Taishō no. 1180

Imperially Sanctioned Translation

Trepiṭaka Bodhiruci of Southern India (693)

Translated into English by Shaku Shingan (9.9.2025)

oṃ vākyeda namaḥ!

𑖌𑖼 𑖪𑖯𑖎𑖿𑖧𑖸𑖟 𑖡𑖦𑖾

 [*]This is the six-syllable mantra of Mañjuśrī. Its functions, I shall now explain.[1]

         If one wishes to uphold this mantra and achieve siddhi,[2] they should consume foods such as milk-porridge, vegetables, fruits, and dairy.[3] One must bathe three times daily: the first time after the five night watches, the second after midday, and the third in the evening until early night. At each of these three times, one should bathe once, and afterwards put on a clean robe. Therefore, three clean robes are required.[4] One should recite the mantra until it reaches six hundred thousand repetitions.[5] This is the initial service and offering to Mañjuśrī. Moreover, if one wishes to accomplish siddhi,[6] one must first paint an image of Mañjuśrī. As for the method of painting the image, one should take delicate white felt, ensuring it has no hair or fibres, and avoid cutting or breaking the threads.[7] Colours should not be mixed with glue,[8] but with fragrant juices.[9]

Mañjuśrī should be painted seated upon a lotus throne in the paryaṅkabandha, with the right hand in the gesture of teaching the Dharma, and the left hand resting palm-up in the lap. His body should be depicted in the form of a youth, golden in colour, wearing white celestial garments that cover below the navel, with the rest of the body exposed. He wears a deva crown, necklaces, armlets, bangles, and other adornments.[10] On the left side, paint Avalokiteśvara, silver in colour, adorned with jewels and garments as usual, seated on a lotus throne in the paryaṅkabandha, holding a white whisk in the right hand.[11] On the right side, paint Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, golden in colour, adorned with jewels as usual, also seated on a lotus, holding a white whisk in the right hand.[12] Above Mañjuśrī in the sky, on both sides, paint two devas of the Tuṣita Heaven,[13] holding flower garlands, emerging half-bodied from the clouds and letting the garlands hang down. Below Mañjuśrī, to the right, depict the practitioner who upholds the mantra, kneeling on the right knee and holding a censer[14]. Beneath the lotus seats of Mañjuśrī and the other bodhisattvas, pools of water are painted. On both sides of the bodhisattvas, paint mountains. The painter, from the beginning, should daily observe the eight precepts, bathe, and wear clean clothes, until the completion [of the painting].[15]

If there is a stūpa containing śarīras, then place the Mañjuśrī image in the west side of the stūpa with the image facing the west. If there is no large stūpa, put it on a small stūpa, with the image of Mañjuśrī facing west.[16] Make offerings of various flowers, foods, and fruits three times daily. In the bodhimaṇḍa, light ghee lamps. The bodhimaṇḍa must be in a quiet place, with only one person attending. While reciting the mantra in the bodhimaṇḍa, whatever is required, such as flowers or incense, should be requested by snapping the fingers, not by speaking aloud.[17]

[18]One should prepare aguru incense cut to the length of two fingers, duluba fragrant oil (or turuṣka[19] oil),[20] and smokeless khadira charcoal.[21] If these are unavailable, use purple oak wood instead. One should also burn agaru incense in the oil before the image, with fire on the khadira on the charcoal throughout the night.[22] After one night, when light appears, one will see Mañjuśrī, and all one’s wishes will be fulfilled, except those of lustful desire; apart from these, no wish will be denied.

Otherwise, in front of the image, cut candana into pieces two fingers long, and burn it continuously day and night. At that time, Mañjuśrī will appear and expound the Dharma.[23] All bodily ailments will be removed, and one will attain mastery on the stage of bodhisattvahood.[24]

[25]Otherwise, in front of the image, spread gomaya on the ground, scatter various fragrant flowers, and sit to one side within a prepared boundary. Recite the mantra 108 times. After one month, one will gain intelligence and be able to retain all sūtras and śāstras.

As another rite, daily, at will, recite constantly without forgetting, and thereby one will eliminate karmic retribution.

[26]As another rite, if one recites the mantra 108 times daily, then at the end of life, one will see Mañjuśrī and be reborn according to one’s wishes.

Mañjuśrī, for the benefit of sentient beings, has thus briefly spoken of some of these functions.

Note by Original Redactors

In the Song Canon, there is also a text called The King of the Six-Syllable Vidyā Mantra Sūtra, translated by Bodhiruci. However, in the Khitan Canon, it is absent. According to the Kaiyuan Catalogue, the receptacle contains the Six-Syllable Vidyā Mantra Sūtra translated by Bodhiruci. This corresponds to the sixth fascicle of the Dhāraṇī-samuccaya Sūtra [T901], containing the Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva Mantra Rite, the Five-Fold Mantra Sūtra [T1034], the Six Syllable Dhāraṇī, and so forth, which are all the same text but differently translated. On examination, this sūtra itself is the same; there is no separate Six Syllable Vidyā Mantra Rāja Sūtra, with ten dhāraṇīs, translated by Bodhiruci. When we check in this sūtra, it becomes clear that the name of the translator was mistakenly omitted in the fascicle and later supplied from the Liang catalogue. Because the Song Canon saw the title containing the words “Six-Syllable Vidyā Mantra,” it was mistakenly grouped together here, and thus re-edited into this container. This is an error. Moreover, why was Bodhiruci’s name falsely affixed? Therefore, it is here corrected and removed.

Translator's Notes

[*] Sponsored by and dedicated to Suraj.

This short vidhi, according to the notes in the Korean Canon, was originally part of the Dhāraṇīsamuccaya Sūtra (T901) which containx various versions of Mañjuśrī mantras, which also circulated as separate texts, such as this one, the Five-fold Mantra Sūtra (T1034), and others. There was also, apparently, a mistake in the Kaiyuan Catalogue where this text, translated by Bodhiruci, was listed twice, with the duplicate being claimed to have ten different mantras—this was apparently an error.

         The form of the text as we have it here, appears to correspond directly to a section of the later Mañjuśrīyamūlakalpa (A.K.A. Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa), dated by Matsunaga to 775 CE (cf. Matsunaga 1985; “On the Date of the Mañjuśrı̄mūlakalpa”). This text was translated into Tibetan in the mid 11th century by Śākya Lodrö (Tōh 543) and Chinese by the Kashmiri translator Tianxizai in the late 10th century (T1191). Since the Tibetan has been translated and edited fully in English in 84000’s translation (https://84000.co/translation/toh543), all comparative references to the Mañjuśrīyamūlakalpa (abbrev. MMK) will be made according to their translation. The corresponding section in Chinese can be found starting at T1191.1.835c07 in the Taishō canon.

[1] Line absent in the MMK.

[2] “and achieve siddhi” absent in the MMK.

[3] MMK 29.6 “Living on a diet of solid and liquid dishes of vegetables or barley…”

[4] From “dairy…” until here, MMK29.6 only has “bathing and changing clothes thrice a day.”

[5] MMK 29.6 “one hundred thousand times.”

[6] “Moreover, if one wishes to accomplish siddhi,” absent in MMK

[7] From “accomplish siddhi…” until here, MMK 29.6 has, “Then, one should commission a painter

who is fasting to paint Noble Mañjuśrī on an undamaged cloth with fringed edges.”

[8] Refers to gavyadṛḍha, made from boiling animal skin and bones.

[9] From “threads…” to here, MMK 29.6 has “using uncontaminated paints.”

[10] From start of this paragraph until here, MMK 29.6 has “He sits on a lotus seat and teaches the Dharma in the form of a divine youth, adorned with all the ornaments, with his upper robe over one shoulder.”

[11] MMK 29.7, ““To his left there is Noble Avalokiteśvara with a lotus and a yak-tail whisk in his hands…”

[12]  MMK 29.7. “and to his right, Noble Samantabhadra.”

[13] MMK 29.7 has “vidyādharas…”

[14] MMK 29.7 simply describes this as “Below should be drawn the practitioner, holding an incense holder in his hand.”

[15] This sentence is omitted in MMK 29.7.

[16] This sentence is omitted in MMK 29.8.

[17] From “Make offerings of various flowers…” until here, MMK 29.8 has, “offer a large pūjā, light butter lamps, and cast one thousand and eight flowers of royal jasmine at Mañjuśrī’s face, one at a time, incanting each of them with the mantra. Subsequently, a loud and deep sound of hūṁ will be heard, or the painting will shake. If the sound is heard, one will become a king over the entire earth; if the painting shakes, one will excel among all speakers and will become an adept of all worldly treatises. If one does not succeed [in this], one will become proficient in all rites.” After which it remarks, “This concludes the first rite,” however in this text, it is only the first part of the same rite.

[18] In MMK 29.9, this starts, “One should offer oblations, throughout the entire night…”

[19] I.e., storax.

[20] MMK 29.9 has “of agalloch sticks smeared with mustard oil, more than half a finger long…”

[21] MMK 29.9 has “smokeless embers of cutch firewood.”

[22] From “If these are unavailable” until here absent in MMK 29.9.

[23] MMK 29.10 adds, “One should apply oneself to them with confidence. By doing so…”

[24] For “one will attain mastery on the stage of bodhisattvahood” MMK 29.10 has “[one will be] able to fully exercise one’s own will.” A note adds that “byang chub sems dpa’i sa rjes su thob par ’gyur ro/ Tib. The Tibetan adds a line here that translates as, ‘One will subsequently obtain the bodhisattva levels.’”

[25] The following paragraphs do not have an equivalent in MMK.

[26] This only has some similarity to MMK 29.11.