Toh 540, Toh 1078 — The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”
Surūpānāmadhāraṇī
The Dhāraṇī “Surūpa”
F.84.aF.101.aF.240.a[1] Obeisance to all buddhas and bodhisattvas. F.240.b
namaḥ surūpāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru tara tara bhara bhara saṃbhara saṃbhara smara smara saṃtarpaya saṃtarpaya sarvapretānāṃ svāhā |[2]
One should recite this spell seven times over a meal of rice together with water. Then, after having snapped the fingers of the left hand three times, one should offer it in a secluded place to all pretas and say the following: “Off with you, you who seek weak points and are looking for an opportunity![3] I hereby donate food to pretas residing in every world system!” F.84.bF.101.b One should make the donation before one has eaten. The outcome is that the pretas will each be given a bushel of rice.
If one performs it in this way, in each and every rebirth one will never be feeble or poor. Rather, one will possess great might, beauty, a countenance lovely to behold, much wealth, and great enjoyments. One will have a long lifespan, freedom from illness, and will swiftly attain unsurpassed, perfect awakening. After death, one will be reborn in the realm of Sukhāvatī.
Here ends “The Dhāraṇī ‘Surūpa’.”Notes
Two sets of folio references have been included in this translation 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 (byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs, Toh 508), 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, both references have been provided, with the highlighted one linking to the eKangyur viewer.
In the Toh 540 version of the text there is a slight 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 the Toh 540 version of this text.
back“oṃ suru suru prasuru prasuru, cross, cross, bear, bear, collect, collect, remember, remember, gratify, gratify, for all pretas, svāhā!”
backavatāraprekṣin. This description usually applies to bhūtas or other demons who are constantly on the lookout for weak points, usually caused by a breach of morality, in order to enter and possess a being. It is conceivable that one of the two Tibetan elements was originally a gloss of the other.
back
