessed
Lord, Noble Avalokiteśvara. Kneeling down,
he should hold the noose with his hands folded in
the añjali gesture. Keeping all the tathāgatas in
his heart, he should offer a large pūjā to the great
wish-fulfilling amogha jewel and
recite the heart mantra of Noble Avalokiteśvara
seven times. He should visualize large and extensive
clouds of offerings and offer gifts consisting of
food, drink, perfume, garlands, scented oils,
scented powders, robes, parasols, banners, flags,
clothes, ornaments, adornments, jewelry, song,
music, and the sound of tāḍāvacaras. He should
visualize jewel trees, fruit trees, blossoming
trees, lamp trees,
and wish-fulfilling trees.

“While reciting this dhāraṇī mantra, he should
swing the noose in the ten directions and wish for
the visualized things to manifest. Consequently, all
useful items will manifest, just as he wanted and in
perfect condition, in front of the tathāgatas of the
three times who dwell in the ten directions together
with their retinues. Great clouds of offerings will
appear, raining down offerings. All
useful items will manifest in perfect condition as
great clouds of offerings. This very powerful
dhāraṇī that produces vast clouds of precious amogha
offerings is the heart essence of Noble
Avalokiteśvara.

“If the vidyā holder recites this dhāraṇī three
times at each of the three junctions of the day
every day, the tathāgatas of the three times
together with their retinues will be pleased with
him. If he thus worships and venerates them, he will
accumulate a great deal of merit and plant many
roots of virtue. All the tathāgatas of the three
times together with their retinues will grant him
excellent memory, intellect, strength, energy, and
vitality. All the tathāgatas will appear to him in
person every day and will always think of him. He
will always have a bond with Noble Avalokiteśvara,
who will
appear to him in person and grant him boons.