Introduction

i.1This text consists of a short dhāraṇī said to encompass a famous text for protection in the Kangyur, The Great Amulet, and the benefit of its recitation. In fact, the dhāraṇī here is also revealed in the parent text, where it is called “the supremely secret essence mantra.” This incantation does not seem to have been included among the four original mantras of the parent text. It is remarkable, however, that it is this additional fifth mantra that has become the most emblematic of The Great Amulet tradition, and it is found most commonly in various other Buddhist texts, and even in a late Hindu tantric anthology, the Tantrasāra, with variants in the Mantra­mahodadhi and the Śrī­vidyārṇava­tantra. Note also that this mantra is one of those recited during the Guru­maṇḍala-pūjā performed at the beginning of Vajrayāna rituals in Nepal.

i.2Such short texts served a variety of purposes, the primary being that by reciting them one could acquire the positive karmic benefits of reciting an entire, sometimes extremely long, text. On a practical level, the recitation of these short texts also served as equivalent to the recitation of the parent text, should a prescribed ritual so require.

i.3The text lacks both a Sanskrit title and a translator’s colophon. In South Asia, the text was transmitted within collections such as the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Dhāraṇī­saṃgraha), but it is also embedded into some ritual manuals such as the corpus of “rituals for beginners” (ādikarmika, las dang po pa) texts, in our case the Ādikarmāvatāra by Mañjukīrti, the Ādikarmavidhi by Tatakaragupta, and the *Bodhipaddhati by Abhayākaragupta.

i.4This translation was made principally on the basis of the Tibetan translations of the text found in the Tantra Collection (rgyud ’bum) and the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (gzungs ’dus) in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the various Sanskrit sources mentioned above.