The Surangama Samadhi Sutra.
Sept 14, 2010 19:36:32 GMT 1
Post by Shi Da Dao on Sept 14, 2010 19:36:32 GMT 1
Surangama Samadhi Sutra
lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Surangama_Samadhi_Sutra,McRae,1998,N25-III.pdf
This is a unique sutra that was often read in conjunction witht he Vimalakirti Sutra in ancient China. It should not be mistaken for the Surangama Sutra.
'Translator's Introduction
The Surahgama Samadhi Sutra is an exquisite religious scripture. One of the most profound of all Mahayana texts, it depicts a vision of Buddhism that is thoroughly transcendent and at the same time uniquely humanistic. Here the Buddha Sakyamuni is no mere historical personage, but the one eternal cosmic Buddha who is the source of all other Buddhas. The Dharma Sakyamuni teaches is the Surangama Samadhi, the meditative concentration of the "heroic march" to Buddhahood, which is presented in overwhelmingly lavish terms as the very key to the enlightenment of the Buddhas and all of their awesome spiritual power. And the prize that awaits those who practice and achieve mastery of this incredible samadhi is not merely enlightenment in individual terms, but the insurpassable and perfect enlightenment of Buddhahood itself. Indeed, this text implies it would be impossible to remain in any Hmayanist state of enlightened extinction, since the Surahgama Samadhi even gives the Buddha the power to recall the Pratyekabuddhas (those who are enlightened by their own efforts and who pass into extinction without teaching others),and Arhats (those who complete the entire Hinayana path to achieve total Nirvanic extinction) from their religious comas to achieve perfect Buddhahood.
The text is classically Mahayana in format and structure. It begins with a grand assembly on Mount Grdhrakuta (Vulture Peak), where the Buddha is surrounded by great numbers of bhiksus, Bodhisattvas, and other beings. The dialogue begins with a question by a Bodhisattva named Resolute Mind (one of several figures who appear here who are not known in other texts), then proceeds involving a number of participants, including Bodhisattvas, Sravakas (the human disciples of the Buddha identified with the Hinayana), gods, and goddesses. It also uses several different supernatural manifestations, such as the simultaneous offering of innumerable elaborate chairs for the Buddha by all the most highly ranked gods present, the appearance of Mara bound hand and foot and unable at first to attend the preaching of the Sutra, and the manifestation of the palaces of Mara and innumerable Indra gods. The grand climax of all these is the Buddha's manifestation of all the innumerable Buddhas of the ten directions, shining with light and surrounded by their assemblies, who then offer flowers to form canopies over the heads of these Buddhas, first over Sakyamuni and then over all the others. This magnificent epiphany is presented as part of a dramatic hesitation toward the end of the dialogue, when some of the Bodhisattvas in Sakyamuni's assembly become discouraged by the apparent difficulty of the path to Buddhahood being described. Finally, there is the charge to Ananda to preach the Sutra, which is also carried up by one of the many Indra kings who appear in the text. The incomparable merits of copying, reciting, and teaching the Sutra are extolled, and as the scene closes countless numbers of sentient beings generate the Bodhicitta, the intention to achieve insurpassable and perfect enlightenment, eighteen thousand Bodhisattvas attain the Surangama Samadhi, an equal number of bhiksus and bhiksunis (monks and nuns) attain Arhatship, and even greater numbers of laypeople and gods attain different levels of understanding.
From the very beginning of the dialogue it is apparent that this Sutra (or, rather, its anonymous author) grapples with a fundamental problem that faced the practitioners of the Mahayana: how to account for the apparently dismal spiritual fates of Hlnayanist practitioners, the Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Arhats. Resolute Mind Bodhisattva's opening question concerns whether or not there exists a samadhi that causes Bodhisattvas to rapidly achieve perfect enlightenment, while at the same time allowing beings of lesser aspirations to practice successfully according to their own understanding even as they proceed along the Mahayana path. We learn that this is indeed one of the cardinal attributes of the Surangama Samadhi, so that those who appear to practice and even believe themselves to be practicing the so-called Hinayana will actually achieve Buddhahood according to the Mahayana at some point in the future. Even more,as the text proceeds we learn that the Surangama Samadhi allows many enlightened beings to manifest themselves in any number of worldly shapes for the purpose of teaching sentient beings, so that gods, kings, monks, and laypeople may actually be forms taken by the enlightened for salvific purposes.
The ultimate variation on this theme is the information given toward the end of the scripture that Manjusri Bodhisattva was actually a perfectly enlightened Buddha (his name and the particulars of his true identity are given) who had manifested himself as a Pratyekabuddha in thirty-six billion different lifetimes in order to teach sentient beings. This is a magnificent contradiction of the Buddhist doctrinal convention—explicitly refuted in the text—that entry into Nirvana as a Pratyekabuddha or Arhat represents a spiritual dead end, a total extinction from which one cannot return. (The discouragement felt by some of the Buddha's listeners at the end of the text, already mentioned above, is actually that they might have to labor mightily for the achievement of the Surahgama Samadhi yet still get sidetracked into a lesser enlightenment.) This text simply cannot allow the Hlnayanist to remain in such a spiritual void, and it does not stop with merely saying that they are to be retrieved from their extinctions,but goes on to describe a religious world in which personal identity may be adopted and manifested at will for teaching purposes. Given such thoroughgoing fluidity of identity, the earlier doctrinal conventions about the distinctiveness and irreversibility of different spiritual paths are not just rejected but thoroughly transformed.
There are several other themes present in this Sutra that should not go unmentioned. The existence of innumerable other Buddha lands is basic to the philosophy of the scripture, since Bodhisattvas have to worship other Buddhas in order to achieve their own Buddhahood. Several other Buddha lands are mentioned by name and described,although the only one known widely from other sources is the Wondrous Joy world of the Buddha Aksobhya. It is especially nteresting to notice, then, that Amitabha/Amitayus and his Sukhavati are unmentioned. Also, great significance is placed on the Buddha's bestowal of the prediction of future Buddhahood throughout the text, and even Mara is the recipient of such a prediction—before he has even sincerely generated the Bodhicitta. Offerings are extremely important in this text, and they seem to receive greater weight than other forms of religious praxis.
The spiritual identity and fate of women is touched on in a couple of the scripture's anecdotes, most particularly regarding two hundred goddesses introduced as attendants to Mara, who are revealed by the Buddha to have already "planted good roots" under five hundred Buddhas in the past. The Buddha goes on to predict that they will make offerings to innumerable Buddhas in the future and after seven hundred eons will themselves achieve Buddhahood. Although the Buddha states that their next lifetimes will be as human females serving the future Buddha Maitreya, their transformation into male form is never explicitly mentioned. But all these features are of secondary importance to the religious significance of the Surangama Samadhi itself. What are we to make of this incredible and spectacular concentration? Indeed, the explanation of the Surangama Samadhi is so conceptually abstruse that it amounts to an encapsulation of the entirety of the Mahayana Buddhist path. The description of how one learns it begins with a common simile for meditation practice, the progressive training in archery so that one can hit even small targets. Following this, the practitioner is told to study a sequence that proceeds rapidly through the mind of ecstasy, the profound mind, great sympathy, great compassion,and so forth, through the five supernatural "penetrations"and the six Mahayana Perfections, so that he achieves forbearance of the birthlessness of the dharmas and thus receives a prediction of Buddhahood. At this point, the practitioner is at the eighth Bodhisattva stage, but it is only at the tenth stage that he is able to attain the Surangama Samadhi. This is compared to perfect mastery of archery,in which one can consistently hit targets smaller than a single hair. No doubt some of the Buddha's listeners became discouraged!
Presumably, one way to approach this mind-boggling complexity is to consider it a vehicle for the transmission of ideas about emptiness [sunyata] and the subtle profundity of the Bodhisattva ideal. Here I can do no better than to let the reader experience the text directly, to imbibe of its inestimable spiritual power.#
With Metta.
lirs.ru/lib/sutra/Surangama_Samadhi_Sutra,McRae,1998,N25-III.pdf
This is a unique sutra that was often read in conjunction witht he Vimalakirti Sutra in ancient China. It should not be mistaken for the Surangama Sutra.
'Translator's Introduction
The Surahgama Samadhi Sutra is an exquisite religious scripture. One of the most profound of all Mahayana texts, it depicts a vision of Buddhism that is thoroughly transcendent and at the same time uniquely humanistic. Here the Buddha Sakyamuni is no mere historical personage, but the one eternal cosmic Buddha who is the source of all other Buddhas. The Dharma Sakyamuni teaches is the Surangama Samadhi, the meditative concentration of the "heroic march" to Buddhahood, which is presented in overwhelmingly lavish terms as the very key to the enlightenment of the Buddhas and all of their awesome spiritual power. And the prize that awaits those who practice and achieve mastery of this incredible samadhi is not merely enlightenment in individual terms, but the insurpassable and perfect enlightenment of Buddhahood itself. Indeed, this text implies it would be impossible to remain in any Hmayanist state of enlightened extinction, since the Surahgama Samadhi even gives the Buddha the power to recall the Pratyekabuddhas (those who are enlightened by their own efforts and who pass into extinction without teaching others),and Arhats (those who complete the entire Hinayana path to achieve total Nirvanic extinction) from their religious comas to achieve perfect Buddhahood.
The text is classically Mahayana in format and structure. It begins with a grand assembly on Mount Grdhrakuta (Vulture Peak), where the Buddha is surrounded by great numbers of bhiksus, Bodhisattvas, and other beings. The dialogue begins with a question by a Bodhisattva named Resolute Mind (one of several figures who appear here who are not known in other texts), then proceeds involving a number of participants, including Bodhisattvas, Sravakas (the human disciples of the Buddha identified with the Hinayana), gods, and goddesses. It also uses several different supernatural manifestations, such as the simultaneous offering of innumerable elaborate chairs for the Buddha by all the most highly ranked gods present, the appearance of Mara bound hand and foot and unable at first to attend the preaching of the Sutra, and the manifestation of the palaces of Mara and innumerable Indra gods. The grand climax of all these is the Buddha's manifestation of all the innumerable Buddhas of the ten directions, shining with light and surrounded by their assemblies, who then offer flowers to form canopies over the heads of these Buddhas, first over Sakyamuni and then over all the others. This magnificent epiphany is presented as part of a dramatic hesitation toward the end of the dialogue, when some of the Bodhisattvas in Sakyamuni's assembly become discouraged by the apparent difficulty of the path to Buddhahood being described. Finally, there is the charge to Ananda to preach the Sutra, which is also carried up by one of the many Indra kings who appear in the text. The incomparable merits of copying, reciting, and teaching the Sutra are extolled, and as the scene closes countless numbers of sentient beings generate the Bodhicitta, the intention to achieve insurpassable and perfect enlightenment, eighteen thousand Bodhisattvas attain the Surangama Samadhi, an equal number of bhiksus and bhiksunis (monks and nuns) attain Arhatship, and even greater numbers of laypeople and gods attain different levels of understanding.
From the very beginning of the dialogue it is apparent that this Sutra (or, rather, its anonymous author) grapples with a fundamental problem that faced the practitioners of the Mahayana: how to account for the apparently dismal spiritual fates of Hlnayanist practitioners, the Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Arhats. Resolute Mind Bodhisattva's opening question concerns whether or not there exists a samadhi that causes Bodhisattvas to rapidly achieve perfect enlightenment, while at the same time allowing beings of lesser aspirations to practice successfully according to their own understanding even as they proceed along the Mahayana path. We learn that this is indeed one of the cardinal attributes of the Surangama Samadhi, so that those who appear to practice and even believe themselves to be practicing the so-called Hinayana will actually achieve Buddhahood according to the Mahayana at some point in the future. Even more,as the text proceeds we learn that the Surangama Samadhi allows many enlightened beings to manifest themselves in any number of worldly shapes for the purpose of teaching sentient beings, so that gods, kings, monks, and laypeople may actually be forms taken by the enlightened for salvific purposes.
The ultimate variation on this theme is the information given toward the end of the scripture that Manjusri Bodhisattva was actually a perfectly enlightened Buddha (his name and the particulars of his true identity are given) who had manifested himself as a Pratyekabuddha in thirty-six billion different lifetimes in order to teach sentient beings. This is a magnificent contradiction of the Buddhist doctrinal convention—explicitly refuted in the text—that entry into Nirvana as a Pratyekabuddha or Arhat represents a spiritual dead end, a total extinction from which one cannot return. (The discouragement felt by some of the Buddha's listeners at the end of the text, already mentioned above, is actually that they might have to labor mightily for the achievement of the Surahgama Samadhi yet still get sidetracked into a lesser enlightenment.) This text simply cannot allow the Hlnayanist to remain in such a spiritual void, and it does not stop with merely saying that they are to be retrieved from their extinctions,but goes on to describe a religious world in which personal identity may be adopted and manifested at will for teaching purposes. Given such thoroughgoing fluidity of identity, the earlier doctrinal conventions about the distinctiveness and irreversibility of different spiritual paths are not just rejected but thoroughly transformed.
There are several other themes present in this Sutra that should not go unmentioned. The existence of innumerable other Buddha lands is basic to the philosophy of the scripture, since Bodhisattvas have to worship other Buddhas in order to achieve their own Buddhahood. Several other Buddha lands are mentioned by name and described,although the only one known widely from other sources is the Wondrous Joy world of the Buddha Aksobhya. It is especially nteresting to notice, then, that Amitabha/Amitayus and his Sukhavati are unmentioned. Also, great significance is placed on the Buddha's bestowal of the prediction of future Buddhahood throughout the text, and even Mara is the recipient of such a prediction—before he has even sincerely generated the Bodhicitta. Offerings are extremely important in this text, and they seem to receive greater weight than other forms of religious praxis.
The spiritual identity and fate of women is touched on in a couple of the scripture's anecdotes, most particularly regarding two hundred goddesses introduced as attendants to Mara, who are revealed by the Buddha to have already "planted good roots" under five hundred Buddhas in the past. The Buddha goes on to predict that they will make offerings to innumerable Buddhas in the future and after seven hundred eons will themselves achieve Buddhahood. Although the Buddha states that their next lifetimes will be as human females serving the future Buddha Maitreya, their transformation into male form is never explicitly mentioned. But all these features are of secondary importance to the religious significance of the Surangama Samadhi itself. What are we to make of this incredible and spectacular concentration? Indeed, the explanation of the Surangama Samadhi is so conceptually abstruse that it amounts to an encapsulation of the entirety of the Mahayana Buddhist path. The description of how one learns it begins with a common simile for meditation practice, the progressive training in archery so that one can hit even small targets. Following this, the practitioner is told to study a sequence that proceeds rapidly through the mind of ecstasy, the profound mind, great sympathy, great compassion,and so forth, through the five supernatural "penetrations"and the six Mahayana Perfections, so that he achieves forbearance of the birthlessness of the dharmas and thus receives a prediction of Buddhahood. At this point, the practitioner is at the eighth Bodhisattva stage, but it is only at the tenth stage that he is able to attain the Surangama Samadhi. This is compared to perfect mastery of archery,in which one can consistently hit targets smaller than a single hair. No doubt some of the Buddha's listeners became discouraged!
Presumably, one way to approach this mind-boggling complexity is to consider it a vehicle for the transmission of ideas about emptiness [sunyata] and the subtle profundity of the Bodhisattva ideal. Here I can do no better than to let the reader experience the text directly, to imbibe of its inestimable spiritual power.#
With Metta.