How to recite the Great Compassion Mantra:

Here is a translation of a short section on the Great Compassion Mantra, taken from the following book https://archive.org/details/84xiangdbz . It is page 52 of the booklet:

念诵法 HOW TO RECITE [THE MANTRA]

一、大悲咒正文右旁，加注英文译音。中英文同时参照，务期任何发心受持着，均能随念易诵。

First: On the left side of the [characters of] the Great Compassion Mantra, romanisation [1] has been added. With the Romanisation  and Chinese side-by-side, anyone who wishes to support the chanting, may easily join in

二、大悲咒中难读之字，大概只有卅二字；其中九字极易辨识，实则只有二十三字。发心人，可先行抄录另识，自易成诵。

Second: There are roughly only 32 hard-to-read characters in the Great Compassion Mantra. Of these, nine of them are easy to identify. This leaves only 22 characters. The sincere should copy them beforehand so that they may recognise e the characters, and thus make recitation easier.

三、练习时，可分读一句二句、或三四五句，各就个性所宜。初可少读几句，入后渐增。全咒可分六段练习：第一次，一至五句；第二次六至十二句；第三次十三至二十二句；第四次，二十三至四十句；第五次，四十一只六十五句；第六次六十六至八十四句完。

Third: When practicing, you can read it one or two sentences at a time, alternately three, four or five sentences at a time- whichever suits you best. You can start by reading a few sentences at a time; gradually increasing as you go along. The whole Mantra can be divided into six parts for the purpose of practice
Part 1: Sentences 1-5
Part 2: Sentences 6-12
Part 3: Sentences 13-22
Part 4: Sentences 23-40
Part 5: Sentences 51-65
Part 6: Sentences 66-84

四、诵时，除焚香顶礼外，应先念「千手千眼观世音菩萨广大圆满无碍大悲心陀罗尼」一遍；再诵咒三遍、或五遍、七遍、九遍，十四九遍，乃至千万遍。咒诵完时至少应该念「南无大悲观世音菩萨」三声，或十声、百声、千声、万声；各随发心。

Fourth: When reciting the sutra, Apart from burning incense and bowing,[2] one should first recite [the words] “The Thousand handed-thousand eyed Buddisatva Guanyin’s Great Completed, unobstructed, and compassionate-hearted Dharani”[3]  once. Then recite the mantra three times, five times, seven times, nine times, forty-nine times, or even ten million times. After completing the recitation, one should at least say “All Hail the Great Compassionate Guanshiyin Pusa” (Nanmo Dabei Guanshiyin Pusa) Thrice, or ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, or even a myriad times, as your piety would demand.

---

[1] Literally “English pronunciation  of the characters”

[2] The word here Ding Li, refers to bending the head and then kneeling https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%A1%B6%E7%A4%BC

[3] This sentence is the title of the mantra itself. In Chinese it is “Qianshou Qianyan Guan shi yin pusa da yuanman wuai dabeixin tuoluoni”

***

At this point, the text of the mantra is given, after which is the following note: 

***

【注】- Note

楞 又音 能

(Leng) is sometimes pronounced “Neng”那 音奴但咒中第十六句内之二那字应读本音 

 那 (Na) is pronounced “Nu”, but the second 那 in the 16^th sentence of the Mantra is still pronounced Na.

阇又音萨: 阇(Du)is sometimes pronounced “Sa”地有音受; 地 (Di) is also pronounced Shou.