Introduction
i.1The Dhāraṇī “The Essence of Vairocana” is a short text contained in the Degé Kangyur in both the Tantra section (Toh 534) and in the Dhāraṇī section (Toh 861). It is further subcategorized as an Action tantra (bya rgyud, kriyātantra).
i.1《毘盧遮那佛精髓陀羅尼》是一部短篇文獻，在德格甘珠爾中既收錄於密續部分（編號534），也收錄於陀羅尼部分（編號861）。它進一步被歸類為事續。
i.2The Dhāraṇī “The Essence of Vairocana” lacks a narrative frame, as well as a location and interlocutors. It starts with formulaic homages to the Three Jewels, the Buddha Vairocana, and the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāsagarbha. These canonical expressions of reverence are followed by the dhāraṇī itself, which invokes the Buddha Vairocana. The text concludes with an enumeration of the benefits that accrue from reciting the dhāraṇī: the reciter will be protected from weapons, fire, water, poison, poisoned food and drink, kākhordas, kings, thieves, epidemics, pain, contagions, and so forth, and will attain a particular samādhi called stainless light.
i.2《毘盧遮那佛精要陀羅尼》缺乏敘事框架，也沒有說法地點和對話人物。它以對三寶、毘盧遮那佛和菩薩摩訶薩虛空藏菩薩的程式化禮敬作為開始。這些規範性的敬禮表達之後是陀羅尼本身，其中呼喚毘盧遮那佛。文獻以誦持陀羅尼所帶來的利益列舉作為結尾：誦者將受到保護，免受兵器、火、水、毒藥、毒食毒飲、咒詛魔法、國王、盜賊、瘟疫、痛苦、傳染病等傷害，並將證得名為無垢光的特定三昧。
i.3The dhāraṇī proper contains, besides many non-lexical phonemes, the perfectly intelligible Sanskrit phrase vairocanaraśmi sañcodite āgaccha| āryākāśagarbha, “Come, ordered by Vairocana’s light rays, noble Ākāśagarbha (‘Essence of the Sky’)!” This exhortation to the bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha suggests that this may be his dhāraṇī and not Vairocana’s. The bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha is closely associated with the Buddha Vairocana, and one of his most important roles is the purification of negative actions. This pair are especially prominent in East Asian esoteric traditions.
i.3這個陀羅尼除了包含許多非詞彙音素外，還包含一個完全可理解的梵文短語「毘盧遮那佛光線之命令而來，尊貴的虛空藏菩薩」。這句對虛空藏菩薩的祈請表明，這可能是虛空藏菩薩的陀羅尼，而非毘盧遮那佛的。虛空藏菩薩與毘盧遮那佛關係密切，他最重要的角色之一是淨化負業。這一對菩薩在東亞密教傳統中特別重要。
i.4The Dhāraṇī “The Essence of Vairocana” lacks a Tibetan and Sanskrit title at the beginning and a final translators’ colophon. We have no knowledge regarding who translated it and when. To our knowledge, no Sanskrit text of this dhāṛaṇī is extant and it does not appear to have been translated into Chinese. The catalog of the early imperial translations, the Denkarma (lhan kar ma, Herrmann-Pfandt 2008), does not list it. However, it is listed under its short title in the catalog of translated works in the Kangyur that is included in Butön’s monumental fourteenth-century History of Buddhism. This gives us only a very wide time frame for its translation, namely, sometime between the ninth century and the first quarter of the fourteenth century.
i.4《毘盧遮那佛精髓陀羅尼》缺少藏文和梵文的標題以及最後的譯者跋文。我們對於誰翻譯了它以及何時翻譯都一無所知。據我們所知，這部陀羅尼不存在梵文本，也似乎沒有被譯成中文。早期皇帝翻譯的目錄《丹噶瑪》（藏文：lhan kar ma）中沒有列出它。然而，它以簡短標題的形式出現在布頓十四世紀宏大的《佛教史》中所附錄的《甘珠爾》譯作目錄中。這只能給我們一個非常寬泛的翻譯時間框架，即大約在九世紀至十四世紀第一季度之間的某個時期。
i.5The present English translation was prepared based on the two Degé witnesses (Toh 534 and Toh 861). We also consulted the versions contained in the Phukdrak Kangyur and Stok Palace Kangyur.
i.5本翻譯是根據德格版的兩個版本（Toh 534和Toh 861）進行的。我們也參考了普德拉克甘珠爾和斯托克宮甘珠爾中所收錄的版本。