Introduction

i.1The Vaiḍūryaprabha Dhāraṇī is the third and final complete work within the cycle of texts in the Kangyur that are directly related to the tradition of the medicine buddha Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha­rāja and the group of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones of which he is a member. The teaching was given by the Buddha Śākyamuni and the Seven Thus-Gone Ones in a medicine hall (sman gyi gnas) at the request of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta.

i.2The prescribed practice consists in reciting a series of homages along with the dhāraṇī itself. The homage is to the Seven Thus-Gone Ones as well as to Śākyamuni, the goddess Prajñāpāramitā, and a number of bodhisattvas and divine lay practitioners such as Brahmā and Śakra. Also included in the homage are the twelve yakṣa generals who are formally bound to Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha, as described in The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones and The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajya­guru­vaiḍūrya­prabha.

i.3The text begins with Śākyamuni entering into an absorption that draws in the Seven Thus-Gone Ones so that they are present before his assembly. After Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta requests a dhāraṇī from them, Śākyamuni utters the homage and then the Seven Thus-Gone Ones recite the dhāraṇī itself in unison. The entire assembly then makes offerings to the Seven Thus-Gone Ones and circumambulates them. The Seven Thus-Gone Ones then disappear, and the text concludes with the Buddha Śākyamuni’s instructions for performing a purification ritual using The Vaiḍūryaprabha Dhāraṇī.

i.4There is no known Sanskrit or Chinese witness for this text. The colophon to the Tibetan translation notes that it was first translated during the Tibetan imperial period by the Indian scholars Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Śīlendrabodhi together with the Tibetan translator Bandé Yeshé Dé, but there is no record of this translation in either of the Tibetan imperial catalogs of translated works. The colophon also tells us that this early translation was updated and finalized in the mid-eleventh century by Atīśa Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna and Tsültrim Gyalwa at Tholing Serkang in Western Tibet.

i.5This translation is based on the Tibetan translation in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) of the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok Palace Kangyur. The dhāraṇī cited in the text is rendered as it appears in the Degé version of the Tibetan translation, with only minor emendations made for clarity.