Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath
Introduction
Toh 893
Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 167.a–167.b
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Table of Contents
Summary
Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath provides instruction in an incantatory practice focused on Mañjuśrī, in the form of a vidyā that Mañjuśrī himself pronounces. The vidyā unfolds in a series of forceful imperatives suggestive of battle, conquest, and celebration, and after enunciating it, Mañjuśrī explains that its recitation will lead to virtuosity in the memorization of scriptural verses. The benefits of recitation are then enumerated in more detail, relative to the number of times it is recited and whether the recitation is accompanied by ritual performance. As indicated by the title, Mañjuśrī then swears an oath to assure the vidyā’s efficacy, pledging to take on the karmic burden of the five misdeeds with immediate retribution should its promised benefits fail to ensue.
Acknowledgements
Translated by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer, with Geshé Lobsang Dawa and Phakyab Rinpoche (Geshé Ngawang Sungrab), under the auspices of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York. Introduction by David Mellins and Kaia Fischer. Special thanks to Paul Hackett for generously sharing his bibliographic expertise and resources. This translation would not have been possible without the kind and dedicated tutelage of Gen Lozang Jamspal, Executive Director, Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath is the second of six short dhāraṇī scriptures (Toh 545–550) gathered together within the Tantra section of the Degé Kangyur that provide instruction in incantatory practices that feature the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Five of these scriptures (Toh 547 omitted) also appear in the Dhāraṇī section of the Degé Kangyur as Toh 892–896.
The scripture begins with a salutation to the Three Jewels and to Mañjuśrī under the epithet “Gentle Protector.” It then presents a narrative of the dhāraṇī’s revelation: Mañjuśrī bows to the Blessed One and suggests that the sublime vidyā be spoken. The Blessed One and the assembled retinue agree and request Mañjuśrī to speak it. Mañjuśrī bows to “all dharmas, the essence of all buddhas” and, having qualified that his recitation is empowered by the Blessed One himself, commences the vidyā. In form and content, this petition resembles framing narratives found in The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa), which likewise preface Mañjuśrī’s recitation and instruction of various vidyās, mantras, and associated rites.
The vidyā itself begins with salutations to the tathāgatas and to Mañjuśrī himself, even as the vidyā is spoken by Mañjuśrī, and then unfolds in a series of forceful imperatives suggestive of battle, conquest, and celebration. After his utterance of the vidyā, Mañjuśrī explains that its recitation will lead to virtuosity in the memorization of scriptural verses. The benefits of recitation are then enumerated in more detail relative to the number of recitations and whether the recitation is supported by ritual performance.
As indicated by the title, Mañjuśrī then swears an oath to assure the vidyā’s efficacy, pledging to take on the karmic burden of the five misdeeds with immediate retribution should its stated benefits fail to ensue. This oath resembles the “promise” (dam bcas pa) sworn by bodhisattvas in other, similar texts.1 A more complete expression of this vow also appears in a handful of Sanskrit practice manuals in the Sādhanamālā.2
The Oath Sworn by Mañjuśrī bears no Sanskrit title, and no Sanskrit version of the text is to our knowledge extant. It also appears that the text was never translated into Chinese. The Tibetan translation lacks a colophon, so we have no information about the history of its transmission or the identity of its translators. Its absence from the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs3 suggests that it was translated into Tibetan later than the beginning of the ninth century ᴄᴇ4 but earlier than the flourishing of the scholar Butön Rinchen Drup (1290–1364), who listed the titles of all six dhāraṇī scriptures in this collection in his History of Buddhism.5
This English translation is based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur, one in the Tantra section (Toh 546) and the other in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 893), in consultation with the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and with the Stok Palace Kangyur. Where divergences may point to a plausible or significant alternative reading, they appear in the notes.
Text Body
Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath
The Translation
Homage to the Three Jewels!
Homage to the Gentle Protector!
Thereupon Mañjuśrī the ever youthful rose from his seat, draped his upper garment over one shoulder, and knelt down on his right knee, and bowing toward the Blessed One with palms joined, he lowered his head to the Blessed One’s feet and enjoined the Blessed One thus:
“Blessed One, I have seen the vidyā—how wonderful if this sublime vidyā were to be spoken!”
The entire retinue applauded the bodhisattva mahāsattva Mañjuśrī, “Very good, Mañjuśrī, very good indeed. O Mañjuśrī, speak the vidyā!”
“It is by means of the Blessed One’s speech that I shall do so,” he said. Then the bodhisattva mahāsattva Mañjuśrī bowed to all dharmas, the essence of all buddhas,6 and spoke the vidyā:
namaḥ sarvatathāgatebhyo | namo mañjuśriye bodhisattvāya || oṁ mañjuvara mañjughoṣa hana hana | paca paca | mata mata | matha matha | vidhvaṃsaya vidhvaṃsaya | kara kara | truṭa truṭa | bhañja bhañja | āviśa āviśa | tuṭa tuṭa | truṭa truṭa | sphuṭa sphuṭa | hṛdayabandhani namaḥ sambodhani praveśa praveśa | lota lota | kṛta kṛta | krida krida | krīḍa krīḍa7 | [F.167.b] hasa hasa | prabandha prabandha | āviśa āviśa | hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ | phaṭ phaṭ phaṭ svāhā ||8
“Those who recite this thrice at midnight, or alternatively seven times during the day, will acquire the great vidyā. Such persons will be able to memorize three hundred ślokas.
“As for the associated ritual, having made a maṇḍala from sandalwood and offered lamps of clarified butter, if one recites the vidyā eight thousand times, it will be accomplished. Even if it is not accomplished, one will memorize two hundred stanzas each day.
“O Blessed One, if what I have declared does not ensue even for someone who has committed the five misdeeds with immediate retribution, then I, too, will have committed the five misdeeds with immediate retribution.”
Notes
Bibliography
Tibetan Sources
’jam dpal gyis dmod btsugs pa. Toh 546, Degé Kangyur vol. 89 (rgyud, pa), folios 13.b.5–14.a.5.
’jam dpal gyis dmod btsugs pa. Toh 893, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 167.a.3–167.b.3.
’jam dpal gyis dmod btsugs pa. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 89, pp. 48–49.
’jam dpal gyis dmod btsugs pa. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 97, pp. 494–95.
’jam dpal gyis dmod btsugs pa. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 102 (rgyud, da), folios 494.b.1–495.a.4.
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Āryamaitripratijñānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 643, Degé Kangyur vol. 91 (rgyud, ba), folios 127.b.2–128.a.3; and Toh 890, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 165.b.4–166.a.4.
’phags ma sgrol ma rang gis dam bcas pa’i gzungs (Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 730, Degé Kangyur vol. 94 (rgyud, tsha), folios 222.a–222.b; and Toh 1002, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, waM), folios 160.a–160.b. English Translation in Lhasey Lotsawa Translations and Publications 2021.
’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi rtsa ba’i rgyud (Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa). Toh 543, Degé Kangyur vol. 88 (rgyud, na), folios 105.a–351.a. English Translation in Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2020.
seng+ge sgras dam bcas pa’i gzungs. Toh 912, Degé Kangyur vol. 101 (gzungs, e), folios 242.a7–242.b3.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). chos ’byung (bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i gter mdzod). In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 24 (ya), folios 1.a–212.a/pp. 633–1055. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71.
Sanskrit Sources
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh, ed. Sādhanamālā. 2 vols. First published, Baroda: Central Library, 1925. Reprint, Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1968.
Western Language Sources
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, Toh 543). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Lhasey Lotsawa Translations and Publications, trans. The Dhāraṇī “Tārā’s Own Promise” (Āryatārāsvapratijñānāmadhāraṇī, Toh 730). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.
Glossary
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Attested in other text
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Attested in dictionary
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Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
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Blessed One
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavat
bodhisattva
- byang chub sems dpa’
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- bodhisattva
dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
ever youthful
- gzhon nur gyur pa
- གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ།
- kumārabhūta
five misdeeds with immediate retribution
- mtshams med pa lnga
- མཚམས་མེད་པ་ལྔ།
- pañcānantarya
Gentle Protector
- ’jam pa’i mgon
- འཇམ་པའི་མགོན།
- —
maṇḍala
- dkyil ’khor
- དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།
- maṇḍala
Mañjuśrī
- ’jam dpal
- འཇམ་དཔལ།
- mañjuśrī
śloka
- sha lo ka
- ཤ་ལོ་ཀ
- śloka
tathāgata
- de bzhin gshegs pa
- དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
- tathāgata
Three Jewels
- dkon mchog gsum
- དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།
- ratnatraya
vidyā
- rig pa
- རིག་པ།
- vidyā