Qǐng Guānshìyīn púsà xiāofú dúhài tuóluóní zhòu jīng 請觀世音菩薩消伏毒害陀羅尼呪經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī-Spell for Inviting Avalokiteśvara to Eliminate Poison and Harm by 難提 (Nántí, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Eastern-Jìn translation by Nántí (難提 = Zhú Nántí 竺難提, fl. ca. 394–420), one of the most influential of all Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī sūtras in East Asian Buddhist history. The text became the canonical authority for the Qǐngguānyīn 請觀音 repentance liturgy (Qǐngguānyīn chànfǎ 請觀音懺法), which 智顗 Zhìyǐ (538–597) systematised as one of the four foundational Tian-tai 天臺 chànfǎ (repentance) cycles.
Abstract
The text presents a narrative-frame in which the inhabitants of Vaiśālī (毘舍離 / 毗舍離) are afflicted by epidemic disease (dúhài 毒害 — “poison-and-harm”); the Buddha instructs that they are to “invite” (qǐng 請) Avalokiteśvara to descend, present incense and water, and recite the Liùzìzhāngjù tuóluóní 六字章句陀羅尼 (six-syllable phrase-and-clause dhāraṇī) along with three further shénzhòu 神呪 (divine spells). The text thereby provides the canonical authority for two enormously influential later traditions: (1) Zhìyǐ’s Qǐngguānyīn chànfǎ 請觀音懺法 — one of the four foundational Tian-tai repentance liturgies, in which monks invite Avalokiteśvara to remove obstructions to meditation and rebirth; and (2) the broader cult of “inviting Avalokiteśvara” for the elimination of disease, demonic affliction, and karma-obstacles, which became foundational to East Asian popular Buddhist practice. Zhìyǐ’s commentary on the text, the Qǐngguānyīn jīng shū 請觀音經疏 (T1800), is itself one of the canonical Tian-tai works. Listed at Nanjio 449.
Translations and research
- Stevenson, Daniel. “The T’ien-t’ai Four Forms of Samādhi and Late North-South Dynasties, Sui, and Early T’ang Buddhist Devotionalism.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1987.
- Stevenson, Daniel. “Protocols of Power: Tz’u-yün Tsun-shih (964–1032) and T’ien-t’ai Lay Buddhist Ritual in the Sung.” In Buddhism in the Sung, ed. Peter Gregory and Daniel Getz (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 340–408.
- Yü Chün-fang. Kuan-yin. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. — pp. 263–289 specifically on this sūtra and the Qǐngguānyīn liturgy.
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
Other points of interest
The Liùzìzhāngjù tuóluóní preserved in this sūtra is a separate dhāraṇī from the better-known six-syllable Avalokiteśvara mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ (which enters Chinese-Buddhist circulation only via the Kāraṇḍavyūha-sūtra, KR6j0249). The two should not be conflated.
Links
- CBETA T20n1043
- Kanseki DB
- 難提 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (419) — Fajing 法經. Zhongjing mulu 眾經目錄 T2146. T2146 (LV) 116c5.