Notes

n.1Avalokiteśvarasya­nāmāṣṭaśatakam , (Toh 705).

n.2See http://www.acmuller.net/descriptive_catalogue/index.html for an online catalog of the Taishō Canon, including text titles, translators, as well as corresponding texts from the Tibetan canon.

n.3Denkarma, folio 304.b; Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 254-55; Phangthangma 2003, p. 31.

n.4Dalton and van Schaik 2006, p. 79. The most complete recension found at Dunhuang is IOL Tib J 351/3.

n.5That is, they note that IOL Tib J 351/3, the most complete of the many versions of the work found among the Dunhuang manuscripts, is “very similar to the canonical edition,” which they identify as Q 381 (Dalton and van Schaik 2006, p. 79). Q 381 corresponds with Toh 705, rather than Toh 706. Scans of IOL Tib J 351/3 were not available to view on the International Dunhuang Project website at the time of our research. Therefore, we were unable to independently verify this identification.

n.6Regarding this topic, see the 84000 Knowledge Base article, “Compendium of Dhāraṇīs (Kangyur Section).”

n.7Tib. sems can thams cad kyi dbang dam pa’i pha rol tu byon pa. We suspect that this line may be a corrupted form of a version of a common phrase used to describe advanced practitioners. In that context, it would mean something like “you have perfected all mental powers” (*sems kyi dbang dam pa thams cad pha rol tu byon pa). However, since this reading would require emending the Tibetan significantly, we have not made the change. See, for example, The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines (Toh 9), 1.­2, where a similar phrase is translated with a meaning closer to our conjecture, appearing alongside many of the other epithets that are also found in the present text.

n.8We emend to mnyes bzhin. D reads mnyes gshin.

n.9The nyagrodha tree is commonly identified either as the Indian fig tree (Ficus Indica) or the Banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis). Regarding it, see Pandanus Database of Plants. The simile of the nyagrodha tree can be found in a number of sources, e.g. in The Stem Array ((14.­3, 20.­5, 43.­98), in The Question of Maitreya (1.­35), and in The Play in Full (26.­157).

n.10Read dmar ring lta bu as dmar rengs lta bu.

n.11Tib. gtsang ba stsangs pa. This formulation remains unclear. The form bstsangs pa is attested as an archaic form of bsangs pa. The parallel in Toh 705 reads bkra shis dag gis gtsang mar ’gyur (“due to auspiciousness, you are pure”).

n.12Tib. spu re re skyes pa/ sems can gyi snying po. The first part of this phrase remains unclear. Toh 705 here reads ba spu nyag ma re re yang/ sems can kun gyi gtso bor ’gyur, “Each and every bodily hair of yours/ Is the sovereign of all beings.”