Fó shuō Shànlè zhǎngzhě jīng 佛說善樂長者經
Sūtra of the Householder Shànlè (Cakṣurviśodhana-vidyā)
by 法賢 (譯)
About the work
A short single-juan dhāraṇī-sūtra translated at the Sòng 譯經院 by 法賢 Fǎxián. The CANWWW reconstruction restores the Sanskrit title as Cakṣurviśodhana-vidyā — i.e. a “spell for the purification/clarification of the eye”. The protagonist 善樂長者 Shànlè zhǎngzhě (“the Householder Suratīnandin / ‘Wholesome-Joy’”) is the Śākya-clan layman whose loss of sight occasions the Buddha’s spell.
Abstract
The Buddha is at Kapilavastu (迦毘羅城). A Śākya-clan householder named Shànlè — devout in the Triratna and committed to the path of the Four Truths — suddenly loses his sight. Facing in the direction of the Buddha, he prays that the World-Honoured One restore his eyes, eye-light, eye-purity, and clear away their darkness, taking refuge in the Tathāgata and the Sugata. The Buddha, hearing him with his divine ear, summons Ānanda and entrusts him with a “secret divine spell” (祕密神呪) to bring to the suffering layman, by which Shànlè and the assembled fourfold saṅgha will obtain peace. The spell-text follows (tadyathā hili mili kili hihetā huyu huyu huyāviti hulu hulu hulu drudrudrudrulo…), and is amplified into a long protective formula appealing in series to the truth-power of the precepts (戒真實力), truth-power of austerities, truth-power of the secret spell, truth-power of dependent origination, and the truth-powers of the Four Noble Truths and the four stages of the śrāvaka-path (從須陀洹到阿羅漢). The dhāraṇī cures all eye-afflictions, including those caused by wind-poison, bile, phlegm, and crusting of the lid (痰毒/癊毒 etc.), restoring sight.
The text belongs to the Sòng dhāraṇī-corpus produced by Fǎxián at the Kāifēng 譯經院 between 982 (Institute opened) and 1000 (Fǎxián’s death); the colophon’s title formula 朝奉大夫試光祿卿明教大師 indicates the period after Yōngxī 4 (987) but before the further title-changes documented in the Sòng huìyào jíběn. The work is a particularly clear example of the “satya-vacana” mode in early Sòng dhāraṇī literature, in which the spell’s efficacy is grounded in a chain of declarations of truth. Recorded in the Dà-zhōng-xiángfú fǎbǎo lù; Nanjio N0905.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.