Having looked at the background of Atikūṭa and the Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經» (T 901) in my previous post, I will now look more closely at the relationship between the Tuóluóní jí jīng and the Heart Sutra. John McRae (1988: 107 n.10) noted another occurrence of the Heart Sutra dhāraṇī in the Tuóluóní jí jīng, so we begin with this.
The Dhāraṇī
We begin the dhāraṇī as it occurs in the Heart Sutra, noting some variations between different recensions.
| Sanskrit | gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā |
| Fangshan Xīn jīng | 揭諦揭諦 般羅揭諦 波羅僧揭諦 菩提 莎婆訶 jiēdì jiēdì bānluójiēdì bōluósēngjiēdì pútí shāpóhē |
| Taishō Xīn jīng | 揭帝揭帝 般羅揭帝 般羅僧揭帝 菩提 僧婆訶 jiēdì jiēdì bānluójiēdì bānluósēngjiēdì pútí sēngpóhē |
Clearly, these are all the same text, but the scribes have made minor substitutions. Some inscriptions use dì 諦 and some dì 帝 (with the same pronunciation). Transcriptions of pāra is generally bōluó 波羅, but T251 has bānluó 般羅. (In Buddhist contexts, 般 is often pronounced bo due to an ancient error). The transcription of svāhā varies considerably in the witnesses, but the earlier versions have two characters shāhē 莎訶. The transcriptions with three characters represent svā as 莎婆 (or similar).
For svāhā, the Taishō print edition of T 251 has sēng pó hē 僧婆訶. This is clearly a mistake for shāpóhē 莎婆訶, which is what most Buddhists chant. The online CBETA version of the Taishō edition has recently been emended T251 to read 莎婆訶. See also my blog post Svāhā in The Heart Sutra Dhāraṇī (05 July 2019)
Other Dhāraṇī
Amidst his research on the Heart Sutra, Fukui Fumimasa observed that two similar dhāraṇīs occur in other texts (see Nattier 1992: 211 n.52, 53) and as noted John McRae identified another example. The three texts are:
- Dà fāngděng wúxiǎng jīng «大方等無想經» Mahāmegha-sūtra (T 387)
- Dōngfāng zuìshèng dēng wáng tuóluóní jīng «東方最勝燈王陀羅尼經» Agrapradīpadhāraṇīvidyārāja (T 1353)
- Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經» Dhāraṇīsamuccaya (T 901).
The Mahāmegha Sūtra and a commentary translated by Bodhiruchi are also associated with Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 (r. 690–705 CE) and propaganda supporting her claim to lead the Chinese Empire.
There are several other translations of the Agrapradīpa (see DDB): T 1029, 1351, 1352, 1353, 1354, and 1355.
I give a tentative Sanskrit back-translation for each dhāraṇī but it's not entirely clear how these would have looked/sounded.
Mahāmegha-sūtra
竭帝 波利竭帝 僧竭帝 波羅僧竭帝波羅卑羅延坻 三波羅卑羅延坻 婆羅婆羅 波沙羅 波娑羅 摩文闍 摩文闍 遮羅帝 遮羅坻 波遮羅坻波遮羅坻 三波羅遮羅坻比提嘻利嘻梨 薩隷醯 薩隷醯 富嚧富嚧 莎呵 (T 387 12.1084c7-12)
gate gate pāragate saṃgate pārasaṃgate parābhirayaṇi parābhirayaṇi vara vara bhāṣvara bhāṣvara mahāvajra mahāvajra cārati cārati cāriṇi cāriṇi paracāriṇi paracāriṇi triparacāriṇi bhṛti hṛti hṛti śraddhe śraddhe phuru phuru svāhā
There seems to be no counterpart of this dhāraṇī in the Tibetan translation from the 9th century (see The Great Cloud, comparing this with the Chinese, I expect the dharaṇī to occur after paragraph 1.165). A sanskrit text of the Mahāmeghasūtra exists (Ye 2023) but the text has not been published.
Agrapradīpadhāraṇīvidyārāja
阿竭帝 波羅竭帝 波羅僧竭帝 婆羅毘羅延帝 波羅波羅 摩牟闍摩牟闍羅帝 三波羅闍羅帝 毘提提希希尼尼 憂句隷牟句頭帝 檀那竭帝 檀那羅帝 檀那僧多羅 伊波呵大要縛鬼(一縛鬼二香爐)婆利摩訶婆利闍梨摩訶闍梨 塸牟訶沙 婆帝摩訶沙婆帝 阿波吒僧金吒 陀羅尼 多陀呵 阿伽闍 尼婆毘薩婆達摩尼婆毘 伊舍摩陀 毘婆舍那 毘摩羅 修鉢離達摩尼佉那婆樓尼 文夜多 摩隷遮隷睺樓睺樓 朔鞞帝 曼多羅曼多羅 娑呵 (T 1353 21.867c12-c22)Note that the other (putative) translations of the Agrapradīpa don't seem to include a comparable dhāraṇī. Indeed, they each seem to have a completely different set of dhāranī. However, they are all transcribed by different translators and there is no system to transcribing dhāraṇī, so it can be hard to tell.
agate pāragate parasaṃgate pārasaṃgate parābhirayaṇe parābhirayaṇe vara vara mamūja mamūja carate carate triparājate bhṛti bhṛti hṛdi hṛdi yukule mukule turite turite dānagate dānarate dānasaṃdāra epaha mahāya vāku vāku pari mahāpari jari mahājari pūrṇamahāśa vade mahāśa vade abhaṭasaṃkīrṇa dhāraṇi tāṭaha agāja nibhavisa pradam nibhavisa iṣamāta vipāśyana vimala śubhalitā dhāraṇikā navarūṇi vaṇyata maṇicara hulu hulu śabindi maṇḍala maṇḍala svāhā
Dhāraṇīsamuccaya
揭帝揭帝 波羅揭帝 波囉僧揭帝 菩提 莎訶 (T 901; 18.807b20)
jiēdì jiēdì bōluójiēdì bōluōsēngjiēdì pútí shāhē
As the Tuóluóní jí jīng itself shows, there seem to have been many dhāranī associated with Prajñāpāramitā. However, while there is some crossover, the first two dhāraṇī are clearly not the same dhāraṇī as in the Heart Sutra, and the third one is nearly identical.
So, with these other potential sources ruled out, we are left with the dhāraṇī in the Heart Sutra and the one in the Tuóluóní jí jīng. And it seems very likely that one copied from the other. Moreover, the Heart Sutra largely consists of copied passages, so we suspect from the outset that the dhāraṇī there was also copied.
A Digression on Heart Sutra and Mahāmegha Sūtra
Yang Zhaohua (2023: 7) proposes "that it was the rainmaking dhāraṇī in the [Dayun jing «大雲經»] that provided the direct inspiration for and exerted a greater impact on the Heart Sūtra mantra." This seems to be an obviously false conjecture. The false identity is facilitated by Yang only citing the parts that appear to overlap, and ignoring the ~80% or so of the dhāraṇī in the Mahāmegha Sūtra that has no counterpart in the much shorter Heart Sutra dhāraṇī. Where is the evidence that Chinese Buddhists abbreviated dhāraṇī?
The dhāraṇī from the Mahāmedgha is popularly known as the Jiàngyǔ tuóluóní 降雨陀羅尼 “Rainmaking Dhāraṇī”. Yang (2003: 7) notes "The dhāraṇī from the Great Cloud Sūtra circulated independently in China afterward" and cites the example of T. 1336, 21.609a25-b19 (corresponding to Dayun jing T. 387, 12.1084c4-26). However, Yang makes a huge, unjustified leap from these two dhāraṇī being vaguely similar, to them being the same, e.g.
Thus, we see the rainmaking function of the dhāraṇī from the Great Cloud Sūtra being transferred to the Jiedi Mantra of the Heart Sūtra and utilized to subdue snakes and dragons.
To my knowledge, we don't see this at all. The Heart Sutra "mantra" [not a mantra] is not generally associated with "rainmaking" or "water transference". Yang's discussion of Woncheuk's comments on the dhāraṇī in terms of the "crossing to the further shore" is simply not credible. Yang concludes (2023: 10):
Through a series of ingenious East Asian exegeses, the Jiedi Mantra is imputed with not only soteriological significance but also a metaphorical aquatic setting.
and
The association of the Jiedi Mantra with water and nāgas, I thus argue, is not solely the result of external transference from a rainmaking dhāraṇī in the Great Cloud Sūtra. Rather, the hermeneutic tradition, which interprets the soteriological metaphor of crossing within the mantra, has also provided a fertile ground for making this transference plausible.
I have no idea what Yang is talking about. No such facts have been established in his article and his conclusion is manifestly contradicted by all of the ancient commentaries I've encountered. Notably, as far as I can see, no traditional commentary uses the phrase jiàngyǔ 降雨 "rain making". In fact, in the whole of Vol 8 of Taishō (which contains all the Prajñāpāramitā translations except Xuanzang's) only one text uses this phrase, i.e. Fó shuō zuìshàng gēnběn dàlè jīngāng bùkōng sānmèi dàjiào wáng jīng «佛說最上根本大樂金剛不空三昧大教王經» (T 244)
「若欲降雨者，當往龍潭中持誦。(T 244 8.789b03)
If you wish to cause rain, you should go to the dragon pool and recite this.
The text is surrounded by a whole series of statements beginning Ruò yù 若欲 "If you want..." and it's not easy to see what chí sòng 持誦" "recite this" refers to. A little later we find
若求十方諸佛如來作忻樂愛敬者，當結金剛箭印持誦心明。(8.788b24-25)
If you seek the joy, love, and reverence of the Tathāgatas of the ten directions, you should form the Vajra Arrow Mudra (jīngāng jiàn yìn 金剛箭印) and recite the heart vidyā.
In this case, the heart vidyā (心明) appears at the end of the long list of applications. And it is simply 阿(引), ie. the long vowel sound ā (T 244 8.789c03).
The Heart Sutra dhāraṇī is not associated with "water and nāgas" by any commentator other than Yang. Moreover, the dhāraṇī in the Mahāmegha-sūtra (T 387), while similar in some respects, is very obviously not the same dhāraṇī as the Heart Sutra.
Curiously, Yang cites McRae (1988), which identifies the Tuóluóní jí jīng dhāraṇī as related, but he overlooks this important fact. Yang is also aware of Fukui and Nattier citing Mahāmegha and Agrapradīpa as other possible sources (he cites them in note 15), but he still focuses solely on the Mahāmegha.
For a more sober account of the use of the Mahāmegha dhāraṇī in rain-making see Schmithausen (1997: 58-63). For a deep dive into how Wu Zetian used the Mahāmegha Sūtra and a commentary authored in China to bolster her claim to rule China see Forte (1976).
Copying
Rather than try to lump them all together, which involves ignoring the manifest differences, we have to see these three dhāraṇī as related but distinct incantations. Notably, the Mahāmegha Sūtra is definitely not a Prajñāpāramitā text or a Tantric text, while the dhārāṇī in the Tuóluóní jí jīng is associated with Prajñāpāramitā and Tantric healing rituals.
To date, I have assumed that the direction of copying was from the Tuóluóní jí jīng to the Heart Sutra. It recently became clear that this was not quite good enough and that there might be reason to think it went the other way. However, in digging into this issue, I found some information that clarifies the situation. This involved reading the whole Prajñāpāramitā section of the Tuóluóní jí jīng (a tentative translation follows below after the main post)
In Tuóluóní jí jīng, the Prajñāpāramitā section contains several dhāraṇī accompanied by instructions on how to use them in tantric healing rituals. On the subject of tantric healing rituals and magic generally, I highly recommend Glucklich's (1997) account of his fieldwork amongst modern tantric healers in Varanasi. I've cited his definition of magic many times:
"Magic is based on a unique type of consciousness: the awareness of the interrelatedness of all things in the world by means of simple but refined sense perception... magical actions... constitute a direct, ritual way of restoring the experience of relatedness in cases where that experience has been broken by disease, drought, war, or any number of other events." (1997: 12)
There is a superficial resemblance between the title Bānrě bōluómìduō xīn jīng 般若波羅蜜多心經 and the name of one of the Prajñāpāramitā dhāraṇī: Bānrě dà xīn tuóluóní 般若大心陀羅尼. However, the phrases dà xīn tuóluóní 大心陀羅尼 and dà xīn zhòu 大心呪 are used frequently in Tuóluóní jí jīng and are generic in that seeing. For example, Capitanio (2017: 317) notes
The method of Kuṇḍalī Vajra for treating illnesses utilizes the great heart-mantra, the medium heart-mantra, and the lesser heart-mantra.
The great heart-mantra is: oṃ huru huru tiṣṭha tiṣtha bandha bandha hana hana amṛṭa hūṃ phaṭ
The medium heart-mantra is: oṃ dūna dūna hana hana hūṃ phaṭ
The lesser heart-mantra is: oṃ amṛṭa hūṃ phaṭ
The phrase dà xīn zhòu 大心呪 is used 41 times in the text, and xiǎo xīn zhòu 小心呪 21 times. This tells us that terms such as Prajñā-mahāhṛdaya-dhāraṇī (般若大心陀羅尼) and Prajñā-cūlahṛdaya-dhāraṇī-vidyā (般若小心陀羅尼呪), are not references to the Xīn jīng 心經. 大心呪 is a generic phrase in the Tuóluóní jí jīng. That said, the dà xīn zhòu 大心呪 in the Prajñāpāramitā section is precisely the dhāraṇī also found in the Heart Sutra.
That said, Tuóluóní jí jīng definitely refers to the incantation as a tuóluóní 陀羅尼 "dhāraṇī" and not a "mantra". This confirms my hypothesis that the incantation in the Heart Sutra is a dhāraṇī and not a mantra. That said, amongst Tantrikas this distinction may not have held, or at least might already have been breaking down by this time. The word tuóluóní 陀羅尼 is not found in the Heart Sutra.
Context
The final extended passage of the Prajñāpāramitā section of the Tuóluóní jí jīng gives instructions for the tantric rituals in which the various Prajñāpāramitā dhāraṇī can be used for healing. In those instructions, there is a call back to the dà xīn zhòu 大心呪, which here is a reference to the gate gate dhāraṇī. I take this to mean that the dhāraṇī is embedded in this context, and intrinsic to this passage. The Prajñāpāramitā section seems to hang together as a series of connected passages, that seem likely to have come from a single source that is no longer extant.
As we saw in the previous post, the anonymous preface of the Tuóluóní jí jīng suggests that it is an abbreviated version of a text called the *Vajramahābodhimaṇḍa Dhāraṇī Sūtra. Although this text is no longer extant, we have reason to believe it once existed because another extract is recorded as having been translated a century earlier. And, unfortunately, this does not seem to be related to the Jīngāngcháng tuóluóní jīng «金剛場陀羅尼經» *Vajramaṇḍadhāraṇī (T 1344, 1345).
The Kāiyuán lù (T 2154) also suggests that the translation of the Sanskrit and the final compilation of the Chinese texts of Tuóluóní jí jīng happened 40 years apart. So it may be true that the text is extracted from a single Sanskrit source, and it may also be true that the text was later redacted in Chinese, a process which may have included adding material from other sources.
For example, this may explain why we apparently see Tuóluóní jí jīng quoting a passage from Xuanzang's translation of the Adhyardhaśatikā prajñāpāramitā (150-line text), i.e.
如是神呪是諸佛母，能誦持者一切罪滅，常見諸佛，得宿命智，速證無上正等菩提。(T 901 18.807b7-8)
如是神呪是諸佛母，能誦持者一切罪滅，常見諸佛得宿住智，疾證無上正等菩提。 (T 220: 7.991a06)
Since T 220 was not completed until 28 November 663, this passage could not have been included in the original translation of Tuóluóní jí jīng from Sanskrit completed on 6 May 654. Rather, it had to have been added later in Chinese, presumably around the time the text was compiled and published on 5 December 695.
The translation of Adhyardhaśatikā by Xuanzang was the first in Chinese. Neither the extant Sanskrit manuscripts nor any of the subsequent Chinese translations include this passage.
The Heart Sutra Dhāraṇī
In Attwood (2017) I explored observations by Yamabe Nobuyoshi and Jan Nattier, who noted that the epithets passage was very different in Sanskrit and that the versions of this passage in Hṛd and Pañc are very different.
Hṛd: tasmāj jñātavyam prajñāpāramitā mahāmantro mahāvidyāmantro ‘nuttaramantro ‘samasamamantraḥ
Pañc: mahavidyeyaṃ bhagavan yaduta prajñāpāramitā / anuttareyaṃ bhagavan vidyā yaduta prajñāpāramitā asamasameyaṃ bhagavan vidyā yaduta prajñāpāramitā.
Xīn jīng: 故知般若波羅蜜多 是大神咒 大明咒 無上咒 無等等咒
Dàjīng: 般若波羅蜜 是大明呪 無上明呪 無等等明呪。 (T 223 8.286b28–c7)
From this, some things become clearer. Contrary to popular opinion, this passage does not reference the dhāraṇī in the Heart Sutra. The original passage praises Prajñāpāramitā as a superlative kind of vidyā,. Thus mantra is a mistranslation from Chinese zhòu 咒/呪 which is itself a modification of Kumārajīva's míng zhòu 明呪 vidyā (note that 咒 and 呪 are the same character written to different ways).
The upshot of this is that the dhāraṇī in the Heart Sutra is, contrary to popular opinion, not logically connected to the rest of the text, not embedded in the text, nor intrinsic to it. It's a standalone feature.
Dating the Heart Sutra.
When we put it all together, this means that the Heart Sutra dhāraṇī is presented in what seems to be a natural context in the Tuóluóní jí jīng while it is adventitious to the Heart Sutra. This tells us that the Heart Sutra dhāraṇī was copied from the Tuóluóní jí jīng.
Dating is tricky here because the Tuóluóní jí jīng was translated into Chinese on 6 May 654 CE from a Sanskrit text named something like *Vajra-mahā-bodhimaṇḍa-dhāraṇī, based on back-translating Jīngāng dàdàochǎng jīng «金剛大道場經». The text was not compiled and published until 5 December 695 CE. In the interim, the text was redacted (in Chinese) by some unknown person(s), to produce the received text.
The redacted text includes an interpolated quotation from Xuanzang's Chinese translation of the Adhyardhaśatikā dated 28 November 663 but is otherwise of a piece. Neither the Indic source nor Atikūṭa's original Chinese translation survive.
This all suggests that the redacted text of the Tuóluóní jí jīng in the Taishō should be dated to 695 CE rather than 654 CE.
All is not lost, however. Jeffrey Kotyk (2019) has noted that the earliest reliably dated mention of the Heart Sutra is in a letter from Xuanzang to Emperor Gāozōng 高宗 dated 25 December 656. The Heart Sutra had to exist by this date. This is what scholars call a terminus ante quem. Having this data point simplifies things a little since the Heart Sutra did copy from the Tuóluóní jí jīng, it seems to have copied from an earlier version than the one in the Taishō, likely from Atikūṭa's original Chinese translation (6 May 654). This gives us the earliest date at which the Heart Sutra could have existed, the terminus post quem.
With these observations, we can now confidently state that the Heart Sutra was composed between 6 May 654 and 25 December 656 CE.
~~oOo~~
Bibliography
Capitanio, Josh. (2017). "‘The Ritual Altar of Kuṇḍalī Vajra for Treating Illnesses’ from the Collected Dhāraṇī Sūtras." In: P. Salguero (ed.), Buddhism and Medicine - An Anthology of Premodern Sources, New York: Columbia University Press, 2017, pp. 314-321.
Davidson, R.M. (2012) “Some Observations on an Uṣṇīṣa Abhiṣeka Rite in Atikūṭa’s Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha,” in I. Keul, ed., Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond, Berlin, 2012, 77–97.
Forte, Antonino. (1976) Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century: Inquiry into the Nature, Authors and Function of the Dunhuang Document S.6502, Followed by an Annotated Translation. Napoli: Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale. [there is a 2nd edition, 2005]
Giebel, Rolf W. (2015) "Tantric Ritual Manuals in East Asia". Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism.
Glucklich, Ariel. (1997). The End of Magic. New York, Oxford University Press.
Gulik, R.H. van, Hayagrīva: The Mantrayānic Aspect of the Horse-Cult in China and Japan, Leiden, 1935.
Kotyk, Jeffrey. (2019). "Chinese State and Buddhist Historical Sources on Xuanzang: Historicity and the Daci'en si sanzang fashi zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳". T'oung Pao 105(5-6): 513–544. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685322-10556P01
Shinohara, K., Spells, Images, and Maṇḍalas: Tracing the Evolution of Esoteric Buddhist Rituals, New York, 2014.
Schmithausen, Lambert. (1997). Maitrī and Magic: Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude Toward the Dangerous in Nature. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 1997, p. 58–63.
Sørensen, Henrik H. (2020). “Offerings and the Production of Buddhist Scriptures in Dunhuang during the Tenth Century.” Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies 3(1): 70–107.
Strickmann, M. (1996), Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine, Paris, 1996.
Ye Shaoyong (2023a). “Phun tshogs Tshe brtan, Dngos grub Tshe ring: A Preliminary Report on the ‘Burnt Manuscripts’ from Retreng Monastery; Bundle A.” In Śāntamatiḥ: Manuscripts for Life; Essays in Memory of Seishi Karashima, edited by Noriyuki Kudo, 447–65. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University, 2023.
Yang, Zhaohua. (2023). "Snake, Spell, Spirit, and Soteriology: The Birth of an Indian God Jiedi 揭諦 in Middle-Period China (618–1279)". Religions 14(10), 1303; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14101303 [pagination from the pdf version]
~~oOo~~
Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經»
(Prajñāpāramitā Section). T 18.806c26-808a03
NB: The reconstructed dhāraṇī are extremely tentative and unlikely to be accurate, except where the words are very familiar, like the ones in the Heart Sutra dhāraṇī.
Mahāprajñāpāramitā dhāraṇī (14th). The dhāraṇī says:
namo bhagavate (1) mahāprajñāpāramitāyai (2) prajñāpṛṣṭhāyai (3) aparimitāgṛṇāyai (4) sarvatathāgatāya (5) prabhūte codyāyai (6) sarvatathāgatāya (7) nūratta nūratta (8) virajitāyai (9) tadyathā (10) prajña prajña (11) mahāprajña (12) prajñāvasa śrīḥ (13) prajñārūpaka śrīḥ (14) antarjala (15) vidhāmanī (16) siddhi sū siddhi (17) siddhānumāna (18) bhagavate (19) saṃgha gṛha saṃgha (20) bhakti paśu lī (21) prajāśīrṣṭaṣṭi (22) samaya svākṛti (23) baddhi baddhi mudrā mudrā (24) siddhi siddhi (25) kṣema kṣema (26) kāra kāra (27) jala jala (28) āpa āpa (29) agaccha agaccha (30) bhagavate (31) maheśvara (32) svāhā (33)
This is the dà shénzhòu 大神呪 "Great Incantation", found in the Dà bānrě jīng «大般若經», where the Buddha reaffirms it through his mastery of spontaneous manifestation.* The devas proclaim that all Buddhas in the ten directions equally praise and endorse it. Thus, it is named the Dà bānrě zhòu 大般若呪 "Great Prajñā Incantation". The power of this incantation is inconceivable; it can also save beings from the great suffering of birth and death. Such is the divine incantation, spoken and protected in common by the Buddhas of the past, present, and future. Whoever recites and upholds it will have all obstacles eliminated, and all wishes fulfilled, swiftly attaining supreme and perfect enlightenment.
* This dhāraṇī is not found in the extant Dà bānrě jīng or Pañc texts
Prajñāpāramitā Bhadra Dhāraṇī, Fifteenth (also called the Cūla Prajñāpāramitā Vidyā, and also called the Daśadiśāni Sarvatathāgatamāta Vidyā).
At that time, the Tathagata spoke the divine spell again. The spell says:
namo bhagavate. namo mahāprajñāpāramitāyai. tadyathā: maṇidāmi saṅgharaḥdāmi anugarardāmi vimuktidadāmi sādhanugaradāmi vaiśravaṇa āmi samantrapatra-balipradānadāmi kunakarasaṅgharadāmi sarvatrāṇukadāmi sarvagarbha-baliprāṇadāmi samṛddhidāmi āsābalamusaṇadāmi svāhā.
The Buddha said: "This divine spell is the mother of all Buddhas. Those who recite and uphold it will have all their sins eradicated, will always see the Buddhas, attain the wisdom of past lives, and quickly realise supreme and perfect enlightenment."
This passage is a quotation from Xuanzang's translation of the Adhyardhaśatikā prajñāpāramitā (T220 7.991a5-6) which is not found in the extant Sanskrit text].
If any man or woman recites and upholds this spell, seeking wisdom or the eradication of heavy sins, they will gain wisdom, and their heavy sins will be eradicated. The Buddha’s words are sincere and without falsehood.
In the morning, purify the mouth with willow branches, and after rinsing, respectfully and wholeheartedly stand before a Buddha image with hands joined in reverence. Burn various fragrant incense, scatter exquisite flowers, and with utmost sincerity, bow with the right knee on the ground. Recite this spell twenty-one times. Until the fasting period, avoid unnecessary interactions and conversations with others, and go to a quiet and secluded place. In one day, recite five hundred verses. Practising for one, two, or three sets of seven days will always yield results, except when done with utmost sincerity.
If you wish to read and recite all the scriptures, you should first recite this Dhāraṇī, which will grant the power of remembrance and non-forgetfulness. Use the Śamatha mudra and the mudra of the four dhyānas.
Prajñā-mahāhṛdaya-dhāraṇī, 16th: The spell says:
tadyatha: gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā
This is the Mahāhṛdaya Dhāraṇī, used with the Mahāhṛdaya mudrā, which can be universally applied to all altar sites.
Prajñā-cūlahṛdaya-dhāraṇī-vidyā says:
tadyathā: gate gate pārami gate pārayata svāhā
Use the Cūlahṛdaya Dhāraṇī; it can be universally applied to all purposes.
Prajñāhṛdaya-dhāraṇī, 17th: The spell says:
tadyathā: śrīmilya śrīmilya śrī citra svāhā
Using the śamatha mudrā, if one recites with utmost sincerity, one will attain the power of non-forgetfulness and retain all that is heard. Reciting it one hundred thousand times, even up to a million times, will yield results without fail, except when not done with utmost sincerity.
Prajñā-śrutadhāra-asaṃpramoṣa-dhāraṇī, 18th: The spell says:
namo bhagavate prajñāpāramitāyai tadyathā: śrīye śrīye śrīye śrīye śrīyaṣe svāhā
Another Prajñā-cūlahṛdaya-dhāraṇī, 19th. The spell says:
tadyathā: śrīya śrīya śrī citra svāhā
If a spell master (zhòushī 呪師) wishes to cure illness, they should first perform self-protection. After completing this, they should set up a four zhǒu 肘 (~120 to 150 cms) water altar near the sick person. Once the altar is adorned with various fragrant flowers, forty-nine lamps, and assorted food and drink, the master should hold an incense burner in their hand, burn incense, and circumambulate clockwise. They should offer to all the buddhas, bodhisatvas, vajras, deities, and spirits in the ten directions. After completing the offerings, the incense burner should be placed in the centre of the altar, and the master should sit in a cross-legged posture in a clean and suitable place, facing directly east or, alternatively, north.
Next, the master should burn ghee, honey, sesame, rice grains, and fragrant flowers as offerings. Then, they should form the prajñākāya-mudrā and recite the main mahādhāraṇī (qián dà zhòu 前大呪) twenty-one times, contemplating emptiness in the mind, realizing that all phenomena are without characteristics. After that, they should release breath from their mouth, directing it at the body of the sick person, repeating either seven times or twenty-one times for recovery. If the illness does not improve with one session of this practice, it should be performed three times daily for recovery.
The food and offerings on the altar should be replaced daily with fresh items. Any leftovers should be given as offerings, but neither the spell master nor the sick person is allowed to eat them; consuming the leftovers would render the spell ineffective.
If this practice is followed, all rākṣasas, spirits, and gods will rejoice, and the sick person will be relieved of their illness. It is best to give the remaining food to the poor, as this prevents it from being taken by any spirits. Those who practice this spell should have a good memory and not forget.
The altar is four zhǒu 肘 (~120 to 150 cms) in length and width, made with five colours. Starting from the centre, place the colours in the following order: white, yellow, blue, red, and black. This is the standard for all altar rituals. In the centre of the altar, place a lotus seat for Śakyamuṇi Buddha, and on the seat, place the image of the Buddha.
To the east of this seat, place another lotus seat, and on it, place the image of Prajñāpāramitā, holding a sutra in the left hand. In the north of the altar, place another lotus seat, and on it, place the image of Brahma, holding a water vessel* (Tang sources refer to it as a hú píng 胡瓶 "foreign bottle" or shuǐ guàn 水罐 "water jar") in the left hand. In the south, place a lotus seat, and on it, place the image of Indra, holding a vajra in the right hand."
* The word is jūn chí 君遲 which is an alternate form of jūnchí 君持 meaning Sanskrit kuṇḍikā. The note in parentheses is in the Taishō text.
In the centre, place an incense burner and a water vessel, and at each of the four corners, place one incense burner and one water vessel. Each of the five water vessels should be filled with pure water, five kinds of grains, and the seven treasures. Plug the mouths of the vessels with cypress leaves and pear branches, and tie them with three feet of raw silk. Prepare twelve trays of various fruits and delicacies, and set out sixteen lamps.
The spell master should sit at the west gate, facing directly east. To the southeast of the spell master, place a fire brazier. In front of the spell master, place various fragrant flowers, ghee, honey, sesame, rice grains, and other food items in three to five trays, intended for burning as offerings. Once everything is properly arranged, proceed to invite the deities in sequence, making the appropriate mudra and reciting the mantra (zhēnyán 真言 "true words") for each. Then, form the puṣpamudrā (huá 華 "flower") as an offering for each.
After all are seated, perform the grand boundary-setting ritual. Next, distribute coins as offerings according to one's capacity, giving as much as one can afford. Afterwards, perform the ritual offerings of fragrant flowers, burning ghee, honey, sesame, and other items as offerings. Then, the spell master holding a mālā should recite the mahāhṛdaya dhāraṇī (Dà xīn zhòu 大心呪) one thousand and eight times."
~o~