Notes

n.1The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light (Suvarṇa­prabhāsottama­sūtra, Toh 555), 25.22.

n.2The Play in Full (Lalitavistara, Toh 95), 13:68.

n.3See Poussin (trans. Pruden) 1988–90, p. 543, n. 505 and Roberts 2010, p. 404.

n.4A text with a parallel title (de gshin [sic? bzhin?] gshegs pa rin cen [sic? chen] gtsug phud mtshan rjes su dran pa), which appears to have similar content to the present work, is listed in Dalton and van Schaik’s catalog as IOL Tib-J 312/7. However, the manuscript that contains this text has not yet been digitized and, therefore, does not appear on the International Dunhuang Project’s webpage. Therefore, we were unable to ascertain with full certainty that it is the same as the present text. In their summary, Dalton and van Schaik mention that according to IOL Tib-J 312/7, when the dhāraṇī found there is recollected at the moment of death, it brings rebirth in the heavens. Given that this is precisely the content of the present text, it is likely to be the same dhāraṇī text. Moreover, the immediately preceding text in the same Dunhuang manuscript, IOL Tib-J 312/6, bears the same title and a similar description to Toh 536, increasing the likelihood that these two works in the Degé Kangyur are the same as those that appear in the very same order in IOL Tib-J 312. Notably, the Tibetan translation of Ratnaśikhin’s name in IOL Tib-J 312 (rin cen [sic? chen?] gtsug phud) is different from that in the present text (rin chen gtsug tor). However, both variants are found in other works in the Tibetan canon, and it appears that both are accepted Tibetan translations of the name Ratnaśikhin.

n.5On the Indonesian foils, see Griffiths 2014, p. 164 and p. 166. On the variant of the dhāraṇī in the Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of Knowledge of Former Lives, see Griffiths 2014, p. 164, n. 93, where he cites Rolf Geibel.

n.6Two 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 (Toh 508, byang chub snying po’i rgyan ’bum gyi gzungs), 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.7Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 870 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 870, n.­7, for details.