Toh 565Bổn Nghi Vương Trích Từ Mật Điển Huyễn Hóa Mārīcī Xuất Sinh

Summary

The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising contains instructions for the visualization and ritual propitiation of
the goddess Mārīcī. The text covers rites for protecting oneself from perilous situations,
rites for increasing wealth and intelligence, elaborate battlefield magic rites, and rites
for protecting livestock from predators.

Acknowledgements

This text was translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the
supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. The text was translated, checked against the
Sanskrit and Tibetan, and edited by Adam C. Krug.

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

Introduction

The opening line of The King of Ritual Manuals from the
Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising
identifies the text as a ritual manual
to the work that immediately precedes it in the Degé Kangyur,
The Mārīcī
Dhāraṇī
(Toh 564). But while the opening section of this tantra does
contain a recitation practice for The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī, the
majority of the text focuses on ritual instructions for additional practices associated
with the goddess Mārīcī. The full title, The King of Ritual Manuals
from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising, indicates that these ritual
instructions were compiled from a larger work known as The Tantra
of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising, which the text’s colophon notes was taught by the
Buddha Vairocana.

After providing an initial set of instructions for the practice of reciting
The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī, The King of
Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising presents a variety of
instructions for performing ritual actions characteristic of Buddhist Kriyātantra
literature. These include guidelines for preparing the ritual space or maṇḍala, creating
and installing an image of Mārīcī, and creating an effigy of the target of the rite, as
well as methods for depicting Mārīcī’s mantra or mantra wheel and instructions for
invoking, visualizing, and propitiating Mārīcī with bali and fire offerings.

The first set of such rituals concerns rites to protect oneself from perilous
situations, to be free of illness, to increase one’s wealth, and to increase one’s
intelligence. The second set begins with rites that one can perform to both protect
oneself and harm one’s enemies. Here we find rituals for infecting others with diseases,
killing a specified target, expelling them from an area, and sowing discord. The text
then moves on to detailed instructions for the performance of battlefield rites to
paralyze, enchant, or otherwise render ineffective an enemy army. The rituals in the
last section of the text concern protecting cattle and other livestock from predators,
and they combine a rite to the deity Agni with a Mārīcī visualization and fire offering.

Tarthang Tulku’s catalog of the Nyingma edition of the Degé Kangyur divides
The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising into two chapters. However, the text itself tells us that its
material is extracted from a much larger work, and it is likely the case that the two
chapter colophons that do appear in this text are not indicative of the structure of
The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising itself but are instead artifacts from its source text. The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising and its companion text,
The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble
Mārīcī
(Toh 566) both indicate that they are compilations of ritual
instructions from larger tantra dedicated to the goddess Mārīcī. The title of the
current text refers to this work as The Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising, and the title for The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble
Mārīcī (Toh 566) refers to it as The Twelve-Thousand Line
Tantra of Mārīcī’s Arising. The opening section of The
Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī also refers to its source text as Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising, which indicates that these two ritual
manuals may derive, at least in part, from the same longer tantra dedicated to the
goddess Mārīcī.

Unlike The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī, neither The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s
Arising nor The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī
contains a translators’ colophon, and neither work appears in either of the royal
Tibetan catalogs of translated works. As a result, it is difficult to say with any real
precision when these texts were first translated into Tibetan. However, as Lancaster notes, Tian Xizai’s tenth-century translation of the
Mārīcīdhāraṇīsūtra (Taishō 1257) contains a
translation of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī as well as both ritual
manuals in the cycle on the goddess Mārīcī preserved in the Degé Kangyur. It thus seems possible that all three of the works dedicated to Mārīcī
in the Tibetan Kangyurs—The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī, The King of Ritual
Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising, and The
Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī—belong to the same later textual tradition of
the goddess Mārīcī that was translated into Chinese in the tenth-century. As noted in this
English translation, however, the version of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī
described in the opening section of The King of Ritual
Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising appears to be a slightly
different version than the translation preserved in the Kangyur as a standalone text
(Toh 564).

While a relatively large number of Sanskrit witnesses of The Mārīcī Dhāraṇī have survived, there is to our knowledge only one surviving
manuscript witness of The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of
Māyā Mārīcī’s Arising. This witness is preserved in an unpublished manuscript
from Nepal that contains Sanskrit versions of all three works in the cycle of texts in
the Degé Kangyur on the goddess Mārīcī. The fact that this witness contains all three
texts in the exact order in which they appear in the Degé Kangyur suggests it is related
to the textual tradition from which the translations of Toh 564, 565, and 566 were
produced. The Sanskrit manuscript unfortunately cuts off at the material corresponding
to the middle of The Maṇḍala Rites of Noble Mārīcī (Toh
566). The fragment of
scribal colophon that survives notes that the text was copied by one Vajrācārya
Ravṛndrabhadra (perhaps a misspelling of Ravīndrabhadra), but it does not indicate when
or where the text was copied. The Sanskrit manuscript comes from the private collection of
Manavajra Vajrācārya and was microfilmed and cataloged by both the Nepal-German
Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) and the International Association for the Study of World Religions
(IASWR). The
readings in this Sanskrit witness reflect a relatively close relationship to these texts
as they are received in the Tibetan Kangyur recensions, and it has proved a valuable
resource for this translation.

This English translation is based on the Tibetan translation from the Tantra
Collection (rgyud ’bum) section in the Degé Kangyur
in consultation with the Tibetan translation in the Stok Palace Kangyur and the
Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur.
The Tibetan was also checked against the Sanskrit manuscript witness cataloged in the
NGMCP microfilm collection under the title Mārīcīkalpa
(NGMCP E 1480/9) and the IASWR microfilm collection under the title Mārīcīkalpatantra (MBB II 112). All instances in which the
English translation deviates from the reading in the Degé Kangyur in favor of a reading
in the Sanskrit witness or another Tibetan witness are noted in the translation.

The Translation

The King of Ritual Manuals from the Tantra of Māyā Mārīcī’s

Arising

Homage to the
Three Jewels.

This is the ritual manual of The Dhāraṇī of the Goddess
Mārīcī that was received by Vairocana’s great king. Visualize Mārīcī on a sun and moon disk. Imagine a needle and thread
emerge before her out of her rays and sew shut the mouths and eyes of wicked beings. Set
up a boundary to any external observation and imagine, while reciting the “was dwelling
in Śrāvastī” line, that the goddess Mārīcī emerges in her complete form from the light
of the sun and moon. Continue, saying, “ ‘There
is a certain goddess named Mārīcī,’ the Victor said, ‘who arrives just before the sun
and moon, but even the many hordes of gods cannot see her.’ ” Then, continue to where it
says, “ ‘may I, too, not be seen,’ ” and so forth. Those are the three sets of
nine. The mantra verse is
recited as follows: oṃ padākramasi parākramasi udayamasi pudamasi nairamasi
antardhānamasi.

One can add a specific name to the section that reads, “Goddess Mārīcī,
protect me on the path. Protect me from the wrong path. Protect me from perils involving
kings, fire, enemies, and lions. Always bring me profit and success. namo ratnatrayāya oṃ ālo kālo tālo sacchalo saṁmurti rakṣa rakṣa māṃ
sarvabhayeṣu svāhā. Homage to she who possesses the Three Jewels.
oṃ varāli vatāli vattāli varāli varāhamukhi
sarvaduṣṭānām mukhaṃ
bandha bandha,” and that person will always be well protected.

The forty-four-syllable invocation is the names of the three oceans, the heart
mantra with the syllable oṃ, and the
twenty-two and the six-syllable mantras. It offers protection from all manner of perils.

If one bears this heart mantra in mind, one will have a keen intellect. When
this mantra is recited along with the introductory verses, she grants boons such as
increasing one’s wealth, stores of grain, and attendants.

To that end, someone who wants to perform the sādhana should draw her image on
a canvas or wooden board. Draw Aśokamārīcī seated on a lotus at the base of an aśoka
tree adorned with all her ornaments. She is yellow and wears a blue upper garment and
shawl. Her head is
crowned with a caitya, she is youthful, and her eyes look to the left. Following the
aforementioned ritual procedure, gaze at the painting in front of you while reciting the
heart mantra of the supreme sādhana, oṃ mārīcyai
svāhā, one thousand times. This supreme heart mantra will certainly grant the
highest siddhi, eliminate all fevers, and eliminate all illnesses.

Reciting the mantra along with a fire offering causes Mārīcī to increase one’s
wealth. A fire offering of yogurt and dūrvā grass eliminates illness. A fire offering of
honey and ghee enthralls kings. A fire offering of yogurt, rice, and molasses allows one
to acquire a yakṣiṇī. One thousand fire offerings of mustard oil and leafy neem branches
eliminates fever and illnesses. One should perform one thousand fire offerings using
one’s own blood, a bone, poison, and black mustard, and the enemy will die. Perform
the fire offering with milk, and it will be pacified.

If one recites the mantra continually, it neutralizes poison and easily
subdues ḍākinīs. If one recites it one hundred and eight times each day one will develop
a keen intellect.

Mārīcī’s heart mantra is oṃ varāli vadāli vattāli
varāhamukhi
sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ bandha bandha mukhaṃ svāhā.

Blessed Mārīcī’s six-syllable secret heart mantra is oṃ mārīcyai svāhā.

This is the hand mudrā for the heart mantra: Hold the hands parallel with the
palms either together or open. Draw the thumbs in slightly and make a circular shape
with the two middle fingers touching each other. Sit with the legs crossed and rest the
hands at the navel.

This most supreme hand mudrā

Can be used for any rite,

And it is taught to lesser, middling,

And superior practitioners.

It accomplishes goals quickly.

It is always effective and is used to make offerings.

It purifies and brings great merit.

It brings good luck and destroys misdeeds.

This mudrā is a cause of merit,

Siddhi, and the elimination of all misdeeds.

When one recites Blessed Mārīcī’s name eight times one will
be protected, given refuge, and defended.

tadyathā arkamasi markamasi urmamasi
varamasi cīvaramasi mahācīvaramasi antardhānamasi namo ratnatrayāya tadyathā oṃ vadāli
varāli varāhamukhi sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ mukhaṃ bandha bandha svāhā

This ritual manual comes from the Vidyādhara Basket.

Another application of her mantra is as follows: Visualize a golden boar, and
visualize Mārīcī mounted on it wearing a white skirt. Her head is crowned with a caitya,
and her left hand holds a blooming aśoka branch. When confronted with any of the great
perils, one should visualize oneself surrounded by a pack of boars. One should hold the
hem of the upper garment at one’s heart and chant the mantra seven times while making
seven knots, and one will not be overcome by robbers and the like. Afterward, the knots
should be untied.

This concludes “The Ritual Manual of Blessed
Mārīcī.”

One should imagine the syllable laṃ on the moon disk at one’s heart. One should recite
it mentally and meditate on the fact that all phenomena are devoid of identity. Then one should
imagine oneself in space in the form of Vairocana seated on a teakwood throne in the
center of a lotus with legs crossed in the vajra posture. He has a golden complexion and
bears the hand mudrā of supreme awakening. He has attained meditative concentration,
wears a crown of matted locks, and is peaceful. Perform the mental recitation with the
syllable māṃ.

Mārīcī appears on a moon disk before you out of Vairocana’s light rays. While
reciting the mantra oṃ mārīcyai svāhā, imagine that
she is before you holding a golden needle and thread with which she sews shut the eyes
and mouths of wicked beings. Recite the vidyā of the root mantra once over a protection
cord with twenty-one threads spun by a young girl. Then recite the following mantra one
hundred and eight times:

To protect oneself, make seven knots in the protection cord while reciting the
following mantra:

To do this for an associate, make a single knot while bearing their name in
mind. A traveler should tie the cord to his waist and recite Mārīcī’s vidyā along with
the introductory verses, and she will travel in front of him. If he does that, he will
protect himself.

Make a moon disk at night and a sun disk during the day in one’s location
according to the previous instructions. Then recite the following
vidyā seven times just as it was taught:

That is the vidyā called
she who possesses the Three Jewels.

This has been confirmed as a supreme heart mantra of Blessed Mārīcī:

tadyathā oṃ vattāli vadāli varāli
varāhamukhi sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ bandha bandha mukhaṃ svāhā

oṃ mārīcyai svāhā

This has been confirmed as a supreme heart mantra of Blessed Mārīcī:

oṃ mārīcyai padākramasi parākramasi uttayamasi nairamasi arkamasi markamasi urmamasi
bandhamasi gulmamasi cīvaramasi mahācīvaramasi antardhānamasi namo ratnatrayāya
tadyathā oṃ vattāli vadāli varāli varāhāmukhi
sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ bandha bandha mukhaṃ svāhā

oṃ mārīcyai svāhā

He should perform the recitation with the mantras:

oṃ mārīcyai padākramasi parākramasi uttayamasi nairamasi arkamasi markamasi urmamasi
bandhamasi gulmamasi cīvaramasi mahācīvaramasi antardhānamasi namo ratnatrayāya tadyathā oṃ vattāli vadāli
varāli varāhamukhi sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ bandha bandha svāhā

oṃ vattāli vadāli varāli varāhamukhi
sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ cakṣurmukhaṃ bandhāmi svāhā

And:

oṃ vattāli vadāli varāli
varāhamukhi sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭānāṃ granthiṃ bandhāmi svāhā

Any of the following mantras may be recited to protect oneself:

oṃ arkamasi svāhā

oṃ markamasi svāhā

oṃ antardhānamasi svāhā

oṃ tejomasi svāhā

oṃ uttayamasi svāhā

oṃ gulmamasi svāhā

oṃ vanāmasi svāhā

oṃ cīvaramasi svāhā

oṃ vatākramasi svāhā

oṃ varākramasi svāhā

oṃ urmamasi svāhā

There are other rites as well. The supreme mantra oṃ
mārīcyai svāhā can be used for rites of pacifying, increasing, enthralling,
subjugating, and
attracting. To use it for oneself, imagine the heart mantra at the heart with the
syllables tri and oṃ added to it. Imagine the target standing
in a whirling firebrand and perform the attracting rite with the hook and noose
mudrās. This will attract a divine woman who is within one hundred
leagues.

Another application is as follows: Perform the following rite at sunrise.
Recite the Kumārī mantra one hundred times and install her in a maṇḍala made with cow
dung. Smear her body with white flowers and sandalwood, wash her thoroughly, dress her in a white
robe, and perform an incense offering with bdellium. Smear the thumbs with red lac and
black oil and recite the mantra one hundred and eight times, and this will show
that one has been consecrated. Then invoke all the
gods and the like with this king of mantras:

oṃ ciri ciri mu svāhā

Recite the mantra oṃ māḥ
aloud one hundred and eight
times to incant the lamp, present it to Kumārī, and, just as before, they will see
you. Listen
for an auspicious or inauspicious sign from the entire horde of mātṛs while reciting the
mantra oṃ vatāli yaṃ muḥ ten thousand times, and it
will be revealed.

If one wants an enemy to contract a fever, mix ground human bone, ashes from a
charnel ground, and the soil of both banks of a river with soil from a footprint and
make an effigy. Write the augmented mantra with poison, copper, black mustard, and gold
mixed with milk on cloth from a charnel ground. Perform one hundred and eight
recitations of the following mantra:

oṃ
mārīcyai, infect [insert name] with fever—infect them! hūṁ phaṭ svāhā

If the cloth is hidden in the enemy’s house, they will contract a fever.

One can also write the enemy’s name on a skull with the aforementioned
substances, place four a syllables
inside it, and place it in a fire surrounded by the syllable māṃ. Then the wrathful one should heat it in a fire kindled
with teakwood. Remove the skull and hide it in the enemy’s house, and they will immediately contract a fever. It
can also be hidden in a charnel ground.

If one wants to kill an enemy, one should write their name on a skull in the middle of
the two syllables hūṁ and phaṭ with ink made of poison, salt, black
mustard, and blood using a pen made of human bone, and they will be killed. One should
surround it with the mantra
oṃ
mārīcyai hūṁ, kill [insert name], hūṁ
. One should recite the mantra one thousand and eight times,
and the target will die. If the mantra is written in a charnel ground, the target will
die within three days.

If one wants to expel someone, one should hold a crow’s wing while reciting
one thousand and eight times the mantra
oṃ mārīcyai cala cala pracala pracala śīghraṃgamini,
expel [insert name], hūṁ phaṭ
. One
should carefully hide it in the enemy’s house and visualize the target mounted on a
camel, and they will be expelled immediately.

If one wants to sow discord, one should make sure that each effigy is made to
look like the target using ash from a charnel ground, the soil of both banks of a river,
and soil from a footprint and placed back-to-back. One should tie them with hair from the heads of a
buffalo and a horse and smear their bodies with poison, black mustard, and salt. Then
one should write the targets’ names, augmented with the syllable hūṁ, in the middle of four phaṭ syllables with buffalo and horse blood
on a piece of cloth from a charnel ground, and one should surround this with the
syllable māṃ. One should place the
effigies in the center and recite the mantra while visualizing the two of them mounted
on a buffalo and a horse as if they were fighting, and it will sow discord.

Another application is as follows: The images should be made on a buffalo’s
horn and a horse’s bone, and the names should be written at the heart centers with
buffalo and horse blood mixed with feces and white dūrvā grass seeds. Then, this should
be thrown into a fire kindled with teakwood while reciting the mantra, and it will
immediately sow discord. One can also hide them in the enemy’s house, and it will sow
discord.

Now I will explain the instruction from The Great Tantra
of Mārīcī’s Arising, which teaches the verses that should be recited to
paralyze an enemy’s army. If trying to disrupt a king’s forces wherever they may be and
bring an adversary’s kingdom to ruin, this rite should be performed and offering made
right after the king arrives. The ācārya should request permission from the king’s
counselor and then enter meditative concentration with a benevolent attitude and love
toward all beings. He should have a competent assistant provide him with all the
necessary ritual implements and assist with the rite. He should set up the painting of
Blessed Mārīcī, anoint the maṇḍala with white sandalwood, scatter white flowers on it,
and present incense, perfume, flower garlands, and a bali offering. Then he should make
offerings of yogurt, honey, and molasses while reciting the following mantra seven
times:

oṃ mārīcyai arghaṃ pratīccha
svāhā

oṃ mārīcyai gandha pratīccha
svāhā

oṃ mārīcyai puṣpe pratīccha
svāhā

oṃ mārīcyai dhūpe pratīccha
svāhā

oṃ mārīcyai dīpaṃ pratīccha
svāhā

He should perform the offering to Blessed Mārīcī and then recite the
dedication. When she has been pleased, he should see himself in the form of Blessed
Mārīcī and recite the mantra thirty thousand times with pride. That is the
preliminary worshiping rite, and it will reveal any inauspicious sign.

After that, he should perform the fire offering. Following the aforementioned
ritual instructions, he should light fire pits for all the ritual actions
using butea, bodhi tree, and uḍumbara branches, and he should offer one thousand and
eight individual pieces of dūrvā grass that have been dipped in yogurt, milk, and ghee.
Then he can perform all the ritual actions.

The paralyzing mantra is oṃ vattāli vadāli varāli
varāhamukhi
sarvaripusyaibhyaṃ staṃbhaya svāhā. This mantra can be used for any
paralyzing ritual. The recitation and fire offering should be performed using this
mantra.

After that, he should add the names of the king and royal priest who are the
target of the mantra and write them on a piece of birch bark or cloth using red saffron
or bovine bezoar. He should encircle it with the syllable māṃ, surround that with the four syllables oṃ, māṃ, vāṃ,
and māṃ, and draw the mantra wheel
surrounded on the outside by the letter va. If he touches the troops with this on the crown or throat, they will be
protected in everything they do. When they go to battle, no weapon will pierce their bodies, and they will
win the battle.

Then the vajrācārya should mount the lead elephant or the lead chariot, face
the battlefield, and hoist a yellow victory banner over an unfurled painting of Blessed
Mārīcī. He should wear a lower robe of yellow cloth and a yellow turban, hold the ritual
implements, vajra, and bell, and, with confidence, visualize himself as Mārīcī atop a
chariot drawn by wild boar as before while reciting the following mantra:

He should recite this while visualizing the target surrounded by wild boar,
and it will bring immediate victory over the enemy army.

This mantra wheel should be drawn with a liquid made of yellow arsenic or
turmeric on a piece of cloth from the corpse of a person who was slain in battle or on a
piece of cloth from a charnel ground. An effigy of the enemy’s general should be
fashioned out of soil from both sides of a riverbank or soil from a mountaintop mixed
with ash from a charnel ground and placed in the center of the mantra wheel. The image
of a wild boar should be drawn using the same soil mixed with a liquid base of rice and
turmeric, and the effigy of the enemy should be placed face down in the boar’s mouth.
The boar should be placed inside of a vessel with a lid and left there, situated so that
it faces the enemy army. He should perform a bali offering with boiled rice, fish, and
raw meat, and he should strike and pierce the ground with an eight-inch teakwood dagger
while reciting the mantra. He should recite the mantra one thousand and eight times with
the power of vajrakrodha, and the enemy army will be paralyzed.

For another depiction of the mantra wheel, he should surround it with the
syllables of the target’s name, and surround that with the syllable ca. He should make a circle between those
two with the mantra garland that begins with vattāli, surround that with the syllable māṃ, and surround it again with the four syllables. He should
mark the edge of the square boundary with vajras, and it will instantly paralyze and
weaken the enemy army—let there be no doubt. This mantra wheel called supreme
victory over the enemy army
should be learned from
an ācārya’s instructions.

The following is another mantra wheel for performing paralyzing rites, rites
to sow discord, and killing rites for protecting one’s close allies and getting rid of
people who create obstacles. The wise one should prepare a spot in a charnel ground,
carefully unfurl the painting, and make a maṇḍala of cow dung in front of it. The
wrathful one should perform an offering using the five prescribed offerings, put on a
black robe, wear a black turban, clasp the ritual implements, vajra, and bell, and
visualize himself as Mārīcī as before.

He should imagine himself as Mārīcī with three boar faces that have three eyes
and bare their fangs. Her tongue strikes fear like a flash of lightning. She shines and
radiates a light equal to twelve suns. She wears a sapphire-blue lower robe, a blue
jacket, and a multicolored upper garment and shawl. She is adorned with all her
ornaments and has eight arms. She holds an arrow, vajra, needle, and hook in her right
hands and a bow, noose, aśoka branch, and thread in her left hands. The hair on her head
is like a caitya. She stands on a sun disk with her right leg extended. She is wrathful
and tramples the target of the rite with her foot.

He should make the effigy out of soil from a riverbank, ground human bone,
and ash from a charnel ground. He should write the mantra augmented with the target’s
name with ink containing the three spices, poison, blood, salt, black mustard, and
datura on a piece of cloth from a corpse, place it in the middle, and add the target’s
name to the following mantra:

He should make a pill with dried human flesh and bdellium, mix it with human
fat, and perform one thousand and eight fire offerings into a fire kindled with wood that has been used to
burn a corpse. Then he should write the name of the king of the opposing army with black
mustard oil. If he wants to kill him, he should make a smoke offering with it, and he
will die. If he wants him to be paralyzed, he will be paralyzed. Or he can face the
battlefield and perform a fire offering and mantra recitation with a mixture of ground
human bone and human fat, and the enemy’s forces will instantly be paralyzed.

Another application of the mantra is as follows: If he wants to pacify
jackals that are threatening livestock, he should go to the cattle pasture and write the
mantra clearly on the arch of the pasture gate. He should place the mantra on top of a
white victory banner and write the mantra on two boards, with the names of the eldest
bull and the herders added to each respective board with an ink containing white
sandalwood, red saffron, and bovine bezoar. Then he should hang the mantra wheel on the
bull’s horns and around the herders’ necks. He should make the mantra wheel with the
syllables oṃ, māṃ, vāṃ, and māṃ surrounded by the syllable va and then surrounded by the syllable cyai. It should be encircled on the outside with the syllable
māṃ. He should wrap a teakwood
dagger measuring eight fingers to the gate with five-colored thread and stab the gate
with a dagger while reciting the following mantra seven times:

oṃ mārīcyai sarvavighnāṃ utsādhaya
hūṁ phaṭ svāhā

That is the dagger mantra for dispelling vighnas.

After that, the wise one should carefully unfurl the painting of Blessed
Mārīcī in the middle of the cattle pen so that it is facing east. He should dig a
fire-offering pit in front of the painting in the shape of a square measuring one cubit
across. He should set out vases for perfumed water on the four sides of the square and
fill them with perfumed water and the five grains. They should be anointed with white
sandalwood, tied with two strips of white cloth, and ornamented with leafy branches from
the following five trees: banyan, bodhi tree, uḍumbara, mango, and giant milkweed. He
should incant them with the mantra one hundred and eight times and then plant a teakwood
dagger at each of the four sides of the fire pit while reciting the mantra explained
above.

After that, he should make a maṇḍala with dung and
scatter upon it a bali offering of blood, a garland of red, blue, and white lotuses, and
fragrant flowers. He should sprinkle it with perfume and sandalwood water and perform
the deity food offering with a morsel that contains yogurt, honey, and molasses. He
should decorate it with a row of butter lamps and hang a flower garland on the
ornamental canopy. He should write the mantra at the top of a victory banner made of
white cloth and plant it in the ground. Then he should make a smoke offering of
bdellium.

When the offering to the blessed goddess Mārīcī has been properly performed
and she is pleased, he should perform the mantra recitation with the mantra mentioned
above while making all the requisite offerings.

In front of the painting, he should dig a square pit for the fire offering
that is four cubits across. He should make an altar that is four fingers across,
surrounded by vajras, and made to look like a lotus with the stalk attached. He should
make the sign of a vajra in the middle of the lotus, make a maṇḍala with cow dung, and
scatter flowers on it. Then the mantrin should bathe, purify himself, put on white
clothes, wear the proper white turban, hold a vajra and bell, and begin with
confidence.

He should expel the vighnas in front of the fire pit with the mantra and
plant teakwood daggers in the four corners on the outside of the fire pit. Then, just as
above, he should sit on the east side of the fire pit facing west on a pile of kuśa grass while reciting the blessing with the mantra and hand
mudrā. He should spread the kuśa grass on the four sides of the fire pit, incant all the
implements with the mantra one hundred times, and place them on the right side. He
should place a water bowl on the left side and set up a water-offering bowl filled with
perfumed water and with flowers in front of it. He should set out the yogurt, molasses,
and honey, place a fire in the fire pit that has been produced with a hearth stick, and
kindle the fire with banyan, uḍumbara, and butea branches.

oṃ ehy ehi mahābhūtadeva
dvijaṛṣisattama parigṛhītvā āhuti mahārasmin sannihito bhava

Then he should recite the following Agni mantra:

oṃ agnaye dīvyadīpya āviśa mahāśriye
havyakavyavāhanāya svāhā

He should imagine Agni seated on the moon disk with a round, white face, four
arms, and three blazing eyes. Agni is beautiful and stainless, like the light of the
autumn moon. He is peaceful and emits a stream of amṛta. He holds a staff, a
water jar, and a rosary, and he displays the boon-granting hand mudrā. He should give
him the water offering and offer three oblations of the fivefold offering in the
aforementioned vessel into the deity’s mouth and sprinkle it again with water.

For the pacifying rite, as the fire rekindles, he should imagine the goddess
Mārīcī again seated there on a moon disk. White like an autumn moon, she is youthful,
has eyes like blue lotuses, and wears white garments. For the pacification rite, she
holds a vase of various types of amṛta that flow forth. He should imagine that the
youthful goddess arises like a divine blazing flower and showers beings with a stream of
amṛta, and he should offer one ladle into her
mouth. Then he should mix yogurt, honey, butter, and milk with dūrvā grass and the bones
and hair from the head of an animal and perform one thousand and eight fire
offerings.

Moreover, he should go outside the cattle pen and prepare a ball of sweets
containing the five bali offerings for all manner of beings—yogurt, sweet rice, and milk mixed with rice flour and molasses;
kṛśara oil, rice, māṣa beans, alcohol, meat, and fish; a soup with beans in it; and a
cake that contains a mixture of māṣa beans and molasses. He should incant them with the
mantra seven times and then present the offering.

The sweet rice is for the nāgas. The yogurt and milk are for the asuras. The
yogurt and milk are for
the gods. The kṛśara oil is for the yakṣas. The mixture of rice flour and molasses made
into a ball is for Gaṇapati. The cake is for the piśācas. The rice mixed with māṣa beans
is for the bhūtas. The meat is for the rākṣasas. The fish is for the pretas.

He can also enter the deity’s abode, recite the mantra oṃ
bhāva khāhi khāhi gṛhṇa
gṛhṇa hūṁ sarvabhūtabaliṃ svāhā one hundred and eight times, and then
sprinkle a vase filled with water on the lead bull. After that, the threat of jackals
will be pacified.

To perform the same action, if he performs the fire offering three times per
day for seven days while reciting the pacification mantra, they will be pacified.

oṃ mārīcyai svāhā. He should make
the sign by placing the hands together with his two palms joined or open at the top. He
should draw the thumbs in, coil the two index fingers around the middle fingers, sit in
a cross-legged position, and rest it at the navel.

This is the supreme hand mudrā. It is effective for all rites. It will
undoubtedly pacify elephants, horses, beasts, buffalo, men, women, kings, and fools.

The descriptions of the fire pits for the fire offering are as follows: For
the pacification rite, the fire pit should be round in the shape of a white lotus with
the stalk attached. The center of the lotus should be marked with a vajra. There should
be a circular altar that is ornamented and encircled by a chain of vajras. The fire
should be kindled with butea and banyan branches in a fire pit that is dug to a cubit
deep, and the dūrvā grass should be offered to the fire one piece at a time.

If he wishes to perform it as a long life and pacification rite, he should
perform the fire offering for the pacification rite to the form of Pāvaka Agni, who is clad entirely in white.

For the increasing rite, the altar should be square and measure four fingers.
It should be decorated with a chain of vajras and ornamented with a lotus, wheel, and
jewel. The perimeter of the fire pit should be marked with double vajras. The fire
should be kindled with giant milkweed and uḍumbara branches, and he should perform the
fire offering with red, blue, and white lotus flowers anointed with a substance that is
a mixture of yogurt, butter, and honey so that they have a golden color. If he imagines Agni
there perfectly adorned and yellow in color, he will have all the gold he could want.
That is called the increasing rite.

For the enthralling rite, the fire pit should be triangular and shaped like a
bodhi tree leaf. It should have a three-pointed vajra atop a lotus and bodhi tree leaf
in the middle, and the altar should be decorated with a chain of vajra hooks. He should
use bodhi tree branches, sesame, salt, and black mustard as the offering substances. He
should imagine Agni in his “inciting passion” form, as red as the scarlet mallow and
hibiscus flower and wearing red robes, a red garland, and red sandalwood.

For the subjugating rite, the fire pit should be made in the shape of a
half-moon, and the altar should be decorated with a chain of vajras with an open-pronged
vajra in the middle. He should use wood for burning a corpse, and he should burn the
offering substances of human flesh, ground human bone, and human fat in a fiercely
burning fire. The visualization for the subjugating rite is the “Krodhana” form of Agni,
who is black, wears black clothing, has a terrifying mouth baring its fangs, and arises
like the fire that consumes the world at the end of an eon.

Notes

Abbreviations

C
Choné Kangyur

D
Degé Kangyur

K
Kangxi Kangyur

S
Stok Palace Kangyur

Y
Yongle Kangyur

NE
1480/9

Bibliography

Tibetan Sources

Sanskrit Sources

Reference Works

Secondary Sources

bali