Introduction

i.1The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas records an encounter between the Buddha and the four guardians of the world at an unspecified site on the banks of the Ganges River. The Buddha himself initiates the dialogue, describing four great fears‍—aging, sickness, decrepitude, and death‍—declaring death to be the chief among them, and promising to provide remedies for them. With a snap of his fingers, the Buddha summons the attention and presence of buddhas throughout the reaches of space in the ten directions, and they recite, in unison, the longest of the dhāraṇī incantations found in the text. Each of the four guardians, in turn, goes on to pledge his assistance and provides a shorter dhāraṇī mantra as a supplement to the main one. The Buddha succinctly describes the various applications and benefits of the recitation, reading, writing, and wearing of these mantras, accruing not only to the individual, but to the very place in which they are recited and to those with whom they are connected. Finally, he explains how such practices fit in with commonly accepted ideas of accumulating merit through acts of devotion.

i.2The original Sanskrit text for The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas has not been located, but a Chinese translation does exist (Taishō 1346). The Chinese text lists the translator as Devendraprajñā, whose exact dates are uncertain, but who was active in China as a translator under Tang dynasty patronage by the last decade of the seventh century. The Chinese version is quite close to the Tibetan (although it has a different title), but it does contain a number of differences and additional lines or fragments, as well as a short section at the end, not found in the Tibetan versions, describing a ritual procedure for constructing altars and making offerings. In the Degé Kangyur The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas is included among the tantras belonging to the Action (kriyā) class (Toh 513) and it is also reproduced in the Dhāraṇī (gzungs ’dus) section (Toh 856). The attribution in the colophon of the Tibetan version to the translators Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Yeshé Dé puts its translation somewhere around the end of, or shortly after, the reign of King Trisong Detsen, at the turn of the ninth century. Its inclusion in the Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) catalog of the canon, compiled in 812 ᴄᴇ, supports this. Lastly, it should be mentioned that an English translation of this text by Joan Nicell was published online in 2007.

i.3This English translation was produced based on both Toh 513 and Toh 856 in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), the Stok Palace Kangyur, and the Chinese translation (Taishō 1346).