Toh 702Toh 702 — Siṃhanāda Tantra — Mật Điển Sư Tử Hống

Summary

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. Catherine Dalton produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Ryan
Damron edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited
the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.

Introduction

The Siṃhanāda Tantra opens in Vajrāsana
where the Buddha is residing in the form of Padmeśvara. Vajrapāṇi asks him
how to train on the path, and Padmeśvara replies that one should recall the
practice of Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda. The story of Avalokiteśvara’s
Siṃhanāda form is recounted in detail in The Dhāraṇī of
Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda, Toh 703. There we learn how, during a past-life adventure with his
friend who became the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara came to take this
particular form. In this form, he obtained the power to tame the nāgas and
his famed curative powers. The Siṃhanāda Tantra
features the latter. After speaking Siṃhanāda’s secret mantra and teaching a
short practice to accompany it, Padmeśvara concludes his discourse by
describing the benefits of respecting and upholding the tantra and the
detriments of deprecating it.

In addition to The Siṃhanāda Tantra,
there are two short dhāraṇī texts associated with Siṃhanāda in the Kangyur
and numerous practice manuals, praises, and ritual texts dedicated to him in
the Tengyur, attesting to the importance of this particular form of
Avalokiteśvara. Siṃhanāda was especially popular in Sri Lanka. An
image of Siṃhanāda was found at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodh Gaya prior to
the temple’s nineteenth-century renovation. A tenth-century
Nepalese miniature painting kept at Cambridge depicts Siṃhanāda and includes
a caption reading, “Lokeśvara of the hospital on the island of Siṃhala,”
referencing his curative abilities.

Siṃhanāda’s iconography is generally consistent across textual and
artistic sources, though not all of the details are clearly elaborated in
this text. Siṃhanāda is white in color, has two legs and two arms, is
dressed as an ascetic (tapasvin, dka’ thub
ldan pa) and sits on a lion. In most descriptions, a
skull-adorned trident rests at his right side, but in some, he holds it in
his right hand. This trident is also frequently depicted with a white snake
coiled around the shaft. With his left hand, he holds the end of a lotus
stalk that rises upward and has a sword standing on the open lotus blossom.
Nearby and to the left sits what is variously described as a cup (karoṭaka), pot (bhājana, snod), or skull cup (kapāla, thod pa) filled with fragrant
flowers. This vessel often sits on a lotus or water lily.
The iconography described in the present text largely conforms with this
depiction, but a lack of clarity in the Tibetan translation and its Sanskrit
sources leaves a number of specific points ambiguous.

The Siṃhanāda form of Avalokiteśvara continues to be practiced in
contemporary Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Two arrangements of practices
centered on Lokeśvara Siṃhanāda are found in the Compendium of Sādhanas
(sgrub thabs kun btus) compiled by
Jamyang Loter Wangpo, and the nineteenth-century scholar Mipham Gyatso
wrote a short summary of the story of The Dhāraṇī of
Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda.

The Siṃhanāda Tantra does not appear to
be extant in Sanskrit or Chinese translation. It was translated into Tibetan
by the Indian master Prajñākara and the Tibetan translator Gö Khukpa Lhetse
in the eleventh century.

The present English translation of The
Siṃhanāda Tantra was made on the basis of the Degé Kangyur
recension of this work, with additional reference to the notes from the
Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma) of the
Kangyur, the Stok Palace (stog pho brang)
Kangyur, and the Phukdrak (phug brag)
Kangyur recensions of the text. We also consulted the Sanskrit Siṃhanādadhāraṇī from the Sādhanamālā.

The Translation

The Siṃhanāda Tantra

Homage to the blessed Lotus Lord of Speech.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One, transformed into
Padmeśvara, was residing at Vajrāsana. The Lord of Guhyakas said to the
Blessed One, “Blessed One, how does one train in the accumulation of merit
and wisdom, and in the path?”

The Blessed One answered, “Amazing! There is someone called
Avalokiteśvara Siṃhanāda, who has supreme love and compassion for beings.
One should contemplate how he previously trained on the path and gathered the accumulations
of merit and wisdom.”

Then the blessed Padmeśvara rose and pronounced this secret mantra:

tadyathā | oṁ akaṭe vikaṭe nikaṭe kaṭaṃkaṭe karoṭe karokaṃṭe vīryai
svāhā | oṁ āḥ hrīḥ siṃhanāda hūṁ | bruṁ āṁ jrīṁ khaṁ hūṁ | oṁ āḥ hūṃ |
oṁ balīn bhuñja jiva puśpe dhūpe hūṁ | sarvāmṛte hūṁ |
oṁ vatali mahāvatali hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ jaḥ svāhā | oṁ bhakṣa
bhakṣa samaya tiṣṭha jaṃ hūṁ phaṭ svāhā | oṁ taprati hūṁ phaṭ | sritikara hūṁ phaṭ | oṁ varuṇa
āgacchaya āgacchaya mahānāga gisati sarve bhuraḥ phuḥ phuḥ
phuḥ svāhā | oṁ bhagavati śrutismṛtisamavati saramati siddhi svāhā |
oṁ āḥ hrīḥ hūṃ svāhā | phuḥ hrīḥ | oṁ siṃhanāda hūṁ phaṭ phaṭ |
nāgadupali māraya phaṭ | jvāla
jvāla hūṁ phaṭ | oṁ āḥ vighnāntakṛt hūṁ | oṁ
agnaye ativya abhisamayaviśa mahāśriye havyakavyam ahanīya svāhā | oṁ bhavaka agnaye
śāntiṃ kuru svāhā | oṁ hrīḥ siṃhanāda vajracakravartalokika bruṁ bruṁ
bruṁ | lokottarāṇi siṃhanāda bruṁ bruṁ bruṁ hūṁ na hūṁ na siṃhanāda bruṁ
bruṁ bruṁ hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ svāhā ||

“Lord of Guhyakas, this is called the accomplishment of
the maṇḍala. It includes the ritual actions of killing,
averting, summoning, binding, and pacifying. In the morning, make a maṇḍala
with cow dung that has not fallen to the ground. Please the nāgas by holding
the three sweet substances in the palm of your hand. This pacifies the anger
of the nāgas.

“Called a leader of nāgas,

He is seated in the posture of royal ease

On a moon disc atop a lion.

At his right is a skull-bearing trident,

Which brings hostile kṣatriyas under his control.

Atop a lotus sits a skull cup,

A water lily imbued with the four activities,

And a sword infused with wisdom.

“His body, in the guise of an ascetic,

Is adorned by the five families.

The three and five hang down in front,

And his crown is adorned with Amitābha.

He has arisen from the qualities of a lion.

“There are two-petaled red lotuses

And four lotuses with four mantras.

Your own body stands below with palms joined,

Bowing to his body and performing the activities.

“The mantra emits light from the heart

Of Akṣobhya who sits at the vajra seat.

You should recite twenty-one times

The mantra endowed with the three joys.

“Lord of Guhyakas, whoever deprecates this tantra deprecates all
buddhas and bodhisattvas. Lords of Guhyakas, the gods of the Heaven
of the Four Great Kings, the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the
brahmaputras, and the great brahmas will protect, guard, conceal, and always
accompany any being who hears this tantra, thinks of it, worships it,
upholds it, or even just takes an interest in it. All the buddhas and
bodhisattvas, who are greatly superior to those gods, will protect such
beings just as a mother protects her child and the māras will never be able
to obstruct them. When they die, they will take birth in lotuses in the
western realm of Sukhāvatī, freed from the pain of the womb. In this life,
they will be freed from any fear of fire or water. Here I have only briefly
stated the benefits, but apart from these all that is wished for will be
fulfilled exactly as desired.

“If someone damages this tantra, is hostile toward it, or thinks
about it improperly, you gods and nāgas must protect it!”

The Lord of Guhyakas along with the gods of the Realm of Brahma were
delighted and agreed to this.

Additionally, in order to protect others, if one incants white earth
many times, all obstacles will be pacified.

This concludes “The Siṃhanāda
Tantra.”

Colophon

It was edited, translated, and finalized by the Indian preceptor
Prajñākāra and the Tibetan translator Gö Khukpa Lhetse.

Notes

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources