–Volume7(Par2)
Author: Fafu
Translator : Gemini
Dear Dharma Friends,Welcome to this episode of the podcast provided by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated of Australia.
Today, we jointly explore the excellence of the Śūraṅgama Dharma Assembly, deeply understanding the Unsurpassed Merit of the Śūraṅgama Mantra, and the Buddha’s revelation of the true nature of the two causes of delusion (dread) in sentient beings and the world.
1. The Spiritual Power of the Śūraṅgama Mantra
First, let us discuss the inconceivable merit of the Śūraṅgama Mantra.
- Eliminating Calamities and the Influence of Evil Stars: Where this Mantra is held, it can thoroughly eliminate all kinds of worldly calamities and inauspiciousness, bringing peace and tranquility to sentient beings.
- Establishing a Pure Boundary (Samaya): The majestic power of this Mantra can establish a pure boundary within twelve yojanas (a measure of distance), preventing all evil calamities and inauspiciousness from ever entering.
- Protecting Practitioners’ Body and Mind, Keeping Them Far from Harm: It protects beginners and all practitioners entering Samādhi, ensuring their body and mind are at peace, and they obtain great security. It causes all demons and spirits to be unable to trouble us during practice, and all unavenged grievances, past karmic afflictions, old karma, and ancient debts accumulated from the beginningless past will not come to harm us.
- The Vow and Mighty Protection of Devas and Dharma Protectors: Countless Devas, Dragons, and the Eightfold Division in the assembly vowed sincerely to protect those who study and uphold the Śūraṅgama Mantra. Their wishes will be fulfilled, their Bodhi mind will swiftly reach perfection, they will establish their practice center (bodhimaṇḍa), attain fearlessness, and be forever free from demonic affairs. Especially the Eighty-Four Thousand Nāyuta Ganges Sands of Vajra-Treasury Bodhisattvas constantly follow this Mantra to save and protect practitioners in the Degenerate Age. Even if the practitioner’s mind is scattered and playful, their retinues constantly follow and attend them. Even if the Demon King or the Great God Maheśvara seeks a favorable opportunity, they will ultimately fail to obtain it.
- If an evil demon or its retinue attempts to intrude and harass, the Vajra-Treasury Bodhisattva will strike their heads with a jeweled pestle, smashing them like dust particles, thereby forcefully curtailing the aggression. Furthermore, all minor ghosts and spirits must leave the vicinity of this virtuous person ten yojanas away, unless they vow to sincerely cultivate meditation.
2. Insight into the Causes of Delusion in Sentient Beings and the World
This is the gate of wisdom that allows us to directly reach the Tathāgata’s Great Nirvāṇa.
Our subtle Self-Nature is originally perfect and luminous, free from the names and concepts of the mundane world. Originally, there were no such things as “the world” or “sentient beings.” All phenomena of arising and ceasing are merely false delusions. Only when false thoughts are extinguished does the true Self-Nature manifest.
The Buddha teaches that if one wishes to cultivate the True Samādhi and attain ultimate Nirvāṇa, one must first recognize these two causes of delusion (dread)—the delusion of sentient beings and the delusion of the world. When delusion does not arise, that is the Tathāgata’s True Samādhi.
The Delusion (Dread) of Sentient Beings
What is the delusion of sentient beings? The Buddha said: “From the bright nature of the mind, the bright nature is complete. Due to the arising of illumination, the nature of delusion (dread) arises.” This means that our recognition of the Self-Nature, due to ignorance, generates delusive views, turning what was ultimately empty into something ultimately existent.
All things that sentient beings cling to—“this existence and that possession, non-cause creating the cause, abiding in the form of abiding”—are fundamentally baseless. They are not truly caused or truly relied upon; fundamentally, they are illusory phenomena that are utterly nonexistent. It is precisely based on this Wonderful Bright True Mind of non-abiding that “setting up a view upon knowledge is the root of ignorance”. Establishing a delusive view upon the nature of non-abiding, which then continues to arise and develop, is what establishes the world and all sentient beings. We are deluded about the originally perfect and luminous nature and pursue illusory phenomena, which is the source of all falsehood.
This delusive nature has no substance; it does not depend on anything. It has no true reality, but is a transient, illusory phenomenon. We “generate power and invent things, perfuming them to form karma”. We continuously cling to illusory phenomena and seek outwardly, forming karmic power, which results in mutual feeling among similar karma, and the mutual ceasing and arising. At the root, the delusion of sentient beings is random and delusive thinking.
The Delusion (Dread) of the World
Next, let us examine the delusion of the world. The Buddha said: “Existence and possession arise delusively in segments, thereby establishing the world.” These phenomena and possessions are produced by delusive arising in segments and are constantly changing, which is how the mundane world is established.
All phenomena in the world arise from “movement”. They result from the six dusts (sound, form, smell, taste, touch, and phenomena) conditioning each other in layers, forming “six confused false thoughts, which establish the nature of karma”, which leads to the transmigration of the twelve kinds of sentient beings. Therefore, stopping the pursuit of these six kinds of mad phenomena and the false thoughts they trigger is the key to eliminating the formation of karma and transmigration.
The Buddha elaborately revealed how the twelve categories of sentient beings (egg-born, womb-born, moisture-born, transformation-born, having form, having no form, having thought, having no thought, neither having form nor not having form, neither having no form nor not having no form, neither having thought nor not having thought, neither having no thought nor not having no thought) are each formed by different “delusions.” Deeply understanding the mechanisms of these delusions (such as the delusion of movement… the delusion of killing) is to recognize their illusory nature, which allows one to eliminate the karmic causes that produce these life forms, and ultimately transcend this cycle of transmigration.
3. Conclusion
The merit of the Śūraṅgama Mantra lies in its absolute power of protection and destruction, which directly “reduces” external disasters, demonic obstacles, and internal karmic debts for practitioners, thereby creating a safe and stable environment for cultivation. And the Buddha’s detailed exposition on the “delusion of sentient beings” and the “delusion of the world” is the path to eliminate the root of ignorance and transmigration. This is achieved by recognizing and stopping all false cognitions and random, delusive thinking, severing attachment to illusory phenomena, and finally reaching the true state where the Self-Nature is perfectly luminous.
Thank you all.
