Mañjuśrīnāmasamgīti Explained
The Mañjuśrī-Nāma-Saṃgīti (hereafter, Nama-samgiti) is considered amongst the most advanced teachings given by the Shakyamuni Buddha. It represents the pinnacle of all Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings, being a tantra of the nondual (advaya) class, along with the Kalachakra Tantra.
The Nama-samgiti was preached by Shakyamuni Buddha for his disciple Vajrapani and his wrathful retinue in order to lead them into buddhahood. The essence of the Nama-samgiti is that Manjushri bodhisattva is the embodiment of all knowledge. The Nama-samgiti is a short text, only circa 160 verses and a prose section. It is a fraction of the vast Sutras such as Avatamsaka Sutra and Prajñāpāramitā Sutras or the endless ocean of tantras such as manjushri-mula-kalpa and the mountainous Hinayana teachings and sea of sundry extra-canonical works. And yet, the Nama-samgiti contains all of the Buddha's dharmas. It summarizes everything he taught. As Shakyamuni Buddha says of the Nama-samgiti, it is "the chief clarification of words". It is the "nondual reality". Therefore, all sentient beings should definitely study and recite the manjushri-nama-samgiti.
Alternative titles
- "manjushrijnanasattvasya-paramartha-namasamgiti" (full Sanskrit title) lit. "The chanting of the names of Manjushri, the embodiment of supreme knowledge"
- Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti ཨཱརྱ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་ནཱ་མ་སཾ་གི་ཏི
See also
Further reading
- Sherdor, Tulku (2012) "The Wisdom of Manjushri: Teachings of the Early Dzogchen Masters on the Tantra, Professing The Qualities of Manjushri" Blazing Wisdom Publications, Delancey, NY. [{{ISBN|978-0-9801730-4-8}}]
- Davidson, Ronald M. (1981) 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 (1985), Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī: The Mañjuśrī-Nāma-Saṃgīti, Shambhala, 1985. [Reprint Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi 2006. {{ISBN|8120816536}}]
- Lāl, Banārasī (1986), Āryamañjuśrī-nāma-saṃgīti:A Text-Analysis in Dhīḥ 1 1986 p. 220–238
- Shakya, Min Bahadur (ed.)(2009), Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṅgīti: Sanskrit and Tibetan texts with their pronunciation, Lalitpur, Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods.
External links