Toh 596 — The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual (3)

Uṣṇīṣavijayādhāraṇīkalpasahitā

Translated by Catherine Dalton under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

Crown Victory of All Tathāgatas

The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual

F.242.a
^[1]Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time.F.242.b The blessed, thus-gone, worthy, perfectly awakened Buddha Amitāyus was staying in the excellent secret palace, Dharma Proclamation,^[2] in Sukhāvatī. He looked out at the circle of his retinue and said to Noble Avalokiteśvara, “Alas, bodhisattva great beings and sons and daughters of noble family, there are beings who suffer, are afflicted with diseases, and have short lifespans. To help them, one should uphold and recite this dhāraṇī called the crown victory of all tathāgatas and teach it extensively to others for the sake of long life.”^[3]

Then the bodhisattva, the great being, Avalokiteśvara arose from his seat, joined his palms, and said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, please teach! Well-Gone One, please teach the dhāraṇī called the crown victory of all tathāgatas.”

Then the Blessed One looked upon the circle of his perfect^[4] retinue, entered the samādhi called the splendor beheld everywhere, and pronounced this dhāraṇī called the crown victory of all tathāgatas:

“Write down this dhāraṇī called the crown victory, which purifies all evil deeds and obscurations and eliminates all lower rebirths, and place it at the summit of the life-pillar of a caitya. If one bathes and recites this dhāraṇī eight thousand times on the full moon day, one’s life force that has been exhausted will instead be replenished. One will be swiftly freed from lower rebirths, one’s obscurations will be purified, and one will thus attain unsurpassed awakening.

“If animals hear this dhāraṇī, this will be their final lower rebirth. Until they attain awakening, they will be born into kṣatriya, brahmin, merchant, and householder families as prominent as the great sāl tree.

“If someone is touched by the shadow of that caitya, or even if they are touched by a particle of dust from it, they will not take lower rebirths.”

When the Blessed One spoke these words, the bodhisattva great being Noble Avalokiteśvara F.243.b rejoiced and praised what he had said.

This concludes “The Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī with Its Ritual Manual.”

Notes

The title of this text and the first part, through the presentation of the dhāraṇī, are closely parallel with the opening passages of Toh 594 and Toh 595. However, this version of the opening passage seems to have been edited and gives smoother readings in some places, and very much less smooth and even slightly different readings in other places. It is also parallel with the opening narrative of Toh 598, which has significantly improved the difficult readings.
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chos yang dag par sdud pa’i phug khang bzangs mchog. The Sanskrit in the closely parallel text edited by Hidas reads dharmasaṃgītimahāguhyaprāsāde (Hidas 2020, p. 152). The Tibetan phrase is awkward, and it seems that there may have been some textual corruption. What has been rendered in Tibetan as phug seems to be guhya in the Sanskrit parallel; perhaps the Tibetan translators were reading guhā—which does translate to phug—rather than guhya. Although we cannot be sure that the surviving Sanskrit witnesses represent the older reading, they provide a more coherent reading than the one in our Tibetan witnesses, so we have translated this word following the Sanskrit, rather than the Tibetan witness.
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The text here is corrupt and appears to have transmitted a line slip, where a line from slightly lower in the text made its way incongruously to a place where it does not belong, rendering this sentence difficult to parse. While the passage as it reads here, unlike the parallel passage in Toh 594 and Toh 595, shows evidence of having been edited to improve some readings, the text remains problematic. The parallel passage in both the Sanskrit text and Toh 598 lack this line slip error, confirming that it is a textual corruption. We have relied upon Hidas’ Sanskrit edition to repair the Tibetan text here. The Tibetan reads de rnams kyi phyir sems can thams cad la kun du gzigs pa’i mtshan gyi dpal de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gtsug tor rnam par rgyal ba zhes bya ba’i gzungs ’di nyid ’cang ba dang / klogs pa dang / gzhan la rgya cher yang dag par bstan pa’i phyir yun ring por gnas par sgrub pa’i ched du . . . The passage in bold has been incongruously lifted from its proper place several lines down in the text and added here. The phrase sems can thams cad la in our text is absent in all the parallel passages in both Sanskrit and Tibetan and may have been added here by editors in order to render the passage more sensible. Once the line slip has been corrected, however, that phrase no longer makes sense, so we have not translated it. The Sanskrit passage lacks the line slip error but also includes several additional words absent in the Tibetan. However, as the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts are not identical in other places in this parallel passage either, and since the Tibetan text makes perfect sense without these additional elements, we have not taken the liberty of adding them in the English translation. The Sanskrit passage, in Hidas’ edition (with the elements absent in the Tibetan text indicated in bold), reads teṣāṃ arthāya hitāya sukhāya imāṃ sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣavijayā-nāma-dhāraṇīṃ dhārayed vācayed deśayet paryavāpnuyāt parebhyaś ca vistareṇa samprakāśayet | dīrghāyuṣkāṇām upādāyeti (Hidas 2020, p. 152). The passage in Toh 598 reads de rnams kyi don du tshe ring bar nye bar bsgrub par bya ba’i phyir/ de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gtsug tor rnam par rgyal ma zhes bya ba’i gzungs ’di gzung bar bya/ gzhan la rgya cher yang dag par bstan par bya’o.
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thams cad dang ldan pa.
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mama is not present in Hidas’ edition of the Sanskrit manuscripts.
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Hidas’s edition of the Sanskrit reads sarvatathāgatamātre, a plausible variant unattested in Tibetan sources.
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This repetition of vijayagarbhe is absent in the Choné, Kangxi, Lhasa, Narthang, Stok Palace, and Yongle versions of Toh 596. It is also absent in the uṣṇīṣavijaya dhāraṇīs reported in Toh 594, 595, 597, 598, and 984, as well as Hidas’ Sanskrit edition. It is likely that this repetition in the Degé version is the result of scribal error.
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There is some variation in this phrase across the Tibetan and Sanskrit sources. Toh 594, 597, and this text read sadā me; Toh 595, 598, and Toh 984 read me sadā; and Hidas’ Sanskrit edition has mama sadā. The meaning is the same in all cases.
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The Lhasa and Narthang versions of this text include the line sarvatathāgatasamayādhiṣthānādhiṣṭhite here. The Degé version of Toh 597 includes the phrase samantān mocaya mocaya ādhiṣṭhāna, though it is absent in other canonical recensions of the same translation. Hidas’s Sanskrit edition includes sarvatathāgatahṛdayādhiṣṭhānādhiṣṭhite at this point.
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māṃ is absent in Hidas’ Sanskrit edition.
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Hidas has translated the dhāraṇī based on his edition, and rather than retranslate it, we give his translation here. Substantive variants between the Sanskrit basis for his translation and the Degé have been noted above. “Oṁ veneration to the glorious Buddha distinguished in all the Three Worlds. Namely, oṁ bhrūṃ bhrūṃ bhrūṃ, purge, purge, purify, purify, O Unequalled Enveloping Splendor Sparkle Destiny Sky, O the One of Purified Nature, O the One Purified by the Topknot Victory, let all Tathāgatas consecrate me with consecrations of the nectar of the excellent Sugata’s words along with great seals and mantrapadas, oṁ bring, bring, O the One who Nourishes Life, purge, purge, purify, purify, O the One Purified by Sky Nature, O the One Purified by the Topknot Victory, O the One Impelled by Thousand Rays, O the One Beholding all Tathāgatas, O the One Fulfilling the Six Perfections, O Mother of all Tathāgatas, O the One Established in the Ten Stages, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Heart of all Tathāgatas, oṁ O Seal, O Seal, O Great Seal, O the One Purified by the Firmness of the Vajra Body, O the One Purged of all Obscurations Resulting from Actions, turn back for me O Life-purged One, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Vow of all Tathāgatas, oṁ muni muni, mahāmuni, vimuni vimuni, mahāvimuni, mati mati, mahāmati, mamati, sumati, O the One Purified by Truth and the True Goal, O the One Purged by a Burst Open Mind, oṁ he he, triumph triumph, succeed succeed, recollect recollect, manifest manifest, expand expand, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of all Buddhas, oṁ O Pure One, O Pure One, O Awakened One, O Awakened One, O Vajra, O Vajra, O Great Vajra, O Vajra-essence, O Victory-essence, O Triumph-essence, O Vajra-flame-essence, O Vajra-born, O Vajra-produced, O Vajra, O the One with a Vajra, let my body become a vajra and that of all beings, let there be body-purification for me and purification of all destinies, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Heart of all Tathāgatas, let all Tathāgatas provide encouragement, oṁ awake awake, succeed succeed, awaken awaken, wake up, wake up, liberate liberate, release release, purge purge, purify purify, liberate completely, O the One Purified by an Enveloping Ray, O the One Empowered by the Empowerment of the Heart of all Tathāgatas, oṁ O Seal O Seal, O Great Seal, O Great Seal and Mantrapada svāhā” (Hidas 2020, p. 154).
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