Shurangama Mantra with Verses and Commentary

by Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua

203. HẮT RA SÁT TA

喝囉剎娑

RĀKSASA

 

Đại Đa Thắng Pháp diễn Ma Ha

Tốc tật quỷ đẳng các bôn ba

Thuận giáo nghịch giáo hoằng Phật hóa

Vạn Loại Quy Nguyên độ Ta Bà.

 

大多勝法衍摩訶

速疾鬼等各奔波

順教逆教弘佛化

萬類歸源度娑婆

Great, many, and supreme Dharmas comprise the Mahayana.

Speedy ghosts and all the rest race around

Using encouragement and exhortation to teach and spread Buddhism.

All kinds of beings return to the source, getting out of the Saha world.

Many great and supreme Dharmas make up the Mahayana.  

Speedy ghosts and all the rest race around like mad.  

With compliant and opposing teachings the Buddhas' transformations spread. 

Myriad kinds return to the source, as those of the Saha are saved." 

RĀKSASA is the "rakshasa ghosts." Basically, rakshasa ghosts are very evil, but after they take refuge with the Buddha, they become a good army and are known as "speedy ghosts." They can travel both in space and on the earth. They can also go up to the heavens. Rakshasa ghosts are used to teach these living beings so that they can bring forth fear in their hearts and are moved to change from bad to good. 

Ðại trượng phu, bỉnh huệ kiếm,

Bát-nhã phong hề kim cang diệm.

 

Phi đản không thôi ngoại đạo tâm,

Tảo hội lạc khước thiên ma đởm.

Chấn pháp lôi, kích pháp cổ,

Bố từ vân hề sái cam lộ.

 

Long tượng xúc đạp nhuận vô biên,

Tam thừa ngũ tánh giai tỉnh ngộ.

Tuyết sơn phì nhị cánh vô tạp,

Thuần xuất đề-hồ ngã thường nạp.

 

Nhất tánh viên thông nhất thiết tánh,

Nhất pháp biến hàm nhất thiết pháp,

Nhất nguyệt phổ hiện nhất thiết thủy,

Nhất thiết thủy nguyệt nhất nguyệt nhiếp.

 

Chư Phật pháp thân nhập ngã tánh,

Ngã tánh đồng cộng Như Lai hiệp.

Nhất địa cụ túc nhất thiết địa,

Phi sắc phi tâm phi hành nghiệp.

Ðàn chỉ viên thành bát vạn môn,

Sát-na diệt khước tam kỳ kiếp.

Nhất thiết số cú phi số cú,

Dữ ngô linh giác hà giao thiệp.

 

Bất khả hủy, bất khả tán,

Thể nhược hư không vật nhai ngạn.

Bất ly đương xứ thường trạm nhiên,

Mịch tức tri quân bất khả kiến.

 

Thủ bất đắc, xả bất đắc,

Bất khả đắc trung chỉ ma đắc.

Mặc thời thuyết, thuyết thời mặc,

Ðại thí môn khai vô ủng tắc.

 

Hữu nhân vấn ngã giải hà tông?

Báo đạo ma-ha bát-nhã lực.

Hoặc thị hoặc phi nhân bất thức,

Nghịch hành thuận hành thiên mạc trắc.

Ngô tảo tằng kinh đa kiếp tu,

Bất thị đẳng nhàn tương cuống hoặc.

TEXT:

THE GREAT HERO WIELDS THE WISDOM SWORD.
FROM ITS PRAJNA POINT, A VAJRA BLAZE!
IT NOT ONLY DESTROYS THE MIND OF EXTERNAL PATHS.
IT ALSO HAS LONG SINCE TERRIFIED THE HEAVENLY DEMONS!

Ðại trượng phu, bỉnh huệ kiếm,

Bát-nhã phong hề kim cang diệm.

Phi đản không thôi ngoại đạo tâm,

Tảo hội lạc khước thiên ma đởm.

COMMENTARY:

THE GREAT HERO WIELDS THE WISDOM SWORD. The knight who cultivates the Way and transcends the world must sever love and take leave of affections. He must cast off the common and part with the dust; he must have a resolve that soars to heaven. Then he may be called a person who performs marvels. The great hero wields the enlightening sword of wisdom to cut away delusions, both coarse and subtle, along with those like dust and sand--all ignorance and afflictions.

FROM ITS PRAJNA POINT, A VAJRA BLAZE! This sword is cast in Prajna, and its sharp point is wisdom. It emits a bright vajra blaze which fills the three-thousand-great-thousand world-realms.

IT NOT ONLY DESTROYS THE MIND OF EXTERNAL PATHS. The vajra king jeweled sword does not simply destroy the deviant mind that takes side doors and external paths, but IT ALSO HAS LONG SINCE TERRIFIED THE HEAVENLY DEMONS. It has already frightened the heavenly demons and their retinues and sapped their courage.

Cultivators definitely should pay attention to this section of the Song, ponder over it, and gain from it.

TEXT:

ROLL THE DHARMA THUNDER, BEAT THE DHARMA DRUM.

CLOUDS OF KINDNESS GATHER...SWEET DEW IS DISPERSED;

DRAGONS AND ELEPHANTS TREAD UPON IT, MOISTENING EVERYTHING.

THE THREE VEHICLES AND FIVE NATURES ARE ALL ROUSED AWAKE,

Chấn pháp lôi, kích pháp cổ,

Bố từ vân hề sái cam lộ.

Long tượng xúc đạp nhuận vô biên,

Tam thừa ngũ tánh giai tỉnh ngộ.

THE HIMALAYA PINODHNI GRASS IS UNALLOYED INDEED;

PURE GHEE PRODUCED FROM IT I HAVE OFTEN PARTAKEN OF,

ONE NATURE COMPLETELY PERVADES ALL NATURES.

ONE DHARMA EVERYWHERE CONTAINS ALL DHARMAS.

Tuyết sơn phì nhị cánh vô tạp,

Thuần xuất đề-hồ ngã thường nạp.

Nhất tánh viên thông nhất thiết tánh,

Nhất pháp biến hàm nhất thiết pháp,

ONE MOON UNIVERSALLY APPEARS IN ALL WATERS,

THE MOONS IN ALL WATERS ARE BY ONE MOON GATHERED IN.

THE DHARMA BODY OF ALL BUDDHAS ENTERS MY NATURE;

MY NATURE ALSO MESHES WITH THE THUS COME ONES.

Nhất nguyệt phổ hiện nhất thiết thủy,

Nhất thiết thủy nguyệt nhất nguyệt nhiếp.

Chư Phật pháp thân nhập ngã tánh,

Ngã tánh đồng cộng Như Lai hiệp.

ON A SINGLE LEVEL, EVERY LEVEL IS COMPLETE,

IT IS NEITHER FORM, NOR MIND, NOR THE KARMA OF ACTION--

IN A FINGER-SNAP, EIGHTY THOUSAND DOORS ARE FULLY REALIZED.

IN A KSHANA, THREE ASAMKHYEYA KALPAS ARE EXTINGUISHED.

NO NUMBER OR PHRASE CAN DESCRIBE IT, 

WHAT RELATION COULD THEY HAVE TO OUR SPIRITUAL AWAKENING?

Nhất địa cụ túc nhất thiết địa,

Phi sắc phi tâm phi hành nghiệp.

Ðàn chỉ viên thành bát vạn môn,

Sát-na diệt khước tam kỳ kiếp.

Nhất thiết số cú phi số cú,

Dữ ngô linh giác hà giao thiệp.

 

COMMENTARY:

ROLL THE DHARMA THUNDER, BEAT THE DHARMA DRUM. Propagating the proper Dharma and teaching and transforming sentient beings is like rolling a great Dharma thunder and beating a great Dharma drum. The deaf are aroused, and the blind are shaken.

CLOUDS OF KINDNESS GATHER...SWEET DEW IS DISPERSED. Auspicious clouds of kindness gather so that all who are ready to receive it are in its unversal shade. Being everywhere are moistened by the timely downpour of rain and dew, so that all are led to make the resolve for Bodhi and to be certified together to patience with non-production.

DRAGONS AND ELEPHANTS TREAD UPON IT, MOISTENING EVERYTHING. The Dharma doors' dragons and elephants walk upon the sweet dew, nourishing over and over the limitless, boundless living beings.

THE THREE VEHICLES AND FIVE NATURES ARE ALL ROUSED AWAKE. The Sound Hearers, the Conditioned Enlightened Ones, and Bodhisattvas, those of unfixed nature and those who lack the nature, are all awakened.

THE HIMALAYA PINODHNI GRASS IS UNALLOYED INDEED. In the fertile soil of the Himalayas grows a succulent grass which the large white cows eat to produce their milk.

PURE GHEE PRODUCED FROM IT I HAVE OFTEN PARTAKEN OF. I have tasted the wonderful flavor of unmixed, clarified ghee produced from it.

ONE NATURE COMPLETELY PERVADES ALL NATURES. That is
A single root divides into ten thousand differences.

Ten thousand differences yet return to the one root.

ONE DHARMA EVERYWHERE CONTAINS ALL DHARMAS. One is yet all, and all is but one.

ONE MOON UNIVERSALLY APPEARS IN ALL WATERS. This is an analogy. The one moon is able to be similarly reflected in all waters.

THE MOONS IN ALL WATERS ARE BY ONE MOON GATHERED IN. The moons in all the waters are basically the one moon, which unites them all.

THE DHARMA BODY OF ALL BUDDHAS ENTERS MY NATURE. The Dharma body--the pure, fundamental substance--of all Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time, enters my nature--becomes of one substance with my own nature.

MY NATURE ALSO MESHES WITH THE THUS COME ONES. The substance of my nature and all the Buddhas are not two, not different. They are united as one.

ON A SINGLE LEVEL, EVERY LEVEL IS COMPLETE. On a single level, every level is already complete; there is no passing through stages.

IT IS NEITHER FORM, NOR MIND, NOR THE KARMA OF ACTION--the inherent nature is not a dharma of physical marks. Nor is it a dharma of the mind's conditions. It is even less a dharma of karmic action. It is the great dharma of the unconditioned.

IN A FINGER-SNAP, EIGHTY THOUSAND DOORS ARE FULLY REALIZED. As quick as a snap of the fingers, the samadhis of eighty-four thousand kinds of Dharna doors are realized perfectly and completely.

IN A KSHANA, THREE ASAMKHYEYA KALPAS ARE EXTINGUISHED. In a single kshana, three great asamkhyeya kalpas can be transcended; and three great asamkhyeya kalpas can shrink to a single kshana.

NO NUMBER OR PHRASE CAN DESCRIBE IT. No numbers or words can describe this subtle and miraculous Dharma door. It is apart from the four tenets and dispenses with the hundred fallacies.

WHAT RELATION COULD THEY HAVE TO OUR SPIRITUAL AWAKENING? What relation could numbers, words, language, and literature have with the spiritual, bright, Enlightened subtance of our inherent nature?

TEXT:

IT CANNOT BE SLANDERED AND CANNOT BE PRAISED,

ITS SUBSTANCE IS LIKE SPACE; IT HAS NO SHORE,

IT DOES NOT LEAVE WHERE IT IS; IT IS ALWAYS CLEAR.

IF YOU SEARCH FOR IT, KNOW THAT YOU WILL NOT SEE IT.

IT CANNOT BE GRASPED; IT CANNOT BE REJECTED.

JUST WHAT CAN BE OBTAINED WITHIN THE UNOBTAINABLE?

Bất khả hủy, bất khả tán,

Thể nhược hư không vật nhai ngạn.

Bất ly đương xứ thường trạm nhiên,

Mịch tức tri quân bất khả kiến.

Thủ bất đắc, xả bất đắc,

Bất khả đắc trung chỉ ma đắc.

COMMENTARY:

IT CANNOT BE SLANDERED AND CANNOT BE PRAISED. This wonderful Dharma door is the one Supreme Path. If one has not yet awakened completely, one absolutely may not malign it; even less may one praise it.

ITS SUBSTANCE IS LIKE SPACE; IT HAS NO SHORE. The basic substance of the inherent nature we humans possess is like empty space. It has no boundaries, and so even less does it have limits. It is equal and undifferentiated.

IT DOES NOT LEAVE WHERE IT IS; IT IS ALWAYS CLEAR. All people are fundamentally complete with this basic substance, and no one lacks it. It never leaves where it is, but is always clear, still, and undisturbed.

IF YOU SEARCH FOR IT, KNOW THAT YOU WILL NOT SEE IT. If you intentionally seek it, though you may go to the far corners of the ocean or the limits of the heavens insearch of it, you will not be able to see it. But if it is evoked without thought, you will be immediately, suddenly Enlightened to the fundamental source--the original face of your natural, inherent Buddhahood.

IT CANNOT BE GRASPED. The inherent nature is like space. Since it cannot be seized or grasped, how then could it have the characteristics of a tangible form?

IT CANNOT BE REJECTED. The inherent nature cannot be grasped; then can it be rejected? No, it cannot be rejected either. Why? To the ends of empty space, throughout the Dharma Realm, there is nothing that is not included in this inherent nature. Therefore, it cannot be rejected either.

JUST WHAT CAN BE OBTAINED WITHIN THE UNOBTAINABLE? Within that which can neither be obtained nor rejected, there is only nothing to be attained. Will the cultivator be able to obtain it?

TEXT:

WHEN SILENT, THERE IS SPEECH;
WHEN SPEAKING, THERE IS SILENCE.

THE GREAT GATE OF GIVING IS OPEN AND UNBLOCKED.

SHOULD SOMEONE ASK WHAT THE PRINCIPLE OF MY EXPLANATIONS IS,

I INFORM HIM THAT IT IS THE POWER OF MAHAPRAJNA.

PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT.

ONE MAY OPPOSE THE FLOW OR COMPLY,
BUT THE GODS DO NOT FATHOM IT.

I HAVE ALREADY CULTIVATED IT THROUGH MANY AEONS,

THIS IS NOT THE ORDINARY CASE OF MUTUAL LIES AND DECEIT.

Mặc thời thuyết, thuyết thời mặc,

Ðại thí môn khai vô ủng tắc.

Hữu nhân vấn ngã giải hà tông?

Báo đạo ma-ha bát-nhã lực.

Hoặc thị hoặc phi nhân bất thức,

Nghịch hành thuận hành thiên mạc trắc.

Ngô tảo tằng kinh đa kiếp tu,

Bất thị đẳng nhàn tương cuống hoặc.

COMMENTARY:

WHEN SILENT, THERE IS SPEECH; WHEN SPEAKING, THERE IS SILENCE. When a cultivator is still and silent, he can obtain the realization that the mountains, the rivers, and the great earth--phenomena of the universe--are all without exception, actually proclaiming the wonderful Dharma. Yet, even while they are proclaiming the wonderful Dharma, the fundamental substance of everything is forever still and undisturbed. It is silent and has no words.

THE GREAT GATE OF GIVING IS OPEN AND UNBLOCKED. This door of true and proper, great and fearless giving is open wide, and universally benefits the conscious beings of the Dharma Realm, so that they may ascend the shore of awakening together.

SHOULD SOMEONE ASK WHAT THE PRINCIPLE OF MY EXPLANATIONS IS--should someone inquire of me, "What is the guiding principle hbehind these explanations?" I INFORM HIM THAT IT IS THE POWER OF MAHAPRAJNA. I just answer that it is no other principle than the supreme guiding purport of Mahaprajna-power. Maha has three meanings: "great," "many," and "supreme."

PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT. Ultimately, people do not know what this Mahaprajna-power is and what it is not; none of them recognize its wonderful meaning.

ONE MAY OPPOSE THE FLOW OR COMPLY, BUT THE GODS DO NOT FATHOM IT. Whether one opposes the flow and cultivates by oneself, or whether one complies with the flow and transforms other, even the gods find it hard to measure its heights and depths.

I HAVE ALREADY CULTIVATED IT THROUGH MANY AEONS. Since people cannot recognize it, gods find it even harder to fathom. But, because I have already steeped myself in cultivation of this dharma for many lifetimes through many aeons.

THIS IS NOT THE ORDINARY CASE OF MUTUAL LIES AND DECEIT. This is certainly not the common, ordinary sort of wasteful words with which people cheat and mislead one another.

This section of the Song was spoken by a man of wisdom It would have been difficult for an ordinary person to have said it.

Song of Enlightenment

by Great Master Yung Chia of The T'ang Dynasty

Commentary by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua