Introduction
i.1This is one of the shortest texts in the Kangyur. It has no introductory passage, conclusion, or colophon, and in the Kangyur source texts it does not even have a title; the title we have given it here is the one that appears in the catalog (dkar chag) of the Degé and other Kangyurs, and is drawn from the prose sentence that opens the text after the initial salutation mantra. The text is not identified or numbered in the Tōhoku catalog of the Degé Kangyur, but appears in the Degé, Lhasa, Stok Palace, Shelkar, and Urga Kangyurs.
i.1這是甘珠爾中最短的經文之一。它沒有序文、結尾或跋文，在甘珠爾的源文本中甚至沒有標題；我們在這裡給它起的標題是出現在德格版及其他甘珠爾目錄中的標題，是從最初的祈禱咒語之後開啟經文的散文句子中取出的。該經文在德格版甘珠爾的東北目錄中未被標註或編號，但出現在德格版、拉薩版、斯托克宮版、謝爾卡版和烏爾加版甘珠爾中。
i.2From the fact that this text is placed in the Kangyur directly before The Aparamitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1), Toh 674, and from the mantras it contains, the Tibetan tshe dpag med must be presumed to be translating Aparimitāyus rather than Amitāyus, which is also tshe dpag med in Tibetan, and to refer to the Buddha Aparamitāyurjñāna residing toward the zenith and associated with longevity, rather than to the Buddha Amitābha residing in his buddhafield of Sukhāvatī in the western direction. The conflation of these names and the buddhas they denote—they are thought to have originally been distinct but were later conflated not only in Tibetan but also in East Asian traditions—is discussed in more detail in the introduction to The Aparamitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1), Toh 674.
i.2根據本文在甘珠爾中被置於《無量壽如來經》（1）、Toh 674之前的事實，以及文中所含的咒語，藏文「tshe dpag med」必須推定為翻譯無量壽佛而非阿彌陀佛，兩者在藏文中都是「tshe dpag med」，並指的是居於天頂且與長壽相關的無量壽如來佛，而非居於西方極樂世界佛土的阿彌陀佛。這些名稱及其所代表的佛的混淆——它們最初被認為是不同的，但後來不僅在藏傳傳統中被混淆，在東亞傳統中也被混淆——在《無量壽如來經》（1）、Toh 674的介紹中有更詳細的討論。
i.3The text begins with a salutation, in the form of a brief mantra, to Aparimitāyus under the name Vajra-āyuṣa (Vajra Life).
i.3經文開始以簡短的咒語形式向無量壽佛致敬，稱號為金剛壽（金剛壽命）。
i.4This is followed by one prose sentence and a mantra of Aparimitāyus. The prose sentence is not ascribed to any speaker, and could be taken either as a pronouncement by the Buddha, or as a practice instruction of the kind that one might expect to be included in a Tengyur text.
i.4接下來是一句散文和無量壽佛的咒。這句散文沒有歸屬於任何說者，可以理解為佛的宣說，也可以理解為實修指導，這類指導通常會出現在丹珠爾典籍中。
i.5The mantra, oṁ puṇye puṇye mahāpuṇye aparimitāyuḥ-puṇya-jñāna-saṃbharopacite svāhā, appears to have its most immediate origin in the longer Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1), Toh 674. The dhāraṇī of that text (repeated twenty-nine times within it) contains this mantra as its central portion, roughly one third of the dhāraṇī. The dhāraṇī in the other version of the sūtra, however, The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (2), Toh 675, differs from the dhāraṇī of Toh 674 only in not containing this mantra—and indeed this difference of dhāraṇīs is the only really substantial difference between the two versions of the sūtra as a whole. It is also the reason why some catalogs and commentaries distinguish the two versions of the text as the “three oṁ” and “two oṁ” versions, respectively, and the Degé karchak goes further in referring to the shorter one (Toh 675) as the “two oṁ, no puṇye” version. As explained more fully in the introductions to The Aparimitāyurjñāna Sūtra (1) and (2), Toh 674 and 675 respectively, it is likely that the latter represents a version translated in the early, imperial translation period of the late eighth or early ninth century, while the former is the version introduced to Tibet some three centuries later.
i.5咒語「唵 福德 福德 大福德 無量壽福德智慧聚集成就 娑婆訶」似乎最直接源自於更長的《無量壽如來經》(1)，藏文編號674。該經文中的陀羅尼（在其中重複誦念二十九次）包含這個咒語作為其中心部分，約佔陀羅尼的三分之一。然而，在該經的另一版本《無量壽如來經》(2)，藏文編號675中，其陀羅尼與674號的陀羅尼不同之處，僅在於不包含這個咒語。實際上，陀羅尼的差異是兩個版本經文整體上唯一真正實質性的區別。這也是為什麼某些經目錄和註疏將兩個版本區分為「三個唵」和「兩個唵」版本，而德格版甘珠爾經目錄更進一步將較短的版本（675號）稱為「兩個唵、無福德」版本的原因。如《無量壽如來經》(1)和(2)（分別為674號和675號）的介紹中更詳細所述，後者可能代表在公元八世紀末或九世紀初帝王翻譯時期早期所翻譯的版本，而前者則是大約三個世紀後傳入西藏的版本。
i.6The existence of this text, containing the very dhāraṇī phrase that differentiates the two versions of the sūtra as a standalone mantra, is therefore intriguing, even if from the Kangyurs and their catalogs themselves we can glean no clearer explanation for its existence than the notion that it is simply one of several mantras or dhāraṇīs of Aparimitāyus which, as we can observe, is also found incorporated in longer alternatives.
i.6這部經文的存在令人著迷，因為它包含了區別這部經文兩個版本的陀羅尼句子，如今以獨立咒語的形式出現。儘管如此，從甘珠爾及其目錄本身我們無法找到比這更清晰的解釋，只能認為這不過是無量壽佛的多個咒語或陀羅尼之一，正如我們所能觀察到的那樣，它也被納入於更長篇的版本中。
i.7Nevertheless, the mantra featured in this text is also to be found in one other place in the Kangyur, in the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana, a tantra of the Yoga class that is widely used in rituals for the dead. The tantra features a number of secondary maṇḍalas for specific purposes, and among these is one presided over by Aparimitāyus. There are two versions of the tantra in the Kangyur, Toh 483 and 485, translated (from slightly different Sanskrit manuscripts) in the eighth and thirteenth centuries, respectively. The mantra of the present text is found in the early translation version exactly as it is here, and in the later version with the addition of one word, karaṇi, before the final svāhā. In both texts, the mantra is described as the “essence” or “heart-mantra” (hṛdaya, snying po), just as it is in the brief introductory sentence of the present text. In the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana it is introduced as the essence of all tathāgatas, but in the context of being the principal mantra of others accompanying it and clearly corresponding to the maṇḍala of Aparimitāyus, while here it is simply said to be the essence of Aparimitāyus.
i.7然而，這個文本中的咒語在甘珠爾中的另一個地方也能找到，那就是《一切惡趣清淨經》，這是一部廣泛用於亡者儀式的瑜伽部密續。這部密續包含了多個為特定目的而設的次要曼荼羅，其中之一由無量壽佛主持。甘珠爾中有兩個版本的密續，分別是第483和485部，分別翻譯於第八和第十三世紀（來自略有不同的梵文手稿）。現在這個文本中的咒語在早期翻譯版本中出現的形式完全相同，而在後來版本中則在最後的娑婆訶前加上了一個字「karaṇi」。在這兩個文本中，咒語都被描述為「心」或「心咒」（hṛdaya，心要），就像現在這個文本的簡短介紹句一樣。在《一切惡趣清淨經》中，它被介紹為所有如來的心要，但在伴隨著它的其他咒語的主要咒語的背景下，清楚地對應於無量壽佛的曼荼羅，而這裡它只是被說為無量壽佛的心要。