Canonical Sources for the Vajrasattva Mantra

I've mentioned that MaitiuO'Ceileachairand I have identified the earliest textual occurrence of theHundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantrain the Chinese Tripiika. Circumstances have meant that Maitiu and I have not been able to write up our notes formally. I know there is considerable interest in this mantra, and the Vajrasattva Mantra continues to be the most popular page on mymantra website. So I thought I would write up some of the basic stuff that we've found, along with transcriptions of the mantra from various Canonical sources. This blog post represents our collaborative effort, but credit for all the observations on the Chinese goes to Maitiu.

The earliest occurrence in the Chinese Canon, which is really the only candidate for the earliest literary use of the mantra, since only the Chinese dated their texts, is in T.866, a collection of mantras related to theSarvatathgata-tattvasagraha(STTS). T.866 was translated into Chinese by Vajrabodhi (ca 671-741) in 723 CE. Stephen Hodge (2003) says that Vajrabodhi acquired his STTS manuscript circa 700 CE, so it had to have been composed before that date.

Two Sanskrit manuscripts of STTS are extant, though both are relatively recent copies. One has been published in facsimile edition (Candra & Snellgrove), and another forms the basis of a critical edition by Yamada (which means that he compares his Sanskrit manuscript with other versions). *seecomments. We also looked at two versions in printed editions of the Tibetan Canon (the Peking and Derge editions) and several other Chinese versions from the Taisho Edition of theTripiaka(e.g. T.873, 875, 884, 1224, 1320, 1956), including Amoghavajra's translation into Chinese (T. 873).

The mantra occurs in the context of a brief introductory paragraph and is followed by another brief paragraph.

Sanskrit text

atha sarvamudr smnya svakyavkcittavajreu vajrkaraavidhivistaro bhavati| yad mudrdhihna ithilbhavati, svaya v muktukmo bhavati, tato'nena hdayena dhkartavy|o vajra-satva-samayam anuplayavajrasatvatvenopatihadho me bhava su-toyo me bhavnurakto me bhavasu-poyo me bhava sarva-siddhi ca me prayacchasarva-karmasu ca me citta-reya kuru hha ha ha ha hoBhagavan sarva-tathgata-vajra m me mucavajr bhava mah-samaya-sattva ||anennantaryakrio'pi sarvatathgatamok api saddharmapratikepak api sarvaduktakrio'pi sarvatathgatamudrsdhak varjasattvadhbhvdihaiva janmanysu yathbhirucit sarvasiddhimuttamasiddhi vajrasiddhi vajrasattvasiddhi v yvat tathgatasiddhi v prpsyant-tyha bhagav sarvatathgatavajrasattva||

Todaro's translation of the Sanskrit.(except for the mantra which is my translation)

"Now an explanation of the rite of the strengthened of all mudrs alike in one's own body, speech and mind thunderbolt is given. When the mudr empowerment becomes weak or when there is a desire for liberation by oneself, then one should be made firm with this mantra:oO Vajrasattva honour the agreement!Reveal yourself as the vajra-being!Be steadfast for me!Be fully nourishing for me!Be very pleased for me!

Be passionate for me!Grant me all success and attainment!And in all actions make my mind more lucid!hha ha ha ha hoO Blessed One, vajra of all those in that state, don't abandon me!O great agreement-being become real!"The Bhagavat Vajrasattva of all the Tathgatas said: "Notwithstanding continuous killing, the slander of all the Tathgatas, the repudiation of the true teaching and even all evil and injury, (by this) the perfection of all the Tathgata's mudrs from the strengthening of Vajrasattva, in the present life as you desire, and all accomplishments, the supreme accomplishment, the thunderbolt accomplishment or the accomplishment of Vajrasattva, up to the accomplishment of the Tathgata, will be attained quickly."

Comments

The reconstructed version of the mantra created on the basis of Sthiramati's work in Jayarava (2010) reflects the extant Sanskrit and Chinese texts of STTS quite well, with only minor differences. It may be that the Tibetans were working from a different source text.

The mantra explicitly allows that someone who has done evil, more or less any kind of evil, will not be prevented from making progress. The Chinese version includes the fiveatekiccaor unforgivable actions. (Giebel p.99). This represents that last phase of turning a tenet of Early Buddhism on its head, i.e. that the consequences of actions are inescapable. This role of the mantra--usually referred to as 'purifying karma'--remains central in the narratives surrounding its use in Tibetan Buddhism. The mantra seems much less prominent in Sino-Japanese Tantric Buddhism, and Vajrasattva (Japanese: Kongosatta) plays quite a different role than in Tibet.

The text refers to the mantra ashdaya, i.e, 'heart mantra' or 'heart essence'.

Both extant Sanskrit versions spellsattvawith onet, i.e.satva; which may indicate some Middle-Indic influence, although the language of this passage appears to conform to Classical Sanskrit norms.

The main difference between this mantra text and the one reconstructed from the Tibetan in Jayarava (2010) is that Yamada hassu-toyo me bhavnurakto me bhavasu-poyo me bhava; where as the Tibetan (and the Chinese texts) transpose the last two phrases:sutoyo me bhava, supoyo me bhava, anurakto me bhava. Note thatbhavnuraktois a coalescence ofbhava anuraktoforced by Sanskritsandhirules (-a a- > --).

Tibetan Versions of the Mantra

The Tibetan texts below are transcribed as they appears in the printed text, including punctuation marks, see also note at the end of this section. The lines of woodblock prints are long, and the mantra goes over a couple of long lines in both cases--difficult to reproduce in this medium so I haven't tried.

Derge Ed.

o badzra satva sa ma ya| ma nu p la ya| badzra satva tve no pa| ti ha d ho me bha ba| su to ya bha ba| a nu ra kto me bha ba| su po yo me bha ba| sa rbba siddhi mme pra ya tsatsha| sa rbba ka rmma su tsa me tsi tta re ya kuru h| ha ha ha ha ho| bha ga vn| sa rbba ta th ga ta| badzra m me nu ca ba dr bha ba ma h sa ma ya satva a

Peking Ed.

| o badzra satva sa ma ya | | ma nu p la ya | badzra sa tva tve no ba | ti ha i ho me bha ba su to yo me bha ba | su po yo me bha ba | a nu rag to me bha ba | sa rbba sid dhi mme pra ya tsatsha .. sarva karma su tsa me | tsi tta re ya ku ru h | ha ha ha ha h bha ga vn | sa rbba ta th ga to | | badzra m me mutsabadzri bha ba ma h sa ma ya satva Peking ed. shows signs of being slavishly copied from a woodblock of a different size. The repeatedshad| | (not to be confused with anyis shad|| ), for example in the first line 'ya | | ma' indicates that the original line ends withya| and the new line starts with |ma. The groups of multipletshegindicate space filling. We've included the exact number oftshegas in the printed text (C.f.Beginning and End Markers in Buddhist Texts).

Tibetan regularly makes several substitutions:va>ba;ja>dza;ca>tsa. In additionrva>rbba;rma>rmma(Derge). Medial nasals are sometimes replaced by anusvra, e.g.muca>mutsa. Both havesatvaforsattva, but so do extant Sanskrit texts.

General anomalies in the Tibetan versions of the mantra are discussed in Jayarava (2010). Particularly the break betweensamayam anuplayabecomingsamaya manuplayafrom an Indic original that would have written individual syllables with no word breaks: e.g. sa ma ya ma nu p la ya(See also the Chinese Siddha script preserved in T. 875 below.) This is quite simply an error, and was probably a mistake of reading rather than listening.

Both texts incorrectly add ashadin the middle ofvajrasattvatvenopatiha. The words arevajrasattvatvena upatihawith asandhi -a u- > -o- (See Jayarava 2010 for more on this).

Chinese Versions of the Mantra

Reconstructing Sanskrit from Chinese is an imprecise art and often relies on knowing what the Sanskrit 'should' say. Chinese transcriptions are not very good at representingvisargaandanusvracan go missing as well (though this might be the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit source material rather than the translators). Some translators indicate vowel length and some don't. Generally Amoghavajra is pretty good and many translators followed his conventions.

The earliest occurrance is T. 866.

T. 866A Summary of Recitations Taken from the Sarvatathgatatattvasagraha(stra)Translation by Vajrabodhi: 11th year of Kaiyuan (), Tang dynasty (CE 723) in Zisheng Monastery (). (fasc. 2)

[each section of the mantra is transliterated and then followed, in parentheses, by a gloss in Chinese]

[0239a12] () ()()()()()()( )() ()( )()() ()()()()()( )o vajra sattvasamaya manuplaya(vajrasattvasamaya please protect me)vajrasattvatvenopatiha(become vajrasattva)dho me bhava(be strong [for] me)sutoyo me bhava(be pleased with me)anurakto me bhava supoyo me bhava sarvasiddhi[there is an extra syllable here gam/kam]me prayaccha(bestow on me all siddhis)sarvakarmasu ca me(and all karmas)citta reya(make me at peace)kuru h ha ha ha ha ho bhagavan sarvatathgata vajra m me muca(please Vajra do not abandon me)vajrbhava(make me the vajra samayasattva)mahsamayasattva Vajrabodhi gives glosses for some parts of the mantra that make it clear that he understandssarvasiddhito mean 'all the siddhis'. I suspect that the punctuation of this line is incorrect and has been moved from directly behind and that these characters should be read together assiddhiorsiddha. It is possible thatsiddhiis a Middle-Indic form ofsiddhn.According to Edgerton (BHSD) when the nasal of -nis retained the vowel is shortened.

Note that the Chinese appears to readvajra sattvasamaya manuplayarather thanvajrasattva samayam anuplayain line with the Sanskrit mss. If this is correct then the error could have occurred on Indian soil and been transmitted to Tibet and China as it was.

T.865(translated by Amoghavajra 753 CE. 1st chapter only)

() () ()

n r lu s d sn m y me n b (yn) yr lu s d d wi n b de s chni li zhu mi p s du sh y mi p n luo ji du mi ps b sh y mi ps x zhn mi b luo y chs ji m s zh mi zh du sh li yo ju l hnga a a a h (yn)p g fn s d t ni du r lu m m mn zhr li p m h sn m y s d (yn)

Amongst the Chinese versions are two which preserve a (corrupt) Siddha version of the mantra. We include one of these for comparison. (The Siddha is written using the CBETA Font which is not aesthetically pleasing but gives us an idea of what Chinese Siddha looks like.)

T.875 []A Ritual Manual of the Mental Recitation of the Lotus Section.Written during the Heian Period (794-1185 CE). From the Sanmitsu Collection of the T-ji.[0326a26] [0326a27]

Transliteration

o va jra sa tva sa ma ya ma nu p la ya va jra sa tva nve no pa ti a d ho me bha va mi su tu uo me bha va a nu ra kto me bh ba sup u o me bha va sa rva si ddhi me pra ya ccha sa rva ka rma su ca me cit ta re ya ku ru h ha ha ha ha ho bha ga va sa rva ta th ga ta va jra m ma mu ca va jr bha va ma h sa ma ya sa tv Be aware that this mantra is corrupted and contains many introduced errors. It is provided for comparison purposes only.

Conclusion

These then are principle canonical sources of theHundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantrain the Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese versions of theSarvatathgata-tattvasagraha. Since the Chinese accurately recorded the date of their translations we can be confident that T. 866 is the earliest translated text in the Chinese Tripiika to contain this mantra. The differences between the various versions are relatively minor, though they suggest that even at the earliest times this text existed in several versions containing these minor differences, i.e. not all the differences are due to translations or scribal error.

All of these canonical versions tend confirm the notion that the mantra was originally written in good Sanskrit rather than the somewhat garbled version in the received Tibetan tradition. The garbling of the mantra forms part of the discussion in Jayarava (2010), as does the tension created by received tradition vs. other forms of authority. However T. 866 suggests that at least some of the errors were present in the Indian tradition already. The fact of the difference between the canonical and received versions of the mantra highlights the conflict of sources of authority in the Buddhist tradition. Though Tantric Buddhism places great emphasis on guru to disciple transmission, which tends to outweigh textual authority; the fact that we now have much greater access to theTripiikaand the knowledge that the mantra has been partially garbled are difficult to ignore for Western converts unconsciously inculcated with the valorisation of textual authority.

The Vajrasattva mantra was set free from this context in the Tibetan Tantric tradition where it performs an important role in purifyingkarmathat might otherwise impede progress on the Buddhist path. In its self this is a fascinating aspect of the history of ideas in Buddhism.

~~oOo~~

Sources

[Taish Revised Tripiaka]

Chandra, Lokesh and Snellgrove, David L.Sarva-tathgata-tattva-sagraha : facsimile reproduction of a tenth century Sanskrit manuscript from Nepal. New Delhi : Sharada Rani, 1981. Online transcriptionDigital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon.http://dsbc.uwest.edu/node/7269

Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association(CBETA) http://www.cbeta.org/

'De-bshin-gegs-pa thams-cad-kyi de-kho-na-id bsdusp-pa shes-bya-ba theg-pa chen-poi mdo (Sarvatathgata-tattvasagraha-nma-mahyna Stra).'The Tibetan Tripitaka Peking Edition. (Ed. D. T. Suzuki) Tokyo: Tibetan Tripitaka Research Institute, 1956. Vol.4, p.233. (a 37a-b)

De-bshin-gegs-pa thams-cad-kyi de-kho-na-id bsdusp-pa shes-bya-ba theg-pa chen-poi mdo (Sarvatathgata-tattvasagraha-nma-mahyna Stra).Derge: The Sde-dge Mtshal-par Bka-gyur: A Facsimile Edition of the 18th Century Redaction of Si-tu Chos-kyi-byu-gnas Prepared under the Direction of H.H the 16th Rgyal-dba Karma-pa. Delhi: Delhi Karmapae Chodhey Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 1976-1979.

Giebel, R. W. (2001)Two Esoteric Sutras. Numata.

Hodge, Stephen.The Mhvairocana-Ambhisabodhi Tantra: With Buddhaguhya's Commentary. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

Jayarava. 'The Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra.'Western Buddhist Review, 5, Oct 2010. Online: http://westernbuddhistreview.com/vol5/vajrasattva-mantra.pdf

Tadaro, Dale Allen.An Annotated Translation of the Tattvasamgraha (Part 1) with an Explanation of the Role of the Tattvasamgraha Lineage in the Teachings of Kukai. Doctoral dissertation Columbia University, 1985.

Weinberger, Steven Neal.The significance of yoga tantra and the "Compendium of Principles" ("Tattvasamgraha Tantra") within tantric Buddhism in India and Tibet. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Virginia, 2003.

Yamada, Isshi.Sarva-tathgata-tattva-sagraha nma mahyna-stra : a critical edition based on a Sanskrit manuscript and Chinese and Tibetan translations. New Delhi : Sharada Rani, 1981 p 95.