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His sources are four manuscripts from Nepal, three on paper (one from 1792), and one palm leaf manuscript: Matsunami no. 419 (A.D.1792 = samvat 912), no. 202 (date unknown), NGMPP A131/9, and Asiatic Society of Bengal no. 9987. See Kano 2011, pp. 61–65.
Sundaravyūha’s (ca. second half of the eighth century) commentary (Toh 4002) does not discuss the dhāraṇī.
Advayavajra and Ratnākaraśānti, in the eleventh century, include the word “dhāraṇī” in the title, but the text appears in Butön’s fourteenth-century catalog without the Tibetan word for “dhāraṇī.” See Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub), folio 166.b. It is not included in the imperial catalogs, though its commentary is listed in the Denkarma (no. 559). See Yoshimura 1950, p. 168.
A Commentary on the Difficult Points of the “Garland of Birth Stories” (Jātakamālāpañjikā, Toh 4460) and The Compendium of Study Materials (Śikṣāsamuccaya, Toh 3940) quote the same verses as being from The Secrets of the Realized Ones. See Kano 2011, pp. 85–86, nn. 56–57. The last Sanskrit verse is also quoted in An Account of the Precious Teachings together with a Lineage of the Śākya Clan (gsung rab rin po che’i gtam rgyud dang shAkya’i rabs rgyud, Toh 4357) by Paltsek Rakṣita, as being from The King of Samādhis Sūtra (Samādhirājasūtra, Toh 127).
Kano concludes this by studying the sūtras listed in Ratnākaraśānti’s Muktāvalī (Toh 1189), Kāṇha’s Yogaratnamālā (Toh 1183), and Advayavajra’s Kudṛṣṭinirghātana, and by analyzing the structure of the Tibetan canonical collections, the Nepali collections of dhāraṇīs, and several Tibetan commentaries.
Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the Toh 918 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See Toh 918, n.12, for details.
This text, Toh 918, and all those contained in this same volume (gzungs, e), are listed as being located in volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur by the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). However, several other Kangyur databases—including the eKangyur that supplies the digital input version displayed by the 84000 Reading Room—list this work as being located in volume 101. This discrepancy is partly due to the fact that the two volumes of the gzungs ’dus section are an added supplement not mentioned in the original catalog, and also hinges on the fact that the compilers of the Tōhoku catalog placed another text—which forms a whole, very large volume—the Vimalaprabhānāmakālacakratantraṭīkā (dus ’khor ’grel bshad dri med ’od, Toh 845), before the volume 100 of the Degé Kangyur, numbering it as vol. 100, although it is almost certainly intended to come right at the end of the Degé Kangyur texts as volume 102; indeed its final fifth chapter is often carried over and wrapped in the same volume as the Kangyur dkar chags (catalog). Please note this discrepancy when using the eKangyur viewer in this translation.
Within the Tshalpa lineage Kangyurs that do not contain a Dhāraṇī section, two recensions are found in the Tantra section.
As a result, the Phukdrak includes in sequence: The Single Stanza, The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, The Three Stanzas, and The Four Stanzas.
In Tibetan: tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa phan yon dang bcas par bstan pa. Compare Vasubandhu’s Sūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya’s (Toh 4026) reference to the five verses that comprise The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī: mahāyānasūtrāntasānuśaṃsaṃ gāthādvayam upādāya.
The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Toh 141, 526, 916), The Single Stanza (Toh 323), and The Four Stanzas (Toh 324). See Jonang Jetsün Tāranātha (jo nang rje btsun tA ra nA tha), pp. 709–54.
In the Phukdrak Kangyur, and in the Bardan, Stagrimo, and Stongde collections, The Single Stanza, The Four Stanzas, and The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī also appear in sequence. In the Bardan collection, The Prayer of Good Conduct comes before The Single Stanza, so that the four texts are grouped together.
Sanskrit words that were edited to produce a more plausible reading are indicated with a “*” in the translation of the dhāraṇī.
In IOL Tib J 63 and IOL Tib J 64, the homage is directed toward the buddhas and bodhisattvas instead of Mañjuśrī: sangs rgyas dang byang cub sems dpa’ thams chad la phyag ’tsal lo.
According to the commentary by Sundaravyūha (Toh 4002), this refers to being content with small amounts of virtue.
According to the commentary by Sundaravyūha (Toh 4002), this refers to leaving the Mahāyāna in favor of the Śrāvakayāna because one’s spiritual potential is uncertain. The Sūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya glosses this as “parting from the Mahāyāna by uncertain bodhisattvas.” (tatrāniyatabhedo bodhisatvānām aniyatānāṃ mahāyānād bhedaḥ).
IOL Tib J 63 and IOL Tib J 64 omit the dhāraṇī. Tentative English translation: It is thus—oṃ vajra fence, vajra fence (*vajraprākāra), vajra wheel! O fearful fang! Stainless, spotless, and unsullied one (*nirmale)! culuke culuke culu culu. Hail to every buddha!
Sundaravyūha’s commentary and the Sūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya both explain that the two gates are the gates of samādhi and dhāraṇī.
IOL Tib J 63 and IOL Tib J 64: tshIgs su bcad pa gnyIs pa phan yon dang bcas par bstan(d) pa rdzogs so/ zhu chen gyi lo tsa pa dge slong dpal brtsegs rag shi tas bsgyurd cing zhus. “Thus ends The Presentation of The Two Stanzas together with Their Benefits. Translated and edited by the chief editor-translator monk Paltsek Rakṣita.”
A being who is dedicated to the cultivation and fulfilment of the altruistic intention to attain perfect buddhahood, traversing the ten bodhisattva levels (daśabhūmi, sa bcu). Bodhisattvas purposely opt to remain within cyclic existence in order to liberate all sentient beings, instead of simply seeking personal freedom from suffering. In terms of the view, they realize both the selflessness of persons and the selflessness of phenomena.
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
The term dharma conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti. The primary meanings are as follows: the doctrine taught by the Buddha (Dharma); the ultimate reality underlying and expressed through the Buddha’s teaching (Dharma); the trainings that the Buddha’s teaching stipulates (dharmas); the various awakened qualities or attainments acquired through practicing and realizing the Buddha’s teaching (dharmas); qualities or aspects more generally, i.e., phenomena or phenomenal attributes (dharmas); and mental objects (dharmas).
In the context of Buddhist philosophy, one way to describe experience in terms of eighteen elements (eye, form, and eye consciousness; ear, sound, and ear consciousness; nose, smell, and nose consciousness; tongue, taste, and tongue consciousness; body, touch, and body consciousness; and mind, mental phenomena, and mind consciousness).
This also refers to the elements of the world, which can be enumerated as four, five, or six. The four elements are earth, water, fire, and air. A fifth, space, is often added, and the sixth is consciousness.
Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconographic form, he is portrayed bearing the sword of wisdom in his right hand and a volume of the Prajñāpāramitāsūtra in his left. To his name, Mañjuśrī, meaning “Gentle and Glorious One,” is often added the epithet Kumārabhūta, “having a youthful form.” He is also called Mañjughoṣa, Mañjusvara, and Pañcaśikha.
In this text, a different list of eight obscurations is presented: contempt toward the Buddha, contempt toward the Dharma, laziness, contentment with little (virtue), behaving according to desire, behaving according to pride, regret, and parting from what is uncertain.
The obscurations to liberation and omniscience. They are generally categorized as two types: affective obscurations (kleśāvaraṇa), the arising of afflictive emotions; and cognitive obscurations (jñeyāvaraṇa), those caused by misapprehension and incorrect understanding about the nature of reality.
The term is used also as a reference to a set five hindrances on the path: longing for sense pleasures (Skt. kāmacchanda), malice (Skt. vyāpāda), sloth and torpor (Skt. styānamiddha), excitement and remorse (Skt. auddhatyakaukṛtya), and doubt (Skt. vicikitsā).
A Tibetan translator in the eighth/early ninth century.
Leaving the Mahāyāna in favor of the Śrāvakayāna because one’s spiritual potential is uncertain.
In a general sense, samādhi can describe a number of different meditative states. In the Mahāyāna literature, in particular in the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, we find extensive lists of different samādhis, numbering over one hundred.
In a more restricted sense, and when understood as a mental state, samādhi is defined as the one-pointedness of the mind (cittaikāgratā), the ability to remain on the same object over long periods of time. The Drajor Bamponyipa (sgra sbyor bam po gnyis pa) commentary on the Mahāvyutpatti explains the term samādhi as referring to the instrument through which mind and mental states “get collected,” i.e., it is by the force of samādhi that the continuum of mind and mental states becomes collected on a single point of reference without getting distracted.
The gates of samādhi and dhāraṇī.
tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i gzungs (Gāthādvayadhāraṇī). Toh 143, Degé Kangyur vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folio 6.b.
tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i gzungs (Gāthādvayadhāraṇī). Toh 611, Degé Kangyur vol. 91 (rgyud, ba), folio 45.a.
tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i gzungs (Gāthādvayadhāraṇī). Toh 918, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folio 262.a.
tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i gzungs. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 57, pp. 17–18.
tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i gzungs. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 91, pp. 146–47.
tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i gzungs. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 97, pp. 783–84.
IOL Tib J 63. British Library, London. Accessed through The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.
IOL Tib J 64. British Library, London. Accessed through The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.
Kano, Kazuo 加納和雄. “Ekagātha, Caturgāthā, Gāthādvayadhāraṇī: Jūichi seiki no indo bukkyō ni okeru dokuju kyōten no setto, Ekagātha, Caturgāthā, Gāthādvayadhāraṇī: 11 世紀のインド仏教における読誦経典のセット [Caturgāthā, Gāthādvayadhāraṇī: A Set of Recitation Sūtras in the 11th century India].” Mikkyō bunka 密教文化 227: 49–88.
’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryatathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 47, Degé Kangyur vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ka), folios 100.a–203.a. English translation The Secrets of the Realized Ones 2023.
Sundaravyūha. tshigs su bcad pa gnyis pa’i bshad pa (Gāthādvayavyākhyāna). Toh 4002, Degé Tengyur vol. 116 (mdo ’grel, ji), folios 163.b–171.a.
Sūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya. GRETIL edition input by Jens Braarvig, based on the edition by Sylvain Lévi: Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, Exposé de la doctrine du Grand Véhicule, vol. I, Paris 1907. Version July 31, 2020.
84000. The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Ṣaṇmukhīdhāraṇī, Toh 141, 526, 916). Translated by the Pema Yeshé Dé Translation Team. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022.
84000. The Four Stanzas (Caturgāthā, tshigs su bcad pa bzhi pa, Toh 324). Translated by Pema Yeshé Dé Translation Team. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2025.
84000. The Prayer of Good Conduct (Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna, bzang spyod smon lam, Toh 1095). Translated by Peter Alan Roberts. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2025.
84000. The Secrets of the Realized Ones (Tathāgataguhya, Toh 47). Translated by David Fiordalis and the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
84000. The Single Stanza (Ekagāthā, tshigs su bcad pa gcig pa, Toh 323). Translated by Pema Yeshé Dé Translation Team. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2025.
Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). chos ’byung (bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i gter mdzod). In The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 24 (ya): 633–1055. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71. BDRC W22106.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Jonang Jetsün Tāranātha (jo nang rje btsun tA ra nA tha). gSung ’bum tA ra nA tha (rtag brtan phun tshogs gling gi par ma), vol. 12: 709–54, c. namgyal & tsewang taru, 1982–1987. BDRC W22277. Mahāvyutpatti with sGra sbyor bam po gñis pa. Bibliotheca Polyglotta, University of Oslo. Input by Jens Braarvig and Fredrik Liland, 2010. Last accessed July 7, 2015.
Pelliot tibétain 412. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Accessed through The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online. Feer, Henri Léon. Fragments extraits du Kandjour. Annales du Musée Guimet 5. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1883.
Resources for Kanjur and Tanjur Studies. University of Vienna. Accessed March 4, 2024.
Yoshimura, Shyuki. The Denkar-Ma: An Oldest Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons. Kyoto: Ryukoku University, 1950.
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī consists of two initial verses that enumerate eight obscurations and their antidote—the Mahāyāna teachings—followed by a dhāraṇī and three verses that list the ten beneficial results of reciting the text.
This text was translated by the Pema Yeshé Dé Translation Team. Giuliano Proença translated the text from Tibetan into English and prepared the introduction, the glossary, and the notes.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Andreas Doctor edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī consists of two initial verses that enumerate eight obscurations and their antidote—the Mahāyāna teachings—followed by a dhāraṇī and three verses that list the ten beneficial results of its recitation.
The Sanskrit text of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī is extant in several manuscripts from Nepal. Two of these manuscripts have been edited by Gergely Hidas in his editions of two dhāraṇī collections. Kazuo Kano has also published a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, together with a translation into Japanese. According to Kano, The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī has its origin in verses XII.19–23 of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā (Toh 4020) and originally consisted of these verses without the dhāraṇī, which corresponds to the translations found at Dunhuang. Its intermediate form with the dhāraṇī and five verses, as presented in the Kangyur, was likely formed between the eleventh and the early fifteenth century, at least before the publication of the Yongle Kangyur in 1410. According to Kano, its developed form, as now extant in the Nepalese collections, reached Nepal between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. It integrated two verses from The Secrets of the Realized Ones (Toh 47) that are not found in any Tibetan version.
Kano concludes that The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī formed part of a set of five texts used for recitation in India. These also included The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Toh 141, 526, 916), The Single Stanza (Toh 323), The Four Stanzas (Toh 324), and The Prayer of Good Conduct (Toh 1095). Initially, these five texts circulated individually but became popular in India as a set by the time of Advayavajra or Ratnākaraśānti (eleventh century). Later, they were incorporated in the dhāraṇī collections in Nepal.
The Degé Kangyur contains three recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, one in the General Sūtra section, one in the Tantra section, and one in the Dhāraṇī section. Likewise, all other Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line include three recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī. The Thempangma Kangyurs classify The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī exclusively as a tantra, with only one recension. In the Lhasa and Narthang Kangyurs, we find two recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī in the Sūtra and Tantra sections. The Phukdrak Kangyur contains three recensions, two in the Sūtra section and one in the Tantra section. The first version in the Sūtra section (Phukdrak 142) is noteworthy because it comprises only the first two verses and the dhāraṇī. It is then followed by another text, the Traigāthā (tshigs su bcad pa gsum pa, Phukdrak 143), which corresponds to the last three stanzas of the usual recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī.
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī is also found among the Dunhuang manuscripts. There exists one fragment and two complete manuscripts with colophons. The two complete manuscripts are almost identical to the canonical Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, yet they omit the dhāraṇī and have a different title: The Presentation of The Two Stanzas together with Their Benefits. Though none of the versions in the Kangyur include a translator’s colophon, both complete Dunhuang manuscripts state that Paltsek Rakṣita was the translator and editor. If this attribution is correct, The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī must have been translated at some point in the late eighth or early ninth century when Paltsek Rakṣita was active as a translator.
The Tengyur includes a commentary on this text: An Explanation of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī (Toh 4002) by Sundaravyūha. The Tibetan scholar Tāranātha (1575–1634) composed a commentary on The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī as well as sequential commentaries on three of the other five texts in the above-mentioned set, corroborating Kano’s view that these texts were seen as related.
The importance of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī and the other texts in the set for recitation is evident, for in Tibet they are included in extracts from sūtra and tantra (gces btus), collected liturgical texts (chos spyod), collections of mantras and dhāraṇīs for recitation, and collections of sādhanas. They are also sometimes mentioned as texts for recitation in preliminary practices. The first complete modern translation of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī was published in 1883 by the French Orientalist Léon Feer in his Extraits du Kandjour.
The main source of the present translation is the Tibetan text as found in the Sūtra section of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 143) and Kano’s annotated Sanskrit edition. We also consulted the versions found in the Tantra and Dhāraṇī sections of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 611 and Toh 918, respectively), in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), and in the Stok Palace and Phukdrak Kangyurs, as well as the two complete Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. The most significant variants are mentioned in the notes. The transcription of the dhāraṇī was based on Degé (Toh 143), with major variants from Kano’s Sanskrit edition and the two other versions from the Degé recorded in the notes. A tentative English translation of the dhāraṇī is provided in a note. On occasion, we consulted Sundaravyūha’s commentary and Vasubandhu’s Sūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya (Toh 4026) for clarification.
Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta.
tadyathā | oṃ vajraprakāra vajraprakāra | vajracakra daṃṣṭrābhayānake| amale vimale | nirmale | culuke culuke| culu culu | sarvabuddhe svāhā ||
Thus ends “The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī.”
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī consists of two initial verses that enumerate eight obscurations and their antidote—the Mahāyāna teachings—followed by a dhāraṇī and three verses that list the ten beneficial results of reciting the text.
This text was translated by the Pema Yeshé Dé Translation Team. Giuliano Proença translated the text from Tibetan into English and prepared the introduction, the glossary, and the notes.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Andreas Doctor edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī consists of two initial verses that enumerate eight obscurations and their antidote—the Mahāyāna teachings—followed by a dhāraṇī and three verses that list the ten beneficial results of its recitation.
The Sanskrit text of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī is extant in several manuscripts from Nepal. Two of these manuscripts have been edited by Gergely Hidas in his editions of two dhāraṇī collections. Kazuo Kano has also published a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, together with a translation into Japanese. According to Kano, The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī has its origin in verses XII.19–23 of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā (Toh 4020) and originally consisted of these verses without the dhāraṇī, which corresponds to the translations found at Dunhuang. Its intermediate form with the dhāraṇī and five verses, as presented in the Kangyur, was likely formed between the eleventh and the early fifteenth century, at least before the publication of the Yongle Kangyur in 1410. According to Kano, its developed form, as now extant in the Nepalese collections, reached Nepal between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. It integrated two verses from The Secrets of the Realized Ones (Toh 47) that are not found in any Tibetan version.
Kano concludes that The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī formed part of a set of five texts used for recitation in India. These also included The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Toh 141, 526, 916), The Single Stanza (Toh 323), The Four Stanzas (Toh 324), and The Prayer of Good Conduct (Toh 1095). Initially, these five texts circulated individually but became popular in India as a set by the time of Advayavajra or Ratnākaraśānti (eleventh century). Later, they were incorporated in the dhāraṇī collections in Nepal.
The Degé Kangyur contains three recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, one in the General Sūtra section, one in the Tantra section, and one in the Dhāraṇī section. Likewise, all other Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line include three recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī. The Thempangma Kangyurs classify The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī exclusively as a tantra, with only one recension. In the Lhasa and Narthang Kangyurs, we find two recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī in the Sūtra and Tantra sections. The Phukdrak Kangyur contains three recensions, two in the Sūtra section and one in the Tantra section. The first version in the Sūtra section (Phukdrak 142) is noteworthy because it comprises only the first two verses and the dhāraṇī. It is then followed by another text, the Traigāthā (tshigs su bcad pa gsum pa, Phukdrak 143), which corresponds to the last three stanzas of the usual recensions of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī.
The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī is also found among the Dunhuang manuscripts. There exists one fragment and two complete manuscripts with colophons. The two complete manuscripts are almost identical to the canonical Two Stanza Dhāraṇī, yet they omit the dhāraṇī and have a different title: The Presentation of The Two Stanzas together with Their Benefits. Though none of the versions in the Kangyur include a translator’s colophon, both complete Dunhuang manuscripts state that Paltsek Rakṣita was the translator and editor. If this attribution is correct, The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī must have been translated at some point in the late eighth or early ninth century when Paltsek Rakṣita was active as a translator.
The Tengyur includes a commentary on this text: An Explanation of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī (Toh 4002) by Sundaravyūha. The Tibetan scholar Tāranātha (1575–1634) composed a commentary on The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī as well as sequential commentaries on three of the other five texts in the above-mentioned set, corroborating Kano’s view that these texts were seen as related.
The importance of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī and the other texts in the set for recitation is evident, for in Tibet they are included in extracts from sūtra and tantra (gces btus), collected liturgical texts (chos spyod), collections of mantras and dhāraṇīs for recitation, and collections of sādhanas. They are also sometimes mentioned as texts for recitation in preliminary practices. The first complete modern translation of The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī was published in 1883 by the French Orientalist Léon Feer in his Extraits du Kandjour.
The main source of the present translation is the Tibetan text as found in the Sūtra section of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 143) and Kano’s annotated Sanskrit edition. We also consulted the versions found in the Tantra and Dhāraṇī sections of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 611 and Toh 918, respectively), in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), and in the Stok Palace and Phukdrak Kangyurs, as well as the two complete Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. The most significant variants are mentioned in the notes. The transcription of the dhāraṇī was based on Degé (Toh 143), with major variants from Kano’s Sanskrit edition and the two other versions from the Degé recorded in the notes. A tentative English translation of the dhāraṇī is provided in a note. On occasion, we consulted Sundaravyūha’s commentary and Vasubandhu’s Sūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya (Toh 4026) for clarification.
Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta.
tadyathā | oṃ vajraprakāra vajraprakāra | vajracakra daṃṣṭrābhayānake| amale vimale | nirmale | culuke culuke| culu culu | sarvabuddhe svāhā ||
Thus ends “The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī.”