Toh 609Sarvābhayapradā-dhāraṇī (Toh 609) — Đà-la-ni Ban Bình An Khỏi Mọi Nguy Hiểm

Summary

The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers is set in Indra’s Rock Cave on Vaidehaka Mountain where Śakra
requests the Buddha for a teaching to help him subdue the asuras, the famed
adversaries of the devas. The Buddha instructs Śakra to employ the vidyāmantra
that confers freedom from all dangers. This vidyāmantra specifically frees one
from dangers associated with disease, poisons, weapons, malevolent nonhuman
beings, and conflicts. Among the harmful nonhuman beings, the text places a
particular emphasis on grahas, a class of beings who “seize,” possess, or
otherwise adversely influence other beings by causing a range of physical and
mental afflictions, as well as various types of misfortune. After the Buddha
recites the vidyāmantra, he offers Śakra ritual instructions on how to incant
the vidyāmantra on threads, ritual substances, or armor which, when placed on
the body, ensures protection and the successful outcomes of one’s rituals.

Acknowledgements

This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation
team. Lowell Cook produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Torsten
Gerloff edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited
the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers is set in Indra’s Rock Cave on Vaidehaka Mountain where Śakra
requests the Buddha for a teaching to help him subdue the asuras, the famed
adversaries of the devas. The Buddha instructs Śakra to employ the
vidyāmantra that confers freedom from all dangers. A vidyāmantra is an
esoteric formula used to accomplish a ritual goal and, in this text, is
largely used interchangeably with dhāraṇī. This vidyāmantra specifically
frees one from the dangers associated with disease, poisons, weapons,
malevolent nonhuman beings, and conflicts. Among the harmful nonhuman
beings, the text places a particular emphasis on grahas, a class of beings
who “seize,” possess, or otherwise adversely influence other beings by
causing a range of physical and mental afflictions, as well as various types
of misfortune. After the Buddha recites the vidyāmantra, he offers Śakra
ritual instructions on how to incant the vidyāmantra on threads, ritual
substances, or armor that, when placed on the body, ensure protection and
the successful outcomes of one’s rituals.

The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers shares a great deal of intertextuality with The Dhāraṇī of the Iron Beak [1] (Toh 761) and, to a
lesser degree, with Toh 762, also titled The Dhāraṇī of the Iron Beak [2]. These three works share an identical narrative
structure, are set in Indra’s Rock Cave, and feature Śakra as their interlocutor.
While the dhāraṇī formulas in The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers and Toh 761 are, in most places, nearly
identical, they are entirely different from the much shorter formulas found
in Toh 762. One notably absent feature from The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers but found in Toh 761 and Toh 762 is the emphasis on
the dhāraṇī’s efficacy for weather control rituals aimed at favorable
agriculture. Many sections of the dhāraṇī formula were challenging to
comprehend. We did not attempt to venture any conjectural emendations and,
instead, presented it largely as it appears in the Tibetan.

There is no extant Indic manuscript for The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers and it is unclear
what status it held in India. It was translated into Chinese during the
Northern Song Dynasty as the Shi yiqie
wuwei tuoluoni jing (T1373, 施一切無畏陀羅尼經). This translation was produced by Dānapāla (Shihu
施護, ?–1017 ᴄᴇ),
an Indian scholar-monk from Uḍḍiyāna who translated over one hundred works
into Chinese. The Tibetan translation describes in its colophon how it was
produced by the prolific Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé in collaboration with
the Indian masters Jinamitra and Dānaśīla. Therefore, the Tibetan
translation would have been completed during the late eighth or early ninth
centuries. Though the dhāraṇī’s colophon reports that it was translated
during the imperial period, it does not appear in either of the imperial
catalogs. The dhāraṇī, therefore, may be among the many tantric works of
literature that were intentionally not registered in the imperial catalogs
or, perhaps, the colophon may be a later attribution to imperial period
translators. Beyond passing references to its title, The Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All Dangers does not
appear to have been widely cited or mentioned in later Tibetan literature.
It has also has not been the subject of any sustained scholarly
research that we are aware of. Without any extant Sanskrit to study, our
translation was based on the textual witness from the Degé Kangyur in
consultation with the variant readings attested in the Comparative Edition
(dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur and the Stok
Palace Manuscript (stog pho brang bris ma)
Kangyur.

The Translation

The Noble Dhāraṇī That Fully Confers Freedom From All

Dangers

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was traveling through
the land of Magadha when he arrived at a mango grove. At that mango grove,
he took up residence in the Indra’s Rock Cave on Vaidehaka Mountain. Śakra the lord
of the devas then appeared before the Blessed One. He bowed his
head at the Blessed One’s feet and sat to one side.

Having sat to one side, Śakra the lord of the devas told the Blessed
One, “Blessed One, the asuras are causing me great harm. Blessed
One, the asuras are adversaries who have been hostile to me for a long time.
Blessed One, please offer me a teaching.”

The Blessed One told Śakra the lord of the devas, “Lord of the
devas, uphold the vidyāmantra that confers freedom from all dangers. It
accomplishes all aims and quells all dangers. It alleviates all diseases,
neutralizes all poisons, and stops all weapons. It paralyzes all legless,
two-legged, and four-legged beings. It defeats all adversaries. It defeats
asuras,
garuḍas, daityas, piśācas, apasmāras, unmādas, brahmanical rākṣasas, bhūtas,
vetālas, śakuni grahas, pūtanas, revatīs, ostāraka grahas, ostārakas,
apasmāra grahas, deva grahas, nāga grahas, yakṣa grahas, gandharva grahas,
kinnara grahas, vināyaka grahas, and mātṛ grahas. And it utterly defeats
ojohāras, beings who feed on garlands, fragrances, flowers, incense, blood,
pus, filth, and urine for sustenance. It completely overcomes all infectious diseases,
vātikas, paittikas, śleṣmikas, sānnipātikas, and malevolent beings. It
brings perfect peace from all conflicts, disputes, wars, and scandals.
I will recite the vidyāmantra that confers freedom from
all dangers:

tadyathā | aḍe maḍe pramaḍe pravaṃ madiri gole mavoli vose modde vadde
kharadte kharane graṇa graṇe gaṇa pragaṇe moṇe pratimoṇe kālī prakālī
caṇḍe mahācaṇḍe praticaṇḍe vege ativege sona gona mohā pramohā mota
pramoṭā nāśāni pranāśāni dhavanī pradhavanī valaganī pravalanī nṛdtyanī
pranṛdtyanī pāniṭhāni krodhāni pratikrodhāni hana hana vihana vihana
sarvaduṣṭapraduṣṭān nāśaya sarvābhayaprade
| Protect myself and all
those around me from all dangers, all grahas, and all transmittable
diseases. Protect. Accomplish all my aims in this place. Thus: khidi
khidi cumbe sarvasattvahite rate namaḥ sarvabuddhānāṃ svāhā

“Lord of the devas, anyone who ties a knot in a thread with this
vidyāmantra of forty-one words that confers freedom from all
dangers and wears it, ties it in their hair, chants it, incants mustard
seeds or bezoar with it once and rubs that on themselves, or incants armor
with it will be invulnerable to weapons. They will be invulnerable to
poison, infectious diseases, single-day fevers, two-day fevers, three-day
fevers, four-day fevers, fires, mantras, vetālas, venoms, and diseases. They
will never die by drowning. They will accomplish all applications of
vidyāmantras and mantras that they practiced yet failed to accomplish
through their applications. Others will never be able to
harm their accomplished applications. They will be freed from bondage caused
by opposing forces. They will destroy others’ vidyāmantras and make their
own vidyāmantras multiply. They will defeat all grahas and, if the grahas do
not release them, the grahas’ heads will burst into seven pieces like the
foliage of a basil plant.”

Thereupon, Śakra the lord of the devas himself disappeared. After
the Blessed One had spoken, Śakra the lord of the devas rejoiced and praised
what the Blessed One had taught.

This concludes the noble dhāraṇī “Conferring Freedom from All Dangers.”

Colophon

Translated and edited by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and
Dānaśīla along with the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé; later
revised according to the new language reforms and then finalized.

Notes

Bibliography

avastāraka