Toh 1059A Mantra for Incanting Medicines, Extracted from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”

Summary

This text consists of a short mantra for incanting
medicines that has been extracted from Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm (Toh
558).

Acknowledgements

This text was translated and introduced by Catherine
Dalton and edited by members of the 84000 editorial team.

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

Introduction

This text gives a short mantra for incanting
medicines that has been extracted from Destroyer of the Great
Trichiliocosm (Toh 558), one of a set of five scriptures portrayed
in Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions as five goddesses
known as the Pañcarakṣā—the “Five Protectresses.” In
the Tibetan tradition this set of texts is known as
the “Five Great Dhāraṇīs” (gzungs chen po
lnga). In Destroyer of the Great
Trichiliocosm, it is said that the
medicine should first be given to the sick person,
who faces toward the east, and then the mantra
should be placed in the palm of their hand and
chanted.
Although the mantra, as it appears here, is very
similar to the mantra in Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm, the
two are not identical. The mantra given here
diverges from the one in Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm by
including a short supplication in Tibetan
translation that is set in between the mantra and
the concluding word svāhā. This supplication is also
included in Destroyer of the
Great Trichiliocosm, but there it follows
immediately after the full mantra.

The text lacks both a Sanskrit title and a
translator’s colophon, which in addition to the fact
that the title states it has been extracted from
Destroyer of the Great
Trichiliocosm, suggests that the text took
its present form in Tibet rather than in India. It
is therefore not surprising that the mantra does not
appear as an independent scripture in Sanskrit or in
Chinese translation, although the five texts in the
Pañcarakṣā collection are extant in both Sanskrit
and in Chinese translation. A
Mantra for Incanting Medicines, Extracted from
“Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm”
also does not appear in either the Denkarma or
Phangtangma imperial catalogs of Tibetan
translations, or among the scriptures found at
Dunhuang. Its source text, Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm,
does, however, appear in both imperial catalogs, as
well as among the scriptures found at Dunhuang, and
it was translated by the imperial-period translator
Yeshé Dé in collaboration with the Indian paṇḍitas
Śīlendrabodhi, Jñānasiddhi, and Śākyaprabha.

This text is included in the Compendium of
Dhāraṇīs section of the Degé Kangyur and other
Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that include a separate
Dhāraṇī section. In Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that
lack a separate dhāraṇī collection, the text is
found in the Tantra section, but only in the
collection of dhāraṇīs that comprises part of the
Tantra section. It is not included in any
Thempangma-lineage Kangyurs. Notably, the dhāraṇī is one
of only fifteen works in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs
section that are not duplicated in other sections of
the Kangyur. It therefore appears that these fifteen
texts found their way into the Tshalpa-lineage
Kangyurs specifically because they were part of the
Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, which most likely was
compiled based on earlier collections of dhāraṇīs
and associated ritual texts.
These collections, known in Sanskrit as dhāraṇīsaṅgraha, circulated throughout
South Asia and Tibet—including at Dunhuang—as
extracanonical dhāraṇī collections.

The Translation

A Mantra for Incanting Medicines,

Extracted from “Destroyer of the Great
Trichiliocosm.”

Homage to the Three Jewels!

Incant the medicine of a sick person with this.

This completes “Mantra for Incanting Medicines, Extracted from
‘Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm.’”

Notes

Bibliography

Secondary Sources

Jñānasiddhi
jñānasiddhi

Śākyaprabha
śākyaprabha

Śīlendrabodhi
śīlendrabodhi

Yeshé Dé

ye shes sde
ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།