Notes

n.1We can be reasonably confident that Śākyamuni is the primary speaker because, as detailed below, he is explicitly identified in the longer text of the same title from which this dhāraṇī text was extracted.

n.2Toh 508 identifies this dhāraṇī or root mantra as “the dhāraṇī called one hundred thousand ornaments of the essence of awakening, the king of ritual manuals” (rtog pa’i rgyal po byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum zhes bya ba’i gzungs).

n.3The Stem Array (translated 2021).

n.4Butön, rgyud ’bum gyi dkar chag, 382. Khedrub Jé also makes reference to an earlier translation that was no longer extant in Tibet in the fifteenth century (Schopen 2005, pp. 318–19).

n.5Toh 508, folio 28.b. On Gönpo Kyab, see his entry (under the name Gonbujab) at The Treasury of Lives, published July 2020. The Chinese version used by Gönpo Kyab for his Tibetan translation has the title puti chang zhuangyan tuoluoni jing (菩提場莊嚴陀羅尼經, Taishō 1008) and was translated by Amoghavajra in the third quarter of the eighth century.

n.6See Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 190. The Denkarma lists a text called ’phags pa byang chub snying po rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs, as being 250 ślokas in length. The other extant imperial-era catalog, the Phangthangma, also lists a text with a similar title: byang chub kyi snying po ’bum gyi rgyan cho ga dang bcas pa as being 200 ślokas in length.

n.7Pelliot tibétain 555. Neither the Phukdrak nor the Dunhuang version were consulted for this translation.

n.8See Ghosh 1941, pp. 170–74, and Schopen 2005, p. 315. As Ghosh notes, the original location of the inscription is unknown.

n.9The other four dhāraṇīs in the set are The Uṣṇīṣavijāyā Dhāraṇī , The Dhāraṇī of Vimaloṣṇīṣa , The Dhāraṇī for Secret Relics , and the “essence of dependent arising” (rten ’brel snying po) the frequently cited formula that begins oṁ ye dharma…

n.10Schopen 2005, pp. 322–26.

n.11Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 920 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 920, n.­11, for details.

n.12Two sets of folio references have been included in this translation due to a discrepancy in volume 88 (rgyud ’bum, na) of the Degé Kangyur between the 1737 par phud printings and the late (post par phud) printings. In the latter case, an extra work, Bodhi­maṇḍasyālaṃkāra­lakṣa­dhāraṇī (byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs, Toh 508), was added as the second text in the volume, thereby displacing the pagination of all the following texts in the same volume by 17 folios. Since the eKangyur follows the later printing, both references have been provided, with the highlighted one linking to the eKangyur viewer.

n.13Toh 509 rtsa ba’i sngags; Toh 920 mU la ma+ntraM.

n.14Toh 509 snying po; Toh 920 hri da yaM.

n.15This could be translated as “ oṁ, beheld by all tathāgatas, victory, victory, svāhā .”

n.16Toh 509 nye ba’i snying; Toh 920 u pa hri da yaM.

n.17This could be translated as, “ oṁ, hulu hulu, Face of Victory, svāhā .”

n.18This could be translated as “ oṁ, adamantine life, svāhā .”

n.19The remainder of this text is found verbatim in Toh 508.

n.20This translation follows the Lhasa, Narthang, and Stok Kangyurs in reading ’di la nyan. The Degé reads ’di las nyan.