Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī

Common card · No. 337499

The Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī, also known as the Mahākaruṇā(-citta) Dhāraṇī, Mahākaruṇika Dhāraṇī or Great Compassion Dhāraṇī / Mantra (Chinese: 大悲咒, Dàbēi zhòu; Japanese: 大悲心陀羅尼, Daihishin darani or 大悲呪, Daihi shu; Vietnamese: Chú đại bi or Đại bi tâm đà la ni; Korean: 신묘장구대다라니 (Hanja: 神妙章句大陀羅尼), Sinmyo janggu daedarani), is a Mahayana Buddhist dhāraṇī associated with the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (popularly as Guanyin in the East Asian Buddhist sphere). Avalokiteśvara came to be associated with attributes linked to Shiva and Vishnu, such as Nīlakaṇṭha and Harihara, as Buddhism developed within the Indian religious milieu and reinterpreted widely recognized divine symbols and epithets within a Buddhist framework. In Mahayana Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara was understood as a bodhisattva who manifests in different forms according to the needs and capacities of sentient beings, an idea expressed in texts such as the Lotus Sutra. In this context, Avalokiteśvara came to be understood not only as an independent...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Solomon203, CC BY-SA 4.0