Toh 589The Dhāraṇī-Mantra to Have the Entire Noble “Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā” Read

Summary

This text consists of a short dhāraṇī, the recitation of which is said to
be equivalent to reciting one of the most famous sūtras in the Kangyur, The Descent into Laṅkā (Toh 107), from which it is an
extract.

Acknowledgements

The text was translated from Tibetan by the Buddhapīṭha Translation Group
(Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó). We thank Dr. Shanshan Jia (Hamburg) for
her kind help with bibliographic matters.

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 Laura Goetz copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

This text consists of a short dhāraṇī, the recitation of which is
said to be equivalent to reciting one of the most famous sūtras in the
Kangyur, The Descent into Laṅkā. In
fact, it is not an independent text but an extract from Chapter 9 of the
sūtra.

Such short texts served a variety of purposes, the primary being
that by reciting them one could acquire the positive karmic benefits of
reciting an entire, sometimes extremely long, text. On a practical level,
the recitation of these short texts also served as equivalent to the
recitation of the parent text, should a prescribed ritual so require.

This translation was made principally on the basis of 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 various Sanskrit sources mentioned above.

The Translation

The Dhāraṇī-Mantra to Have the Entire Noble “Sūtra

of Descent into Laṅkā” Read

Homage to the noble Descent into Laṅkā.

“Mahāmati, I shall speak these mantra-words:

“Mahāmati! If any son of good family or daughter of good family
upholds is more explicit when he replaces the verb with
kaṇṭhasthīkṛ (“to
place it in one’s throat”), which is the Sanskrit idiom for “to learn by
heart.” He also spells out the benefit as the “meritorious karmic fruit”
(puṇyaphala) of
memorizing the parent text. This sentence is then followed by a
fascinating short discussion, which merits to be quoted in full:
“Surely, this is an exaggeration! No, one should not say this. For
countless thus-gone ones have empowered this dhāraṇī to serve as a
method for gaining the equipment of merit for women, immature people,
and simpletons, as well as for learned people whose minds are confused,
just like the pole of a snake-charmer[, which is preprepared by the
expert snake charmer to be effective even when he is no longer present,]
for removing poison; however, it is not a method for gaining the
knowledge conveyed by The [Perfection of Wisdom in] One Hundred Thousand Lines. This should be understood to
apply in other cases [i.e., where the text is abbreviated into a
dhāraṇī] as well” (nanv atyuktir eveti. na
caitad vaktavyam. yataḥ strībālamūrkhān paryākulitamatīn paṇḍitān
praty api puṇyasaṃbhārasādhanatvenāsaṃkhyeyatathāgatair
adhiṣṭhiteyaṃ dhāriṇī, yathā viṣaharatvena gāruḍikaṃ stambhaḥ; na tu
lakṣāpratipāditajñānasādhanatvena. evam anyatrāpi
boddhavyaḥ). In his note to this dhāraṇī, he reiterates the
point about “to uphold” meaning “to memorize” and promises as the reward
the fruit of reciting the text (pāṭhaphala). these mantra-words, retains them,
recites them, and masters them, then no one will be able to find a
weak point in them, be that a god or a goddess, a nāga or a nāgī, a yakṣa or
a yakṣī, an asura or an asurī, a garuḍa or a garuḍī, a kinnara or a kinnarī,
a mahoraga or a mahoragī, a gandharva or a gandharvī, a bhūta or a bhūtī, a
kumbhāṇḍa or a kumbhāṇḍī, a piśāca or a piśācī, an ostārako or an ostārakī,
an apasmāra or an apasmārī, a rākṣasa or a rākṣasī, a ḍāka or a ḍākī, an
ojohāra or an ojohārī, a kaṭapūtana or a kaṭapūtanī, or a human man or a
woman. One who recites these mantra-words will have
recited the entire Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā.
The Blessed One taught these mantra-words so that rākṣasas and others
will be kept at bay.”

Here ends “The Dhāraṇī-Mantra to Have the
Entire Noble ‘Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā’ Read.”

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan Sources

Other Sources