華嚴五十要問答 2.24

2.24

Question: What are the differences among the methods of reciting dhāraṇī incantations in the various teachings?

Answer: The benefits of reciting incantations include eradicating transgressions, generating merit, and even culminating in the functions of benefiting oneself and others, realizing fruits, and so forth. This text is in the final teaching of the triyāna, and is applied generally to the Ekayāna. Why? Because it responds to the dharmadhātu. The Hīnayāna does not have this teaching. Furthermore, there are four kinds of dhāraṇī: 1. Dharma; 2. Meaning; 3. Incantation; 4. Receptivity (kṣānti), also called "restraining receptivity"—knowing that the intrinsic nature and meaning of all speech and all dharmas cannot be obtained is called the dhāraṇī of receptivity. The latter two dhāraṇīs appear in the *Bodhisattvabhūmi*. Furthermore, the ten dhāraṇīs are the text and meaning of the Ekayāna, as spoken in the chapter "Transcending the World." The deployment of mudrās, technical skill, letter-characteristics, and so forth may all be understood by analogy to this.