Liùmén tuóluóní jīng 六門陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Six-Gate Dhāraṇī by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Táng translation by 玄奘 Xuánzàng (602–664), the colophon “大唐三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯”. The Taishō editors mark “[cf. No. 1361]” — i.e. the work has its commentary in KR6j0591 Liùmén tuóluóní jīng lùn attributed to Vasubandhu (世親菩薩 Shìqīn púsà). The dating bracket is Xuánzàng’s translation period, between his return from India in 645 and his death in 664. The text is one of his shortest dhāraṇī translations.
Abstract
The Buddha sits “above the Śuddhāvāsa heaven, depending on space, in a bodhi-maṇḍa adorned with the seven jewels”, with an immeasurable host of bodhisattvas. He pronounces six vows that constitute the “six gates” (liùmén) — for the welfare of beings each phrased as a contrast between the bodhisattva’s own situation and that of beings: “the suffering I undergo in saṃsāra — may beings not undergo the same; the worldly happiness I enjoy — may beings enjoy the same; the evil I commit — let me not preach the supreme dharma until I have first repented; the karmic obstructions I have — let me not raise my mind to the supreme dharma until I have first recognised them; the pāramitā roots-of-good — may beings swiftly attain by them the supreme wisdom-fruit; my own liberation — may beings also attain liberation, with no clinging to either saṃsāra or nirvāṇa”. To this six-fold vow-formula a dhāraṇī is then attached. Recitation of the spell six times daily is held to efface karmic obstruction and accelerate awakening.
The text is doctrinally substantive in the way Xuánzàng’s dhāraṇī-translations characteristically are: the six gates read as an early-Yogācāra meditation-cum-vow programme, not a mere apotropaic spell. This is what makes the 世親 Vasubandhu-attributed commentary KR6j0591 make sense as an upadeśa on it. Recorded in the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù; Nanjio N0796.
Translations and research
- Davidson, Ronald M. “Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature II: Pragmatics of Dhāraṇīs,” Bulletin of SOAS 77.1 (2014), 5–61. — discusses the Liùmén dhāraṇī as an Yogācāra-influenced vow-dhāraṇī.