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.
The Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—the three objects of Buddhist refuge. In the Tibetan rendering, “the three rare and supreme ones.”
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.
so sor ’brang ma chen mo gzung bar ’gyur ba’i gzungs (Āryamahāpratisarānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 588, Degé Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud, pha), folio 204.b.
so sor ’brang ma chen mo gzung bar ’gyur ba’i gzungs (Āryamahāpratisarānāmadhāraṇī). Toh 944, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folio 282.b.
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; Toh 932, Degé Kangyur vol. 100 (gzungs, e), folio 280.b. English translation The Dhāraṇī of “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines” 2024.
so sor ’brang ba chen mo (Mahāpratisarā). Toh 561, Degé Kangyur vol. 90 (rgyud ’bum, pha), folios 117.b–138.b. English translation The Great Amulet 2023.
Abhayākaragupta. byang chub kyi gzhung lam (*Bodhipaddhati). Toh 3766, Degé Tengyur vol. 79 (rgyud, tshu), folios 119.b–127.a.
84000. The Dhāraṇī of “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines” (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitādhāraṇī, shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa’i gzungs, Toh 576, 932). Translated by the Buddhapīṭha Translation Group (Gergely Hidas and Péter-Dániel Szántó). Online translation. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
84000. The Great Amulet (Mahāpratisarā, so sor ’brang ba chen mo, Toh 561). Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online translation. 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 (2010). “Mahāpratisarāvidyāvidhi: The Spell-Manual of the Great Amulet.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 63 (2010): 473–84.
Hidas, Gergely (2021). 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.