Toh 642Mañjuśrīnāmāṣṭaśataka (Toh 642) — Một Trăm Lẻ Tám Danh Hiệu Cao Quý của Văn-thù-sư-lợi

Summary

One Hundred and Eight Names of Mañjuśrī belongs to a class of texts praising a select deity
through a series of one hundred and eight names, each conveying a distinctive feature of the deity’s appearance, realization, or
activity as supreme teacher. The present text includes a brief mantra and concludes with a brief description of the benefits of
retaining, reciting, and recollecting the names throughout one’s life, especially at the time of death.

Acknowledgements

Translated and introduced by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer under the auspices of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of
New York. The translators would like to extend their special gratitude to Lama Lozang Jamspal of Ladakh, without whose instruction
and guidance this translation would not have been possible.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Nathaniel
Rich edited the translation and introduction, and Laura Goetz copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital
publication process.

Introduction

One Hundred and Eight Names of Mañjuśrī belongs to a class of texts praising a select
deity through a series of one hundred and eight names, or epithets, each conveying a distinctive feature of the deity’s
appearance, realization, or activity as supreme teacher. This class is also closely related to a number of texts, each
likewise focused on a specific deity, that combine dhāraṇī with a praise of one hundred and eight names.

The text begins with an homage to Mañjuśrī and then immediately commences the praise, which consists of one hundred
and eight epithets that are very diverse in style and substance. Mañjuśrī is variously identified with the five elements, the
king of nāgas, the gods of water and wealth, the gods of Vedic origin, and with a range of heavenly bodies. The text describes
Mañjuśrī’s agency in terms of his ascetic activities (“practicing the ascetic discipline of wearing dreadlocks and muñja”),
his prowess in debate (“defeater of opponents”), his sublimity as a teacher of the path to liberation (“ardent in devotion to
emptiness”), and more.

The names having been enumerated, Mañjuśrī speaks the mantra oṃ vākyedaṃ namaḥ
svāhā, and the text concludes with a brief description of the benefits of retaining, reciting, and recollecting
the names throughout one’s life, especially at the time of death.

The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon with information about the history of its transmission or translation into
Tibetan, and a Sanskrit manuscript does not appear to be extant. The text’s inclusion in the Phangthangma and Denkarma imperial catalogs indicates that it was translated
into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century.

The text’s transliteration in Chinese, appearing in the Taishō, is attributed to Fatian (d. ca. 1001
ce). Whereas the Tibetan translators
chose to translate the names into Tibetan, it seems that here, as in the case of dhāraṇī texts such as One Hundred and Eight Names of Youthful Mañjuśrī Accompanied by His Dhāraṇī-Mantra (Toh 639), the Chinese translators
preferred to preserve the phonetics of Sanskrit names through transliteration, rather than to translate them into Chinese.

This English translation is based on the Degé Kangyur version of One Hundred and Eight Names of
Mañjuśrī, in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma) and the Phukdrak (phug brag) Kangyur
version of the text. All major divergences are recorded in the notes. We also consulted Ryūjō Kambayashi’s restoration of the
Sanskrit text, which is indicated in our notes by the abbreviation Ko.

There is no indication in the source texts as to how the individual names are to be numbered or counted. The names
appear in close sequence within each verse, and it is often unclear how they are to be separated. We have therefore not
attempted to number them, but rather endeavored to represent in the translation each individual line in the Tibetan. We have
also treated the individual names as epithets rather than proper names and therefore not attempted to capitalize them.

The Translation

The Noble

One Hundred and Eight Names of Mañjuśrī

Homage to the youthful Mañjuśrī!

With a pure heart,

Bowing my head to the Sage,

Here I will recite the names

The buddhas have praised.

Beautiful in form, physically handsome,

Yours unexcelled among all bodies,

All attributes complete,

Mañjuśrī, gloriously excellent,

Inconceivable, free from thought,

Heroic, beyond thought, wondrous,

Inconceivable in body, speech, and deed,

And inconceivable in mind, too,

Meditation -on-emptiness in
essence,

Endowed with empty qualities,

Ardent in devotion to emptiness,

Teaching the emptiness of all three existences,

All knowing and all seeing,

Powerful lord over all lands,

Supreme among all sentient beings,

The one to whom all sentient beings have paid homage,

Vanquisher of all states of misery

And all who propound misleading views,

Defeater of opponents,

Lion of speech, supreme among humans,

Free from defiling passions and afflictions,

One without obscuration or taint,

Rescuer of all sentient beings,

Liberated and world liberator,

Practicing the ascetic discipline of wearing dreadlocks and muñja,

Brahmā, dwelling in the abode of Brahmā,

Holding a rosary and bearing a
staff,

Pure and endowed with the purities,

Gentle voiced, exercising dominion,

Lotus born and lotus eyed,

Your color lotus-anther-like,

Lotus throned,

Immaculate, bearing a blue lotus,

Your intention pure, your mind at peace,

You are a buddha and a pratyekabuddha.

You are the Ādibuddha,

Endowed with miraculous power, possessing dominion,

The teacher of the four truths,

The protector of the world, thousand eyed.

You are Īśvara, you are the lord of all beings,

And you are Śiva the tamer of sentient beings.

Sovereign of all who is foremost in virtue,

You are the dominant bull, the foremost being,

The preeminent, the one who remembers past lives,

The leader, the tamer,

The victor’s child, the one born from the Victor himself.

You are the thousand-rayed sun,

You are the moon and Jupiter,

You are Vaiśravaṇa and Varuṇa,

You are Maheśvara, you are Viṣṇu,

You are Ananta king of nāgas,

And, similarly, you are Skanda the commander,

Vemacitra the lord of asuras,

Mars, Mercury, Venus,

Saturn, all the heroic deities,

The one to whom all gods paid homage,

Untainted by worldly things.

You are the person supreme in the worlds,

Knower of worlds, realizer of worlds,

Holiest of the wise,

Bestower of boons, abode, and refuge,

Beyond the reach of Māra’s works,

Devoid of misdeed, profound,

The renowned spiritual friend.

You are the physician who removes thorns,

The supreme charioteer of humans to be tamed,

Astute and realized,

Intelligent and adept,

You are possessed of merit, the wish-fulfilling tree,

Adorned with the blossoms of the factors of awakening,

Replete with liberation’s fruit,

The supreme embodied being,

Lovely and captivating,

Faultless and chaste.

You are the comet and the greatest of heavenly bodies.

You are the seer foremost among sages.

You have been consecrated as crown prince.

Foremost sovereign of the ten bhūmis,

Caravan leader, best of beings,

Revealing supreme nirvāṇa,

You are like the sky, earth, and water.

You are like fire and wind.

You are like a wish-fulfilling jewel,

Fulfilling the hopes of sentient beings.

O you to whom all living beings pay homage—

Precious one, we bow to you.

Mañjuśrī spoke, saying oṃ vākyedaṃ namaḥ svāhā.

If one retains the names thus spoken

Together with the vidyāmantra,

One accomplishes the purification of one’s sins.

A person who recites, three times a day,

These eight-more-than-a-hundred names

Is certain to attain their many wishes

In just the way they want them.

If they recollect the felicitous names,

Any terrible acts that have been performed

That equal those of immediate retribution

Will be swiftly purified.

Remembering thus when great frights arise

In transition to the world beyond,

Those purified sentient beings

Will directly encounter Mañjughoṣa.

The intelligent who, upon remembering,

Compose themselves and recite

Will attain buddhahood if they so desire.

Of this there is no doubt.

This concludes the noble “One Hundred and Eight Names of Mañjuśrī.”

Notes

Abbreviations

Ko

Reconstructed Sanskrit text in Kambayashi
1930.

C
Choné Kangyur

D
Degé Kangyur

K
Kangxi Kangyur

F
Phukdrak Kangyur

J
Lithang Kangyur

H
Lhasa (Zhol) Kangyur

N
Narthang Kangyur

Y
Yongle Kangyur

Bibliography

Amoghavajra

amoghavajra