觀世音菩薩靈杯圖 The Divine Jiaobei of Guanyin

  In this post I will translate a buddhist divinatory text, The Divine Jiaobei of Guanyin. This occurs as part an appendix to Guanyin's lot oracle 觀音靈簽, or the Divine Lots of the Goddess of Mercy.

高王觀音經 The High King Avalokitesvara Sutra – A bilingual edition

 高王觀音經

THE HIGH KING AVALOKITESVARA (GUAN YIN) SUTRA –

A bilingual edition

This scripture is quite widely spread in China, but is seldom discussed in the west. Continuing in my series of bilingual editions, I have reproduced it here. 

The Chinese text of this edition is Taisho tripitaka No. 2928; It is accessible here 

http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T85n2898_001 

The "Original preface" to the sutra-- which shows how the scripture was revealed to the mortal world is translated here: https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-original-preface-to-high-king.html  In brief, a person wrongly accused of a capital offence had a dream-vision, wherein a monk revealed this Scripture to him. After chanting it a thousand times, the executioner's sword shattered to pieces, saving him. The astonished king who sentenced him to death freed him, and ordered the sutra to be promulgated. 

However, it is precisely because of this revelation, that some buddhists consider it to be an apocryphal sutra偽經. The Taisho Tripitaka puts it under "doubtful sutras 疑似" . For more on this subject  see this post https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-high-king-guanyin-sutra-as.html

Despite these doubts, this sutra was fairly popular in China, as can be evidenced by the numerous editions of this text-- and indeed, one translation into the now-extinct Tangut language. Links to copies of the old sutra will be given at the end of this introduction. 

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I shall feature two translations of this sutra. Both of them are anonymous. The first translation, which I shall call translation A, can be accessed here: 

http://tbsn.org/english2/sutra.php?id=4&keyword=&page=0 

This translation is bilingual.  the Chinese being placed there in pinyin (printed in CAPITALS). This translation is here printed in blue. 

The second, equally anonymous translation I shall call translation B. It  is accessible here https://www.fodian.net/world/2898.html . It is printed in black. 

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 Some of these old woodblock editions can be seen here: 

• - https://books.google.com/books?id=971RAAAAcAAJ&dq=%E9%AB%98%E7%8E%8B%E8%A7%80%E9%9F%B3%E7%B6%93&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=true (Warning: This copy is missing several pages) 
  
• - https://books.google.com /books?id=PVpRAAAAcAAJ&dq=%E9%AB%98%E7%8E%8B%E8%A7%80%E9%9F%B3%E7%B6%93&pg=PP39#v=onepage&q=%E9%AB%98%E7%8E%8B%E8%A7%80%E9%9F%B3%E7%B6%93&f=false (An accordion-style format, but tragically digitized upside down! Also contains several other sutras) 
• - https://books.google.com /books?id=ZDRbAAAAcAAJ&dq=%E9%AB%98%E7%8E%8B%E8%A7%80%E9%9F%B3%E7%B6%93&pg=PP24#v=onepage&q=%E9%AB%98%E7%8E%8B%E8%A7%80%E9%9F%B3%E7%B6%93&f=false , Tragically digitalized back to front! 
• - https://archive.org/details/fojingtang/page/n4/mode/2up A more modern edition 
• - A translation was made into the now extinct Tangut language. A transcription of this translation can be seen here https://wikisource.org/wiki/%F0%97%A3%9B%F0%98%9F%99%F0%97%AF%A8%F0%97%99%8F%F0%98%9D%AF%F0%97%96%B0%F0%97%9A%A9 . for more about it see https://twitter.com/BabelStone/status/1290614705942396931 
• An Extensively annotated 19th century edition: https://books.google.com/books?id=kWApAAAAYAAJ&dq=%E9%AB%98%E7%8E%8B%E8%A7%80%E9%9F%B3%E7%B6%93&pg=PP6#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Great Compassion Sutra (Taisho 1060) A Parallel Chinese-English edtion Part 2: Effects and spells

 This present text is part two of the ... 

千手千眼觀世音菩薩廣大圓滿無礙大悲心陀羅尼經
(乙)

THE SUTRA OF
THE VAST, GREAT, PERFECT, FULL, 
UNIMPEDED GREAT COMPASSION 
HEART DHARANI OF THE 

THOUSAND-HANDED, 

THOUSAND-EYED 

BODHISATTVA WHO REGARDS 

THE WORLD’S SOUNDS 

PART 2

(For part 1 see here )

[Taisho 1060] 

Like the previous post, the Chinese text was taken from  the Taisho Tipitaka, text No 1060. It can be accessed here  http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T20n1060_001 and here http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra10/T20n1060.pdf  as a PDF

The English translation of this work is  by Sifolng Tsun. It was derived from here http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/Sutras17.htm . The previous post had a parallel translation by the Buddhist Text Translation society. However, the section here was found in that book by the BTTS, in part because of the lack of space.

Not that this text is particularly boring-- on the contrary! It contains a huge amount of theurgic and outright magical material. The text lists at length the whole pantheon of deities that will protect the practitioner, and the spiritual powers they can achieve. Near the end of the sutra there is an extensive set of exorcistic rituals involving the sutra, as well as an equally extensive set of medical receipts. (These sections have been marked out with a  ❖  should any magician wish to access them quickly. 

For more modern-- and simpler  rituals involving  the mantra, see here

The Great Compassion Sutra (Taisho 1060) A Parallel Chinese-English edtion Part 1: From the introduction, to the mantra

千手千眼觀世音菩薩廣大圓滿無礙大悲心陀羅尼經
(甲)

 

THE SUTRA OF
THE VAST, GREAT, PERFECT, FULL, 
UNIMPEDED GREAT COMPASSION 
HEART DHARANI OF THE 

THOUSAND-HANDED, 

THOUSAND-EYED 

BODHISATTVA WHO REGARDS 

THE WORLD’S SOUNDS 

Part 1

(For part 2 see here 

In this text, I have aimed to bring together three texts surrounding the 大悲咒- Great Compassion Mantra in Chinese. Although a huge part of contemporary chinese Buddhist practise, it is hardly studied at all. By bringing together these texts, I hope to improve the scholarship  and understanding of this significant part of everyday buddhist ritual. 

This present blog post contains three texts. 

First, printed in black, is the Chinese text of the sutra itself, specifically  the Taisho Tipitaka, text No 1060. It can be accessed here  http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T20n1060_001 and here http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra10/T20n1060.pdf  as a PDF

The first translation, printed in black is by Sifolng Tsun. It was derived from here http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/Sutras17.htm Each entry is headed with an "S"

The second tranaltion is by the Buddhist text translation Society, of  Dharma Realm Buddhist University, USA. It was found in a booklet that was printed in the 1970s, which I scanned into the internet archive. 

https://archive.org/details/guanshiyinpusadabeizouxinjing_images/page/n9/mode/2up. This translation is printed in blue, and each entry headed with a B. The square brackets in the Blue parts indicate page breaks in the original book. 

It is the author's opinion that Sifolng's translation is the slightly better one, if only because it is more complete, translating passages that  B omits. 

This text will only contain the first half of Taisho 1060, or rather the extent that was translated by the Buddhist Text translation Society. The second half should appear in due course.

How to recite the Great Compassion Mantra:

Here is a translation of a short section on the Great Compassion Mantra, taken from the following book https://archive.org/details/84xiangdbz . It is page 52 of the booklet:

念诵法 HOW TO RECITE [THE MANTRA]

一、大悲咒正文右旁，加注英文译音。中英文同时参照，务期任何发心受持着，均能随念易诵。

First: On the left side of the [characters of] the Great Compassion Mantra, romanisation [1] has been added. With the Romanisation  and Chinese side-by-side, anyone who wishes to support the chanting, may easily join in

二、大悲咒中难读之字，大概只有卅二字；其中九字极易辨识，实则只有二十三字。发心人，可先行抄录另识，自易成诵。

Second: There are roughly only 32 hard-to-read characters in the Great Compassion Mantra. Of these, nine of them are easy to identify. This leaves only 22 characters. The sincere should copy them beforehand so that they may recognise e the characters, and thus make recitation easier.

三、练习时，可分读一句二句、或三四五句，各就个性所宜。初可少读几句，入后渐增。全咒可分六段练习：第一次，一至五句；第二次六至十二句；第三次十三至二十二句；第四次，二十三至四十句；第五次，四十一只六十五句；第六次六十六至八十四句完。

Third: When practicing, you can read it one or two sentences at a time, alternately three, four or five sentences at a time- whichever suits you best. You can start by reading a few sentences at a time; gradually increasing as you go along. The whole Mantra can be divided into six parts for the purpose of practice
Part 1: Sentences 1-5
Part 2: Sentences 6-12
Part 3: Sentences 13-22
Part 4: Sentences 23-40
Part 5: Sentences 51-65
Part 6: Sentences 66-84

四、诵时，除焚香顶礼外，应先念「千手千眼观世音菩萨广大圆满无碍大悲心陀罗尼」一遍；再诵咒三遍、或五遍、七遍、九遍，十四九遍，乃至千万遍。咒诵完时至少应该念「南无大悲观世音菩萨」三声，或十声、百声、千声、万声；各随发心。

Fourth: When reciting the sutra, Apart from burning incense and bowing,[2] one should first recite [the words] “The Thousand handed-thousand eyed Buddisatva Guanyin’s Great Completed, unobstructed, and compassionate-hearted Dharani”[3]  once. Then recite the mantra three times, five times, seven times, nine times, forty-nine times, or even ten million times. After completing the recitation, one should at least say “All Hail the Great Compassionate Guanshiyin Pusa” (Nanmo Dabei Guanshiyin Pusa) Thrice, or ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, or even a myriad times, as your piety would demand.

---

[1] Literally “English pronunciation  of the characters”

[2] The word here Ding Li, refers to bending the head and then kneeling https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%A1%B6%E7%A4%BC

[3] This sentence is the title of the mantra itself. In Chinese it is “Qianshou Qianyan Guan shi yin pusa da yuanman wuai dabeixin tuoluoni”

***

At this point, the text of the mantra is given, after which is the following note: 

***

【注】- Note

楞 又音 能

(Leng) is sometimes pronounced “Neng”那 音奴但咒中第十六句内之二那字应读本音 

 那 (Na) is pronounced “Nu”, but the second 那 in the 16^th sentence of the Mantra is still pronounced Na.

阇又音萨: 阇(Du)is sometimes pronounced “Sa”地有音受; 地 (Di) is also pronounced Shou.