Toh 522, Toh 848 — The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka
Jñānolkadhāraṇī
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka that Purifies All Rebirths
F.59.aF.55.a[1]F.59.b 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.” F.60.aF.55.b
The tathāgatas and bodhisattvas perceived the thoughts of the Sun and Moon and responded with the following dhāraṇī mantra:
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[2]
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. F.56.a
“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, F.60.b 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 ||[3]
Notes
In the par phud printing this text begins on F.42.a. This is due to a discrepancy in volume 88 (rgyud ’bum, na) of the Degé Kangyur between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings. In the latter case, an extra work, Bodhimaṇḍasyālaṃkāralakṣadhāraṇī (Toh 508, byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs), was added as the second text in the volume, thereby displacing the pagination of all the following texts in the same volume by 17 folios. Since the eKangyur follows the later printing, this later reference has been used in order to link to the eKangyur viewer.
In the Toh 522 version of this text there is discrepancy in the folio numbering between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings of the Degé Kangyur. Although the discrepancy is irrelevant here, further details concerning this may be found in note 8 of the Toh 522 version of this text.
backThis is the Sanskrit for the first dhāraṇī mantra as it appears in Leumann’s 1920 edition of the Khotanese version of the Jñānolkadhāraṇī. See Leumann (1920), p. 158.
backThis is the Sanskrit for the second dhāraṇī mantra as it appears in Leumann’s 1920 edition of the Khotanese version of the Jñānolkadhāraṇī.
backThe Sanskrit names for the four tathāgatas in this translation have been derived from the concluding verse to the preceding dhāraṇī, which reads: namo jñānolkasya tathāgatasya namo suvarṇaprabhākūṭanirbhāsasya tathāgatasya namo satyavādinē tathāgatasya namau bhikṣmasvaragarjitarājebhya tathātatēbhya siddhyaṃtu maṃtrapadā svāhā ||. See Leumann (1920), p. 158.
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