Toh 540The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”

Summary

This text consists of a short dhāraṇī followed by its application, a food
offering made to the pretas (hungry spirits). The text says that by the power of
the spell, the offering will be made manifold and there will be many future
benefits for the person performing the rite.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated and introduced by the Buddhapīṭha Translation
Group (Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó).

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Andreas Doctor edited the
translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text.
Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa” is a short yet
important and popular text. It reveals a dhāraṇī that is to be used while
making a food offering to pretas. The ritual is outlined in simple terms.
This is followed by a description of the benefits of the spell and the
ritual. In addition to many pretas being fed, the performer of the ritual
will have a favorable rebirth in Sukhāvatī that culminates in
their awakening. As is well known, the realm of the pretas is one of the
five or six (and one of the three unfavorable) destinies for rebirth in
saṃsāra. Its inhabitants are constantly tortured by
hunger and thirst as karmic retribution for being miserly. The depiction of
this realm is a popular topic in Buddhist literature and art. Pretas usually cannot eat proper meals
because the food that they see turns into disgusting substances as soon as
they reach it, or because they have needle-thin throats. The implication
here seems to be that the power of the dhāraṇī removes these difficulties
for them.

We have been unable to find a self-standing transmission of the
original Sanskrit text. However, it is preserved in its entirety in no fewer
than three Sanskrit manuals for beginner practitioners (Skt. ādikarmika, Tib. las dang po pa): the
Ādikarmāvatāra
by Mañjukīrti, the
Ādikarmapradīpa
by Anupamavajra, and the
Ādikarmavidhi
by Tatakaragupta. These texts have not been translated into
Tibetan, but the Tibetan canon does preserve a work that is closely related
to (and very likely even based on) the aforementioned triad: The Gradual Path to Awakening (byang chub kyi gzhung lam, *Bodhipaddhati, Toh 3766), which is attributed to the famous and influential master
Abhayākaragupta. This work also incorporates the entire text. Prominent
Tibetan masters maintained this tradition. See, for example, the work of
Butön (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), The Easy Path
Leading to Omniscience (rnam mkhyen du
bgrod pa’i bde lam). These
manuals describe the ritual as a bali offering to be performed by bodhisattvas on the early
stages of the path.

The Tibetan translation is not recorded in the imperial catalogs,
and we could not identify any Dunhuang fragments. Because the canonical
transmission lacks a translators’ colophon, the identity of the translators
is unknown. This text is included in both the Action Tantra section (Toh
540) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section (Toh 1078) of the Degé Kangyur,
as well as in other Tshalpa-lineage Kangyurs that include such a separate
section. Several Tibetan witnesses leave the Sanskrit surūpa/surūpā (“beautiful” / “having a
beautiful form”) element untranslated in the heading but translate it to
gzugs legs in the
colophon. The Sanskrit transmission seems to have “Surūpā” (with a long
ending) as a description or name of the dhāraṇī. However, it is also
noteworthy that the Indo-Tibetan transmission of the dhāraṇī contains an
obeisance to the tathāgata Surūpa, who is otherwise unknown. It is not
impossible, therefore, that *Surūpadhāraṇī
(if this was indeed the form, with a short ending in
surūpa
) could also be understood
as The Dhāraṇī of Surūpa.

The Chinese translation, The Beautiful, A
Dhāraṇī-Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha (佛說妙色陀羅尼經, Taishō 1386) dates from a
rather late period, between 989–99 ce, and is the work of Faxian, who worked
under the aegis of the Northern Song dynasty’s famous Translation
Bureau.
Unlike the Sanskrit and Tibetan translations, which are practically
identical, two significant differences can be found in the Chinese: (1)
there is an introductory section in which the Buddha teaches the spell to
Ānanda and a closing section in which Ānanda is delighted to have received
the teaching, and (2) the text of the dhāraṇī itself is quite different.

This English translation is principally based on the Tibetan
translations of the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs
(gzungs ’dus) in the Degé Kangyur, in
consultation with the Stok Palace Kangyur. We consulted all Sanskrit
manuscripts available for the three ādikarmika texts previously mentioned and created a
constituted text which we include here in an appendix.

The Translation

The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”

Obeisance to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate
samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru tara
tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara smara saṃtarpaya saṃtarpaya
sarvapretānāṃ svāhā |

One should recite this spell seven times over a meal of rice
together with water. Then, after having snapped the fingers of the left hand
three times, one should offer
it in a secluded place to all pretas and say the following: “Off with you,
you who seek weak points and are looking for an opportunity! I hereby donate food to pretas residing in
every world system!” One should make the donation before one has eaten.
The outcome is that the pretas will each be given a bushel of rice.

If one performs it in this way, in each and every rebirth one will
never be feeble or poor. Rather, one will possess great might, beauty, a
countenance lovely to behold, much wealth, and great enjoyments. One will
have a long lifespan, freedom from illness, and will swiftly attain
unsurpassed, perfect awakening. After death, one will be reborn in the
realm of Sukhāvatī.

Here ends “The Dhāraṇī
‘Surūpa’.”

Notes

Bibliography

Source Texts

Other Sources

Appendix

Constituted text of the Sanskrit based on how it is transmitted in
the ādikarmika manuals:

namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ
suru suru prasuru prasuru tara tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara
smara saṃtarpaya saṃtarpaya sarvapretānāṃ svāhā | anayā dhāraṇyodakasahitaṃ
bhaktaṃ sapta vārān parijapya vāmahastenācchaṭātrayaṃ dattvā sarvapretebhyo
vivikte pradeśe dātavyam | evaṃ ca bhāṣitavyam | apasarantv avatāraprekṣiṇo
dadāmy ahaṃ sarvalokadhātuvāsināṃ pretānām āhāram iti | abhuktenaiva
kartavyam | evaṃ sarvapretānāṃ taṇḍuladroṇabhaktaṃ pratyekaṃ dattaṃ
bhavati | evaṃ kurvan na durbalo bhavati na daridro bhavaty api tu jātau
jātau mahābalaḥ prāsādiko darśanīya āḍhyo mahābhogo bhavati dīrghāyur arogī
kṣipraṃ cānuttarāṃ samyaksaṃbodhim abhisaṃbhotsyate | cyutaś ca sukhāvatyāṃ
lokadhātāv upapadyate || iti surūpā nāma dhāraṇī ||

Mañjukīrti

mañjukīrti

Anupamavajra

anupamavajra

Tatakaragupta

tatakaragupta

Vikramaśīla

vikramaśīla

Abhayākaragupta
abhayākaragupta

bali
bali