Introduction
i.1The Noble Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara” begins in the city of Vaiśālī, where the Buddha is residing amidst an assembly of monks and bodhisattvas. The bodhisattva Samantabhadra requests that he reveal the powerful dhāraṇī known as The Mother of Avalokiteśvara, and the Buddha agrees. The Buddha first relates how he had himself received this dhāraṇī in a past life from the brahmin Prabheśvara, who benefited millions of beings by teaching it in Sukhāvatī, the pure land of the Buddha Amitābha. Following this account, Samantabhadra magically speaks the dhāraṇī to the assembly, after which the Buddha encourages the audience to recite it and praises its efficacy. Thus, the dhāraṇī can be divided into four sections: the request to teach the dhāraṇī, the dhāraṇī’s origin story, the dhāraṇī itself, and a praise of the dhāraṇī’s benefits.
i.1這部尊貴的陀羅尼《觀自在菩薩之母》起始於毘舍離城，佛陀在此與僧眾和菩薩的大會眾相聚。菩薩普賢菩薩請求佛陀揭示這部強大的陀羅尼，名為《觀自在菩薩之母》，佛陀答應了。佛陀首先講述了他在過去生中如何從婆羅門梵天王處獲得這部陀羅尼，梵天王通過在阿彌陀佛的淨土極樂世界教授此陀羅尼，利益了數百萬眾生。隨後，普賢菩薩以神通向大會誦說此陀羅尼，之後佛陀鼓勵聽眾誦持它，並讚歎其功德。因此，此陀羅尼可分為四個部分：請求傳授陀羅尼、陀羅尼的起源故事、陀羅尼本身，以及讚歎陀羅尼功德的部分。
i.2As indicated by the text’s title, the dhāraṇī concerns a goddess named or bearing the title Avalokiteśvaramātā, “the mother of Avalokiteśvara.” In the Degé Kangyur, the dhāraṇī belongs to a cycle of eight Kriyātantra (bya rgyud) texts (Toh 724–31) dedicated to the goddess Tārā. Based on this categorization, we may infer that the Tibetan scholars understood Avalokiteśvaramātā to be the goddess Tārā, but there is no further evidence to confirm this identification.
i.2根據文本的標題所示，這個陀羅尼涉及一位名叫或被尊稱為「觀自在菩薩之母」的女神。在德格甘珠爾中，該陀羅尼屬於八部事部密續文獻（編號724–31）的一個循環，這些文獻都是奉獻給綠度母的。根據這種分類方式，我們可以推斷藏傳學者將「觀自在菩薩之母」理解為綠度母，但目前沒有進一步的證據來確認這一認同。
i.3According to the Tibetan colophon, The Dhāraṇī “The Mother of Avalokiteśvara” was originally translated by the monk and translator Yeshé Dé and the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla, who were regular collaborators in the late eighth- and early ninth-centuries. The dhāraṇī is accordingly found in the Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (’phang thang ma) catalogs of translations made during Tibet’s imperial period. The dhāraṇī was translated into Chinese by Fǎxián ( 法 賢, 973-1001) under the title Fo shuo guanzizai pusa mu tuoluoni jing (观自在菩萨母陀罗尼经, Taishō 1117). There is to our knowledge no extant Sanskrit version of this work.
i.3根據藏文尾記，《觀自在菩薩母陀羅尼》最初由僧侶譯者葉謝德和印度戒師智慧友和施藥友翻譯，他們是八世紀晚期和九世紀早期的常規合作者。因此，這部陀羅尼被收錄在西藏帝國時期製作的《丹噶爾瑪》和《龐堂瑪》翻譯目錄中。這部陀羅尼由法賢（973-1001）翻譯成中文，標題為《佛說觀自在菩薩母陀羅尼經》（大正藏1117）。據我們所知，這部著作沒有現存的梵文版本。
i.4This English translation is based on the Tibetan version in the Degé Kangyur collection, in consultation with the Stok Palace and Phukdrak Kangyurs, as well as the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) Kangyur. The English translation was compared with the Chinese translation before being finalized.
i.4本英文譯本以德格甘珠爾版的藏文版本為基礎，參考了斯托克宮和普克德拉克甘珠爾版本，以及《校勘版（dpe bsdur ma）甘珠爾》中記錄的異文。英文譯本在最終定版前與中文譯本進行了對照。