Toh 522Jñānolkadhāraṇī — Đà-la-ni Như Lai Jñānolka Tịnh Hóa Mọi Tái Sinh

Summary

The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka opens
with a description of a group of four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas, who are seated in
the celestial palace of the Sun and the Moon. The deities of the Sun and
Moon return to their celestial palace from elsewhere and, seeing these tathāgatas and bodhisattvas,
both wonder whether they might obtain a dhāraṇī that would allow them to
dispel the darkness and shine a light upon all beings. The tathāgatas,
perceiving the thoughts of the Sun and Moon, provide them with the first dhāraṇī
in the text. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra then provides a second dhāraṇī
and instructs the deities of the Sun and Moon to use it to free beings who are
bound for rebirth in the lower realms—even those who have been born in the
darkest depths of the Avīci hell.

Acknowledgements

Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the
supervision of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. The translation was produced by Adam Krug
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 of the Noble Tathāgatha Jñānolka
that Purifies All Rebirths centers on a pairing of four
tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas, who offer dhāraṇīs to the deities of the
Sun and the Moon after perceiving their wish to shine a light upon beings
residing in the darkest depths of cyclic existence. The tathāgata Jñānolka
is identified in the Indic title of the work in the Kangyur, and the
Sanskrit names of the three tathāgatas accompanying him have been
identified here thanks to an edition of the Khotanese manuscript of the
Jñānolkadhāraṇī published, along with a
brief study and German translation, by Ernst Leumann in
1920. The set of
four tathāgatas and four bodhisattvas at the center of the
Jñānolkadhāraṇī cult, based on Leumann’s
Khotanese sources, are as follows:

∙ The four tathāgatas: Jñānolka, Suvarṇaprabhākūṭanirbhāsa, Satyavādin, and Bhīkṣmasvaragarjitarājā.

∙ The four bodhisattvas: Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta, Dhāraṇīśvararāja, and Vajrapāṇi.

Leumann’s edition also preserves Khotanese Sanskrit versions of the
dhāraṇī mantras contained in the text that appear in this translation.

Mauro Maggi’s summary of sources for the Jñānolkadhāraṇī
notes that the majority of known extant
versions of the text have survived in Khotanese witnesses, and that the
earliest Chinese translations of the text derive from both a Khotanese
original and a Tibetan translation. According to Leumann, the Tibetan
translation of the text does not agree very closely with the Khotanese, and
the Khotanese versions vary.
While the differences between the Tibetan translation and Khotanese manuscripts
of the Jñānolkadhāraṇī raise the
possibility that the version translated and preserved in
the Kangyur derives from a separate source that has yet to be located, the
Sanskrit manuscript witnesses that are currently available all indicate
Khotan as the most likely location in which the cult of the four tathāgatas
and bodhisattvas in this text and the dhāraṇī mantras it preserves
flourished. Aside from its obvious applications for purifying those still living
of the possible fate after their death of lower rebirth, and its potential function as a
ritual liturgy for the bodhisattva’s practice of liberating beings, the
narrative frame of the Jñānolkadhāraṇī
indicates that its dhāraṇī mantras could have functioned as part of a
funeral liturgy, designed rather to liberate from lower
rebirth the recently deceased.

The Jñānolkadhāraṇī appears in the
Denkarma and
Phangthangma royal Tibetan catalogs of translated works, which
indicates that the text was translated into Tibetan by at least the early
ninth century. It is found in all Kangyurs, with one copy in Kangyurs of the Themphangma line and often two in Kangyurs of predominantly Tshalpa lineage; in the Degé Kangyur, there is one copy in the Action Tantra section (Toh 522) and one in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Toh 848), while in some other Tshalpa Kangyurs (Choné, Lithang, Urga, Lhasa, and others) there are two copies in different volumes of the Tantra section. The text was translated into Chinese twice, first in the late
seventh century by the translator Devaprajñā (T 1397) and then again in the tenth century by Dānapāla (T
1398).

This translation is based on the two versions of the text preserved
in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the versions in the
Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the
Kangyur, and the text in the Stok Palace Kangyur.

The Translation

The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka that Purifies

All Rebirths

Homage to the Omniscient One.Homage to all the buddhas and
bodhisattvas.Homage to the blessed one, the tathāgata
Jñānolka.Homage to the tathāgata Suvarṇaprabhākūṭanirbhāsa.Homage
to the tathāgata Satyavādin.Homage to the tathāgata
Bhīkṣmasvaragarjitarājā.

The four bodhisattvas—Samantabhadra, the youthful Mañjuśrī,
Dhāraṇīśvararāja, and Vajrapāṇi—were dwelling in the abode of the Sun and
the Moon along with the tathāgatas. When the Sun and Moon reached the place
where the tathāgatas and bodhisattvas were seated, they saw the tathāgatas
upon lion thrones bedecked with jewels and the bodhisattvas seated within
palaces arrayed with banners bearing the rose apple insignia.

The Sun and Moon each thought, “How can we obtain from these tathāgatas and bodhisattvas
the dhāraṇī mantra called the wise one pervading the ten
directions, which rises like the dawn to shine a light upon
all beings and dispel their thick darkness? With its power we could shine a
light upon all sentient beings.”

saryathīva cakṣurdada
cakṣuprabha dhulamētha kalatha ithithaṃsa sūrata sūrata suthāsa
itithaṃsa vēlu vēlu vēlāpaṇi cārumūrtani āraṇi kālāpaṇi kālāpaṇi
tturudhusi turuturudhusi dhāsuti dhāsuti dharadhara dhiridhiri
dhurudhuru dhūradhūra kālakāla sathāsa sathāsa gīla gīla gīlāpaya
gīlāpaya dhasu dhasu sūṃddhu sūmbhu ēthasu ēthasu ēthasāpaṇi yijuru rede
karakara kirikiri kurukuru kurmakurma karmāpaṇi karmāpaṇi karmāpaṇi
karmāpaṇi kēlukēlu kēlāpaṇi karkāri karkāri lāru vuddhe dhurude
mahādhurude karakara kirikiri piḍhusi piḍhusi dhasu dhasu hasu hasu
hasāpaṇi svāhā

Then the bodhisattva Samantabhadra addressed both the Sun and the
Moon, saying, “Sons of the lineage, eighty-four million buddhas have taught
this dhāraṇī mantra in order to help beings who are bound for lower rebirth.
Sons of the lineage, it is much easier to find a rare udumbara flower than it is for
these dhāraṇī mantra verses to appear in the world. Sons of the lineage,
obtaining these dhāraṇī mantra verses is much easier than reading and
retaining these verses in one’s mind. Sons of the lineage, it is far more
likely for a buddha to appear in the world than it is for these dhāraṇī
mantra verses to appear in the world.

“Sons of the lineage, if one recites these dhāraṇī
mantra verses three times a day and three times a
night for twenty-one days on behalf of those beings trapped for eons in
Avīci hell—namely, those who have committed the five inexpiable acts or who
have forsaken the holy Dharma—the power of these verses will open the
hundred doors of the great Avīci hell, and those beings will attain
liberation. This being the case even for them, it goes without saying that for human beings in
Jambudvīpa the same is true.

“Whoever hears these dhāraṇī mantra verses shall truly know that
we, the four tathāgatas, the four bodhisattvas, and the Sun and Moon,
support them.

“The dhāraṇī mantra verses are:

dhunaṭi mahādhuṇati surusuru
svāhā śuklaviśōdhani taratara svāhā || jyōtipradīpe turuturu svāhā ||
padmamālani sattyatarabudhe huruhuru svāhā satyabuddhe saty'ālōkani
kirikiri svāhā || dhāraṇibuddhi apratihatabuddhi curucuru svāhā ||
lakṣaṇârcite dhūmaparihāre khurukhuru dhāra mahādhāra dharadhara yaṃ
ttîye svāhā || avrrate sutape apratihatabuddhi dharadhara yam tîye svāhā ||

“Homage to the blessed one, the tathāgata Jñānolka!

Homage to the tathāgata Suvarṇaprabhākūṭanirbhāsa!

Homage to the tathāgata Satyavādin!

Homage to the tathāgata Bhīkṣmasvaragarjitarājā!

Make these mantra verses effective! Svāhā!”

This concludes “The Noble Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka that
Purifies All Rebirths.”

Notes

Bibliography

Source Texts

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