Toh 743, Toh 1009 — The Dhāraṇī “Purifying All Karmic Obscurations”
Sarvakarmāvaraṇaviśodhanīnāmadhāraṇī
The Noble Dhāraṇī
Purifying All Karmic Obscurations
F.236.aF.178.a Obeisance to the Blessed Akṣobhya!
namo ratnatrayāya | oṃ kaṅkani kaṅkani rocani rocani troṭani troṭani trāsani trāsani pratihana pratihana sarvakarmaparamparāṇi me svāhā |[1]
The application of this dhāraṇī is as follows:
If one recites it constantly,[2] the entire succession of karma will be purified one by one.
If one recites it at the three junctures of the day,[3] even the five sins of immediate retribution will be purified.
If one recites it once, bad omens, bad dreams, and inauspicious events will disappear.
If one holds it on one’s body or writes it into a booklet and[4] wears it tied around one’s neck, one will never experience any of the untimely deaths.
If one is overcome with compassion and recites it into the ears of a moribund[5] beast, bird, human, or nonhuman being, that being will not be reborn in the unfavorable destinies.
Moreover, if somebody has died some time ago and one recites it one hundred, one thousand, or one hundred thousand times, with friendly kindness and compassion, in the name of the dead person,[6] that sentient being will be liberated at that very moment, even if they have already been born in the hells.
If one recites it over some earth, or sesame seeds, or mustard seeds, or water and scatters that over the corpse, or washes the corpse,[7] and then has it cremated,[8] or places it for keeping in a caitya,[9] or if one writes the spell F.236.b and places it on their head, that person will certainly be liberated in seven days, even if already born in an unfavorable destiny. That person will be reborn in a favorable destiny, F.178.b among the gods, or wherever the aspirational prayer wished.
If one undergoes purification by ritually bathing throughout the waxing fortnight of the moon, changes clothes three times a day, fasts or eats white meals, and recites the spell one hundred thousand times in the name of a dead person,[10] while circumambulating a caitya containing a relic, that person will be liberated from the lower realms. That person will then be reborn among the gods of the Pure Abodes and appear in front of the practitioner,[11] perform worship, manifest his own appearance,[12] congratulate the practitioner,[13] circumambulate him three times, and then finally disappear.
If one writes down a dead person’s name, recites the spell, and creates one hundred thousand caityas[14] worshiped with parasols, banners, streamers,[15] and so on, and casts them into the sea or a great river, then that person will be liberated from the hells, and so on.[16]
Alternatively, having performed worship in the same way, if at the end one constructs a great caitya at a crossroads, worships it with parasols, banners, streamers, and so on, and then offers a meal and makes donations to the noble monastic community in worship[17]—as well as proclaims, “May this become a root of merit for so-and-so![18] Indeed, by this,[19] may he attain a favorable rebirth among the gods!”—that person will be reborn there, manifest his own appearance, offer one congratulations,[20] and then disappear.
[21]Whether one has committed the five sins of immediate retribution, or whether one is an apostate of the true Dharma, or whether one has disrespected the noble ones, if one sees this dhāraṇī, say, written on a wall at the time of death, all one’s karmic obscurations will cease, how much more so if one chants and recites it! That very tathāgata shall come to one and say “Noble son! Come to me!”[22]
Here ends “The Noble Dhāraṇī ‘Purifying All Karmic Obscurations’.” F.179.aNotes
The translation of this dhāraṇī is: “Obeisance to the Three Jewels! Oṃ, kaṅkani kaṅkani radiant, radiant, destroyer, destroyer, trembler, trembler, remove, remove my entire succession of karma, svāhā!” The reading in the Dunhuang manuscript (henceforth marked as Z) is corrupt at the end: na mo rad na tra ya ya | om ka ka ni | ka ka ni | ro tsa ni | ro tsa ni | tro tha ni | tro tha ni | tra sa ni | tra sa ni | pra ti hA ni | pra ti hA ni | sa rwa pA ra mA | pA ra mA | pA ri ni mA swA hA. Also, note that the Sanskrit differs slightly.
backZ is marred by a serious eyeskip here: the text jumps two sentences, reading, “If one recites it constantly […] bad omens,” etc., with the bracketed ellipsis marking the omitted text.
backNormally “the three times” (dus gsum) refers to “the past, the present, and the future,” but in the present context, it must mean “at the three junctures” (i.e., dawn, noon, and dusk). Cf. Candrakīrti’s Pradīpoddyotana (Chakravarti 1984, p. 189 and p. 215 respectively): triṣkālaṃ sandhyātraye and triṣkālaṃ trisandhyam.
backZ reads “or” (sam) instead of “and” (nas). The canonical reading is not impossible if we understand the booklet to be very small.
backZ reads “at the time of death” (’chi ba’i tshe) instead of “of a moribund” (’chi ba’i).
backThat is to say, the dhāraṇī is customized by replacing the me (“my”) with the name of the beneficiary in the genitive.
backIf the empowered substance was water.
backThe Stok Palace manuscript reads “worshipped” (mchod) instead of “cremated” (bsreg), which is also the reading of Z.
backA funerary caitya (mchod rten); Z has a fascinating variant, “tomb” (mchad pa). It is not impossible that the text was customized to fit local practices around Dunhuang.
backSee #UT22084-094-020-73.
backZ reads “shadow” (bsgrib pa) for “practitioner” (sgrub pa po); if the reading is not a corruption, it must mean the shadow cast by the aforementioned caitya. In that case, understand the following elements to refer to the caitya, not the ritualist.
backThe string “manifest his own appearance” is not found in Z. It is possible that it is a contamination from a similarly phrased passage below, in the penultimate paragraph.
backLit. “will say, ‘Well done!’ ” ( legs so), which usually corresponds to sādhu in Sanskrit. Z repeats the words (legs so legs so).
backThese are clearly small votive caityas.
backThe difference between the two, at least according to Bhavabhaṭṭa, a commentator of the Catuṣpīṭhatantra, is that banners (dhvaja) have an emblem or design (cihna) on them. Ad 2.3.11: patāketi cihnarahitāmatsyapakṣyādicihnāṅko dhvajaḥ (Szántó 2012, vol. 1, p. 288 and vol. 2, pp. 91–92); the Tibetan is slightly different, but the import is the same, see Toh 1607, folio 180.b:http://read.84000.co/translation/toh1670.htmlba dan zhes bya ba ni nya dang ngang pa la sogs pa’i ri mo med pa’o || rgyal mtshan zhes bya ba ni ri mo dang bcas pa’o.
backZ does not transmit “etc.”
backUp to here, Z reads merely, “Or, having fashioned a caitya, having worshiped it…”; it is quite likely that some text was lost here. Having said that, it is odd that the canonical reading has “having performed worship in the same way” and then repeats the articles of worship. Therefore, it appears that we have some contamination.
backInstead of “so-and-so” (che ge mo zhig), Z transmits “this person” (myi ’di).
backInstead of “indeed, by this [merit]” (’di kho nas), Z transmits “from this transmigration” (’di ’i ’khor nas), which may well be the original reading.
backSee #UT22084-094-020-82.
backThis last paragraph is not transmitted in Z. Some parts of it are, however, attested in the Sanskrit fragment. The sentence with “written on a wall” is attested in the fragment as antaśaḥ kuḍyalikhitām api. It is also noteworthy that antaśaḥ here means “ultimately” and not “at the time of death” as the Tibetan would suggest.
backThis passage proves that the initial obeisance to Akṣobhya (also see the expanded obeisance in the Sanskrit fragment) is part of the text and not the translators’ obeisance, despite the fact that it is also not transmitted in Z. No other tathāgata was mentioned before. The invitation refers to Akṣobhya’s pure land, Abhirati. Alternatively, emend de nyid to nyid and understand it as a reference to a generic tathāgata with an emphasis (i.e., “the tathāgata himself”).
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