འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟགས་དབང་ཕྱག་ག་ཡམ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་གཟངས intro.2

intro.2

The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara” ¹ begins in the city of Vaiśālī, where the Buddha is residing amidst an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra requests that he reveal the powerful dhāraṇī known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, and the Buddha agrees. The Buddha first relates how he had himself received this dhāraṇī in a past life from the brahmin Prabheśvara, who benefited millions of beings by teaching it in Sukhāvatī, the pure land of the Buddha Amitābha. Following this account, Samantabhadra magically speaks the dhāraṇī to the assembly, after which the Buddha encourages the audience to recite it and praises its efficacy. Thus, the dhāraṇī can be divided into four sections: the request to teach the dhāraṇī, the dhāraṇī’s origin story, the dhāraṇī itself, and a praise of the dhāraṇī’s benefits.