Toh 578, Toh 934 — The Dhāraṇī of “The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines”

Notes

1. A tentative translation of the dhāraṇī is as follows: “It is thus—oṁ hrīḥ O One Victorious in/by Study and Recollection svāhā. Svāhā to the Perfection of Wisdom and to the King Who Eliminates All Bad Destinies.” We find the reading rājāya puzzling.

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2. Instead of what we translate here as “to uphold” in order to capture the ambiguity of the original, Tatakaragupta, when discussing a similar dhāraṇī said to encapsulate The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (see The Dhāraṇī of “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines,” Toh 576/932),http://read.84000.co/translation/toh576.html is more explicit when he replaces the verb with kaṇṭhasthīkṛ (“to place it in one’s throat”), which is the Sanskrit idiom for “to learn by heart.” He also spells out the benefit as the “meritorious karmic fruit” (puṇyaphala) of memorizing the parent text. This sentence is then followed by a fascinating short discussion, which merits to be quoted in full: “Surely, this is an exaggeration! No, one should not say this. For countless thus-gone ones have empowered this dhāraṇī to serve as a method for gaining the equipment of merit for women, immature people, and simpletons, as well as for learned people whose minds are confused, just like the pole of a snake-charmer[, which is preprepared by the expert snake charmer to be effective even when he is no longer present,] for removing poison; however, it is not a method for gaining the knowledge conveyed by The [Perfection of Wisdom in] One Hundred Thousand Lines. This should be understood to apply in other cases [i.e., where the text is abbreviated into a dhāraṇī] as well” (nanv atyuktir eveti. na caitad vaktavyam. yataḥ strībāla­mūrkhān paryākulitamatīn paṇḍitān praty api puṇya­saṃbhāra­sādhana­tvenā­saṃkhyeya­tathāgatair adhiṣṭhiteyaṃ dhāriṇī, yathā viṣaharatvena gāruḍikaṃ stambhaḥ; na tu lakṣāprati­pāditajñāna­sādhanatvena. evam anyatrāpi boddhavyaḥ).

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