Toh 679Noble Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One

Summary

Acknowledgements

Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the
supervision of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. The translation was
produced by Adam Krug then checked against the Tibetan and
edited by Ryan Damron.

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

Introduction

The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable One
consists of a short dhāraṇī praising Buddha Amitābha and a
brief description of the benefits one accrues by reciting this dhāraṇī.
These benefits range from the purification of negative deeds to having
visions of the bodhisattva Maitreya, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara,
and the buddha Amitābha himself. The Sanskrit term for the English
“immeasurable” (aparimita) that appears in the title of this work can
be interpreted as referring both to the Buddha Amitābha as “The
Immeasurable One” and to the fact that the qualities that Amitābha
possesses are themselves “immeasurable.” The phrase “The Immeasurable
One” is used here to give coherence to the title in English, but the
reader is invited to entertain the dual significance of the term when
reading or reciting the text—that Amitābha is both immeasurably vast
and possesses immeasurable qualities.

A Sanskrit version of this work is to our knowledge no
longer extant. The text seems to have been translated from
Sanskrit into Tibetan no later than the early ninth
century, as its title is recorded in the
Denkarma and Phangthangma Tibetan
imperial translation catalogs. However, the
Tibetan translation does not contain a colophon, so
further details surrounding its translation into
Tibetan are unknown. A Chinese translation
of the text (Taishō 934) was completed by a certain Faxian
(whose identity is surrounded with uncertainty)
sometime between 989 and
999 ce.

This English translation is based on the Degé Kangyur
version of Toh 679 in consultation with the variant
readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). In
addition, we have compared Toh 679 to Toh 851 (Degé
and Comparative Edition) and accounted for all
significant differences in the notes. The dhāraṇī is rendered in
Sanskrit diacritics following the Tibetan
transliteration in the Tantra Collection of the Degé
Kangyur (Toh 679), with major variants between Toh
679 and Toh 851 noted. An English
translation of the dhāraṇī is also provided in a
note.

The Translation

The Noble Dhāraṇī

Praising the Qualities of the Immeasurable

One

Homage to the Three Jewels.

The ritual instructions for this dhāraṇī are as follows:
Reciting it once purifies the karmic obscurations
that you have accumulated over one hundred thousand
eons. If you recite it three times a day every day,
all your misdeeds will be purified, and you will
obtain the roots of virtue generated by one thousand
buddhas. If you recite it twenty-one times it will
purify the four root downfalls. If you recite it one
hundred thousand times you will have a vision of
Noble Maitreya. If you recite it two hundred
thousand times you will have a vision of Noble
Avalokiteśvara. If you recite it three hundred
thousand times you will have a vision of the
tathāgata Amitābha. Since the additional benefits
are innumerable, this is only a brief summary.

This concludes “The Dhāraṇī Praising the Qualities
of the Immeasurable One.”

Notes

Bibliography

Source Texts

Reference Works

four root downfalls
ltung ba bzhi
ལྟུང་བ་བཞི།
catvāra prapāta
The four root downfalls are roughly synonymous with the
pham pa bzhi (catvāra
pārājika), or the four transgressions that require expulsion from
the monastic community. These four transgressions are applicable to the
maintenance of monastic and lay vows alike, though their interpretations might
differ depending on context. The four transgressions are: (1) violating the vow
of chastity (mi tshangs pa spyod
pa, abrahmacarya); (2) stealing/taking what is not given (mi byin par len pa, adattadāna); (3) taking a life
(srog gcod pa, prāṇātipāta); and (4) lying
(rdzun du smra ba, mṛṣāvāda).

roots of virtue
dge ba’i rtsa ba
དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ།
kuśalamūla
The roots of virtue are of three types: absence of desire
(ma chags pa, alobha), absence of anger (zhe sdang med pa, adveṣa), and absence of bewilderment
(gti mug med pa, amoha). These three give rise to all
wholesome qualities and hence they are called “roots.”