The Great Compassion Mantra: 84 lines, chanting, meaning and notes

IBefore you read

In many Vietnamese temples, the bell at four in the morning opens the early morning service, and in that service there is one text that long-time chanters recite without looking at the book. Eighty-four lines, four hundred and fifteen Chinese characters, hardly a line of which the chanter can understand word by word, and yet this is the mantra most widely known by heart in Mahayana Buddhism in Vietnam. Many people who go to the temple only on full moon days recognize its opening line at once: Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da.

The full name of the text is the Thiên Thủ Thiên Nhãn Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát Quảng Đại Viên Mãn Vô Ngại Đại Bi Tâm Đà La Ni 千手千眼觀世音菩薩廣大圓滿無礙大悲心陀羅尼, meaning the dharani of the great compassionate heart, vast, perfect and unobstructed, of the thousand-handed, thousand-eyed Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Vietnamese people call it simply Chú Đại Bi, the Great Compassion Mantra. The word đà la ni is a transliteration of the Sanskrit dhāraṇī, from the verb root dhṛ, to hold. The word chú 咒 is the familiar Chinese name for such a text.

What you should know before reading the full text: this mantra is not Chinese with a meaning. The Tang dynasty translator used Chinese characters to record Sanskrit sounds, and Vietnamese people in turn read those characters in their Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation. So the line Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da is a third layer of sound, two shifts away from the original Sanskrit. The Sanskrit text that went with the Chinese version no longer survives. What people read today is a reconstruction, and the scholars who have reconstructed it do not agree.

This page sets out four columns: the Chinese characters, the chanting reading familiar in Vietnamese temples, the Vietnamese meaning and the English meaning. The library translated both meaning columns itself from the reconstructed Sanskrit, and where a line is only a name or a call, it says exactly that. The library presents this so that you can understand what you hear, not to confirm or refute anyone's belief.

According to the historical record

On the history of the text. The mantra chanted in Vietnamese temples belongs to the Sutra of the Vast, Perfect, Unobstructed Great Compassionate Heart Dharani of the Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, number 1060 in the Taishō canon, which names its translator as Bhagavaddharma 伽梵達摩 (Già Phạm Đạt Ma), a monk from western India. Reference tables of the canon place his translation work in the years 650 to 660, under the Tang dynasty. The mantra does not stand alone but is set within a story: the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara relates that in a distant age he heard this mantra from the Tathāgata King of a Thousand Rays of Tranquil Abiding 千光王靜住如來, vowed to benefit all beings, and at the very moment of the vow his body came to have a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. That is the origin of the image of the thousand-handed, thousand-eyed Guanyin familiar in Vietnamese temples.

Bhagavaddharma's version is not the only one. According to the reference tables, Zhitong had translated a text of the same family in about 627 to 649, Bodhiruci translated one in 709, and later Amoghavajra transmitted a longer version with the Sanskrit written in Siddhaṃ script, numbered 1113b. That long version in Siddhaṃ script is the main basis on which people today reconstruct the Sanskrit. But the version chanted throughout China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan is Bhagavaddharma's short one.

On the number of lines. In the Taishō canon, the mantra of text number 1060 has 82 numbers, while the common chanting version divides it into 84 lines. The first eighty lines coincide. The difference lies in the final passage, which text number 1060 merges into one. The two versions also differ in a few character forms and at line 16, as noted in the commentary.

IIThe full text in eighty-four lines

Bhagavaddharma's Chinese version, divided into 84 lines following the common chanting version, with the chanting reading of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and meanings translated by the library from the reconstructed Sanskrit. The title line and the opening invocation that Vietnamese temples chant before the mantra are given in the section When and how the faithful recite it, and are not counted among the 84 lines.
Verse	Original Chinese transcribing the Sanskrit	Transliteration, as chanted in Vietnamese temples	English	Vietnamese, after the reconstructed Sanskrit
1	南無喝囉怛那哆囉夜耶	Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da.	Homage to the Three Jewels.	Kính lễ Ba Ngôi Báu.
2	南無阿唎耶	Nam mô a rị da,	Homage to the noble	Kính lễ đấng Thánh
3	婆盧羯帝爍鉢囉耶	bà lô yết đế thước bát ra da,	Avalokiteśvara,	Quán Tự Tại,
4	菩提薩埵婆耶	bồ đề tát đỏa bà da,	the bodhisattva,	bậc Bồ Tát,
5	摩訶薩埵婆耶	ma ha tát đỏa bà da,	the great being,	bậc đại sĩ,
6	摩訶迦盧尼迦耶	ma ha ca lô ni ca da.	the one of great compassion.	đấng có lòng thương xót lớn.
7	唵	Án,	Oṃ, the sacred opening syllable, left untranslated.	Án (oṃ), âm thiêng mở đầu, không dịch.
8	薩皤囉罰曳	tát bàn ra phạt duệ,	Amid all fears (reconstructions differ here),	Giữa mọi nỗi sợ hãi (các bản dựng lại đọc khác nhau),
9	數怛那怛寫	số đát na đát tỏa.	the refuge, to that one be homage (readings differ).	là chỗ che chở, kính lễ đấng ấy (các bản đọc khác nhau).
10	南無悉吉栗埵伊蒙阿唎耶	Nam mô tất kiết lật đỏa y mông a rị da,	Having paid homage, I recite this hymn of the noble	Kính lễ xong, tôi tụng bài này của đấng Thánh
11	婆盧吉帝室佛囉楞馱婆	bà lô kiết đế thất Phật ra lăng đà bà.	Avalokiteśvara (the last word is read in several ways),	Quán Tự Tại (chữ cuối câu các bản đọc khác nhau),
12	南無那囉謹墀	Nam mô na ra cẩn trì,	named Nīlakaṇṭha, the Blue-Throated One,	bài mang tên Nīlakaṇṭha, đấng Cổ Xanh,
13	醯唎摩訶皤哆沙咩	hê rị ma ha bàn đa sa mế,	this heart of the spell I shall recite,	tâm chú ấy, tôi sẽ tụng lên,
14	薩婆阿他豆輸朋	tát bà a tha đậu du bằng,	accomplishing every aim, auspicious,	thành tựu mọi điều, tốt lành,
15	阿逝孕	a thệ dựng,	unconquerable,	không gì thắng được,
16	薩婆薩哆那摩婆薩哆那摩婆伽	tát bà tát đa (na ma bà tát đa) na ma bà già,	for all beings, the path of existence (the part in brackets is missing in some versions),	cho mọi loài chúng sinh, con đường hiện hữu (đoạn trong ngoặc có bản có, có bản không),
17	摩罰特豆	ma phạt đạt đậu.	making it pure (readings differ).	làm cho trong sạch (các bản đọc khác nhau).
18	怛姪他	Đát điệt tha.	Thus it goes.	Chú rằng.
19	唵阿婆盧醯	Án a bà lô hê,	Oṃ, O you who look down,	Án, hỡi đấng nhìn xuống,
20	盧迦帝	lô ca đế,	upon the world,	nhìn thế gian,
21	迦羅帝	ca ra đế,	who have gone beyond the world,	đấng vượt lên thế gian,
22	夷醯唎	di hê rị,	O Hari (another reading is the call e hrīḥ),	hỡi Hari (một cách đọc khác là tiếng gọi e hrīḥ),
23	摩訶菩提薩埵	ma ha bồ đề tát đỏa,	great bodhisattva,	bậc đại Bồ Tát,
24	薩婆薩婆	tát bà tát bà,	all, all,	tất cả, tất cả,
25	摩囉摩囉	ma ra ma ra,	remember, remember (some read mala mala),	hãy nhớ, hãy nhớ (có bản đọc là mala mala),
26	摩醯摩醯唎馱孕	ma hê ma hê rị đà dựng,	the heart of the great one,	cái tâm của đấng lớn lao,
27	俱盧俱盧羯蒙	cu lô cu lô yết mông,	do, do the work,	hãy làm, hãy làm việc ấy,
28	度盧度盧罰闍耶帝	độ lô độ lô phạt xà da đế,	hold firm, hold firm, O victorious one,	vững lên, vững lên, hỡi đấng chiến thắng,
29	摩訶罰闍耶帝	ma ha phạt xà da đế,	O greatly victorious one,	hỡi đấng đại thắng,
30	陀羅陀羅	đà ra đà ra,	hold, hold,	giữ lấy, giữ lấy,
31	地利尼	địa rị ni,	O upholder (one reading has dharaṇī, the earth),	hỡi đấng nâng giữ (một cách đọc là dharaṇī, mặt đất),
32	室佛囉耶	thất Phật ra da,	the sovereign lord,	bậc tự tại,
33	遮羅遮羅	giá ra giá ra.	move, move,	chuyển động, chuyển động,
34	摩摩罰摩囉	Mạ mạ phạt ma ra,	O stainless one (one reading has mama, of me),	hỡi đấng không vết nhơ (một cách đọc có chữ mama, của tôi),
35	穆帝隸	mục đế lệ,	of liberated form,	mang hình tướng giải thoát,
36	伊醯伊醯	y hê y hê,	come, come,	hãy đến, hãy đến,
37	室那室那	thất na thất na,	a call (one reading is cut, cut),	tiếng gọi (một cách đọc là chặt đứt, chặt đứt),
38	阿囉嘇佛囉舍利	a ra sâm Phật ra xá lợi,	one reading is: pour forth, spread out (reconstructions differ),	một cách đọc là xin tuôn ra, lan tỏa (các bản dựng lại khác nhau),
39	罰沙罰嘇	phạt sa phạt sâm,	one reading is poison, poison, another is all, all,	một cách đọc là chất độc, chất độc, cách khác là khắp cả, khắp cả,
40	佛囉舍耶	Phật ra xá da,	destroy it (another reading is spread everywhere),	hãy diệt trừ (một cách đọc khác là hãy lan khắp),
41	呼嚧呼嚧摩囉	hô lô hô lô ma ra,	hulu hulu, a call, then mala (one reading is remember),	tiếng gọi hulu hulu, rồi mala (một cách đọc là hãy nhớ),
42	呼嚧呼嚧醯利	hô lô hô lô hê rị,	hulu hulu, a call, O Hari,	tiếng gọi hulu hulu, hỡi Hari,
43	娑囉娑囉	ta ra ta ra,	go, go, flow on,	đi, đi, hãy trôi chảy,
44	悉利悉利	tất rị tất rị,	siri siri, a call with no clear lexical meaning,	tiếng gọi siri siri, không có nghĩa từ vựng rõ,
45	蘇嚧蘇嚧	tô rô tô rô,	suru suru, a call with no clear lexical meaning,	tiếng gọi suru suru, không có nghĩa từ vựng rõ,
46	菩提夜菩提夜	bồ đề dạ bồ đề dạ,	awaken, awaken,	hãy giác ngộ, hãy giác ngộ,
47	菩馱夜菩馱夜	bồ đà dạ bồ đà dạ,	cause to awaken, cause to awaken,	hãy làm cho giác ngộ, hãy làm cho giác ngộ,
48	彌帝利夜	di đế rị dạ,	O loving one,	hỡi đấng từ ái,
49	那囉謹墀	na ra cẩn trì,	O Blue-Throated One,	hỡi đấng Cổ Xanh,
50	地利瑟尼那	địa rị sắc ni na,	by your appearing (one reading),	bằng việc hiện ra cho thấy (một cách đọc),
51	婆夜摩那	ba dạ ma na,	gladden the mind (one reading),	làm cho lòng hoan hỷ (một cách đọc),
52	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā, the closing word: may it be so.	ta bà ha, lời kết nguyện: thành tựu thay.
53	悉陀夜	Tất đà dạ,	To the accomplished one,	Kính dâng đấng thành tựu,
54	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
55	摩訶悉陀夜	Ma ha tất đà dạ,	To the greatly accomplished one,	Kính dâng đấng đại thành tựu,
56	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
57	悉陀喻藝	Tất đà du nghệ,	To the one accomplished in yoga,	Kính dâng đấng thành tựu du già,
58	室皤囉耶	thất bàn ra dạ,	the sovereign lord,	bậc tự tại,
59	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
60	那囉謹墀	Na ra cẩn trì,	To the Blue-Throated One,	Kính dâng đấng Cổ Xanh,
61	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
62	摩囉那囉	Ma ra na ra,	An epithet reconstructed in different ways, with no firm translation,	Danh hiệu, các bản dựng lại đọc khác nhau, chưa dịch chắc được,
63	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
64	悉囉僧阿穆佉耶	Tất ra tăng a mục khê da,	To the lion-faced one,	Kính dâng đấng mặt sư tử,
65	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
66	娑婆摩訶阿悉陀夜	Ta bà ma ha a tất đà dạ,	To the one of every great accomplishment (readings differ),	Kính dâng đấng thành tựu lớn trong mọi sự (các bản đọc khác nhau),
67	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
68	者吉囉阿悉陀夜	Giả kiết ra a tất đà dạ,	To the bearer of the wheel (cakra),	Kính dâng đấng mang bánh xe (cakra),
69	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
70	波陀摩羯悉陀夜	Ba đà ma yết tất đà dạ,	To the one holding the lotus (padma),	Kính dâng đấng tay cầm hoa sen (padma),
71	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
72	那囉謹墀皤伽囉耶	Na ra cẩn trì bàn dà ra dạ,	To the Blue-Throated One, with an epithet read in different ways,	Kính dâng đấng Cổ Xanh, kèm một danh hiệu mà các bản đọc khác nhau,
73	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
74	摩婆利勝羯囉夜	Ma bà lợi thắng yết ra dạ,	To the bearer of the conch (śaṅkha), in many reconstructions,	Kính dâng đấng cầm tù và ốc (śaṅkha), theo nhiều bản dựng lại,
75	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
76	南無喝囉怛那哆囉夜耶	Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da.	Homage to the Three Jewels.	Kính lễ Ba Ngôi Báu.
77	南無阿唎耶	Nam mô a rị da,	Homage to the noble	Kính lễ đấng Thánh
78	婆嚧吉帝	bà lô kiết đế,	Avalokiteśvara (first half of the name),	Quán Tự Tại (nửa đầu danh hiệu),
79	爍皤囉夜	thước bàn ra dạ,	(second half of the name),	(nửa sau danh hiệu),
80	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.
81	唵悉殿都	Án, tất điện đô,	Oṃ, may they be accomplished,	Án, nguyện được thành tựu
82	漫多囉	mạn đà ra,	the mantra	những câu chú
83	跋陀耶	bạt đà dạ,	and its words,	và từng lời của chú,
84	娑婆訶	ta bà ha.	svāhā.	thành tựu thay.

IIICommentary on the key phrases

The section below picks out twelve phrases that form the framework of the mantra, in the order of the full text. For each one it gives the Sanskrit that the Chinese characters record, the meaning according to the reconstruction, and where the versions differ. Every Sanskrit word given here is a reconstructed word, not copied from a surviving original.

南無喝囉怛那哆囉夜耶

Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da

The opening line is the easiest to read for meaning, and almost every reconstruction agrees on it: namo ratna-trayāya, homage to the Three Jewels, that is, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The words nam mô 南無 record namo, homage, taking refuge. The four characters 喝囉怛那 record ratna, jewel, and the three characters 哆囉夜 record traya, a set of three.

Vietnamese chanters say hắc ra because the character 喝 is read hát or hắc in Sino-Vietnamese. That is a trace of three layers of sound laid one over another. The line recurs at line 76, and these two acts of homage frame the mantra.

南無阿唎耶，婆盧羯帝爍鉢囉耶

Nam mô a rị da, bà lô yết đế thước bát ra da

阿唎耶 records ārya, noble one. 婆盧羯帝爍鉢囉耶 records avalokiteśvarāya, the name that Vietnamese people know through two translations, Quán Tự Tại and Quán Thế Âm. Split into avalokita and īśvara, it means the sovereign lord who looks down. Scholars link the name Quán Thế Âm, literally the one who observes the sounds of the world, to a form of the word containing the element svara, sound.

Text number 1060 writes 阿唎㖿, and the chanting version writes 阿唎耶. At line 4, text number 1060 writes 菩提薩跢婆㖿, and the chanting version writes 菩提薩埵婆耶. The pronunciation does not change.

摩訶迦盧尼迦耶

Ma ha ca lô ni ca da

Line 6 records mahākāruṇikāya, to the one of great compassion. 摩訶 is mahā, great. 迦盧尼迦 is kāruṇika, one who has compassion, from the word karuṇā, which Chinese translates as bi 悲.

The name Đại Bi, Great Compassion, given to the whole mantra comes from this very word. In Buddhist teaching, từ, loving-kindness, is wishing others happiness, and bi, compassion, is wishing others free from suffering. The first six lines follow a structure familiar in dharani texts: homage to the Three Jewels, then homage to the Bodhisattva with a string of epithets in the dative case, that is, the form used for offering something to someone.

唵

Án

Line 7 is a single character, recording oṃ, a sacred syllable older than Buddhism, from the Vedic tradition, later used to open a great many mantras in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. Vietnamese chanters read the character 唵 as án.

The syllable has no lexical meaning in the way a noun or a verb does, so the library does not translate it. In this mantra án appears three times, at lines 7, 19 and 81, each time marking a new stage.

南無那囉謹墀

Nam mô na ra cẩn trì

This is the most important phrase for understanding the mantra through the Sanskrit. The three characters 那囉謹墀 record nīlakaṇṭha, where nīla means dark blue and kaṇṭha means throat. The library provisionally translates it as the Blue-Throated One. The name recurs at lines 49, 60 and 72, and scholars call the whole mantra the Nīlakaṇṭha dhāraṇī precisely because of it.

The reconstructions read lines 10 to 13 as one sequence: having paid homage, I shall recite the heart mantra named Nīlakaṇṭha of the noble Avalokiteśvara. The name Blue-Throated is where scholars differ most. In Hindu mythology, Nīlakaṇṭha is an epithet of the god Śiva, who drank the poison that rose up when the gods churned the ocean of milk and held it in his throat, so that his throat turned blue. Some scholars, most notably Lokesh Chandra, see here the trace of a Hindu hymn that Buddhism took in. The Buddhist tradition understands Nīlakaṇṭha as a manifestation of Avalokiteśvara.

薩婆薩哆那摩婆薩哆那摩婆伽

Tát bà tát đa (na ma bà tát đa) na ma bà già

Line 16 is where the versions differ most clearly in the first part. Text number 1060 has only 薩婆薩哆那摩婆伽, while the common chanting version adds the passage 那摩婆薩哆 in the middle. Printed Chinese texts today do not agree on that added passage either: some write 婆薩哆, others 婆薩多. Vietnamese chanting books put the passage in brackets, (na ma bà tát đa). Some temples chant it and some leave it out. The ceremony for peace on the Buddhist Portal, for example, chants only tát bà tát đa, na ma bà già.

The reconstructions usually read this phrase as close to sarva-bhūtānāṃ bhava-mārga, the path of existence of all beings, joined to line 17 to give the sense of purifying that path. The correspondence of sounds here is loose, so the library records it as one reading. This spot also throws off the line numbering in some Vietnamese books. Some books give number 17 to na ma bà già and then merge ma phạt đạt đậu with đát điệt tha as number 18, so the total is still 84. This page numbers the lines according to the Chinese text.

怛姪他

Đát điệt tha

Line 18 records tadyathā, literally thus, as follows. It is a word that signals a change of section: from here on comes the body of the mantra. The Heart Sutra does the same job with meaningful Chinese words, 即說咒曰.

俱盧俱盧羯蒙，度盧度盧罰闍耶帝

Cu lô cu lô yết mông, độ lô độ lô phạt xà da đế

From line 19 the mantra changes tone, becoming a chain of calls and imperative verbs repeated in pairs. Line 27 is reconstructed as kuru kuru karma, do, do the work. Line 28 is dhuru dhuru vijayate, strive on, strive on, O victorious one. The doubling is there to urge, not to add meaning.

The versions differ a great deal in character forms in this passage: 羯懞 or 羯蒙 at line 27, 摩麼 or 摩摩 at line 34, 伊醯移醯 or 伊醯伊醯 at line 36 (the Vietnamese reading y hê y hê follows the latter), and 參 or 嘇 at lines 38 and 39 (the Vietnamese reading is sâm in both cases).

呼嚧呼嚧摩囉，悉利悉利，蘇嚧蘇嚧

Hô lô hô lô ma ra, tất rị tất rị, tô rô tô rô

Hulu hulu, siri siri and suru suru are not words with a clear meaning in Sanskrit. Scholars class them as mantric sounds, rhythmic repeated syllables. The library simply records them as calls, without forcing a meaning onto them. Only line 43, sara sara, can be understood as go, flow. This passage shows why the mantra cannot be translated in full.

菩提夜菩提夜，菩馱夜菩馱夜

Bồ đề dạ bồ đề dạ, bồ đà dạ bồ đà dạ

Lines 46 and 47 are the easiest to recognize in the second half of the mantra, because chanters hear the word bồ đề, bodhi, at once. Bodhiya bodhiya is understood as awaken, awaken, and bodhaya bodhaya as cause to awaken, wake others up. One word is about waking oneself, the other about waking others.

Many commentaries see here the Bodhisattva ideal of awakening oneself and awakening others. The line that follows, line 48, 彌帝利夜, is read as maitriya, from the word maitrī, loving-kindness. Some connect it with the name of the Bodhisattva Maitreya (Di Lặc), but in the flow of the lines most take it as a call to the loving one.

悉陀夜，娑婆訶

Tất đà dạ, ta bà ha

From line 53 to line 75 the mantra is a regular chain: an epithet in the dative case, then ta bà ha 娑婆訶, recording svāhā, a closing word of invocation from Vedic times, close in meaning to may it be accomplished, may it be so. The library's Vietnamese column renders it as thành tựu thay, may it be accomplished.

The epithets in this chain are reconstructed fairly consistently in several places: siddhāya, to the accomplished one, mahāsiddhāya, to the greatly accomplished one, siddha-yogeśvarāya, to the sovereign lord of accomplished yoga, nīlakaṇṭhāya, to the Blue-Throated One, siṃha-mukhāya, to the lion-faced one, padma-hastāya, to the one holding the lotus, and an epithet containing the word cakra, wheel. Line 74 is read by many versions as containing the word śaṅkha, the conch shell trumpet.

The wheel, the lotus and the conch are familiar attributes held in the hands of the god Viṣṇu, while Blue-Throated is an epithet of Śiva, so this is the main evidence for the scholars who see traces of Hinduism in the mantra. The Buddhist tradition understands them as ritual implements held in the many arms of Guanyin. Lines 62 and 72 have difficult sound correspondences, so the meaning columns record them only as epithets.

唵悉殿都，漫多囉，跋陀耶，娑婆訶

Án, tất điện đô, mạn đà ra, bạt đà dạ, ta bà ha

The last four lines are reconstructed as oṃ sidhyantu mantra-padāya svāhā: Oṃ, may these mantra words be accomplished, may it be so. 悉殿都 records sidhyantu, may they be accomplished, 漫多囉 records mantra, the mantra, and 跋陀耶 records padāya, the words, the lines. This is a closing formula found at the end of many dharanis.

Text number 1060 writes this passage with different characters from the chanting version: 唵悉殿都曼哆囉鉢馱耶, using 曼哆囉 instead of 漫多囉 and 鉢馱耶 instead of 跋陀耶, and it merges the whole passage into one number. Most Vietnamese chanting books give mạn đà ra, while some give mạng đa ra.

IVThe reconstructed Sanskrit and two ways of reading

When you ask what the mantra means, you will meet two answers from two approaches. The first traces it back to the Sanskrit. The second follows the Sino-Vietnamese tradition, which understands each line as the image of a Bodhisattva, a deity or a Dharma protector. This section sets out both.

Why a reconstruction is needed

According to the historical record

Bhagavaddharma's Chinese version does not come with the Sanskrit. To recover the original sounds, scholars have to piece them together from the Tang dynasty pronunciation of the Chinese characters, the long version in Siddhaṃ script transmitted by Amoghavajra, and the Tibetan versions. No source matches the short chanted version exactly, so every Sanskrit version today is a reconstruction.

The Indian scholar Lokesh Chandra published a reconstruction in 1979 and a larger study of the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara in 1988. He criticized the view of D. T. Suzuki, the Japanese Zen scholar, that dharanis are mostly calls that convey no clear sense, and argued that the mantra does have meaning, being mainly a string of epithets. He read the name Nīlakaṇṭha, together with the epithets of the wheel bearer, the lotus holder, the conch bearer and the lion-faced one, as traces of epithets of the gods Śiva and Viṣṇu, taken in by Buddhism and applied to Avalokiteśvara. Not every scholar goes as far as he does, and other reconstructions still differ from his in many lines.

Where the reconstructions differ can be seen right in the full text. Lines 38 to 40, 阿囉嘇佛囉舍利，罰沙罰嘇，佛囉舍耶, are read by some as a plea to pour forth and spread everywhere, and by others as a plea to destroy poison, close to a passage in Amoghavajra's long version about destroying the poisons of greed, hatred and delusion. Lines 8 and 9 are read by some as homage to the refuge amid all fears, and by others in a quite different way. Lines 62 and 72 have sound correspondences so difficult that the library can only record them as epithets.

That is why the two meaning columns use phrases such as one reading is and readings differ, to describe the present state of knowledge accurately.

Some key lines with commonly cited Sanskrit readings. The Sanskrit is reconstructed, and scholars do not agree on every line.
Line	Chinese	Reconstructed Sanskrit	Meaning
1	南無喝囉怛那哆囉夜耶	namo ratna-trayāya	Homage to the Three Jewels
3	婆盧羯帝爍鉢囉耶	avalokiteśvarāya	To Avalokiteśvara
6	摩訶迦盧尼迦耶	mahākāruṇikāya	The one of great compassion
12	南無那囉謹墀	nīlakaṇṭha	The Blue-Throated One, the name of the mantra
18	怛姪他	tadyathā	Thus it goes
27	俱盧俱盧羯蒙	kuru kuru karma	Do, do the work
46, 47	菩提夜菩提夜，菩馱夜菩馱夜	bodhiya bodhiya, bodhaya bodhaya	Awaken, cause to awaken
64	悉囉僧阿穆佉耶	siṃha-mukhāya	The lion-faced one
70	波陀摩羯悉陀夜	padma-hastāya	The one holding the lotus
81 to 84	唵悉殿都，漫多囉，跋陀耶，娑婆訶	oṃ sidhyantu mantra-padāya svāhā	Oṃ, may the mantra words be accomplished, may it be so

The second way of reading: each line as an image

The Sino-Vietnamese tradition understands the mantra in another way. Here each line is seen not as a fragment of a Sanskrit sentence but as the name or image of a figure: a Bodhisattva, a heavenly king, a king of spirits, a Dharma protector. A widely circulated set of pictures gives one image to each line, and the Buddhist Portal of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha has republished that set of eighty-four images. In that set, for example, line 7, the syllable án, is drawn as a scene of spirit kings with palms joined, reciting the mantra. The Venerable Hsuan Hua, the eminent Chinese monk who taught the Dharma in the United States, also gave a line by line commentary on the Great Compassion Mantra in this manner.

The two readings answer two different questions. The reconstruction asks what the composer of the mantra meant to say in Sanskrit, and belongs to philology. The imagery reading asks what the chanter should visualize on reaching each line, and belongs to the spiritual practice of a tradition. Using one to refute the other puts it in the wrong place. The library translates the two meaning columns according to the reconstruction because that approach tells what the words mean, but does not regard it as the only correct approach. For most chanters in Vietnamese temples, the imagery reading is the one they were taught.

According to the tradition

The Mahayana tradition itself holds that the mantra is the word of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara himself, and that its power does not depend on whether the chanter understands each word. What matters is the chanter's mind: text number 1060 instructs whoever keeps the mantra first of all to arouse compassion toward all beings.

VWhat the faithful believe and why the sound is kept

The Great Compassion Mantra is chanted widely not only because it is part of the daily services but also because its source sutra says a great deal about its power. This section recounts what the sutra says and what the faithful believe, then turns to a question that newcomers to the temple often ask: if the meaning is known, why not chant the translation?

According to the tradition

The tradition itself holds, following text number 1060, that whoever sincerely keeps the Great Compassion Mantra will receive fifteen kinds of good birth and will not suffer fifteen kinds of evil death. The sutra says that one who chants it five full times in a single night removes the grave sins of birth and death of hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of kalpas. It says this mantra was spoken by past Buddhas as numerous as ninety-nine koṭis times the sands of the Ganges. It records the vow of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara that if anyone who keeps the Great Compassion Mantra is not reborn in a Buddha land, he will not attain full awakening.

The sutra also gives many ways of applying the mantra to specific needs, with the number of recitations stated: recite the mantra seven times over a medicine and apply it to a wound, recite it twenty-one times over a thread, then tie twenty-one knots and wear it around the neck, boil medicine in well water, then recite the mantra one hundred and eight times before the thousand-eyed image and drink it. The faithful believe that keeping the mantra with a sincere heart brings the protection of the Bodhisattva, eases illness, carries them through misfortune and brings peace of mind. The library recounts these things exactly as the sutra records them and as the faithful believe, without confirming or refuting them.

Those promises should also be read within the context of the sutra itself. The sutra sets a condition first: whoever keeps the mantra must arouse compassion, and one passage says that someone who keeps the mantra while still doubting, or without full sincerity, will not obtain these results. Many Dharma teachers stress that the Great Compassion Mantra bears the name of compassion, so chanting it for personal gain without compassion for others runs against its very name.

Why temples keep the sound and do not chant a translation

If most of it can be translated, why do temples still chant Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da rather than Homage to the Three Jewels? The first reason is a principle of translation. Xuanzang of the Tang dynasty set out five cases in which the sound is kept and the meaning is not translated, recorded in the Song dynasty work Fanyi Mingyi Ji 翻譯名義集, and the first case is secrecy, with dharanis given as the example. From that point of view, the power of the mantra is bound to its very sequence of sounds, and translating the meaning loses the sound.

The second reason, as seen above, is that many lines cannot be translated with certainty. If a temple chanted a translation it would have to choose one reconstruction, that is, choose one scholar, while the versions still differ. Keeping the sound avoids that.

The third reason is chanting together: a fixed sequence of sounds lets the whole assembly chant in one rhythm, unchanged from generation to generation. It should also be said that the Vietnamese chanting has moved quite far from the Sanskrit sounds. Some people today chant in the reconstructed Sanskrit, while the tradition of Vietnamese temples keeps the Sino-Vietnamese sounds. The library records both situations, without judging either one to be better.

VIWhen and how the faithful recite it

In Mahayana temples in Vietnam, the Great Compassion Mantra is part of many rites, from the daily services to the major ceremonies. Below are the places where the mantra usually appears, described as an observer would see them.

Early morning service

The chanting session early in the morning, usually around four o'clock. In the common order of service in Vietnamese temples, this session includes the Śūraṅgama Mantra, the Great Compassion Mantra, the Ten Short Mantras and the Heart Sutra, chanted to the rhythm of the wooden fish and the bell.

Personal recitation by count

Many lay Buddhists chant it three, seven or twenty-one times a day, some one hundred and eight times, counting on prayer beads. These numbers have their roots in text number 1060, where the ways of applying the mantra specify seven, twenty-one and one hundred and eight recitations.

Ceremony for peace

In the ceremony for peace published on the Buddhist Portal, the Great Compassion Mantra is chanted three times, after the line Nam mô Đại Bi Hội Thượng Phật Bồ Tát.

Great Compassion water

In many temples a monk chants the Great Compassion Mantra many times over a vessel of water, which is called blessing the Great Compassion water, and lay Buddhists then ask for some to take home to drink or to use when someone is ill. The custom rests on the methods in text number 1060 that apply the mantra to water and medicine. The purification rite that opens major ceremonies also sprinkles water blessed with the mantra around the ritual space.

Great Compassion repentance

In the Song dynasty, Zhili of the Tiantai school composed a rite of repentance centered on the Great Compassion Mantra, usually called the Great Compassion Repentance, which many temples still hold on the feast days of Avalokiteśvara.

The title line and the opening invocation

Vietnamese temples do not start directly with Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da. According to the chanting text published on the Buddhist Portal, the mantra is preceded by the line Nam mô Đại Bi Hội Thượng Phật Bồ Tát 南無大悲會上佛菩薩, chanted three times, meaning homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Great Compassion assembly. Next comes the title line Thiên thủ thiên nhãn, vô ngại Đại Bi tâm đà la ni 千手千眼無礙大悲心陀羅尼, the dharani of the unobstructed great compassionate heart of the thousand-handed, thousand-eyed one. Only then does the first line begin.

These two lines are not among the eighty-four, so they are not placed in the full text table, although in chanting they are recited straight on into the mantra.

Differences from place to place

The same mantra can sound different in two temples. The first reason is that Vietnamese chanting texts record some sounds differently: bà lô kiết đế or bà lô yết đế at line 11, with or without the passage na ma bà tát đa at line 16, bàn dà ra dạ or bàn đà ra dạ at line 72, mạn đà ra or mạng đa ra at line 82. The second reason is regional accent and chanting pace, faster or slower depending on the place.

Outside Vietnam, the mantra is also chanted in China in Mandarin or in regional dialects, in Korea under the name Sinmyo Janggu Daedarani, and in Japan in the Sōtō and Rinzai Zen schools under the name Daihishin Darani, each place reading the Chinese characters in its own pronunciation. Theravada Buddhism does not include this mantra in its daily services.

Which version to chant, how many times and when is a matter for each temple and each lineage. The library only describes it so that you can understand what you hear.

VIICommon misunderstandings

Because the Great Compassion Mantra is widely chanted but few people know its meaning, many things are repeated about it that do not match the text. Below are the five points met most often.

The Great Compassion Mantra is the original Sanskrit

The chanting in Vietnamese temples is the Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese characters that record Sanskrit, that is, a third layer of sound. The line Nam mô hắc ra đát na đa ra dạ da, according to the reconstruction, was originally namo ratna-trayāya.

The mantra has no meaning at all

Most of the mantra has a readable meaning: words of homage, the name of the mantra, calls and imperative verbs, and a string of epithets each followed by ta bà ha. Only some lines are pure mantric calls, and some lines have difficult sound correspondences.

Each line is the name of a deity, and that is the original meaning

Reading each line as the image of a Bodhisattva or a Dharma protector is a genuine tradition of visualization, but it is not the Sanskrit meaning of the line. The two readings answer two different questions.

The 84 lines have been a fixed number since the Tang dynasty

Text number 1060 in the Taishō canon has 82 numbers. The figure 84 is the division of the common chanting version. Some Vietnamese chanting books also number the lines differently from the Chinese text around lines 16 to 18.

Mispronouncing a single sound loses all the effect

The Chinese texts and the Vietnamese readings themselves already differ in many characters. As for its power, the library makes no judgment, noting only that text number 1060 stresses the compassion and sincerity of the chanter.

?Quick Questions

What is the Great Compassion Mantra

It is the dharani in the Sutra of the Vast, Perfect, Unobstructed Great Compassionate Heart Dharani of the Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, in the Chinese version by Bhagavaddharma of the Tang dynasty, number 1060 in the Taishō canon. The mantra is made up of Chinese characters recording Sanskrit sounds, and its main content is homage to the Three Jewels and to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, a series of calls and a string of epithets. Scholars call it the Nīlakaṇṭha dhāraṇī. In Vietnamese temples it is the mantra most widely known by heart, chanted in the early morning service and in many other rites.

How many lines and characters does the Great Compassion Mantra have

The common chanting version divides it into 84 lines, and the Chinese text printed on this page has 415 characters, matching the figure Vietnamese chanting books have long given. Text number 1060 in the Taishō canon has 82 numbers because it merges the final passage into one line. Before the mantra, Vietnamese temples also chant the line Nam mô Đại Bi Hội Thượng Phật Bồ Tát three times and then the title line, and these two lines are not counted among the 84.

What does the Great Compassion Mantra mean

According to the reconstructed Sanskrit versions, the mantra opens with homage to the Three Jewels and to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the one of great compassion, then names itself as the heart mantra Nīlakaṇṭha, the Blue-Throated One. The body is made up of calls and verbs such as remember, do, come and awaken, followed by a string of epithets each with ta bà ha, svāhā, meaning may it be so. The last line prays that the mantra words be accomplished. Many lines are only calls, and the scholars who reconstruct it do not agree on every line. The Sino-Vietnamese tradition also reads each line as the image of a Bodhisattva or a Dharma protector.

What power does chanting the Great Compassion Mantra have

According to text number 1060, whoever sincerely keeps the mantra receives fifteen kinds of good birth and does not suffer fifteen kinds of evil death, and the sutra records the vow of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara that if anyone who keeps the mantra is not reborn in a Buddha land, he will not attain full awakening. The sutra also teaches many ways of applying the mantra to medicine and water, with seven, twenty-one or one hundred and eight recitations. The faithful believe that keeping the mantra sincerely brings protection and peace of mind. The sutra sets compassion and sincerity as conditions. The library recounts this belief and does not vouch for any effect on your behalf.

Why do temples chant the sound of the Great Compassion Mantra rather than a translation

Three reasons are usually given. The translation tradition going back to Xuanzang places dharanis among the texts whose sound is kept and whose meaning is not translated, holding that a mantra's power is bound to its sound. Many lines cannot be translated with certainty, because the original Sanskrit no longer survives and the reconstructions differ. And a fixed sequence of sounds lets the whole assembly chant together in one rhythm, unchanged from generation to generation.