Ṣaṇmukhīdhāraṇī
Ṣaṇmukhīdhāraṇī (T. sgo drug pa’i gzungs སྒོ་དྲུག་པའི་གཟུངས།). "The Dharani of the Six Gates". A short text that consists mainly of a dharani taught by Shakyamuni Buddha to an assembly of bodhisattvas.
While the Buddha is abiding in the space above the Shuddhavasa realm with a retinue of bodhisattvas, he urges them to uphold The Dharani of the Six Gates and presents these gates as six aspirations that vanquish the causes of samsaric experience. He then presents the dharani itself to his listeners and instructs them to recite it three times each day and three times each night. Finally, he indicates the benefits that come from this practice, and the assembly praises the Buddha’s words. This is followed by a short dedication marking the conclusion of the text.[1]
According to Pedro Sánchez, this style of dhāraṇī appeared between the third and eighth centuries ᴄᴇ. Since Xuanzang’s Chinese translation dates to 645 ᴄᴇ, this text must have already been available at the beginning of the seventh century. It appears to have enjoyed a certain level of popularity, since we find many copies of it among the Dunhuang documents in Tibetan and Chinese, as well as several Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese commentaries and recitation texts based on it.[1]
One of its commentaries, the Ṣaṇmukhīdhāraṇīvyākhyāna (Toh 3989), appears in the Tengyur and is attributed to Vasubandhu; its Chinese translation is in the Taishō. Its subcommentary (IOL Tib J 430) written by Jñānadatta has been preserved only in Tibetan and Chinese among the Dunhuang manuscripts. According to the colophon of the Dunhuang texts, these Indian commentaries were translated into Tibetan by the Indian paṇḍitas Dharmapāla and Prajñāvarman and the Tibetan translator-monk Yeshé Dé.[1]
Text
The Tibetan translation of this text can be found in the General Sutra section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 141. It is also catalogued as Toh 526 in the Action Tantra section of the Tantra Collection, and as Toh 916 in the Compendium of Dharanis of the Dharani collection.
- English translation:
The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates , 84000 Collection
