翻譯基本上是「跨文化」的轉換，譯者至少需熟悉雙種文化。以漢譯佛典為底本，再將之轉譯為英文之經典翻譯，牽涉到兩重翻譯過程，因此所涉及之思想呈現與語言轉換，至少涵蓋三種語言（佛典原語、漢語、與英語）和三種文化（印度、中國、英語國家）間相互傳譯而衍生的各種議題。無論是由經典原文譯為中文之翻譯過程與參與人員、由漢譯本轉換至英譯本之過程、譯者本身動機立場及學養背景、為配合其翻譯目的所使用之翻譯策略、還有受容者文化背景與理解詮釋等眾多因素，皆值得學者深入分析考察。在翻譯的文化跨越過程中，印度特有的禪定與冥想文化，在嘗試跨越至沒有對等禪定文化及表述語詞的文化語言系統時，是一個相當難克服的語言文化轉換過程，可說是一個「文化不可譯」問題的例證，因接受佛教文化的目的語文化傳統中，常缺乏與源語文本功能相關的語境特徵，因此佛教源語其所隱含的禪定文化因素，無法在目的語中找到源語的等值詞語，並得到充分的表達。本文將分析漢譯佛典及禪修典籍中保存與大乘「三昧」有密切關係的禪觀詞語「陀羅尼」，並運用對「陀羅尼」一詞的初步解讀，嘗試說明依羅什譯《維摩詰所說經》為底本而的 Luk、Watson以及 McRae《維摩詰經》英譯本中，對「總持」與「陀羅尼」二詞之英譯，為何會有許多歧異，以作為漢傳佛典大乘禪觀研究與國際學界對話的一個起點。

Translation is by nature a type of cross-cultural communication that involves two languages and two cultures; therefore, translators have to be familiar with both cultures involved in this translation process. The English translation of Chinese Buddhist texts is even more complicated as Chinese Buddhist texts themselves are already texts translated from other Buddhist canonical languages. Therefore, issues such as the process, the education background of people in the translation team, motives of the translator, various strategies adopted by each of the individual translators, as well as the readers of these translated texts, all have to be taken into consideration when we read these English translations of Chinese Buddhist texts. In the process of cultural translation brought about through Buddhist texts from India to China, one particularly difficult problem is the translation of terms related to meditative activities, as in Chinese there were initially no corresponding terms to translate these terms to specify the nuances of different meditative techniques and mental states. Therefore, it is clear that the languages expressing meditative activities has proven to be a particularly challenging task for early Chinese translators. In this paper, the author will examine several English translation of “dhāraṇī,” (陀羅尼 or總持 in Chinese), an important technical term related to Mahāyāna samādhis found in the current translation of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra based on Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation. Different English translations of this term and the strategies adopted by these translators of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra as reflected in their translation of this term will be discussed and compared with early Chinese understandings of this term found in the Commentary on the Mahāprajñāpāramitā (Dazhidu lun 大智度論 ), the Treatise on the Meaning of the Mahāyāna (Dasheng yizhang 大乘義章 ), the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra (Yuqieshi dilun 瑜伽師地論 ), and early Tiantai Samādhi manuals.