Nine Seed-Syllables Open Nine Gates
The forty-two-syllable liberation begins. Reciting A, Ra, Pa, Ca, Ta, La, Ḍa, Ba, and Ḍha — the first nine of forty-two seed-syllables — each, upon being chanted, opens its own named gate of perfect wisdom.
From A to Ḍha
「唱阿字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名菩薩威德各別境界；唱羅字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名平等一味最上無邊；唱波字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名法界無異相；唱者字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名普輪斷差別；唱多字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名得無依無上；唱邏字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名離依止無垢；唱荼(徒假反)字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名不退轉之行；唱婆字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名金剛場；唱荼字時，入般若波羅蜜門，名曰普輪；……」
"… Reciting the letter A, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named the bodhisattva's own dignity and virtue, each its own distinct domain. Reciting the letter Ra, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named equality, a single flavor, supreme and boundless. Reciting the letter Pa, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named the Dharma-realm without a differing mark. Reciting the letter Ca, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named the universal wheel that severs every distinction. Reciting the letter Ta, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named attaining the unsupported, the unsurpassed. Reciting the letter La, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named free of every support, stainless. Reciting the letter Ḍa (the source supplies a fanqie pronunciation gloss here), he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named the practice of non-retrogression. Reciting the letter Ba, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named the vajra site. Reciting the letter Ḍha, he enters the prajñā-pāramitā gate named the universal wheel … [the list continues]"
This is the arapacana syllabary, a Sanskrit teaching alphabet used elsewhere in the canon (and later famously by Mañjuśrī) as a basic literacy device, here revealed to contain the whole of perfect wisdom within its ordinary letters. The source itself includes a fanqie pronunciation gloss (徒假反) for the seventh syllable, an unusual level of philological care that signals the translator's own concern that these letters be recited correctly, not merely read as meaning.
Part 226 In Progress
Nine syllable-gates are now given in full. The list continues in Part 227.
Continue to Part 227 →