Fó shuō huājù tuóluóní zhòu jīng 佛說花聚陀羅尼呪經
Sūtra of the Flower-Heap Dhāraṇī Spell by 失譯 (translator unknown)
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous translation, the colophon “失譯人名今附東晉錄” — “translator’s name lost, now appended to the Eastern-Jìn catalog”. Conventional dating bracket: Eastern Jìn 東晉 (317–420). The Taishō editors mark the parallel “[Nos. 1356, 1357, 1359]” — paired with KR6j0586 (支謙 Zhīqiān), KR6j0587 (anonymous, Shīzǐ Fènxùn púsà-frame), and KR6j0589 (Sòng, 施護 Shīhù).
Abstract
The frame is once again the Lake-Anavatapta dragon-king palace setting; the bodhisattva-interlocutor is Shīzǐ Fènxùn 師子奮迅, the same as in KR6j0587 (and not — as in KR6j0586 — Shīzǐ wēi). The merit-of-offering analysis is essentially identical, ending in a long anumodana-style passage: even the gift of one flower, one lamp, one ball of clay applied before a Buddha-image; one bronze coin given for the repair of a Buddha-image; one handful of water sprinkled on a stūpa-floor — by these, aṣṭa-samaya-rebirths and low-caste birth are averted for kalpas innumerable. The Buddha then pronounces the Flower-Heap dhāraṇī. The ritual prescription specifies recitation in months 2, 3 and 8 (rather than 3, 4 and 9 as in KR6j0586) on the bright-fortnight 8th–15th, with vision of the Buddha on the lotus-throne at the conclusion; multiple seven-day periods are permitted if the first does not produce the vision.
The differences in monthly schedule and in the bodhisattva-interlocutor’s gloss of his own name distinguish KR6j0588 from KR6j0587 — the two are not simply duplicate copies — and indicate two genuinely distinct translation events. Nanjio N0383.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.