Shurangama Mantra with Verses and Commentary

by Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua

97. BÁC RA ĐẾ

般囉帝

 

 

Tảo đăng bỉ ngạn nễ ngã tha

Nhất thiết chúng sinh đáo chân gia

Phản Bổn Hoàn Nguyên hoạch cứu cánh

Tiêu diêu tự tại Lạc Vô Nhai.

 

早登彼岸你我他

一切眾生到真家

返本還原獲究竟

逍遙自在樂無涯

BWO LA DI

 BÁC RA ĐẾ

Quickly step up to the other shore: you, me, and them!

All living beings go to their true home.

Return to the root, go back to the source, gain the ultimate, and

Then roam at ease with happiness that knows no boundaries.

 

 

COMMENTARY:

 

BÁC RA ĐẾ is Paramita. Paramita is Sanskrit and means "arriving at the other shore." What is the other shore? What is this shore? The other shore is Nirvana, comfort, and happiness. This shore is ignorance and discomfort. From this shore of birth and death one goes across the heavy current of afflictions and arrives at the other shore of Nirvana. This is to say, quickly step up to the other shore: you, me, and them! You, me, and them refers to all of us -- to all living beings. Everyone should go to the other shore. All living beings go to their true home. Our present home is not our true home. Our bodies are just like hotels. We come into this world as if on a tourist's holiday. We stop here and there at hotels. We take various bodies. The hotel is not our final home. We just stay here temporarily. There is a verse which describes this:

 

Our bodies are like a house:

The windows are the eyes and the door is the mouth.

Our four limbs are like the pillars,

And our hair the thatch on top.

While the house is in good order, keep it well-repaired,

Don't wait until it falls apart and then despair.

 

So living beings should go to their true homes. What are our true homes? Buddhahood. We should become Buddhas because Buddhahood is our real home.

 

In our true home there is no affliction at all of any kind. The absence of all affliction is true happiness. So it says, return to the root, go back to the source, gain the ultimate. Recognize your original face. Where did you come from when you were born? Where will you go after you die? How did we get born and how are we going to die? Understanding birth and death, you know: "Originally I came into this world on a journey. My real home is Buddhahood."

 

In this world, if people aren't dragged around by their relatives, they are worn out by pursuing material things. They can't put this down, and they can't see through that. Suddenly they find they are stuck, stuck in this world. If you truly return to the root, go back to the source, and attain the ultimate, then you are free to roam at ease with happiness that knows no boundaries. Free to roam, happy you will be. Everyone wants to be free to roam, but they don't know how. Everyone wants to be free, but they don't know where to begin, so they never do get free. They constantly run off. They run outside to externals and so they can't gain genuine happiness. When you really learn how to roam freely, then your happiness will know no bounds. Won't that be great? We should all cultivate, hurry up and step up to the other shore, end birth and death, sever afflictions, and arrive at the other shore of Nirvana. Don't continue to turn in the bitter sea of birth and death.