Fó shuō yīqiè rúlái mínghào tuóluóní jīng 佛說一切如來名號陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Names of all Tathāgatas by 法賢 (Fǎxián, 譯)
About the work
A short Northern-Sòng dhāraṇī-sūtra translated at the Sòng Institute (譯經院) by 法賢 Fǎxián (= Tiānxīzāi 天息災 before 987). The colophon “西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試光祿卿明教大師臣法賢奉詔譯” carries the full set of his honorific titles, fixing the translation between his elevation as 明教大師 in 982 and his death in 1000. Genre: a buddha-nāma-saṃcaya + dhāraṇī, on the model already established by 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta’s KR6j0578 and 義淨 Yìjìng’s KR6j0579.
Abstract
The text opens at the Bodhi-maṇḍa in Magadha, just after the Buddha’s enlightenment, with eighty thousand bodhisattvas and eighty-four thousand great Brahmā-sons. Avalokiteśvara (Guānzìzài 觀自在) rises and asks the Buddha to permit him to speak the yīqiè rúlái mínghào tuóluóní — “the dhāraṇī of the names of all Tathāgatas” that all Buddhas of the vyūha-kalpa, the bhadra-kalpa and the nakṣatra-kalpa have spoken. The Buddha consents. Avalokiteśvara recites a long list of Buddha-names — Bǎo-shīzǐ-zìzài 寶師子自在 (“Lion-Sovereign-Jewel”), Bǎoyún 寶雲, Bǎo-zhuāngyán-zàng, Shīzǐ dà-yún, Yún shīzǐ, Xūmí, Shīzǐ-hǒu, Shīzǐ-lì, Fànyīn, Shàn-ài, Liánhuá-shàng, Rán-dēng (Dīpaṃkara), etc. — and then the dhāraṇī proper, in transcription with full Sòng-Institute phonetic markers.
The text is one of the smallest of the Buddha-name-list dhāraṇī sūtras translated at the Sòng Institute, and circulated in the early Sòng as part of a set of devotional texts for fast karmic-purification. Together with KR6j0578 and KR6j0579 it shows the continuity of the Buddha-name dhāraṇī genre across the Suí-Táng-Sòng span. Nanjio N0937.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.