Shurangama Mantra with Verses and Commentary

by Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua

535. DẠ BA ĐỘT ĐÀ

夜波突陀

 

 

Nãi chí hộ Chú lực sĩ chúng

Vô thượng Phật bảo pháp trung vương

Cảnh sách sanh thiện diệt chư ác

Thị cố thử xứ tối cát tường.

 

乃至護咒力士眾

無上佛寶法中王

警策生善滅諸惡

是故此處最吉祥

English Translated by the International Translation Institute

Revised by Bhikshu Heng Shun

 

535. Ye Bo Tu Tuo

 

Verse:

 

And there are the multitudes of mighty lords who guard the mantra,

The unsurpassed Buddha Jewel, the King of Dharmas.

 Exhorting beings to practice good and destroy all evil,

For this reason, this place is most auspicious.

 

Commentary:

 

And there are the multitudes of mighty lords who guard the Mantra.

 

“Ye Bo Tu Tuo” refers to the ever-alert multitudes or assemblies of mighty lords. They protect and uphold the Shurangama Mantra, to safeguard the Shurangama platform, and to protect the cultivators who uphold the Shurangama Mantra so that no problems from demonic forces arise.

 

The unsurpassed Buddha Jewel, the King of Dharmas.

 

This mantra line is also part of the unsurpassed Buddha Jewel of the Buddha Division, which is the King of Dharmas.

 

Exhorting beings to practice good and destroy all evil.

 

They strongly urge living beings to bring forth wholesome minds, plant roots of good, and dispel all evil, so they all can change from the bad and go towards the good.

 

For this reason, this place is most auspicious.

 

Our explanation has reached the 535th line, and the auspicious signs will appear in the 536th line. Auspiciousness means eradicating disasters and difficulties, so that all calamities will henceforth disappear. Thus, it is said, “This place is most auspicious.” The Buddhas of the past, present, and future from the ten directions, throughout the Dharma realm and to the ends of the reaches of space, come to protect and support this bodhimanda. They protect living beings so that everything is auspicious and goes as they wish.

 

 

This four-line verse provides only a general overview of the mantra with much left out, so that you can understand its meaning more easily. If one were to explain it in great detail, every single line of the mantra contains inexhaustible and measureless meanings, and is wondrous beyond words. Basically, no explanation can describe it. The human mind is not able to conceive or fathom it.

 

I do not know how I came into this world on the sixteenth day of the third lunar month, or how my Master (Great Master Chang Zhi) came on the fifteenth day of the third lunar month, or how my Master’s Dharma-brother (Great Master Chang Ren) came into it on the seventeenth day of the third lunar month. I renounced the householder’s life to become a monk on the sixteenth day of the ninth lunar month, my Master did the same on the fifteenth day of the ninth lunar month, and my Master’s Dharma-brother did this on the seventeenth day of the ninth lunar month. What a coincidence!

 

Some things in this world happen by chance. I never thought that I would come to the United States to lecture on the Shurangama Mantra. Many people asked me to lecture on the Shurangama Mantra when I was in China, but I always said, “Wait a while.” I must have karmic affinities with you red-haired and green-eyed Americans!