請觀音經疏闡義鈔 2.6

2.6

Regarding "dhāraṇī (zhou) is precisely a vow," this explains the meaning of the character zhou in the sūtra title. It means that when the Great Sage spoke this dhāraṇī, it was simply incanting a vow for sentient beings to be like the Buddha, like the solitary wasp incanting the caterpillar. However, since dhāraṇī is Sanskrit, the character zhou corresponds to the Chinese word; the sūtra title presents both Chinese and Sanskrit together, hence saying tuoluoni zhou. If so, why is it said that dhāraṇī translates as "warding off and maintaining"? Answer: the ancients, seeing that secrets were not translated, as with the incantation methods of this land, used the name zhou to translate it, yet this also does not lose the meaning of warding off and maintaining. Why? Since zhou is glossed as a vow, just like the four vows of a bodhisattva, the two vows of pulling out suffering are the meaning of warding off evil, and the two vows of giving joy are the meaning of maintaining good. Hence we know that zhou and warding off and maintaining converge in the same principle.