Chanting the Names of Manjushri
Mañjuśrīnāmasamgīti
Chanting the Names of Manjushri (Skt. Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti; Tib. འཇམ་དཔལ་མཚན་བརྗོད་, Wyl. ‘jam dpal mtshan brjod) — a famous praise of Manjushri, sometimes known as the 'king of all tantras'.
In spite of the text's length and difficulty, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö famously memorized it after reading it only once.[1]
Tibetan Text
Chanting the Names of Manjushri
Sixteen Verses on Requesting Instruction
(1) Then the glorious Holder of the Vajra,
The most superb tamer of those difficult to tame,
The hero, triumphant over the world’s three planes,
The powerful lord of the thunderbolt, ruler of the hidden
(2) With awakened white-lotus eye,
Fully bloomed pink-lotus face,
Brandishing over and again
The supreme Vajra with his hand -
(3) Together with countless Vajrapanis,
With features such as brows furrowed in fury,
Heroes, tamers of those difficult to tame,
Fearsome and heroic in form,
(4) Brandishing blazing-tipped vajras in their hands, Superb in fulfilling the aims of wandering beings, Through great compassion, discriminating awareness, And skillful means,
(5) Having happy, joyful, and delighted dispositions,
Yet endowed with ferocious bodily forms,
Guardians to further the Buddhas’ enlightening influence,
Their bodies bowed - together with them
(6) Prostrated to the Guardian, the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All,
The Thusly Gone One, the Fully Enlightened,
And standing in front, his palms pressed together,
Addressed these words:
(7) “O Master of the All-Pervasive,
For my benefit, my purpose, from affection toward me,
So that I may obtain Manifest enlightenment from illusion’s net
(8) For the welfare and attainment
Of the peerless fruit for all limited beings
Sunk in the swamp of unawareness,
Their minds upset by disturbing emotions,
(9) O Fully Enlightened, Vanquishing Master, Guru of Wanderers,
Indicator, Knower of the Great Close Bond and Reality,
Foremost Knower of Powers and Intents,
Elucidate, please,
(10) Regarding the enlightening body of deep awareness of the Vanquishing Master, The Great Crown Protrusion, the Master of Words,
The embodied deep awareness that is self-produced,
The deep awareness being, Manjushri,
(11) The superlative Concert of His Names,
With profound meaning, with extensive meaning,
with great meaning, Unequaled, and supremely pacifying, Constructive in the beginning, middle, and end,
(12) Which was proclaimed by previous Buddhas,
Will be proclaimed by future ones,
And which the Fully Enlightened of the present
Proclaim over and again,
(13) And which, in The Illusion’s Net
Great Tantra, Was magnificently chanted
By countless delighted great holders of the vajras,
Holders of the hidden mantras.
(14) O Guardian, so that I (too) may be a holder
Of the hidden (teachings) of all the Fully Enlightened,
I shall preserve it with steadfast intention
Till my definite deliverance,
(15) And shall elucidate it to limited beings,
In accord with their individual intents,
For dispelling disturbing emotions, barring none,
And destroying unawareness, barring none."
(16) Having requested the Thusly Gone One with these words,
The lord of the hidden, Vajrapani, Pressed his palms together and, bowing his body, stood in front.
Six Verses in Reply
(17) Then the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All, Shakyamuni, the Able Sage,
The Fully Enlightened, the Ultimate Biped,
Extending from his mouth
His beautiful tongue, long and wide,
(18) Illuminating the world’s three planes
And taming the four (mara) demonic foes,
And displaying a smile, cleansing
The three worse rebirths for limited beings,
(19) And filling the world’s three planes
With his sweet Brahma-voice,
Replied to Vajrapani, the magnificently strong,
The lord of the hidden:
(20) “Excellent, O glorious Holder of the Vajra,
(I say) excellent to you, Vajrapani,
You who possess great compassion
For the sake of the welfare of wandering beings.
(21) Rise to the occasion to hear from me, now,
A Concert of Names of the enlightening body of deep awareness,
Manjushri, the great aim, Purifying and eliminating negative force.
(22) Because of that, Overlord of the Hidden,
It’s excellent that I’m revealing it to you;
(So) listen with single-pointed mind.”
“O Vanquishing Master, that’s excellent,” he replied.
Two Verses of Beholding the Six Buddha-Families
(23) Then the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All, Shakyamuni, the Able Sage, Beholding in detail the entire family of great hidden mantra:
The family of holders of hidden mantras and of mantras of pure awareness,
The family of the three,
(24) The family of the world and beyond the world,
The family, the great one, illuminating the world,
(That) family supreme, of (mahamudra) the great seal,
And the great family of the grand crown protrusion,
Three Verses on the Steps of Manifest Enlightenment by Means of Illusion's Net
(25) Proclaimed the verse of the Master of Words,
Endowed with the sixfold mantra king, (Concerning) the nondual source
With a nature of non-arising:
(26) “ A a, i i, u u, e ai, o au, am a:.
Situated in the heart, I’m deep awareness embodied,
The Buddha of the Buddhas
Occurring in the three times.
(27) Om - Vajra Sharp, Cutter of Suffering,
Embodied Discriminating Deep Awareness, Enlightening Body of Deep Awareness,
Powerful Lord of Speech,
And Ripener of Wandering Beings (Ara-pachana) - homage to you.”
Fourteen Verses on the Great Mandala of the Vajra Sphere
(28) Like this is the Buddha (Manjushri), the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All, the Fully Enlightened:
He’s born from the syllable a,
The foremost of all phonemes, the syllable a,
Of great meaning, the syllable that’s deepest,
(29) The great breath of life, non-arising,
Rid of being uttered in a word,
Foremost cause of everything spoken,
Maker of every word perfectly clear.
(30) In his great offering festival, great longing desire’s
The provider of joy to limited beings;
In his great offering festival, great anger’s
The great foe of all disturbing emotion.
(31) In his great offering festival, great naivety’s
The dispeller of the naivety of the naïve mind;
In his great offering festival, great fury’s
The great foe of great fury.
(32) In his great offering festival, great greed’s
The dispeller of all greed;
He’s the one with great desire, great happiness,
Great joy, and great delight.
(33) He’s the one with great form, great enlightening body,
Great color, great physique,
Great name, great grandeur,
And a great and extensive mandala circle.
(34) He’s the great bearer of the sword of discriminating awareness,
The foremost great elephant-hook for disturbing emotions;
He’s the one with great renown, great fame, Great luster, and great illumination.
(35) He’s the learned one, the bearer of great illusion,
The fulfiller of aims with great illusion,
The delighter with delight through great illusion,
The conjurer of an Indra’s net of great illusion.
(36) He’s the most preeminent master of great generous giving,
The foremost holder of great ethical discipline,
The steadfast holder of great patience,
The courageous one with great perseverance,
(37) The one abiding in the absorbed concentration of great mental stability,
The holder of a body of great discriminating awareness,
The one with great strength, great skill in means, Aspirational prayer, and a sea of deep awareness.
(38) He’s the immeasurable one, composed of great love,
He’s the foremost mind of great compassion,
Great discrimination, great intelligence,
Great skill in means, and great implementation.
(39) Endowed with the strength of great extraphysical powers,
He’s the one with great might, great speed,
Great extraphysical power, great (lordly) renown,
Great courage of strength.
(40) He’s the crusher of the great mountain of compulsive existence,
The firm holder of the great vajra;
The one with great fierceness and great ferociousness,
He’s the great terrifier of the terrifying.
(41) He’s the superlative guardian with great pure awareness,
The superlative guru with great hidden mantra;
Stepped up to the Great Vehicle’s mode of travel,
He’s superlative in the Great Vehicle’s mode of travel.
Twenty-five Verses, Less a Quarter, on the Deep Awareness of the Totally Pure Sphere of Reality
(42) He’s the Buddha (Vairochana), the great illuminator,
The great able sage, having great sagely (stillness);
He’s the one produced through great mantra’s mode of travel,
And, by identity-nature, he (himself) is great mantra’s mode of travel.
(43) He has attainment of the ten far-reaching attitudes,
Support on the ten far-reaching attitudes,
The purity of the ten far-reaching attitudes,
The mode of travel of the ten far-reaching attitudes.
(44) He’s the guardian, the powerful lord of the ten (bhumi) levels of mind, The one established through the ten (bhumi) levels of mind;
By identity-nature, he’s the purified ten sets of knowledge,
And the holder of the purified ten sets of knowledge.
(45) He’s the one with ten aspects, the ten points as his aim,
Chief of the able sages, the one with ten forces, the master of the all-pervasive;
He’s the fulfiller of the various aims, barring none,
The powerful one with ten aspects, the great one.
(46) He’s beginningless and, by identity-nature, parted from mental fabrication,
By identity-nature, the accordant state; by identity-nature, the pure one;
He’s the speaker of what’s actual, with speech of no other,
The one who, just as he speaks, just so does he act.
(47) Non-dual, the speaker of nonduality,
Settled at the endpoint of what’s perfectly so;
With a lion’s roar of the lack of a true identity-nature,
He’s the frightener of the deer of the deficient extremists.
(48) Coursing everywhere, with his coursing meaningful, (never in vain),
He has the speed of the mind of a Thusly Gone One;
He’s the conqueror, the full conqueror, with enemies conquered,
A (chakravartin) emperor of the universe, one that has great strength.
(49) He’s the teacher of hosts, the head of hosts,
The (Ganesha) lord of hosts, the master of hosts, the powerful one;
He’s the one with great strength, the one that’s keen (to carry the load),
The one that has the great mode of travel, with no need for travel by another mode.
(50) He’s the lord of speech, the master of speech, eloquent in speech, The one with mastery over speech, the one with limitless words, Having true speech, the speaker of truth,
The one that indicates the four truths.
(51) He’s irreversible, non-returning,
The guide for the mode of travel of the self-evolving rhino pratyekas; Definitely delivered through various (means) of definite deliverance, He’s the singular cause of the great elemental states.
(52) He’s a (bhiksu) full monk, (an arhat) with enemies destroyed, Defilements depleted, with desire departed, senses tamed;
Having attained ease of mind, having attained a state of no fear, He’s the one with (elements) cooled down, no longer muddied.
(53) Endowed to the full with pure awareness and movement, He’s the Blissfully Gone, superb in his knowledge of the world;
He’s the one not grasping for “mine,” not grasping for a “me,”
Abiding in the mode of travel of the two truths.
(54) He’s the one that’s standing at the far shore, beyond recurring samsara, With what needs to be done having been done, settled on dry land,
His cleaving sword of discriminating awareness
Having drawn out the deep awareness of what’s unique.
(55) He’s the hallowed Dharma, the ruler of the Dharma, the shining one,
The superb illuminator of the world;
He’s the powerful lord of Dharma, the king of the Dharma,
The one who shows the most excellent pathway of mind.
(56) With his aim accomplished, his thought accomplished,
And rid of all conceptual thought,
He’s the nonconceptual, inexhaustible sphere,
The superb, imperishable sphere of reality.
(57) He’s the one possessing positive force, a network of positive force,
And deep awareness, the great source of deep awareness,
Possessing deep awareness, having deep awareness of what exists and what doesn’t exist,
The one with the built-up pair of networks networked together.
(58) Eternal, the ruler of all, he’s the (yogi) yoked to the authentic;
He’s stability of mind, the one to be made mentally stable, the master of intelligence, The one to be individually reflexively known, the immovable one,
The primordial one who’s the highest, the one possessing three enlightening bodies.
(59) With an identity-nature of five enlightening bodies, he’s a Buddha;
With an identity-nature of five types of deep awareness, a master of the all-pervasive, Having a crown in the identity-nature of the five Buddhas,
Bearing, unhindered, the five enlightening eyes.
(60) He’s the progenitor of all Buddhas,
The superlative, supreme Buddhas’ spiritual son,
The womb giving rise to the existence of discriminating awareness,
The womb of the Dharma, bringing an end to compulsive existence.
(61) With a singular innermost essence of firmness, by identity-nature, he’s a diamond¬strong vajra;
As soon as he’s born, he’s master of the wandering world.
Arisen from the sky, he’s the self-arisen:
The great fire of discriminating deep awareness;
(62) The great-light (Vairochana,) Illuminator of All, luminary of deep awareness, illuminating all;
The lamp for the world of the wanderers;
The torch of deep awareness;
The great brilliance, the clear light;
(63) Lord of the foremost mantras, king of the pure awareness; King of the hidden mantras, the one that fulfills the great aim; He’s the great crown protrusion, the wondrous crown protrusion, The master of space, the one indicating in various ways.
(64) He’s the foremost one, an enlightening body with the identity-nature of all the Buddhas,
The one with an eye for the joy of the entire wandering world,
The creator of diverse bodily forms,
The great (rishi) muse, worthy of offerings, worthy of honor.
(65) He’s the bearer of the three family traits, the possessor of the hidden mantra, He’s the upholder of the great close bond and of the hidden mantra;
He’s the most preeminent holder of the three precious gems, Indicator of the ultimate of the three vehicles of mind.
(66) He’s the totally triumphant, with an unfailing grappling-rope,
The great apprehender with a vajra grappling-rope,
With a vajra elephant-hook and a great grappling-rope.
Ten Verses, Plus a Quarter, Praising Mirror-like Deep Awareness
He's Vajrabhairava, the terrifying vajra terrifier:
(67) Ruler of the furious, six-faced and terrifying,
Six-eyed, six-armed, and full of force,
The skeleton having bared fangs, Halahala, with a hundred heads.
(68) He’s the destroyer of death (Yamantaka), king of the obstructors,
(Vajravega,) vajra might, the terrifying one;
He’s vajra devastation, vajra heart,
Vajra illusion, the great bellied one.
(69) Born from the vajra (womb), he’s the vajra lord,
Vajra essence, equal to the sky;
Immovable (Achala), (with matted hair) twisted into a single topknot,
Wearer of garments of moist elephant hide.
(70) Great horrific one, shouting “ha ha,”
Creator of terror, shouting “hi hi,”
With enormous laughter, (booming) long laughter,
Vajra laughter, great roar.
(71) He’s the vajra-minded (Vajrasattva), the great-minded (mahasattva),
Vajra king, great bliss;
Vajra fierce, great delight,
Vajra Humkara, the one shouting “hum.”
(72) He’s the holder of a vajra arrow as his weapon,
The slasher of everything with his vajra sword;
He’s the holder of a crossed vajra, possessor of a vajra,
Possessor of a unique vajra, the terminator of battles.
(73) His dreadful eyes with vajra flames,
Hair on his head, vajra flames too,
Vajra cascade, great cascade,
Having a hundred eyes, vajra eyes.
(74) His body with bristles of vajra hair, A unique body with vajra hair,
With a growth of nails tipped with vajras, And tough, (firm) skin, vajras in essence.
(75) Holder of a garland of vajras, having glory,
He’s adorned with jewelry of vajras,
And has long (booming) laughter “ha ha,” with loud sound,
The vajra sound of the six syllables.
(76) He’s (Manjughosha,) with a lovely voice, enormous volume, A tremendous sound unique in the world’s three planes,
A voice resounding to the ends of space,
The best of those possessing a voice.
Forty-two Verses on Individualizing Deep Awareness
(77) He’s what’s perfectly so, the lack of identity-nature, the actual state, The endpoint of that which is perfectly so, that which isn’t a syllable;
He’s the proclaimer of voidness, the best of bulls
Bellowing a roar, profound and extensive.
(78) He’s the conch of Dharma, with a mighty sound,
The gong of Dharma, with a mighty crash,
The one in a state of non-abiding nirvana,
Kettledrum of Dharma in the ten directions.
(79) He’s the formless one, with an excellent form, the foremost one,
Having varied forms, made from the mind;
He’s a glory of appearances in every form,
The bearer of reflections, leaving out none.
(80) He’s the impervious one, with great (lordly) renown,
The great powerful lord of the world’s three planes;
Abiding with a lofty arya pathway of mind,
He’s the one raised on high, the crown banner of Dharma.
(81) He’s the body of youth unique in the world’s three planes,
The stable elder, the ancient one, the master of all that lives;
He’s the bearer of the thirty-two bodily signs, the beloved,
Beautiful throughout the world’s three planes.
(82) He’s the teacher of knowledge and good qualities to the world,
The teacher of the world without any fears,
The guardian, the rescuer, trusted throughout the world’s three planes,
The refuge, the protector, unsurpassed.
(83) The experiencer (of experiences) to the ends of space,
He’s the ocean of the deep awareness of the omniscient mind,
The splitter of the eggshell of unawareness,
The tearer of the web of compulsive existence.
(84) He’s the one with disturbing emotions stilled, without an exception,
The one crossed over the sea of recurring samsara;
He’s the wearer of the crown of the deep awareness empowerment,
Bearer of the Fully Enlightened as adornment.
(85) He’s the one stilled of the suffering of the three kinds of suffering,
The one with an endless ending of the three, having gone to the liberation of the three; He’s the one definitely freed from all obscurations,
The one who abides in space-like equality.
(86) He’s the one past the stains of all disturbing emotions,
The one understanding the three times as non-time;
He’s the great (naga) chief for all limited beings,
The crown of those wearing the crown of good qualities.
(87) Definitely freed from all (residue) bodies,
He’s the one well established in the track of the sky;
Bearer of a great wish-fulfilling gem,
He’s master of the all-pervasive, ultimate of all jewels.
(88) He’s the great and bounteous wish-granting tree,
The superlative great vase of excellence;
The agent fulfilling the aims of all limited beings,
the wisher of benefit, He’s the one with parental affection toward limited beings.
(89) He’s the knower of what’s wholesome and what’s unwholesome, the knower of timing,
The knower of the close bond, the keeper of the close bond, the master of the all- pervasive;
He’s the knower of the faculties of limited beings, the knower of the occasion, The one skilled in the three (kinds of) liberation.
(90) He’s the possessor of good qualities, the knower of good qualities, the knower of the Dharma,
The auspicious one, the source of what’s auspicious,
He’s the auspiciousness of everything auspicious,
The one with the auspicious sign of renown, the famous, constructive one.
(91) He’s the great breath, the great festival,
The great joy, the great pleasure,
The show of respect, the one showing respect, the prosperous one,
The supremely joyous, the master of fame, the glorious one.
(92) Possessor of the best, he’s the provider of the best, the most preeminent, Suitable for refuge, he’s the superlative refuge,
The very best foe of the great frightful things, The eliminator of what’s frightful, without an exception.
(93) Wearing his hair in a bun, he’s the one with a bun of hair, Wearing his hair in mats, he’s the one having matted locks,
He’s the one draped with a munja-grass sacred cord, the one wearing a crown, The one with five faces, five buns of hair,
And five knotted locks, (each) crowned with a bloom.
(94) He’s the one maintaining great taming behavior, the one with shaved head,
The one with celibate Brahma(-like) conduct, the one with superlative taming behavior, The one with great trials, the one who’s completed the trials,
The one who’s taken ablution, the foremost, Gautama.
(95) He’s a brahmin, a Brahma, the knower of Brahma,
The possessor of a Brahma-nirvana attainment;
The liberated one, he’s liberation, the one with the body of full liberation,
The fully liberated one, the peaceful one, the state of peace.
(96) He’s nirvana release, the one with peace, the one released in nirvana, He’s the one most definitely delivered and nearly (brought to an end), The one who’s completed bringing to an end pleasure and pain,
The one with detachment, the one with (residue) body consumed.
(97) He’s the invincible one, the incomparable one,
The unmanifest one, the one not appearing, the one with no sign that would make him seen,
The unchanging, the all-going, the all-pervasive,
The subtle, the untainted, the seedless.
(98) He’s the one without a speck of dust, dustless, stainless,
With faults disgorged, the one without sickness;
He’s the wide-awake one, by identity-nature, the Fully Enlightened,
The Omniscient One, the superb knower of all.
(99) Beyond the nature of partitioning primary consciousness,
He’s deep awareness, bearer of the form of nonduality;
He’s the one without conceptual thought, spontaneously accomplishing (without any effort),
The one enacting the enlightening deeds of the Buddhas throughout the three times.
(100) He’s the Buddha, the one without a beginning or end,
The (beginning) primordial Adibuddha, the one without precedent;
The singular eye of deep awareness, the one with no stains, Deep awareness embodied, he’s the One Thusly Gone.
(101) He’s the powerful lord of speech, the magnificent speaker,
The supreme being among speakers, the ruler of speakers,
The best of those speaking, the very best one,
The lion of speakers, inconquerable by others.
(102) Seeing all around, he’s supreme joy itself,
With a garland of brilliance, beautiful to behold;
He’s the magnificent light, the blazing one (Vishnu, beloved of Shri,) the curl at the heart,
The illuminator with hands (that are rays) of blazing light.
(103) The best of the great physicians, he’s the most preeminent one,
The unsurpassed remover of (thorny) pains;
He’s the celestial tree of all medications, with none left out,
The great nemesis of the sicknesses of disturbing emotions.
(104) He’s the beauty mark of the world’s three planes, the lovely one,
The glorious one, with a mandala of lunar and zodiac constellation stars;
He’s the one extending to the ends of space in the ten directions,
The great ascending of the banner of Dharma.
(105) He’s the unique extension of an umbrella
over the wandering world, With his mandala circle of love and compassion;
He’s the glorious one, the Powerful Lord of the Lotus Dance,
Great master of the all-pervasive, the one with an umbrella of precious gems.
(106) He’s the great king of all the Buddhas,
Holder of the embodiments of all the Buddhas,
Great yoga of all the Buddhas,
Unique teaching of all the Buddhas.
(107) He’s the glory of the empowerment of the vajra jewel,
Powerful lord of the sovereigns of all jewels;
Master of all
(Lokeshvaras,) the powerful lords of the world,
He’s the sovereign of all
(Vajradharas,) the holders of the vajra.
(108) He’s the great mind of all Buddhas,
The one that is present in the mind of all Buddhas;
He’s the great enlightening body of all Buddhas,
He’s the beautiful speech
(Sarasvati) of all Buddhas.
(109) He’s the vajra sun, the great illuminator,
The vajra moon, the stainless light;
He’s great desire, the one that begins with non-desire,
Blazing light of various colors.
(110) He’s the vajra posture of the Fully Enlightened,
The bearer of the Dharma, the concert of the Buddhas;
He’s the glorious one, the one that’s born from the lotus of the Buddhas,
The keeper of the treasure of omniscient deep awareness.
(111) He's the bearer of diverse illusions, he's the king;
He's the bearer of Buddhas' pure awareness mantras, he's the great one; He's the vajra sharp, the great sword, The supreme syllable, totally pure.
(112) He’s the Great Vehicle (Mahayana), the cutter of suffering,
He’s the great weapon, Vajra Dharma;
He’s (Jinajik,) the triumph of the triumphant, vajra profound,
He’s vajra intelligence, the knower of things and how they exist.
(113) He’s the perfected state of every far-reaching attitude,
The wearer of all (bhumi) levels of mind as adornment;
He’s the lack of a true identity-nature of totally pure existent things,
He’s correct deep awareness, the core light of the moon.
(114) He’s great diligence (applied), Illusion’s Net,
Sovereign of all tantras, the one that’s superb;
He’s the possessor of vajra (postures and) seats, without an exception,
He’s the bearer of enlightening bodies of deep awareness, without an exception.
(115) He’s the all-around excellent (Samanta-bhadra), he’s excellent intelligence, He’s the womb of the earth (Kshiti-garbha), the support of the wandering world; He’s the great womb of all of the Buddhas,
The bearer of a circle of assorted emanations.
(116) He’s the supreme self-nature of all functional phenomena,
The bearer of the self-nature of all functional phenomena;
He’s the non-arising existent, with purposes diverse,
The bearer of the nature of all existent things.
(117) Great discriminating awareness in a single moment,
He’s the bearer of comprehension of all existent things;
The clear realization of all existent things,
He’s the able sage, with foremost intelligence, the endpoint of that which is perfectly so.
(118) He’s the immovable one, extremely pure, by identity-nature,
The bearer of the purified state of the Perfect, Fully Enlightened Ones;
He’s the one having bare cognition of all Buddhas,
The flame of deep awareness, the excellent clear light.
Twenty-four Verses on Equalizing Deep Awareness
(119) He’s the fulfiller of wished-for aims, he’s superb,
The one totally purifying all of the worse rebirth states;
He’s the ultimate of all limited beings, the guardian,
The complete liberator of all limited beings.
(120) He’s the hero in the battle with disturbing emotions,
the unique one, The slayer of the insolent arrogance of the enemy “unawareness”;
He’s intelligence, bearer of an enamored tone, the one with glory,
Bearer of forms with heroic and disdainful tones.
(121) He’s the one pounding with a hundred clubs in his hands,
He’s the dancer with a pounding-down of his feet;
He’s the one with glory, the user of a hundred (user) hands,
The dancer across (the sectors used in) the expanse of the sky.
(122) He’s the one standing on the surface of the mandala of the earth,
Pressing down on the surface with a single foot;
He’s the one standing on the nail of his large toe,
Pressing down on the tip of Brahma’s (egg-like) world.
(123) He’s the singular item, the item regarding phenomena that’s nondual,
He’s the deepest (truth) item, (the imperishable powerful lord,) the one that lacks what’s fearful;
He’s the item with a variety of revealing forms,
The one that has a continuity of mind and of partitioning consciousness.
(124) He’s joyful awareness of existent things, without an exception,
He’s joyful awareness of voidness, the highest intelligence;
The one gone beyond the longing desires, and the likes, of compulsive existence, He’s great joyful awareness regarding the three (planes of) compulsive existence.
(125) He’s the pure white one - a brilliant white cloud,
With beautiful light - beams of the autumn moon,
With an exquisite (face) - the mandala orb of a (youthful) sun,
With light from his nails - a great (passionate) red.
(126) With sapphire-blue hair knotted on top,
And wearing a great sapphire on top of his locks,
He’s the glorious one with the radiant luster of a magnificent gem,
Having as jewelry emanations of Buddha.
(127) He’s the shaker of spheres of hundreds of worlds,
The one with great force with his extraphysical powerful legs;
He’s the holder of the great (state of) mindfulness as well as the facts of reality,
He’s the ruler of the absorbed concentrations of the four types of mindfulness states.
(128) He’s the fragrance of the love-blossoms on the branches (leading) to a purified state,
(The cream atop) the ocean of good qualities of the Thusly Gone Ones;
He’s the one knowing the mode of travel with the eightfold pathway minds,
The one knowing the pathway mind of the Perfect, Fully Enlightened.
(129) He’s the one having great adherence to all limited beings,
But without having adherence, like the sky;
He’s the one entering the minds of all limited beings,
Having speed in accord with the minds of all limited beings.
(130) He’s the one with awareness of the powers and objects of all limited beings, The one who captures the hearts of all limited beings;
He’s the one with awareness of the items and reality of the five aggregate factors, The one who holds the full purity of the five aggregate factors.
(131) He’s the one standing at the end of every definite deliverance,
The one who’s skilled in that which brings every definite deliverance;
He’s the one standing on the path for every definite deliverance,
The one who’s indicating every definite deliverance.
(132) He’s the one who’s uprooted compulsive existence with its twelvefold links,
The holder of their purification having twelvefold aspects;
Having the aspect of the mode of travel of the fourfold truths,
He’s the holder of the realization of the eightfold awareness.
(133) He’s the points of truth in twelvefold aspects,
The knower of reality in sixteen aspects,
The Fully Enlightened through twenty aspects,
The Enlightened Buddha, the superb knower of all.
(134) He’s the one making knowable millions
Of enlightening emanation bodies of innumerable Buddhas;
He’s the clear realization of everything in a moment,
The knower of the objects of all moments of mind.
(135) He’s the skillful means of the modes of travel of the various vehicles of mind,
The one who makes knowable the aims of the wandering world;
He’s the one who’s definitely delivered threefold, through the vehicles of mind,
The one who’s established as the fruit of (Ekayana,) the single vehicle of mind.
(136) He’s the identity-nature totally pure of the spheres of disturbing emotions, He’s the depleter of the spheres of karma;
He’s the one who has fully crossed over the ocean of currents,
The one who’s emerged from the wilderness by means of the yogas.
(137) He’s the one fully rid of the disturbing emotions, the auxiliary disturbing emotions,
And the general disturbing emotions, together with (all) their habits;
He’s discriminating awareness and great compassion as skillful means,
The one fulfilling the aims of the wandering world, meaningfully (without fail).
(138) He’s the one with objects of all conceptual discernment gotten rid of, The one with objects of partitioning consciousness brought to a halt;
He’s the cognitive object (in reference to) the minds of all limited beings, The one that abides in the minds of all limited beings.
(139) He’s the innermost stand of the minds of all limited beings,
The one who’s passing as the equality of their minds;
He’s the one bringing satisfaction to the minds of all limited beings,
He’s the joy of the mind of all limited beings.
(140) He’s the culminating point of actualization, the one with confusion departed, He’s the one with every mistake dispelled;
He’s intelligence not indecisively wavering, the one that is threefold,
The one (fulfilling) everyone’s aims, with an identity-nature of three constituents.
(141) He’s the object (in reference to) the five aggregate factors, the one throughout the three times,
The one that makes things individually knowable in every instant;
He’s the one with manifest total enlightenment in an instant,
The bearer of all the Buddhas’ self-nature.
(142) He’s the one with an enlightening body that’s incorporeal, the foremost of enlightening bodies,
The one that makes knowable millions of enlightening bodies;
He’s the one exhibiting everywhere a variety of forms,
He’s the great gem, (Ratnaketu,) the crowning jewel.
Fifteen Verses on the Accomplishing Deep Awareness
(143) He’s the one to be realized by all the Fully Enlightened,
He’s the purified state of a Buddha, the peerless;
He’s the one that isn’t a syllable, the one comes forth from hidden mantra’s womb,
The triad of families of great hidden mantra.
(144) He’s the creator of every significance of hidden mantra, He’s the great creative energy-drop, that which isn’t a syllable;
He’s the great void, having five syllables,
And the creative-drop void, having six syllables.
(145) He’s the possessor of all aspects, that which hasn’t an aspect, He’s the bearer of the sixteen creative drops, and half of their half;
He’s the one without phases, beyond count, Holder of the peak of the fourth level of mental stability.
(146) He’s the advanced awareness of the phases of all levels of mental stability, The knower of the families and castes of absorbed concentration;
He’s the one with the enlightening body of absorbed concentration, the foremost of the enlightening bodies,
The ruler of all (Sambhogakaya,) Enlightening Bodies of Full Use.
(147) He’s the one with a (Nirmanakaya,)
Enlightening Body of Emanations, the foremost of the enlightening bodies, Holder of the lineage of Buddha’s emanations;
He’s the one issuing forth various emanations in the ten directions,
The one fulfilling the aims of the wandering world, whatever they may be.
(148) He’s the chief of the deities, the deity over the deities,
The chief of the gods, the overlord of the (devilish) non-gods,
The chief of the immortals, the guru of the gods,
The destroyer, and the powerful lord of the destroyers.
(149) He’s the one with the wilderness of compulsive existence crossed over,
The unique indicator, the guru for the wandering world;
He’s renowned throughout the world’s ten directions,
The master of generous giving of the Dharma, the great one.
(150) Armored with the armor of love,
Coated with a coat-of-mail of compassion,
Wielder of a sword of discriminating awareness and a bow and arrow,
He’s the one who finishes the battle against disturbing emotions and unawareness.
(151) He’s the heroic one, enemy of the (mara) demonic forces, subduer of the maras, The one who brings fear of the four maras to an end;
Defeater of the military forces of all maras,
He’s the Fully Enlightened, the leader of the world.
(152) He’s the one worthy of offerings, worthy of praise, the one for prostration, Worthy of (being honored) forever in paintings,
Worthy of shows of respect, most worthy of veneration, Worthy for homage, the highest guru.
(153) He’s the one traversing the world’s three planes in a single stride, The one striding forth endlessly, just like space;
He’s the one with triple knowledge, (proficiency in the sacred,) clean and
pure, Possessor of the six types of heightened awareness and the six types of close mindfulness.
(154) He’s a bodhisattva, a great-minded (mahasattva),
The one with great extraphysical powers,
the one gone beyond the world;
(Situated) at the endpoint of far-reaching discriminating awareness (prajnaparamita), He’s the one who’s come to reality through discriminating awareness.
(155) He’s the one with all knowledge of self and knowledge of others,
Helpful to all, the foremost person (of all);
He’s the one who’s gone beyond all comparison,
The superb sovereign of knowing and what’s to be known.
(156) He’s the master of generous giving of Dharma, the most preeminent,
The one who shows the meaning of the fourfold (mudra) seals;
He’s the one most fitting to be helped and shown respect by the worldly
And by those traversing the three (pathways of) definite deliverance.
(157) He’s the purity and glory of the deepest truth,
The portion of excellence of the world’s three planes, the great one;
The one bringing all enrichments, the one having glory,
He’s Manjushri, (the lovely and glorious,) supreme among those possessing glory.
Five Verses on the Deep Awareness of the Five Thusly Gone Ones
(158) Homage to you, granter of the best (boon), the foremost vajra;
Homage to you, the endpoint of what’s perfectly so;
Homage to you, the womb of voidness;
Homage to you, the Buddhas’ purified state.
(159) Homage to you, the Buddhas’ attachment;
Homage to you, the Buddha’s desire;
Homage to you, the Buddhas’ enjoyment;
Homage to you, the Buddhas’ play.
(160) Homage to you, the Buddhas’ smile;
Homage to you, the Buddhas’ (shining) laugh;
Homage to you, the Buddha’s speech;
Homage to you, the Buddha’s (state of) mind.
(161) Homage to you, rising from non-true existence;
Homage to you, arising from the Buddhas;
Homage to you, rising from space;
Homage to you, arising from deep awareness.
(162) Homage to you, illusion’s net;
Homage to you, the Buddhas’ dancer;
Homage to you, everything for everyone;
Homage to you, enlightening body of deep awareness.
The Mantras
Om sarva dharma ‘bhava svabhava, / vishuddha vajra chakshu, a a am a:
Om - the total purity of all existents,
By self-nature, non-truly existent,
Through the vajra eye - a a am a:
Prakrti parishuddha: / sarvadharma yad uta / sarvatathagata jnanakaya / manjushri parishuddhitam / upadayeti That which is the completely pure nature Of all existents takes the form, indeed, Of the completely purified Manjushri, The enlightening body of deep awareness of all Thusly Gone
A a: sarvatathagata hrdayam / hara hara om hum hri: / bhagavan jnanamurti / vagishvara mahapacha / sarvadharma gaganamala /suparishuddha dharmadhatu jnanagarbha a:
A a: - the heart of all the Thusly Gone, Take out, take out - om hum hri: Vanquishing master surpassing all, embodied deep awareness, Powerful lord of speech, the great one who ripens,
The complete total purity of all the existents, stainless like space, Womb of deep awareness of the sphere of reality - a:
Five Verses as an Epilogue
(163) Then the glorious Holder of the Vajra, Joyful and delighted, with palms pressed together,
Bowing to the Guardian, the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All, The Thusly Gone One, the Fully Enlightened,
(164) Together with the other guardians of many (varied) sorts, Lords of the hidden, Vajrapanis,
Kings of the furious, Loudly proclaimed these words of praise,
(165) “We rejoice, O Guardian, Excellent, excellent, well said. For us, the great (guardian) aim has (now) been fulfilled, The attainment of a perfect, full enlightenment state;
(166) And for the wandering world also, lacking a guardian, Wishing for the fruit of complete liberation, This excellent and pure pathway mind has been shown, The mode of travel of Illusion’s Net.
(167) This cognitive object indeed of the Buddhas, Having a profound and extensive broad scope, The great aim, fulfilling the aims of the wandering world, Has been expounded by the Perfect, Fully Enlightened One.”
"A Concert of the Deepest Truth Names of the Vanquishing Master Surpassing All, the Deep Awareness Being Manjushri", expounded by the Vanquishing Master, the Thusly Gone One, Shakyamuni, is hereby completed. Translated by Alexander Berzin
Commentaries
In Tibetan
- Ga Rabjampa Kunga Yeshe, [[འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་རྒྱུད་དོན་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ནོར་བུའི་སྒྲོན་མ་]], ‘phags pa 'jam dpal gyi mtshan yang dag par brjod pa'i 'grel pa rgyud don rab tu gsal bar byed pa legs bshad nor bu'i sgron ma
- Khenpo Yönten Gönpo, འཇམ་དཔལ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲྭ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་རྒྱུད་དོན་རབ་གསལ་ཉི་ཟླའི་སྣང་བ་ ‘jam dpal sgyu 'phrul drwa ba'i rgyud kyi mchan 'grel rgyud don rab gsal nyi zla'i snang ba
- Chone Drakpa Shedrup: གསུང་འབུམ་, Vol. 2, p. 368, རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མཚན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་འགྲེལ་གསལ་བ།
Translations
- Davidson, Ronald M. (ed. & transl.) 'The Litany of Names of Manjushri - Text and Translation of the Manjushri-nama-samgiti', in Strickmann (ed.) Tantric and Taoist Studies (R.A. Stein Festschrift), Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises (Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques, vol. XX-XXI) 1981
- Wayman, Alex, Chanting the Names of Manjusri: The Manjusri Nama-Samgiti, Shambhala, 1985
Footnotes
External Links
