Dharani
A Dharani ( skt. Dhāraṇī) is a text with magical meaning, which mostly symbolically contains the essence of a prayer or a sacred teaching. Dharanis exist in Hinduism as well as in the various Buddhist schools (especially the esoteric ).
It literally means "that by which something is maintained" and often designates Buddhist chants without a logical context. They serve to strengthen the mind (skt. Dharaṇa ), a knowledge or vision gained through meditation . They can embody both the quintessence of a teaching and the experience of a certain state of consciousness . They do not differ in their function from the mantra , but at most in their form, in that they often reach a considerable length. They are primarily a product or aid of meditation: "Through absorption (skt. Samādhi ) one appropriates a truth, through a dhāraāī one fixes and preserves it."
The recitations are in the original language, often Sanskrit. Since they are not read for instruction or edification, but for “conjuring”, it does not matter whether the listener or the reciter understands them. Many dharanis also have a literal meaning, but this is not important. A few sections have been translated. Such are known as shōji in Japanese . Often they were used to “pray healthy” in the event of illness or for exorcistic purposes.
literature
- Braarvig, Jens (1985). Dhāraṇī and Pratibhāna: Memory and Eloquence of the Bodhisattvas, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 8 (1), 17-30 digitized
- Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 241-242. ISBN 9780691157863
- Davidson, Ronald M. (2009). Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature I: Revisiting the Meaning of the Term Dhāraṇī, Journal of Indian Philosophy 37, 97-147
- Davidson, Ronald M. (2014). Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature II: Pragmatics of Dhāraṇīs, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 77, 5-61
- Swami Vivekananda : Yoga aphorisms from Patanjali , Rascher (Zurich) 1937
- Hartmut Weiss: The sources of yoga. Classical texts on body and mind training , Scherz 1986
- McBride, Richard, D., Dharani and Spells in Medieval China, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28 (1), 85-114, 2005 Digitized
Web links
- Entry in the Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous - English
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Anagarika Govinda ; Basics of Tibetan mysticism; Zurich 1956 (Rascher), p. 22f.
- ↑ See e.g. B. the text of the Dharani of great compassion.
- ↑ Tubielewicz, Jolanta; Superstitions, Magic and Mantic Practices in the Heian Period; Warsaw 1980 [diss.]