Xiāochú yīqiè shǎndiàn zhàngnán suíqiú rúyì tuóluóní jīng 消除一切閃電障難隨求如意陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Wish-Fulfilling Dhāraṇī for Removing All Lightning-Disasters
by 施護 (譯)
About the work
A short single-juan dhāraṇī-sūtra translated at the Sòng 譯經院 by 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla, d. 1017). CANWWW alt-titles 隨求如意經 and 消除障難隨求陀羅尼經. The colophon — 西天北印度烏填曩國帝釋宮寺三藏傳法大師賜紫沙門臣施護 — locates Shīhù’s monastic origin at the Indra-bhavana monastery (帝釋宮寺) of Oḍḍiyāna (烏填曩 Uḍḍiyāna / Oḍiyāna) in north-west India.
Abstract
The Buddha is in the precincts at Śrāvastī. He addresses Ānanda: pay close attention; there is a dhāraṇī, the Suíqiú rúyìbǎo (“wish-fulfilling-jewel for that which is sought”), proclaimed by the Tathāgatas of the past as the anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi sūtra; just as I now, ever-compassionate, also proclaim it for the welfare of beings in the heavens and on earth, removing the four directional lightnings (eastern lightning Aga, southern Setu-ru, western Tabra-bha, northern Sona-māṇi — the four cardinal vajra-lightning forms). One who knows their names and dwellings is unharmed by lightning; one who writes and venerates these names is safe. The Buddha then pronounces the vidyā. The text gives a precise ritual codification of the aṣṭa-bhaya (specifically, the lightning-bhaya) protection in the Mahāpratisarā / suíqiú genre. Recorded in the Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù; Nanjio N0798.
Translations and research
For the Mahāpratisarā / suī-qiú dhāraṇī tradition (of which this work is a satellite):
- Hidas, Gergely. Mahāpratisarā-Mahāvidyārājñī: The Great Amulet, Great Queen of Spells. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2012.
- Copp, Paul. The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. New York: Columbia UP, 2014. — for the Chinese suíqiú tradition broadly.