Introduction

i.1The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence belongs to the Buddhist genre called dhāraṇī or “incantation” (Tib. gzungs). In the Degé Kangyur most works of this class, usually short Mahāyāna sūtras or tantric texts, are found in the corresponding General Sūtra or Action Tantra sections, but are also duplicated in their own Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section of two hundred and sixty-four texts (Tohoku nos. 846–1108). The present scripture, however, is included only in the General Sūtra section and is one of the few such sūtras that, despite having the term dhāraṇī in their titles, are not duplicated in the compendium. This particular text is not a dhāraṇī in the sense in which that term is applied to a large number of scriptures containing a specific mantra-like formula recited in order to bring about a desired result. It contains no such formula at all, but rather presents a series of specific dhāraṇī that constitute spiritual qualities or forms of spiritual realization. First and foremost among these is the dhāraṇī of the vajra quintessence, which is presented as the ultimate mode of being or state of realization that eludes all conceptual appropriation while at the same time being immanent in all things.

i.2The basic meaning of the Sanskrit dhāraṇa is to “hold,” “uphold,” or “maintain,” and by extension the term is frequently used in reference to memory and learning. In the context of the present work, the terms dhāraṇī or dhāraṇī gates (dhāraṇīmukha) refer at once to teachings that are retained, the avenues for putting them into practice, and the spiritual realizations that are thereby attained in a manner parallel to the way meditative absorption (samādhi) or samādhi gates (samādhimukha) are presented in many other Mahāyāna sūtras.

i.3The sūtra opens in the town of Viśvā near the Himalayan mountains, where a large gathering of monks, gods, and celestial bodhisattvas have assembled to receive teachings from the Buddha. The Buddha’s main interlocutor throughout the teaching is the bodhisattva of wisdom, Mañjuśrī. The central discourse of the text is preceded by several miracles, great and small. First, the Buddha enters a special meditative state that renders him invisible to his audience. He then summons all the followers of the Mahāyāna in the universe and they miraculously assemble in the sky. At this point, the great bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī, Maitreya, Ratnaketu, and Avalokiteśvara each enter special meditative absorptions that evoke miraculous changes in the minds of their audience. Finally, the Buddha emits a vast array of multicolored light rays and proceeds to smile, with brilliant light rays emanating from his mouth. When asked by Mañjuśrī what has pleased him, the Buddha says that he is smiling because ten thousand buddhas in the sky have taught the dhāraṇī of the vajra quintessence. Mañjuśrī then requests the Buddha to teach that same dhāraṇī to all the assembled bodhisattvas, and the remainder of the text consists of the Buddha’s teaching and his intermittent replies to Mañjuśrī’s many questions on important doctrinal points.

i.4From the outset, the teaching is strikingly enigmatic. The Buddha begins by warning his audience, in a paradoxical tone that defines the entire discourse, that although there is neither awakening nor buddha qualities in this dhāraṇī‍—understood here as both a type of discourse and a type of nondual realization‍—bodhisattvas nonetheless strive for buddhahood. There follows a lengthy series of similar paradoxes, which call into question basic Buddhist distinctions between the “worlds” of buddhas and sentient beings. One key doctrinal point in all this is that the qualities of ordinary people are neither distinct from, nor to be conflated with, the qualities of buddhas. When asked why this is so, the Buddha explains that the dhāraṇī of the vajra quintessence is nonconceptual and immanent in all things, from emotional defilements up to the realization of buddhahood. Moreover, since all phenomena are equally empty of any intrinsic essence, they are all already intrinsically pure and beyond bondage or liberation.

i.5Next follows the first of three major sections of the sūtra, a teaching on the three bases of the dhāraṇī , which turn out to be the three main defilements of desire, anger, and confusion. Although these emotional defilements are traditionally regarded as pollutants to be avoided, the Buddha explains that they do not actually exist so there is nothing that becomes polluted, and therefore nothing to purify. Since they are intrinsically empty, they are considered bases of the dhāraṇī or the ultimate reality that is immanent in all of them.

i.6The second major section of the sūtra is a teaching on a series of eleven Dharma gates that are also bases of the dhāraṇī, with each gate relating to a different class of sentient being. They comprise the Dharma gates for gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas, as well as for a woman, for a man, and for hell beings.

i.7Each of these modes of being constitutes a Dharma or dhāraṇī gate because they are all nominal imputations having no actual existence, and can thus facilitate the understanding of emptiness. In short, for a bodhisattva who possesses this sort of dhāraṇī, a single syllable not only has multiple possible references but can also open on to multiple forms of reality. In that regard, all phenomena partake of this dhāraṇī and can thus become avenues for both expressing and realizing the ultimate.

i.8The final main section of the sūtra expounds another set of eleven dhāraṇī gates. After learning about a special gate of nonduality, we learn that one of the main gates of nonduality is the teaching that ignorance is awakening. The teaching then proceeds to elucidate how each of the successive twelve links of dependent origination (apart from the final link, which is omitted) is equated with awakening. Although the idea of nonduality only appears in this final section of the text, it is a key to understanding the overall thrust of the Buddha’s discourse. For when it is understood that all phenomena are equally empty and naturally luminous, the various conceptual constructs and oppositional categories we use to evaluate and distinguish the real from unreal, the good from the bad, the high from the low, collapse and their unfabricated source is revealed. The teaching concludes with a remarkable passage in which the Buddha explains to Mañjuśrī the bodhisattva level for which this teaching is intended: it is intended for “the level of those bodhisattvas who have not set out toward awakening, who have not produced the intention to gain awakening, who do not see buddha qualities, who do not wish to run away from desire, anger, and confusion, who do not wish to go beyond saṃsāra, who do not wish to liberate sentient beings, and who do not wish to realize the buddha qualities.” The work then concludes with a description of the many benefits that derive from bearing this dhāraṇī in mind, holding, reciting, and teaching this text and of the praises of the teaching offered by the assembled audience.

i.9To our knowledge, there is no extant Sanskrit manuscript of The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence. Two major Chinese translations of this text were completed, first by Buddhaśānta either in the year 525 ᴄᴇ or the period between 525–529 ᴄᴇ, and the second by Jñānagupta in 587 ᴄᴇ. The Tibetan translators’ colophon states that the translation was made by the chief translator Bandé Yeshé Dé with the help of the Indian scholar Śīlendrabodhi, both of whom were active in the late eight to early ninth centuries ᴄᴇ. The text is recorded in the Denkarma and Phangthangma inventories of Tibetan imperial translations and appears to have been translated into Tibetan no later than the early ninth century ᴄᴇ. A fragmentary version of this text is also included in the collections of texts recovered from the Dunhuang caves of Central Asia. Although The Dhāraṇī of the Vajra Quintessence is not cited in Indian Buddhist texts, it is quoted by a few Tibetan scholars. This English translation was prepared based on the Tibetan translation found in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace Kangyurs.