The Efficacious Language of Heaven and Earth (Part 1)

by Venerable Hsuan Hua

I’ve told you before that the Shurangama Mantra has within it a few lines of mantra that rends the nets of demons. Why was the mantra from the Brahma Heavens rendered useless? It was because of the Five Great Hearts Mantra. The Five Great Hearts Mantra destroys the mantras underlying the demons’ and externalists’ spells and incantations. It doesn’t matter what mantra they use, when you recite these lines, their spells are smashed, and their mantras become ineffectual.

If I wanted to market this Dharma, a million dollars wouldn't even match my ‘asking price’! But I can see that you have a bit of sincerity and so I am transmitting it to you absolutely free. To sum it up, no matter what Dharma you cultivate, you must have the unsurpassed resolve for Bodhi; you must have great kindness and compassion; you must practise great giving and great renunciation. You must not use the powers you gain in practising the Way to oppress any other person or to squelch any demon, monster, goblin, or ghost.  Furthermore, the Dharma of Auspiciousness enables things to go your way when you recite the Mantra. Good fortune prevails. Now I’ve given you an explanation of these Dharmas.

I could talk for several years and never finish describing the good points of this Mantra. All Buddhas of the ten directions come forth from the Shurangama Mantra. The Shurangama Mantra is the Mother of all Buddhas. It was by means of the Shurangama Mantra that all Buddhas perfected Unsurpassed Proper and Pervasive Enlightened Knowledge.

The ability of the Buddhas of the ten directions to create response bodies and go throughout the ten directions turning the Dharma wheel to teach and transform living beings; to rub the crowns of those beings and bestow predictions upon them; to rescue beings from their complex sufferings; to enable beings to escape both large disasters and small calamities — their ability to do all that comes from the power of the Shurangama Mantra’s Heart.

If you want to attain the fruition of Arhatship, you absolutely must recite this Mantra to keep demonic things from happening. During the  Dharma-ending Age if people can memorise the Shurangama Mantra or encourage others to memorise it; well, fire cannot burn such people and water cannot drown them. No matter how potent poison is, it cannot harm them. For those who recite the Shurangama  Mantra, the poison turns to sweet dew as soon as it enters their mouths. People who recite the Shurangama Mantra will never be born in bad places, even if they want to. Why is that so? It's because the Shurangama Mantra pulls you back and won't allow you to go.

Someone who recites the Shurangama Mantra may have never amassed any blessings or virtues, but, simply because he recites the  Mantra, the Thus Come Ones of the Ten Directions will bestow their own merits and virtues upon that person. Wouldn’t you call that a bargain? That happens based on the recitation of the Mantra alone. If you recite the Shurangama Mantra, you will continually get to be born at a time when a Buddha is in the world and will be able to immerse yourself in cultivation under that Buddha’s guidance.

If your mind is terribly scattered so that you can’t concentrate and don't have any samadhi-power, but you think about the Shurangama Mantra and recite it with your lips, the Vajra Treasury King Bodhisattvas will very attentively watch for ways to invisibly help you gradually until your confusion has disappeared and you develop samadhi. They will imperceptibly help you open your wisdom and concentrate your mind to the point that you become crystal clear about all the events spanning the previous eighty-four thousand  Ganges' sands of aeons.

If you can learn the Shurangama Mantra until you have memorised it fluently — so that you become one with the Mantra — then you attain the mantra's samadhi and your recitation will be like flowing water, welling up uninterrupted. If you can do that, then at the very least for seven lives to come you will be as wealthy as America’s richest oil magnates. And you say, “That's great! I’m going to learn the mantra right away! I wouldn’t mind being a magnate of some kind!” Well, if you are that selfish, then don’t even bother learning the  Mantra. Seven lives pass in the blink of an eye anyway.

What should those who learn the Shurangama Mantra be hoping for? You should hope for ultimate Buddhahood; hope to attain the  Unsurpassed Proper and Equal Right Enlightenment. Don’t be so petty! Actually, those who are really dedicated in reciting the Shurangama Mantra are transformation bodies of Buddhas. Not just any transformation bodies, but those atop the Buddha's crown — transformation bodies of that transformation body! And so, you see that the wonderful aspects of the Shurangama Mantra are difficult to express, difficult to conceptualise. Wherever someone is seriously reciting the Shurangama Mantra, a great white canopy will be there in the space above him. If your skill in reciting the mantra is high-level and far-reaching, then when you recite, the canopy will extend for thousands of miles, preventing any disasters or difficulties. If you only have a little skill, then the canopy will be right above your own head protecting you. If you have virtue in the Way, if you are a High Sangha (monastic), then when you recite, the entire nation will benefit and no calamities will occur. Or if disasters are unavoidable, big ones will turn into little ones, and the little ones won't even happen. It doesn't matter if it's a nationwide famine, plague, war, or plunder, all those kinds of disasters will be alleviated.

Suppose you were to write out the Shurangama Mantra and place it at the main entrances to the city, or in its watchtowers or other lookout places; suppose you could inspire the nation's inhabitants to show interest in the Shurangama Mantra so that they bow to and revere it and single-mindedly make offerings to it as if they were offering to the Buddhas themselves; suppose you could get every single citizen to wear the Mantra on their body or to keep it in their place of residence; well, if you could do that, all disasters would disappear.

Whenever the Shurangama Mantra can be found in a place, the gods and dragons are delighted, and so that place will be free from devastating storms; the crops will produce in abundance, and the populace will be peaceful and happy. That is why I say that the merit and virtue of the Shurangama Mantra is inexpressible; it can’t be reckoned in the mind; it can’t be cognised in our thoughts. That's the wonder of it!

Basically, broken precepts cannot be mended. But if you recite the Shurangama Mantra, you can return to purity. But when I say recite,  I don’t mean you can just do it casually.

You have to attain the mantra-recitation samadhi.

The recitation of the Mantra must flow forth from your mind

and the Mantra must flow back into your mind.

That’s called “the mantra is the mind and the mind is the mantra”.

Your mind and the Mantra become united.

There isn’t any distinction. It reaches the point where you couldn’t forget it if you wanted to. That’s called even when not reciting, the recitation continues; when reciting there really isn’t any recitation. You recite until there aren’t any idle thoughts remaining. The only function of the mind is the recitation of the Shurangama Mantra. That’s called messing with the mind. There are no second thoughts. The flow of the Mantra’s recitation is like water that flows on in uninterrupted waves.

At that point, everything expresses the Mahayana — the sounds of the breezes blowing and the water flowing are all the Shurangama Mantra’s Heart Mantra. If you can reach that level, then if you have broken precepts, you will be able to return to pure precepts. You will be endowed with the precepts without going through the formal transmission. If you are someone who doesn’t want to progress in your practice, who doesn’t want to investigate the Buddha Dharma, but you recite the Shurangama Mantra for a period of time, quite naturally you will be inspired to be vigorous; those who lack wisdom can open their wisdom.

If you are not pure in your cultivation so that you break your vegetarian practices and violate the precepts, but you have not forgotten the Shurangama Mantra, you will be able to quickly return to purity. If you violated precepts before you began upholding the Mantra and prior to receiving the precepts, then once you start reciting the Mantra you can completely wipe out all those former offences, no matter how serious they were, including even the Four Parajikas, the Five Rebellious Acts, the Four or Eight Offences warranting dismissal from the Sangha, which is basically unpardonable. Not even a hair’s breadth of an offence will remain. And so, I say that the power of the Shurangama Mantra is beyond all conception or description!