The Great Compassion Mantra
大悲咒 · 84 lines · the dharani of the thousand-armed Guanyin
After the Heart Sutra, this is the text most often heard in Chinese Buddhist temples. It belongs to the thousand-armed, thousand-eyed form of Guanyin, and is recited in morning services, at funerals, for the sick, and by people on their own when they want steadiness.
What it is
It is a dharani: a long mantra, valued for its sound rather than its sense. The version recited across East Asia comes from a sutra translated into Chinese by the Indian monk Bhagavaddharma in the 650s.
Every line is Sanskrit written in Chinese characters for their sound. Chinese translators deliberately left dharanis untranslated; Xuanzang listed them first among the kinds of text that should only be transliterated. So the characters on this page are not meant to be read for meaning, even by a Chinese reader.
Scholars have reconstructed the Sanskrit, and the outline is clear even without a line-by-line gloss. It opens with homage to the Three Jewels and to Avalokiteshvara, gives the formula tadyathā — “it goes like this” — at line 18, then calls on the bodhisattva by name and epithet, many of them closed with svāhā, a word of offering, and ends by returning to the opening homage.
Its full title calls it the dharani of the vast, perfect, unobstructed great compassionate heart. That is the reason people recite it: not to ask for something specific, but to keep company with that compassion for a while.
How it is chanted
It is chanted aloud, quickly and evenly, usually to a wooden fish, and a full recitation takes about two to three minutes. Many people recite it five, seven or twenty-one times in a sitting.
If the characters are unfamiliar, listening along to a temple recording is the usual way to learn it. Nobody expects the meaning to be understood; steadiness matters more than accuracy.
Full text, 84 lines
- 南無喝囉怛那哆囉夜耶
- 南無阿唎耶
- 婆盧羯帝爍缽囉耶
- 菩提薩埵婆耶
- 摩訶薩埵婆耶
- 摩訶迦盧尼迦耶
- 唵
- 薩皤囉罰曳
- 數怛那怛寫
- 南無悉吉慄埵伊蒙阿唎耶
- 婆盧吉帝室佛囉愣馱婆
- 南無那囉謹墀
- 醯利摩訶皤哆沙咩
- 薩婆阿他豆輸朋
- 阿逝孕
- 薩婆薩哆那摩婆薩多那摩婆伽
- 摩罰特豆
- 怛姪他
- 唵阿婆盧醯
- 盧迦帝
- 迦羅帝
- 夷醯唎
- 摩訶菩提薩埵
- 薩婆薩婆
- 摩囉摩囉
- 摩醯摩醯唎馱孕
- 俱盧俱盧羯蒙
- 度盧度盧罰闍耶帝
- 摩訶罰闍耶帝
- 陀囉陀囉
- 地唎尼
- 室佛囉耶
- 遮囉遮囉
- 摩摩罰摩囉
- 穆帝隸
- 伊醯伊醯
- 室那室那
- 阿囉參佛囉舍利
- 罰沙罰參
- 佛囉舍耶
- 呼嚧呼嚧摩囉
- 呼嚧呼嚧醯唎
- 娑囉娑囉
- 悉唎悉唎
- 蘇盧蘇盧
- 菩提夜菩提夜
- 菩馱夜菩馱夜
- 彌帝唎夜
- 那囉謹墀
- 地利瑟尼那
- 婆夜摩那
- 娑婆訶
- 悉陀夜
- 娑婆訶
- 摩訶悉陀夜
- 娑婆訶
- 悉陀喻藝
- 室皤囉夜
- 娑婆訶
- 那囉謹墀
- 娑婆訶
- 摩囉那囉
- 娑婆訶
- 悉囉僧阿穆佉耶
- 娑婆訶
- 娑婆摩訶阿悉陀夜
- 娑婆訶
- 者吉囉阿悉陀夜
- 娑婆訶
- 波陀摩羯悉陀夜
- 娑婆訶
- 那囉謹墀皤伽囉耶
- 娑婆訶
- 摩婆利勝羯囉夜
- 娑婆訶
- 南無喝囉怛那哆囉夜耶
- 南無阿唎耶
- 婆盧吉帝
- 爍皤囉夜
- 娑婆訶
- 唵悉殿都
- 漫多囉
- 跋陀耶
- 娑婆訶
Chinese text: the 84-line form used in Taiwan, from Wikisource, checked against a second published listing. Variant characters are recorded in the site’s source notes.