In Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III tells us that “Ancient Buddhas and Bodhisattvas adopted various methods to become accomplished.” In the same sutra He also tells how Avalokiteshvara became a Bodhisattva and also how we can also become holy beings and ultimately Buddhas. In Learning from Buddha, the Buddha Master lists several sutras and commentaries or treatises that we should study including the Surangama Sutra. In this sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha asks twenty-five Bodhisattvas to describe the different methods by which each had attained Enlightenment so that others can learn something from them. That sutra also states that Manjushri Bodhisattva stated that the method employed by Avalokiteshvara was judged the most suitable for human beings today.
Shakyamuni Buddha predicted that the Surangama Sutra will be the first to disappear in this Dharma-ending Age. The sutra also reveals the “. . .law of causality relating to both delusion and enlightenment and teaches the methods of practice and realization to destroy forever the roots of birth and death.” The original Surangama Sutra also included the “Surangama Dharani” or mantra and rituals for avoiding all obstructions on the Path. They are not included in the translation of this sutra offered below for several reasons that are included in the pdf. The translator, Charles Luk, indicated that the Chinese transliteration of the mantra is now so corrupt that an English transliteration would be misleading. I believe the Buddha Master had His nuns stop that practice or at least using the Chinese version they had been chanting for the same reasons.
However, this sutra covers many of the same themes and concepts in the Buddha Master’s Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra and although there are differences and given the fact that the Buddha Master said we should study it, I feel we should do so and now is a good time as we explore the Buddha Master’s text in DCB22-Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Text of the Heart Sutra-I and related courses.
CLICK to download pdf of Charles Luk’s translation of the Surangama Sutra.
CLICK for articles on Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra and links to discussions of preliminary translations of the same.
CLICK for Sutras and Commentaries to be mastered by H.H. DOrje Chang Buddha III.
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