Shurangama Mantra with Verses and Commentary

by Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua

5. NAM-MÔ TÁT ĐÁT THA

南無薩怛他

Tín tùng Thánh giáo Lưỡng Túc Tôn

Nội thí ngoại thí hiệu Năng Nhân

Nhất thiết vô trước tức tự tại

Giải thoát tri kiến vô ngã nhân.

信從聖教兩足尊

內施外施效能仁

一切無著即自在

解脫知見無我人

NA MWO SA DAN TWO

 

BELIEVING THE HOLY TEACHING AND THE DOUBLY-PERFECTED HONORED ONE,

GIVING INSIDE AND OUT IS TO EMULATE THE ONE CAPABLE OF HUMANENESS.

ATTACHED TO NOTHING IS COMFORT AND EASE.

IN LIBERATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND VIEWS, THERE IS NO SELF OR OTHERS.

 

COMMENTARY:

 

This is the fifth line of the Mantra, another NA MWO SA DAN TWO. Believing the Holy Teaching and the doubly-perfected Honored One. NA MWO means "following in faith" the teachings spoken by the Buddha. "Doubly perfected" means his blessings are perfect and his wisdom is perfect. Both are full and complete. Giving inside and out is to emulate the One Capable of Humaneness. All along, the Buddha gave his inner wealth and his outer wealth. The inner wealth he gave away included his head, eyes, brains, and marrow. There wasn't a single part of himself that he was unable to relinquish. He gave it all up. As to his outer wealth, his country was the largest, and he gave it away, as well as cities, his own wife, and his son. There wasn't a thing that he could not renounce. He emulated the "One Capable of Humaneness," that is, Shakyamuni Buddha.

 

Attached to nothing is comfort and ease. If you are not attached to anything, that is genuine self-mastery. If you have attachments, then you are not comfortable and at ease. In Liberation of knowledge and views, there is no self or others. If you can liberate your own knowledge and views so that you have no attachment to your knowledge and views, then at that point there will be no self or others. Why? You're liberated, that's why.