Toh 706The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2]

Summary

This is one of two short texts with the same
title, The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara, each of which enumerates the hundred
and eight “names” of Avalokiteśvara, which are more like descriptive epithets.
The first part of the text describes his many excellent qualities. The second
part of the text describes the benefits that result from praising Avalokiteśvara
with these names.

Acknowledgements

This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation
team. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction.
Torsten Gerloff edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins
copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication
process.

Introduction

The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] opens with the Blessed One residing at
Avalokiteśvara’s palace, teaching the Dharma to a vast retinue. After the
teaching, Brahmā and others extensively praise the bodhisattva
Avalokiteśvara, enumerating his “names” in the form of descriptive
qualities, including qualities specific to Avalokiteśvara, along with a
number of qualities corresponding with more general lists of the major and
minor marks of an awakened being. The text concludes by describing the
benefits that result from praising Avalokiteśvara with these names,
including protection from illness, rebirth in Sukhāvatī, and obtaining
positive qualities, such as intelligence, heroism, fortune, and skill in the
sciences.

The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] is one of several canonical texts that focus on
Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It belongs to a genre of
“Hundred and Eight Names” texts that extoll deities by listing their
“names,” which are often more like descriptive epithets. Sixteen such
“Hundred and Eight Names” works are included in the Kangyur and the present
text is one of three such texts dedicated to Avalokiteśvara. One of these
three, The Dhāraṇī-Mantra of the One Hundred and Eight
Names of Avalokiteśvara (Toh 634/874), is a completely different
text from the present one. However, the other, also titled The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [1] (Toh 705/900), is essentially a different
recension of the present text.

Toh 705/900 and Toh 706 are similar enough to be considered
different versions of the “same” text. However, the differences between them
are significant enough that the editors of the Degé Kangyur elected to
include both works, side-by-side. We have likewise elected to translate them
separately. These two works share a large percentage of their content,
especially in the introductory and concluding narrative sections. The
structure of the praise by way of the hundred and eight names, however, is
distinct in the two works. In Toh 705/900, the praise has been rendered into
Tibetan in verse, while here in Toh 706 the praise is rendered in prose.
There are also additional differences in some of the content in the praise
section, suggesting that the two versions likely represent translations of
different Sanskrit recensions of the work. The close relationship between
Toh 705 and Toh 706 is further highlighted by the fact that the final
colophons at the end of both versions append the additional title “The Receptacle of the Precious Relics of all
Victors,” the only difference being that the attribute
“precious” is missing here in Toh 706.

The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] does not appear to survive in Sanskrit. However,
a text by the same name was translated into Chinese and is preserved in the
Taishō canon as Taishō 1054, translated by Tian Xizai, who was active in the
tenth century. Although the Tibetan translation of The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] (Toh 706)
lacks a translators’ colophon (as does Toh 705/900), we can date it to the
imperial period, since the title is listed in both the Denkarma and
Phangthangma imperial catalogs. It is also one of the texts that appears most
frequently at Dunhuang. According to Dalton and van Schaik,
the Dunhuang recensions do not correspond with the present recension, but
rather with Toh 705.

Like many dhāraṇī texts, The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] is found in the Tantra section of
both the Tshalpa and Thempangma lineage Kangyurs, as a Kriyā tantra. In the
Degé Kangyur and other Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that have a Dhāraṇī
section, the other
recension of this work, Toh 705/900, is additionally found there. However,
Toh 706 is exclusively contained in the Tantra section.

This English translation of The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] is based on the Degé Kangyur
recension of the text, Toh 706. We also consulted the notes to the
Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok
Palace Kangyur recension of the text in preparing this translation, as well
as Toh 705/900, the largely parallel text discussed above.

The Translation

The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2]

Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was residing at the
noble Avalokiteśvara’s abode at the summit of Mount Potala, a place
that was arrayed with many different fragrant flowers, shining like the
excellent golden color of the Jambu River, and brilliant with a variety of
jewels. He was surrounded by many trillions of gods, nāgas,
yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and
non-humans, who honored him, took him as their teacher, respected him, made
offerings to him, and revered him. In front of this group, he taught the
Dharma.

He perfectly taught the pure conduct—virtuous in the beginning,
virtuous in the middle, and virtuous in the end, excellent in meaning,
beautiful in expression, unmixed, complete, and completely refined.
Thereafter, Brahmā and the others praised the bodhisattva great being, noble
Avalokiteśvara, as follows.

“Ah, Blessed One! You have carried out your intention, done what is
to be done, cast off the burden, achieved your own aims, and utterly cleared
away the ties to existence; due to genuine wisdom, your mind is utterly
free; you know everything; you are a great elephant; you have perfected the
sublime power of all beings; you have completed the accumulation
of wisdom; you have crossed the wilderness of existence; you benefit others;
you have a mind suffused with compassion; you supremely please every being; you bestow bliss; you engage out of
love; you are skilled in liberating countless beings; you are the son of the
sugatas; you are the single friend of the three worlds; you have no desire;
you have no anger; you have no delusion; you have abandoned the three
stains; you are the perfection of the three knowledges; you have the six
superknowledges; like the nyagrodha tree, you cover a vast
area; you possess the thirty-two marks of a great being; you are adorned by
the eighty minor marks; your skin is fine and golden; your body is tall and
white; your body is fresh like a flowering tree; and you have a topknot like
the rosy dawn; your crown is covered by many twisting locks;
Amitābha shines light upon you; you are renowned for having a blazing aura a
fathom in size, like a golden mountain; you have great
magnificence; you have an uṣṇīṣa like a mountain ridge at dawn; you wear a
scarf blazing with gems as a sash across your body; you perfectly discern
the bhūmis; you have the legs of the ten perfections; your moral conduct is
uncorrupted; your moral conduct is unbroken; your breast is broad like a
lion’s; your body is smooth and handsome; you glance and move like the ruler
of chieftains; your cheeks swirl to the right; your forehead is large and
like the half-moon with a bindu; your hands reach your knees; your eyebrows
are unbroken; your nose is high; your throat is like the neck of a vase; the
fingers and joints on your hands are long; your fingernails are smooth and
copper colored; your fingers are webbed; you are adorned with wheels at the
palms of your hands and at the soles of your feet; like an autumn lotus,
your body is smooth and vast; your voice is deep like Brahmā’s; you are
pleasing to bring to mind, a pleasure to see, and bring delight; you are
radiant like a lotus; you are born from a lotus; you have arisen from a
lotus; you sit upon a lotus seat; you hold a lotus in your hand; you hold a
round anointing vase in your hand; you wear the skin of a black deer; you
hold a staff; you hold a jewel rosary; you are pure through purity; you speak sincerely; you shower down a rain of nectar;
you are like a wish-fulfilling jewel; you are like a tree that is a delight
to behold; you inspire all beings; you bring delight; you sustain all
beings; you are an emanation of the buddhas; you possess the accoutrements
of the sugatas; you bear the relics of the sugatas; with each bodily hair
arisen, you are the essence of beings; you bring about
merit; you carry out virtue; you engage with certainty; you blaze with
diligence; you have gone far beyond saṃsāra; you were empowered into the
True Dharma as a regent; Tārā is present at your feet; Bhṛkuṭī carries out
your commands; the Victors are with you; you have moral conduct;
you have good recall; you have gained great power; you have excellent
qualities; you have loving kindness; you are peaceful; you have moral
conduct; you have good fortune; you are purposeful; you understand things;
you cut off doubts; you speak the Dharma; you are the teacher of worldly
beings; the maṇḍala of your face is broad; the area around your waist is
adorned with every gem; you are like a golden sacrificial post; your form
surpasses a thousand suns; Brahmā and so forth bow before you.”

Whoever accomplishes this praise of the one hundred and eight names
of noble Avalokiteśvara will purify the karmic obscuration of the five
actions of immediate consequence. They will enter into all maṇḍalas.
Therein, they will accomplish all mantras. They will not go to the lower
realms for many trillions of eons. They will not engage in the actions of
immediate consequence.

Whoever rises at dawn and recites this, or reads this aloud, or
chants it, will not have leprosy, foot sores, phlegm, or difficulty
breathing, and will be freed from all illnesses. They will remember all of
their previous lives. They will become like the children of the gods. At the
time of death, they will be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī. In all of
their lives, they will never be separated from noble Avalokiteśvara. If they
recite this constantly, they will become intelligent. They will become
heroic. They will become sweet voiced. They will become fortunate. They will
become fearless with respect to all treatises. They will become someone who
speaks nobly.

If one offers praise with this practice of praise, it will be just
the same, not at all different, from making offerings to blessed buddhas
equal in number to the grains of sand in sixty-two Ganges River.

This completes “The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara,” called “The Receptacle of the
Relics of all Victors.”

Notes

Bibliography

Modern Sources