Toh 643Maitreya­pratijñā­dhāraṇī

Summary

The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” is a short dhāraṇī
centered on Maitreya, the bodhisattva who will, as alluded to in this text, awaken as the
next buddha in our world. Its dhāraṇī consists of a root mantra, heart mantra, and
auxiliary heart mantra and is followed by Maitreya’s vow to benefit beings. The benefits
of the dhāraṇī range from receiving prophecies for awakening to acquiring one’s desired
material enjoyments. Since these benefits also extend to animals, the text advocates
reciting its dhāraṇī so that animals may hear it as well.

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. Rory Lindsay 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 “Maitreya’s Pledge” is one of two
dhāraṇī works in the Degé Kangyur that center on Maitreya, the bodhisattva who will, as alluded to in this text,
awaken as the next buddha in our world. This text appears twice in the Degé Kangyur,
first in the Action Tantra (kriyātantra) section
and later in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section. In the Action Tantra section, it is
classified as an individual action tantra (bya
ba so so’i rgyud) belonging to the tathāgata family.

According to Buddhist tradition, Maitreya currently dwells in Tuṣita Heaven
and, after the decline of Śākyamuni’s teachings, will appear in this world as the next
buddha. Maitreya was perhaps the earliest bodhisattva to develop a devoted following
in India, starting at least as early as the first centuries of the Common Era. Later,
particularly in Central and East Asia, the cult of Maitreya would flourish widely from
the fourth century. It was within this milieu that the text The
Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” first emerged.

The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” is comprised of
two sections: the dhāraṇī and the pledge. The dhāraṇī formula is presented in three
formulas: the root mantra, the heart mantra, and the auxiliary heart mantra. While
terms like dhāraṇī, mantra, and vidyāmantra have different connotations and various
usages throughout Buddhist literature, they can also be used interchangeably to a
certain extent. In the case of this work, it appears that dhāraṇī refers to the three formulas together while mantra refers to the individual formulas
themselves. This is corroborated by how the entire formula is presented as a single
“dhāraṇī” in later compendiums. Following the dhāraṇī, Maitreya voices his pledge in
which he describes the benefits of hearing, chanting, and contemplating the dhāraṇī
and reciting it for others. The benefits primarily concern receiving a prophecy, and
hence a guarantee of awakening, from Maitreya himself, which locates this dhāraṇī
within a Mahāyāna-centric worldview. In addition to this, Maitreya also describes
benefits of a more mundane nature, such as acquiring one’s desired material
enjoyments. Maitreya makes clear that the benefits extend to any animals that hear the
dhāraṇī and, thus, advocates reciting it into the ears of animals.

The dhāraṇī was also translated into Chinese by Faxian (法賢 337–422).
The Chinese version diverges in several ways. It begins with a narrative opening
(nidāna) and includes a dialogue
between the Buddha Śākyamuni and Maitreya. It would seem that these variations are
unique to the version of the dhāraṇī transmitted to China since they do not appear in
the Tibetan or the (albeit, much later) Sanskrit recensions.

The colophon to the Tibetan translation of The Dhāraṇī
“Maitreya’s Pledge” states that it was translated by the Indian paṇḍita
Vajrapāṇi and the Tibetan translator Chökyi Sherap. According to Gö Lotsawa, Vajrapāṇi
traveled to Tibet in 1066 at the age of sixty, which would situate the
translation in the latter half of the eleventh century. As should be expected, this
work is not listed in any of the extant catalogs from the Imperial Period (629–841)
since it was translated during the Later Dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet (bstan pa phyi dar).

The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” had a small but
unmistakable presence in the later Tibetan tradition. In the fourteenth century, the
dhāraṇī was reproduced by Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) in his
Grand Anthology of Dhāraṇīs from the Four Classes of Secret
Mantra Tantras (gsang sngags rgyud sde bzhi’i
gzungs rnams gcig tu bsdus pa’i gzungs ’bum chen mo). Later, in the
eighteenth century, the dhāraṇī was included in the quadrilingual imperial collection
of dhāraṇīmantras produced by the
court of the Qianlong Emperor (1711–99). The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s
Pledge” has also been included in several other Tibetan liturgy
collections, particularly among the Geluk School.

The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” was not only
subject to devotional reproduction in Tibet; it also inspired original composition.
Most notably, the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso (1617–82), authored an
aspiration prayer to be chanted after the recitation of The
Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge”. In the eighteenth century, the third Zimok,
Champa Tenzin Trinlé, penned verses to be inserted before and after (mgo mjug gi tshig[s] bcad) the text. The meaning of the dhāraṇī’s words was also
commented on by Ngawang Nyima (1907–90), a Mongolian geshé who was an abbot of the
Gomang college at Drepung Monastery. That this short dhāraṇī text inspired a number of
notable masters to write on it speaks to the relative prominence it maintained in
Tibetan monasteries throughout history. Beyond these, there are numerous references to
the dhāraṇī as a part of larger liturgies, as a member of records of transmissions
received (gsan yig, thob yig), and in other textual
records.

To the best of our knowledge, The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s
Pledge” has not been the subject of any in-depth academic studies in
modern times. Zsuzsa Majer does, however, observe that the nineteenth-century Russian
explorer A. M. Pozdneev records in his travelog of the Khalkha Mongol lands that The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” was performed in funerary
rites. Despite this, Majer writes that she never witnessed its performance during her
fieldwork, which was undertaken on modern Mongolian Buddhist postmortem rites between
2016 and 2017.
Uranchimeg Tsultemin also mentions in her examination of the iconography of Maitreya
in Mongolian art that Agwaankhaidav (ngag dbang mkhas grub, 1779–1839), the Mongolian
abbot of Ikh Khüree, taught a longevity and transference (’pho ba) practice predicated on extensive accumulations of
the dhāraṇī.

Our translation used the versions of the dhāraṇī preserved in the Degé Kangyur
as our source text. We also consulted the variant readings found in the Comparative
Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok
Palace Manuscript Kangyur.

The Translation

The Noble Dhāraṇī

Maitreya’s Pledge

Homage to
the Three Jewels.

Homage to Maitreya the Victorious One.

namo ratna trayāya | namo bhagavate |
śākyamunaye | tathāgatāya | arhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ ajite
ajite | aparājite  | ajitaṃ jaya | hara hara | maitri avalokite | kara
kara | mahāsamayasiddhe | bhara bhara | mahābodhimaṇḍabīje | smara smara |
asmakaṃ samaya bodhi bodhi | mahābodhi svāhā | |

This was the root mantra.

oṃ mohi mohi | mahāmohi svāhā | |

This was the heart mantra.

oṃ muni muni smara svāhā | |

This was the auxiliary heart mantra.

“Once I have fully awakened to unsurpassed and perfectly complete
enlightenment, I will be certain to search out any being who simply hears, recites,
chants, correctly contemplates, or meditates on this dhāraṇī and offer them a prophecy
for unsurpassed and perfectly complete enlightenment. Even if this dhāraṇī is recited into
the ear of a deer or bird from the animal realm, they will also receive a prophecy for
unsurpassed and perfectly complete enlightenment. Whoever merely hears this will never
go to the lower realms, nor will they be stained by the dirt of the lower realms. They
will not be reborn in a mother’s womb. They will become a universal monarch for a
thousand divine eons. They will inhabit the path of the ten virtuous
actions. Whichever material enjoyments they wish for and seek will appear for them. I,
a blessed one, will never forget that being. Having reached the seat of awakening, I
will absolutely provide them, no matter who they are, a prophecy for unsurpassed and
perfectly complete enlightenment.”

This completes The Noble Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s
Pledge.”

Colophon

Translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian preceptor Vajrapāṇi and the
Tibetan translator-monk Chökyi Sherap.

Notes

Bibliography