Notes

n.1The title is easily confused with that of Toh 676, tshe dang ye shes dpag tu med pa’i snying po’i gzungs , and indeed in the catalog of the Narthang Kangyur the equivalent of the latter text is referred to as the tshe dpag med kyi snying po. In some Kangyur catalogs, an alternative title is given: tshe dpag med kyi yang snying.

n.2It is not found in the Narthang Kangyur, despite the title appearing in the catalog (see n.­1).

n.3See Peter Alan Roberts and Emily Bower, trans. The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1), Toh 674, Introduction at i.9.

n.4Here, as in the main mantra, the Sanskrit rule of euphonic combination of final and initial vowels is ignored: one would have expected Vajrāyuṣa. The name appears in the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit vocative with the -e ending, which is common in mantras, although in classical Sanskrit this vocative ending was used for the female nouns only.

n.5Note, however, that the equivalent phrase in the dhāraṇī of the “duplicate” of version (1) of the sūtra in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, Toh 849, is not quite the same as the mantra here and the phrase in Toh 674. In Toh 849, the phrase mahāpuṇye aparimitāyuḥ-puṇya-jñāna-saṃbharopacite becomes, instead, mahāpuṇye aparimitapuṇye aparimitapuṇya-jñāna-saṃbharopacite. As noted in note 53 of Toh 674 and note 53 of Toh 849, this difference is found across all Kangyurs that have a Compendium of Dhāraṇīs, and it is the phrase as it reads in Toh 849 that is found in the most widely recited extra-canonical versions.

n.6See Peter Alan Roberts and Emily Bower, trans. The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (2) , Toh 675.

n.7See Roberts and Bower, The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1), Toh 674, Introduction at i.21; and The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (2), Toh 675, Introduction at i.10.

n.8kariṇi in the Tibetan of the Degé version of Toh 485.

n.9The possible relationship of this mantra from the Sarva­durgati­pariśodhana to the dhāraṇī of The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra is also discussed in the introduction to version (2) of the sūtra, Toh 675, at i.29–32.

n.10The Tibetan dbang bskur is the usual translation of abhiṣikta, literally “besprinkled,” which is the term used for the consecration of a king at his enthronement with blessed water.

n.11The Stok Palace, Shey, Chizhi, and Gangteng Kangyurs (all manuscript Kangyurs that belong to the Themphangma group), in place of the word puṇya here, have only ṇye.

n.12In Toh 674 as well as the two versions of the Sarva­durgati­pariśodhana, the second a in saṃbharopacite is long. In the Stok Palace Kangyur (F. 190.a), the spelling is saṃbharocite.

n.13“ Oṃ, Merit! Merit! Great merit! The one who has limitless life and has gathered the accumulations of merit and wisdom! Svāhā .”