Introduction
i.1The Dhāraṇī of the Essence of Śākyamuni is a very brief dhāraṇī contained in the Degé Kangyur in both the Tantra section and in the Dhāraṇī section. Within the Tantra section, it is classed as an Action tantra (bya rgyud, kriyātantra).
i.1《釋迦牟尼心要陀羅尼》是一部篇幅很短的陀羅尼，收錄在德格甘珠爾中，同時出現在密續部分和陀羅尼部分。在密續部分中，它被歸類為事部密續。
i.2The dhāraṇī has no narrative frame or interlocutors and starts with a formulaic homage to the Buddha Śākyamuni. Immediately after that, the dhāraṇī mantra that invokes the Buddha is presented. The dhāraṇī concludes with the marvelous benefit that can be expected when one recites Śākyamuni’s dhāraṇī mantra only once: all the negative actions that one has accrued during eighty million kalpas will be completely purified.
i.2這個陀羅尼沒有敘述框架或對話者，開始於對佛釋迦牟尼的程式化禮敬。緊接著，呈現了祈請佛陀的陀羅尼咒。陀羅尼以殊勝的利益作為結尾，說明誦持釋迦牟尼陀羅尼咒僅一次就能獲得的果報：一個人在八千萬劫期間所積累的一切惡業都將完全清淨。
i.3The Dhāraṇī of the Essence of Śākyamuni has no Sanskrit title, no translators’ colophon, and we do not know who translated it or when. To our knowledge, no Sanskrit text of this dhāṛaṇī is extant and it does not appear to have been translated into Chinese. The catalogs of the early imperial translations, the Denkarma and the Phangthangma, do not list it. The short title is mentioned in the catalog of translated works in the Kangyur that is included in Butön’s monumental fourteenth-century History of Buddhism. Richard O. Meisezahl records an interesting variant of the dhāraṇī in a catalog of Tibetan manuscripts and prints kept in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. Here, the dhāraṇī of Śākyamuni is clearly comprised of the homage (in transcribed Sanskrit) and the essence mantra, while in the Degé version of The Dhāraṇī of the Essence of Śākyamuni, the homage is translated into Tibetan and appears separate from the essence mantra. The version in the Linden Museum reads as follows: na maḥ śākya mu na ye ta thā ga tā ya| arha te samyaksaṃ buddhā ya| tadya thā| mu ni mu ni ma hā mu ni ye sbā hā.
i.3《釋迦牟尼心要陀羅尼》沒有梵文標題，也沒有譯者的後記，我們不知道是誰翻譯它或何時翻譯。據我們所知，這個陀羅尼沒有現存的梵文本，似乎也沒有被譯成中文。早期皇帝翻譯的目錄，即丹噶瑪和朋唐瑪，都沒有列出它。短標題出現在甘珠爾所包含的譯作目錄中，該目錄包括在布敦十四世紀宏篇巨著《佛教史》中。理查德·梅澤扎爾在林登博物館位於斯圖加特的藏文手稿和印刷品目錄中記載了該陀羅尼有趣的異本。在這個版本中，釋迦牟尼的陀羅尼明確由敬禮（轉寫為梵文）和心咒組成，而在德格版的《釋迦牟尼心要陀羅尼》中，敬禮被翻譯成藏文，並與心咒分開出現。林登博物館的版本如下：na maḥ śākya mu na ye ta thā ga tā ya| arha te samyaksaṃ buddhā ya| tadya thā| mu ni mu ni ma hā mu ni ye sbā hā。
i.4The mantra of the Buddha Śākyamuni occurs in a few other places in the Kangyur, most notably in The Perfection of Wisdom in a Few Syllables (Toh 22) and in The Perfection of Wisdom for Vajrapāṇi (Toh 29), as well as several times in A Portion of the Practice of the Sovereign Tantra Purifying Evil Destinies (Toh 485).
i.4釋迦牟尼佛的咒語在甘珠爾中還出現在其他幾個地方，最值得注意的是在《般若波羅蜜多心經》（編號22）和《金剛手般若波羅蜜多經》（編號29）中，以及在《主尊密續清淨惡趣修習儀軌》（編號485）中出現多次。
i.5This English translation was prepared based on the two versions in the Degé Kangyur (Toh 533 and Toh 860) in consultation with the variant readings of the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the version in the Stok Palace Kangyur (S 492). Śākyamuni’s mantra was edited based on the Degé edition and an English translation is provided in a note.
i.5本英文翻譯是根據德格甘珠爾（Toh 533和Toh 860）的兩個版本編製的，並參考了甘珠爾對勘版（dpe bsdur ma）的異讀和斯托克宮甘珠爾版本（S 492）。釋迦牟尼的咒是根據德格版本編訂的，並在註腳中提供了英文翻譯。