法界次第初門 3.84

3.84

As for explaining the gate of dhāraṇīs next after the various samādhis: if one explains samādhi according to the treatises, it is only a mental concomitant dharma. Dhāraṇī may be either associated with mind or dissociated [from mind]; hence it is distinct from samādhi. If one considers the samādhi of universally manifesting physical bodies explained in the Lotus Sūtra, it is still the dhāraṇī of understanding the languages of all sentient beings. Because samādhi and dhāraṇī are dharmas that mutually accomplish each other, they are explained in succession. Regarding these five hundred being collectively termed dhāraṇīs: dhāraṇī is a word from the Western regions; in this land it is translated as 'able to retain', or it is said to mean 'able to avert'. Saying that it is 'able to retain' means that it gathers various wholesome dharmas and retains them, preventing them from scattering or being lost, just as an undamaged vessel holds water so that the water does not leak or scatter. 'Able to avert' means that when unwholesome and unvirtuous roots arise, it is able to avert them and prevent them from arising; hence it is called 'able to avert'. It is also translated as 'total retention': whatever names, meanings, or merits of the stages of practice there may be, it is completely able to retain them; hence it is named 'total retention'. Now these five hundred all possess the meanings of retaining, averting, and total retention, and are therefore collectively termed dhāraṇīs. As for dhāraṇīs, if explained briefly there are five hundred; if elucidated extensively there are eighty-four thousand, up to an immeasurable number. All are Dharma-gates attained by bodhisattvas and the Buddhas, whose names and meanings are not shared with the practitioners of the two vehicles. Now, relying on the Da zhidu lun, three dhāraṇīs are briefly explained to complete the sequence of chapter sections. Since the names and meanings of the five hundred are so numerous, how could they all be explained in detail?