The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
The progressive increase of virtuous karma. One of the two factors that come together in creating momentum toward a practitioner’s spiritual awakening, the other being the accumulation or equipment of wisdom.
Persistent physical, mental, or emotional obstacles to spiritual progress caused by past deeds.
The sixth of the six perfections, it refers to the profound understanding of the emptiness of all phenomena, the realization of ultimate reality. It is often personified as a female deity, worshiped as the “Mother of All Buddhas” (sarvajinamātā).
A frequently used synonym for buddha. According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata, literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata, “one who has thus come.” Gata, though literally meaning “gone,” is a past passive participle used to describe a state or condition of existence. Tatha(tā), often rendered as “suchness” or “thusness,” is the quality or condition of things as they really are, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms. Therefore, this epithet is interpreted in different ways, but in general it implies one who has departed in the wake of the buddhas of the past, or one who has manifested the supreme awakening dependent on the reality that does not abide in the two extremes of existence and quiescence. It is also often used as a specific epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa’i gzungs (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitādhāraṇī. Toh 576, Degé Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud, pha), folios 202.b–203.a.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa’i gzungs (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitādhāraṇī). Toh 932, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folio 280.b.
sher phyin kau shi ka (Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā). Toh 19, Degé Kangyur vol. 19 (shes rab sna tshogs, ka), folios 142.a–143.b. English translation The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” 2023.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines]. Toh 12, Degé Kangyur vol. 33 (brgyad stong, ka), folios 1.b–286.b.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā). Toh 8, Degé Kangyur vols. 14–25 (’bum, ka–a), folios 1.b (ka)–395.a (a). English translation (partial) The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines 2024.
Abhayākaragupta. byang chub kyi gzhung lam (*Bodhipaddhati). Toh 3766, Degé Tengyur vol. 79 (rgyud, tshu), folios 119.b–127.a.
84000. The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā, shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa, Toh 8). Translated by Gareth Sparham. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
84000. The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” (Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā, sher phyin kau shi ka, Toh 19). Translated by the UCSB Buddhist Studies Translation Group. Online publication. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
Bandurski, Frank. “Übersicht über die Göttinger Sammlungen der von Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana in Tibet aufgefundenen buddhistischen Sanskrit-Texte (Funde buddhistischer Sanskrit-Handschriften, III).” In Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Literatur, edited by Frank Bandurski, Bhikkhu Pāsādika, Michael Schmidt, and Bangwei Wang, 9–126. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Boston: de Gruyter, 2021.
Sāṅkṛityāyana, Tripiṭakâcharya Rāhula. “Sanskrit Palm-Leaf MSS. in Tibet.” Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 21, no. 1 (1935): 21–43.