Introduction
i.1The Twelve Buddhas opens in Rājagṛha, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is accompanied by a large gathering of monks and bodhisattvas. The Buddha begins with a description of the eastern buddhafield Full of Pearls, where there resides a buddha whose long name could be abbreviated as King of Jewels. After King of Jewels is identified to Maitreya and the assembly, the Buddha Śākyamuni explains that whoever remembers this buddha’s name will renounce cyclic existence. We are told that King of Jewels has prophesied that once he attains parinirvāṇa and his teachings have faded from the world, the bodhisattva Incomparable will succeed him as a buddha whose name (in abbreviated form) is Victory Banner King. The Buddha Śākyamuni then names the buddhas who will populate the buddhafields surrounding that of Victory Banner King in the ten directions, instructs the audience to remember their names and prostrate to them, and outlines the form of a sixfold service for their worship. He describes the benefits that accrue from reciting the names of these twelve buddhas, and then teaches a verse aspiration and a dhāraṇī to be recited in order to attain the results of the practice. The text ends with a set of thirty-seven verses describing the benefits of bearing the names of the twelve buddhas in mind.
i.1《十二佛》在王舍城開始，釋迦牟尼佛被眾多僧侶和菩薩簇擁著。佛陀首先描述了東方的珠飾佛土，那裡住著一位佛陀，其長名字可以簡稱為寶王。在寶王被介紹給彌勒和大眾後，釋迦牟尼佛解釋說，無論誰憶念這位佛陀的名號，都將遠離輪迴。我們被告知，寶王已經預言，一旦他進入般涅槃，他的教法在世間消亡後，菩薩無比將成為他的繼承者，成為一位佛陀，其名號（簡稱形式）為勝幢王。釋迦牟尼佛隨後命名了將居住在勝幢王佛土周圍十方佛土中的佛陀，指示聽眾憶念他們的名號並向他們禮拜，並概述了六重法行的禮敬形式。他描述了誦念這十二位佛陀名號所獲得的利益，然後傳授了韻文願文和陀羅尼，以便在修習中獲得成果。文本最後以三十七首韻文結束，描述了銘記這十二位佛陀名號心中所獲得的利益。
i.2There are no available Sanskrit versions of this text. The first Chinese translation of this text was completed by Jñānagupta in 587 ᴄᴇ (Taishō 1348) and the second was produced by Yijing in 711 ᴄᴇ (Taishō 1349). The translator’s colophon to the Tibetan translation tells us that The Twelve Buddhas was translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla along with the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé (c. eighth century). The text is listed as a sūtra in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma royal Tibetan catalogues of translated works, which tells us that the Tibetan translation was completed prior to the compilation and publication of the Denkarma catalogue in 812 ᴄᴇ.
i.2目前沒有現存的梵文版本。這部經典的第一個漢譯版本由闍那笈多在西元五八七年完成（大正一三四八），第二個漢譯版本由義淨在西元七一一年製作（大正一三四九）。藏文翻譯的譯者跋文告訴我們，《十二佛經》是由印度的戒師吉那蜜多和大那尸羅與藏族譯者耶謝德（約八世紀）合作翻譯的。該經典在藏王頒布的《丹噶瑪》和《帕唐瑪》藏文譯著目錄中都被列為經典，這表明藏文翻譯是在西元八一二年《丹噶瑪》目錄編纂和出版之前完成的。
i.3This translation was completed in consultation with the versions of the text from the General Sūtra Section (mdo sde), the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum), and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) of the Degé Kangyur in conjunction with the text as it appears in the Stok Palace Kangyur and the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma). The only notable variant between these versions of the text is that the witnesses in the General Sūtra Section of the Degé and in the Stok Palace Kangyur refer to the bodhisattva prophesied to become the next buddha presiding over the buddhafield Full of Pearls by the name Stainless (dri med) instead of the more common name Incomparable (’dra ba med). The dhāraṇī in this text is rendered in Sanskrit transliteration based on the Degé, with significant variants noted. A tentative English translation of the dhāraṇī is also provided in a note.
i.3本翻譯是在參考德格版《丹珠爾》的總經部（mdo sde）、密續部（rgyud 'bum）和陀羅尼彙編（gzungs 'dus），以及斯托克宮版《丹珠爾》和對勘版（dpe bsdur ma）的基礎上完成的。這些版本之間唯一值得注意的差異是，德格版總經部和斯托克宮版《丹珠爾》中的文獻將預言成為下一位主持珠飾佛土的如來的菩薩稱為「無垢」（dri med），而不是較為常見的「無比」（'dra ba med）。本經文中的陀羅尼是根據德格版用梵文音譯呈現的，並標注了重要異文。在註釋中也提供了陀羅尼的初步英文翻譯。