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༄༅། །མས་པས་དམ་བཅས་པ་ས་་བ་གངས།

The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge”

Maitreyapratijñādhāraṇī
འཕགས་པ་མས་པས་དམ་བཅས་པ་ས་་བ་གངས།
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs

The Noble Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge”

Āryamaitreyapratijñānāmadhāraṇī

· Toh 643 ·
Degé Kangyur, vol. 91 (rgyud ’bum, ba), folios 127.b–128.a

ᴛʀᴀɴsʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛɪʙᴇᴛᴀɴ ʙʏ


· Vajrapāṇi · Chökyi Sherap ·
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co. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ti. Title
im. Imprint
co. Contents
s. Summary
ac. Acknowledgements
i. Introduction
tr. The Translation
1. Maitreya’s Pledge
c. Colophon
n. Notes
b. Bibliography
g. Glossary
s. SUMMARY
s.1 The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” is a short dhāraṇī centered on Maitreya, the
bodhisattva who will, as alluded to in this text, awaken as the next buddha
in our world. Its dhāraṇī consists of a root mantra, heart mantra, and
auxiliary heart mantra and is followed by Maitreya’s vow to benefit beings.
The benefits of the dhāraṇī range from receiving prophecies for awakening
to acquiring one’s desired material enjoyments. Since these benefits also
extend to animals, the text advocates reciting its dhāraṇī so that animals may
hear it as well.
ac. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ac.1 This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
ac.2 The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation
team. Lowell Cook produced the translation and wrote the introduction.
Rory Lindsay edited the translation and the introduction, and Dawn Collins
copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication
process.
i. INTRODUCTION
i.1 The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” is one of two dhāraṇī works in the Degé
Kangyur1 that center on Maitreya, the bodhisattva who will, as alluded to in
this text, awaken as the next buddha in our world. This text appears twice in
the Degé Kangyur, first in the Action Tantra (kriyātantra) section and later in
the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs section. In the Action Tantra section, it is
classified as an individual action tantra (bya ba so so’i rgyud) belonging to the
tathāgata family.
i.2 According to Buddhist tradition, Maitreya currently dwells in Tuṣita
Heaven and, after the decline of Śākyamuni’s teachings, will appear in this
world as the next buddha. Maitreya was perhaps the earliest bodhisattva to
develop a devoted following in India, starting at least as early as the first
centuries of the Common Era. Later, particularly in Central and East Asia, the
cult of Maitreya would flourish widely from the fourth century. It was within
this milieu that the text The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” first emerged.
i.3 The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” is comprised of two sections: the dhāraṇī
and the pledge. The dhāraṇī formula is presented in three formulas: the root
mantra, the heart mantra, and the auxiliary heart mantra. While terms like
dhāraṇī, mantra, and vidyāmantra have different connotations and various
usages throughout Buddhist literature, they can also be used
interchangeably to a certain extent. In the case of this work, it appears that
dhāraṇī refers to the three formulas together while mantra refers to the
individual formulas themselves. This is corroborated by how the entire
formula is presented as a single “dhāraṇī” in later compendiums. Following
the dhāraṇī, Maitreya voices his pledge in which he describes the benefits of
hearing, chanting, and contemplating the dhāraṇī and reciting it for others.
The benefits primarily concern receiving a prophecy, and hence a guarantee
of awakening, from Maitreya himself, which locates this dhāraṇī within a
Mahāyāna-centric worldview. In addition to this, Maitreya also describes
benefits of a more mundane nature, such as acquiring one’s desired material
enjoyments. Maitreya makes clear that the benefits extend to any animals
that hear the dhāraṇī and, thus, advocates reciting it into the ears of animals.
i.4 The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” is extant in Sanskrit in a number of
dhāraṇīsaṃgraha or “Dhāraṇī Compendiums.” Gergely Hidas identifies at
least ten dhāraṇīsaṃgrahas that contain Maitreya’s Pledge.2
i.5 The dhāraṇī was also translated into Chinese by Faxian ( 法賢 337–422). 3

The Chinese version diverges in several ways. It begins with a narrative


opening (nidāna) and includes a dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni
and Maitreya. It would seem that these variations are unique to the version
of the dhāraṇī transmitted to China since they do not appear in the Tibetan
or the (albeit, much later) Sanskrit recensions.
i.6 The colophon to the Tibetan translation of The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge”
states that it was translated by the Indian paṇḍita Vajrapāṇi and the Tibetan
translator Chökyi Sherap. According to Gö Lotsawa, Vajrapāṇi traveled to
Tibet in 1066 at the age of sixty,4 which would situate the translation in the
latter half of the eleventh century. As should be expected, this work is not
listed in any of the extant catalogs from the Imperial Period (629–841) since it
was translated during the Later Dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet (bstan pa
phyi dar).
i.7 The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” had a small but unmistakable presence in
the later Tibetan tradition. In the fourteenth century, the dhāraṇī was
reproduced by Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) in his
Grand Anthology of Dhāraṇīs from the Four Classes of Secret Mantra Tantras (gsang
sngags rgyud sde bzhi’i gzungs rnams gcig tu bsdus pa’i gzungs ’bum chen mo).
Later, in the eighteenth century, the dhāraṇī was included in the
quadrilingual imperial collection of dhāraṇīmantras produced by the court of
the Qianlong Emperor (1711–99). The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” has also
been included in several other Tibetan liturgy collections, particularly among
the Geluk School.
i.8 The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” was not only subject to devotional
reproduction in Tibet; it also inspired original composition. Most notably, the
fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso (1617–82), authored an aspiration
prayer to be chanted after the recitation of The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge”.5 In
the eighteenth century, the third Zimok, Champa Tenzin Trinlé, penned
verses to be inserted before and after (mgo mjug gi tshig[s] bcad) the text.6 The
meaning of the dhāraṇī’s words was also commented on by Ngawang
Nyima (1907–90), a Mongolian geshé who was an abbot of the Gomang
college at Drepung Monastery.7 That this short dhāraṇī text inspired a
number of notable masters to write on it speaks to the relative prominence it
maintained in Tibetan monasteries throughout history. Beyond these, there
are numerous references to the dhāraṇī as a part of larger liturgies, as a
member of records of transmissions received (gsan yig, thob yig), and in other
textual records.
i.9 To the best of our knowledge, The Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” has not been
the subject of any in-depth academic studies in modern times. Zsuzsa Majer
does, however, observe that the nineteenth-century Russian explorer A. M.
Pozdneev records in his travelog of the Khalkha Mongol lands that The
Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge” was performed in funerary rites. Despite this,
Majer writes that she never witnessed its performance during her fieldwork,
which was undertaken on modern Mongolian Buddhist postmortem rites
between 2016 and 2017.8 Uranchimeg Tsultemin also mentions in her
examination of the iconography of Maitreya in Mongolian art that
Agwaankhaidav (ngag dbang mkhas grub, 1779–1839), the Mongolian abbot
of Ikh Khüree, taught a longevity and transference (’pho ba) practice
predicated on extensive accumulations of the dhāraṇī.
i.10 Our translation used the versions of the dhāraṇī preserved in the Degé
Kangyur as our source text. We also consulted the variant readings found in
the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok Palace
Manuscript Kangyur.
The Noble Dhāraṇī
Maitreya’s Pledge
1. The Translation
[F.127.b]

1.1 Homage to the Three Jewels.

Homage to Maitreya the Victorious One.

1.2 namo ratna trayāya | namo bhagavate | śākyamunaye | tathāgatāya | arhate


samyaksaṃbuddhāya | tadyathā | oṃ ajite ajite | aparājite9 | ajitaṃ jaya | hara
hara | maitri avalokite | kara kara | mahāsamayasiddhe | bhara bhara | mahābodhi-
maṇḍabīje | smara smara | asmakaṃ samaya bodhi bodhi | mahābodhi svāhā | |10

This was the root mantra.

1.3 oṃ mohi mohi | mahāmohi svāhā | |11

This was the heart mantra.

1.4 oṃ muni muni smara svāhā | |12

This was the auxiliary heart mantra.

1.5 “Once I have fully awakened to unsurpassed and perfectly complete


enlightenment, I will be certain to search out any being who simply hears,
recites, chants, correctly contemplates, or meditates on this dhāraṇī and offer
them a prophecy for unsurpassed and perfectly complete enlightenment.
Even if this dhāraṇī is recited into the ear of a deer or bird from the animal
realm, they will also receive a prophecy for unsurpassed and perfectly
complete enlightenment. Whoever merely hears this will never go to the
lower realms, nor will they be stained by the dirt of the lower realms. They
will not be reborn in a mother’s womb. They will become a universal
monarch for a thousand divine eons. [F.128.a] They will inhabit the path of
the ten virtuous actions. Whichever material enjoyments they wish for and
seek will appear for them. I, a blessed one, will never forget that being.
Having reached the seat of awakening, I will absolutely provide them, no
matter who they are, a prophecy for unsurpassed and perfectly complete
enlightenment.”

1.6 This completes The Noble Dhāraṇī “Maitreya’s Pledge.”


c. Colophon
c.1 Translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian preceptor Vajrapāṇi and the
Tibetan translator-monk Chökyi Sherap.
n. NOTES
n.1 Note that there is a discrepancy among various databases for cataloging the
Toh 890 version of this text within vol. 100 or 101 of the Degé Kangyur. See
Toh 890, n.1 (https://read.84000.co/translation/toh890.html# UT22084-091-
040-114), for details.

n.2 See: Hidas 2021. The ten manuscripts of Matireya’s Pledge in Sanskrit are:
A.4 University of Tokyo Library, Ms. 2015
A.6 Private collection Ms., Kathmandu = NGMPP E 1774–310
A.7 National Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. NAK 5/31 = NGMPP B 107–1411
A.8 Unspecified collection Ms. and Asha Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. 250713
A.10 Asha Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. No. 2566
A.11 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Ms. No. 6224
A.13 Private collection Ms., Kathmandu = NGMPP E 614–327
A.14 University of Tokyo Library, Ms. 41929
A.16 Toyo Bunko, Tokyo, Ms. No. 1334
A.18 National Archives, Kathmandu, Ms. NAK 3/641 = NGMPP A 131–1044

n.3 Cishi pusa shiyuan tuoluoni jing 慈⽒菩薩誓願陀羅尼經 (Maitreyapratijñādhāraṇī),


Taishō 1143 (CBETA (https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T1143); SAT
(https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2018/T1143.html)).

n.4 Schaeffer 2005, p. 63.

n.5 Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso (tA la’I bla ma sku phreng lnga
pa ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho). byams pas dam bcas pa’i gzungs kyi rjes
su ’don rgyu’i smon lam tshigs bcad [An Aspiration in Verse to Accompany the
Recitation of “The Dhāraṇī of Maitreya’s Pledge”]. In gsung ’bum ngag dbang
blo bzang rgya mtsho, vol. 24, Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang,
2009, pp. 332–33. BDRC MW1PD107937_C8131D
(https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW1PD107937_C8131D).
Khenpo Jamlo (mkhan po ’jam blo), ed. byams pas dam bcas pa’i gzungs smon
n.6
tshig dang bcas pa [The Dhāraṇī of Maitreya’s Pledge and Aspiration]. In dpal
sa skya ba’i chos sde nA lendra’i gdan rabs rim byon gyi gsung ’bum, vol. 6, Lhasa:
bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 2016, pp. 205–6. BDRC
MW3CN3418_2AF43E
(https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW3CN3418_2AF43E).

n.7 Ngawang Nyima (ngag dbang nyi ma). byams pas dam bca’ pa’i gzungs kyi
sngags don [The Meaning of the Mantras in “The Dhāraṇī of Maitreya’s
Pledge”]. In gsung ’bum ngag dbang nyi ma, vol. 3, Drepung Gomang Library,
2003, pp. 595–96. BDRC MW28809_8FC1BA
(https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW28809_8FC1BA).

n.8 Majer 2017, p. 71.

n.9 Toh 643: aparājite is absent in C, K, KY, and L. Toh 890: aparājite is absent in C,
K, KY, and L.

n.10 Provisional English translation: “Homage to the Three Jewels. Homage to


the blessed, thus-gone, worthy, perfect Buddha Śākyamuni. It is thus: Oṃ.
Invincible One, Invincible One. Indomitable One. Conquer the unconquered.
Capture, capture. Loving One. All-Seeing One. Bestow, bestow. The
accomplishment of the great pledge. Increase, increase. The essence seed of
great awakening. Remember, remember. Our pledge, awakening,
awakening, great awakening. Svāhā.”

n.11 Provisional English translation: “Oṃ. Deluder, deluder. Great deluder.


Cleared away. Svāhā.”

n.12 Provisional English translation: “Oṃ. Sage, sage. Recollect. Svāhā.”


b. BIBLIOGRAPHY
’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Āryamaitreyapratijñānāma-
dhāraṇī). Toh 653, Degé Kangyur vol. 91 (rgyud ’bum, ba), folios 127.b–
128.a.

’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs (Āryamaitreyapratijñānāma-
dhāraṇī). Toh 890, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folios 165.b–166.a.

’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’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. 462–64.

’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’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. 485–87.

’phags pa byams pas dam bcas pa zhes bya ba’i gzungs. Stok Palace Kangyur vol.
105 (rgyud ’bum, pha), folios 86.a–87.b.

Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub). byams pa’i dam bcas pa’i sngags. In
The Collected Works of Bu-Ston, vol. 16 (ma), pp. 365–99. New Delhi:
International Academy of Indian Culture, 1965–71. BDRC W22106
(https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:W22106).

Chandra, Lokesh, ed. Sanskrit Texts from the Imperial Palace at Peking in the
Manchurian Chinese Mongolian and Tibetan Scripts. New Delhi: Institute for
the Advancement of Science and Culture, 1966.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the
Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.

Losang Norbu Shastri. Śatagāthā of Ācārya Vararuci (Sanskrit Restoration, Tibetan


Text, along with English and Hindi translations). Varanasi: Central Institute of
Higher Tibetan Studies, 2001.

Majer, Zsuzsa. “On After-Death Ritual Texts Mentioned by Travellers (A. M.


Pozdneev and Bálint Gábor of Szentkatolna).” In Mongolica Pragensia, 2017,
vol. 1, pp. 65–92.

Schaeffer, Kurtis R. Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist
Poet-Saint Saraha. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Uranchimeg Tsultemin. “The Power and Authority of Maitreya in Mongolia


Examined through Mongolian Art.” In Buddhism in Mongolian History,
Culture, and Society, edited by Vesna Wallace, 137–59. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015.
g. GLOSSARY

· Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding ·


source language

AS Attested in source text


This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.

AO Attested in other text


This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.

AD Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding
language.

AA Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names
where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested
in dictionaries or other manuscripts.

RP Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering


This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the
term.

RS Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering


This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan
translation.

SU Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often
is a widely trusted dictionary.

g.1 animal realm


dud ’gro

ད་འོ།
tiryak · tiryañc
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, who suffer from gross
ignorance or bewilderment (gti mug, moha). They inhabit the realm of desire
along with human beings.

g.2 Chökyi Sherap


chos kyi shes rab

ས་་ས་རབ།

An eleventh-century Tibetan translator who translated over eighty seven
works in the Kangyur and Tengyur.

g.3 dhāraṇī
gzungs

གངས།
dhāraṇī
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
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.

g.4 lower realms


ngan song

ངན་ང་།
apāya · durgati
A collective name for the realms of animals, hungry ghosts, and denizens of
the hells.

g.5 Maitreya
byams pa

མས་པ།
maitreya
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
The bodhisattva Maitreya is an important figure in many Buddhist traditions,
where he is unanimously regarded as the buddha of the future era. He is
said to currently reside in the heaven of Tuṣita, as Śākyamuni’s regent,
where he awaits the proper time to take his final rebirth and become the fifth
buddha in the Fortunate Eon, reestablishing the Dharma in this world after
the teachings of the current buddha have disappeared. Within the Mahāyāna
sūtras, Maitreya is elevated to the same status as other central bodhisattvas
such as Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara, and his name appears frequently in
sūtras, either as the Buddha’s interlocutor or as a teacher of the Dharma.
Maitreya literally means “Loving One.” He is also known as Ajita, meaning
“Invincible.”

For more information on Maitreya, see, for example, the introduction to


Maitreya’s Setting Out (Toh 198).

g.6 seat of awakening


byang chub kyi snying po

ང་བ་་ང་།
bodhimaṇḍa
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
The place where the Buddha Śākyamuni achieved awakening and where
every buddha will manifest the attainment of buddhahood. In our world this
is understood to be located under the Bodhi tree, the Vajrāsana, in present-
day Bodhgaya, India. It can also refer to the state of awakening itself.

g.7 ten virtuous actions


dge ba bcu’i las

ད་བ་བ་ལས།
daśakuśalakarman
Abstaining from the ten nonvirtuous actions. Namely, abstaining from
killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, lying, uttering divisive
talk, speaking harsh words, gossiping, covetousness, ill will, and wrong
views.

g.8 Three Jewels


dkon mchog gsum

དན་མག་གམ།
triratna
Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:
The Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—the three objects of Buddhist refuge. In
the Tibetan rendering, “the three rare and supreme ones.”

g.9 Vajrapāṇi
badzra pA Ni

བ་་།
vajrapāṇi
An Indian paṇḍita who was born in 1017 and was influential in Tibet.

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