The Efficacious Language of Heaven and Earth (Part 5)

by Venerable Hsuan Hua

The Shurangama Mantra is extremely efficacious, but it is not that easy to master. First of all, you cannot be selfish; next, you cannot be out to get your own private gains. You have to be magnanimous and devoid of selfish thoughts. You have to be impartial and not prejudiced. You have to be willing to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. You have to have the resolve to universally save all living beings. If you can embody the above-listed qualities, then you will have swift success. Pay close attention: you must hold the five precepts and practise the ten good deeds. That's the very least you should do.

It won't work to practise this Dharma if you are not following the rules. If you cultivate this Dharma but you don't behave yourself; if you don't guard the precepts or if you are always having defiled thoughts, then not only will there be no response, not only will you have no success, you will, in fact, bring disaster down upon yourself. And so when you are cultivating the Shurangama Mantra you must be very attentive to maintain purity with your body, your mouth, and your mind. That's the only way you're going to get a response. You cannot say things that cause schisms or make people in the way-place uneasy. You must pay attention to all aspects of your behaviour,  whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. It's not all right to always be "washing other peoples' clothes" as it were. Take care of yourself. Look into yourself.

The Shurangama Mantra is an efficacious language. Every line has its own particular efficacy. But you don't need to think: Why don't I  get any responses from holding the Shurangama Mantra. Don't pay any attention to whether there are responses or not, just keep reciting it. It's like practising martial arts, every day you have to practice your punches, regardless of what your skill is like. Skill comes through training. It's impossible to have skills without training. By the same principle, you should cultivate your Dharmas every day, no matter what happens, no matter how busy you are. Don't slack off after you've been at it for a while, losing interest in the Shurangama  Mantra.

It's certainly not the case that you will have some efficacious response as soon as you begin reciting it. Regardless of whether you perceive any response, you should continue reciting it every day. You must deepen your skills day by day. Success doesn't happen overnight. For instance, you have to study for ten, twenty, or even thirty years before you gain real scholarship. It's the same with cultivation. You must keep your mind on your recitation of the mantra, continuing your recitation without ever letting it get cut off. It should be just as important as putting on clothes, eating food, and going to sleep; you shouldn't be able to be without it for a single day.  It doesn't matter whether there's any response, because by reciting every day you will gradually have a foundation and quite naturally the mantra will function.

If you hope for its wonderful functions and inconceivable power, then you must not keep having false thoughts, always daydreaming and fantasising. If you cut off your recitation of the mantra, then you will not be able to attain samadhi. You must use your true mind and practice the Shurangama Mantra with sincerity. What's a true mind? It means that for the sake of reciting the Shurangama Mantra you can forget all about time and even space disappears. You don't know if it's day or night; you don't know if you've eaten or not; you don't know if you've slept or not. You forget everything else.

Everything disappears and one thought extends for infinite aeons, while infinite aeons are one thought. That's the kind of spirit you should have--forgetting to eat and sleep for the sake of cultivating the Shurangama Mantra. In that way, you certainly can attain the  Shurangama Samadhi. If you cannot be that way, then you aren't really cultivating the Shurangama Dharma door. You should be that way not only in cultivating the Shurangama Mantra but in the cultivation of any Dharma door — walking without realising you are walking;  sitting with being aware you are sitting; being unaware that you are thirsty or hungry. "Well," you say, "isn't that just turning into a stupid person?" That's right. It's said, When you learn to be a big idiot, then you start to have some skill; Studying until you are as if stupid is the beginning of real insight.

If you can learn to be as if stupid, then no matter what Dharma door you cultivate you will attain samadhi and gain some realisation. It's just because you are unable to be stupid that you cannot properly enter into samadhi and don't get any response from your cultivation.

When you are developing your skill in reciting the Shurangama Mantra, you may dream of yourself bowing to the Buddhas; or in a dream see the Buddhas emitting light; or dream that you see the Buddha come as rub the crown of your head; or dream that the Buddhas speak Dharma for you; or dream that you see the Bodhisattvas, or Condition-enlightened Ones, or Hearers, or Sagely Sanghans or gods and heavenly generals; or in a dream see yourself ascending into space; or dream that you can fly. All of these are good experiences.

Or you may be riding a horse or crossing a river and encounter all sorts of auspicious lights, or there may be other extremely rare appearances that manifest. If you do attain responses such as these, then you should be very careful. You should bring forth the resolve for Bodhi; guard the purity of the karma created by your body, mouth, and mind; and increase your efforts and tighten your skill in reciting the mantra.

You should not tell others what kinds of responses you've had in order to get others to believe in you or to think highly of you. It's enough for you yourself to know what responses you've had. If you keep advertising your own merits and selling your cultivation out on the streets, then you are wrong. If you act like that, you leave yourself open and the demons will attack. That's like failing to put your jewels in a safe box. If you leave them at the doorway, then someone is certainly going to steal them.

Therefore, we must be very careful in our cultivation of the Buddha Dharma. Don't let the heavenly demons and externalists have their way with you. But you can report your experiences to your fellow cultivators if you are not doing it in order to get famous or rich or to make people respect and praise you.

The Shurangama Sutra says, "If you recite and uphold the Shurangama Mantra until you gain skill and can make it function, then  eighty-four thousand Vajra Treasury Bodhisattvas and their retinue of followers will always stay near you and protect you so that  everything you hope for will come true." But the demon kings never give up searching for a hole so they can give you more trouble than you can handle.

In the past, Great Master Hongren, the Fifth Patriarch, was cultivating in Hubei at East Mountain. He upheld the precepts strictly and cultivated with unusual intensity. Once when a group of bandits surrounded the city of Hubei, Great Mater Hongren could bear it no longer and decided to try to save the people in that city.

He came down the mountain and walked into that city. As soon as the bandits saw Great Master Hongren coming, they were terrified,  dropped their armour and weapons, and fled. Why? Because although Great Master Hongren came alone into the city, the bandits saw an army of heavenly generals and heavenly troops clad in golden armour. It was as if the gods themselves had come down to earth all donning golden armour and carrying jewelled swords and other awesome weapons. That's what caused the bandits to retreat in such haste.

And so, without the use of a single knife, spear, or arrow, he routed the bandits. It was because Great Master Hongren recited the  Shurangama Mantra that the bandits found him to be so terrifying. You could say that was a manifestation created by the Vajra Treasury Bodhisattvas or you could say it was the awesome virtue of Great Master Hongren that frightened them. That a cultivator was able to frighten the bandits into retreat without the use of a single soldier or weapon is verification of his genuine skill. How else could there have been such a response in the Way?

Shakyamuni Buddha proclaimed the Shurangama Mantra in order to protect all of us who have brought forth the initial resolve to study the Way; to aid us in attaining samadhi; to help us be at peace in body and mind, and to keep us out of trouble. Therefore we should never forget this Dharma. We should recite and uphold the Shurangama Mantra with single-minded sincerity. By doing so we are helping to perpetuate the Buddha Dharma, to keep the Proper Dharma long in the world.