–Volume7(Par1)
Author: Fafu
Translator : Gemini
Dear Dharma Friends,Welcome to this episode of the podcast provided by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated of Australia.
Today, we will jointly explore the extensive function of the Śūraṅgama Mantra as revealed in Volume Seven of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. The Mantra’s power is shown to reduce, purify, obstruct, and transform all unwholesomeness, obstacles, and suffering.
Volume Seven begins by explicitly pointing out that if one wishes to gather the mind, enter Samādhi, practice the Wonderful Door, and seek the Bodhisattva Path, one must first strictly uphold the “Four Kinds of Proper Demeanor, Pure as Ice and Frost”. This purity is like severing the roots of a tree, rendering “all branches and leaves”—meaning the Ten Evil Deeds of the “three [evils of the] mind and four [evils of the] mouth”—“unable to arise due to lacking cause.” This fundamentally cuts off the conditions for the generation of evil karma.
Furthermore, the Buddha taught us that if the mind does not cling to form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, then “how can all demonic affairs arise?” This illustrates that the purity of the mind is the fundamental way to stay far from demonic disturbances.
However, for ordinary sentient beings “who have accumulated past habits and cannot eliminate them,” the Buddha mercifully instructed that one should teach such a person to recite the Śūraṅgama Mantra. This Mantra is the Hṛdaya (Heart Mantra) spoken by the Tathāgata’s Uṣṇīṣa (unseen crown of the head) and the Non-active Mind-Buddha. It possesses inconceivable spiritual power.
The Excellence of the Śūraṅgama Mantra:
First, it thoroughly eliminates internal karmic obstacles and afflictions:
- Regarding accumulated “habits of grace and love” (greedy attachment) over countless eons, “even if it is not of one lifetime, or even one kalpa,” when the Buddha “proclaims this (spiritual mantra) once, the mind of attachment is forever removed, and one achieves the Arhatship.” Even a woman dominated by lust, who has no intention to practice, can rely on this “spiritual power lending secret assistance, to swiftly realize the Unlearned Stage (Arhatship).”
- In the “first seven days” of establishing the bodhimaṇḍa for practice, the main purpose of prostrating to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats, and reciting the Mantra to encircle the altar, is to “eliminate all our karma and habits.”
- The Śūraṅgama Mantra can “rescue all suffering beings,” including the sufferings of hells, hungry ghosts, and animals, as well as the “greater and lesser calamities” like blindness, deafness, muteness, and the suffering of encountering the hateful, separating from the beloved, not obtaining what is sought, and the blazing of the five aggregates—all of which can be “simultaneously liberated.”
- For “all heavy and light sins and obstacles” accumulated from measureless, countless eons , if one can “read, recite, or transcribe this Mantra, carry it on the body, or place it in their dwelling,” these accumulated karmic obstacles will “be like hot soup melting snow,” and one will soon “awaken to the Patience of Non-Production”.
Second, it ultimately purifies our body, mind, and precepts:
- It can make the “body and mind of the practitioners in the Degenerate Age bright and pure, like lapis lazuli.”
- It can “purify the root of precepts for those who have broken them,” “enable those who have not yet received the precepts to receive them,” “cause the impure to quickly become pure,” and even enable those who “do not uphold the vegetarian precepts to spontaneously achieve the vegetarian precepts.”
- Even if one “violated the prohibitions before receiving the precepts,” or “committed various breaches of the precepts, regardless of whether they are heavy or light, after holding the Mantra, they are extinguished at once.” Even if one “drinks wine, eats the five pungent roots, and engages in various impurities,” “all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Vajras, Celestials, and ghosts and spirits will not consider it a fault.” Even if one “wears impure, worn-out clothing,” their “every move and every abiding is entirely pure.”
- Even more remarkable is that for those who commit the “Five Heinous Sins and the heavy sins of the uninterrupted hell”, and for Monks and Nuns who commit the “Four Rejections and Eight Rejections” (grave monastic offenses), after reciting and upholding this Mantra, “such heavy karma, like a fierce wind blowing away a pile of sand, is completely extinguished, without a single trace remaining.”
Third, it strongly obstructs demonic affairs and all external calamities:
- The Buddha clearly stated that if one does not uphold this Mantra and yet wishes to “cause the body and mind to stay far from all demonic affairs in the bodhimaṇḍa, there is no such possibility.” “The Tathāgatas of the ten directions uphold the heart of this Mantra, subduing all demons and controlling all externalists.”
- Writing this Mantra and storing it in a sachet, wearing it on the body, or placing it in the dwelling, ensures that throughout one’s life, “all kinds of poisons cannot harm them.” Furthermore, “fire cannot burn, water cannot drown, and great poisons or small poisons cannot harm them.”
- “All curses, witchcraft, poisonous drugs, gold poison, silver poison, and the poisonous vapors of herbs, wood, insects, and snakes, entering the mouth of this person, will turn into the taste of sweet dew.”
- “All evil stars, and all ghosts and spirits… cannot generate evil,” and the “Piṇḍanāyaka (Gaṇapati) and all other evil ghost kings, along with their retinues, will constantly protect them.”
- Writing this Mantra and placing it on a city gate, a caitya (shrine), or a dhvaja (banner) will cause “all disasters and calamities in the country to be completely extinguished.” It can also “subdue all evil stars and various transformations that change according to direction. Calamities will not arise. People will not die prematurely.”
- It can even prevent people from being imprisoned; “handcuffs, shackles, and chains will not attach to their body,” and they will “sleep peacefully day and night, constantly free from evil dreams.”
Finally, it thoroughly avoids the retribution of evil destinies and poverty:
- The Mantra holder “will not be born lifetime after lifetime in evil places” such as Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, or hungry ghosts. They also “will not be born kalpa after kalpa in places of poverty, low status, or undesirability.” After the end of life, they “will be reborn according to their wishes in the Buddha Lands of the ten directions. They will certainly not be born in border lands, low status, much less among mixed forms (non-human bodies).”
Conclusion
The Śūraṅgama Mantra not only fundamentally severs the generation of evil karma, clears away accumulated sins and habits over many lifetimes, and purifies the body, mind, and precepts, but also obstructs various internal and external demonic affairs, poisons, and disasters. Ultimately, it helps sentient beings transcend the evil destinies and suffering in the cycle of transmigration. Even if one recites the Mantra with a scattered mind, “the Vajra King will constantly follow and protect those virtuous men,” how much more so for those who generate the definitive Bodhi Mind.
Thank you for listening!
