The Shurangama Sutra

Discuss and learn about the traditional Mahayana scriptures, without assuming that any one school ‘owns’ the only correct interpretation.
Post Reply
User avatar
vinodh
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:06 pm
Location: St Andrews, Scotland
Contact:

Re: The Shurangama Sutra

Post by vinodh »

Sanskrit Chanting of the Surangama Mantra:

http://mp3.evdd.com/fyf/yihuan/lyz.mp3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Chanting is not very clear.

Follow the chant using this:

http://dharmasound.net/Chanting/Sanskri ... angira.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:buddha1:
http://www.virtualvinodh.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

yo dharmaṁ paśyati, sa buddhaṁ paśyati

One who sees the Dharma, sees the Buddha
śālistamba sūtra

na pudgalo na ca skandhā buddho jñānamanāsravam
sadāśāntiṁ vibhāvitvā gacchāmi śaraṇaṁ hyaham

Neither a person nor the aggregates, the Buddha, is knowledge free from [evil] outflows
Clearly perceiving [him] to be eternally serene, I go for refuge [in him]
saddharma-laṅkāvatāra-sūtra
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: New Shurangama Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

BTTS has a new, one volume, translation of the sutra, with excerpts from Master Hsuan Hua's commentary:

http://www.bttsonline.org/product.aspx?pid=393" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: the Mantra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Here is the audio & a phonetic, line-by-line chanting of the mantra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sUU9rXHAVE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And now a slower version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGBTKPH2OSY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: The New Surangama Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Here are some brief comments by a disciple of Master Hua, Richard Josephson. A practitioner & Bhikshu for 10 years, he sees the sutra as really a practice manual. It is from his website:
http://buddhadharma.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Surangama Sutra
by Richard Josephson

If you want to understand the philosophy of the Tathagatagarbha School there are
better texts than the Surangama Sutra; if you want experience the Nature of Mind this
is the text for you. The Surangama Sutra is first and foremost a practice text. Its aim is
not to provide answers, but rather to teach us to ask the right questions. The basic
thesis is that enlightenment eludes us because we don't know how to inquire properly.
We approach enlightened knowledge the same way we approach any other form of
knowledge; after all, how else can we approach it? We are common people whose
minds are conditioned to think in a particular way. This is the way we have gained
knowledge of our world and the people in it life after life, and unfortunately we know
no other way of thinking. The Surangama Sutra aims to introduce us to a new way of
thinking that will open doors that have been locked for many lifetimes.

The Surangama Sutra is not a text for the arm-chair bodhisattva. It is a
no-holds-barred how to text for attaining self-realization. Its form is so conceptually
simple that unless we put the words into actual practice we may never realize its
intention. As an intellectual undertaking it is a walk in the park; the difficulty lies in its
application; which can take years if not lifetimes to master. It is therefore a text more
for serious practitioners than scholars.

The Surangama Sutra is a manual of meditation for all levels of understanding. If you
have been meditating for decades and have considerable skill, it will do two things for
you. One, it will help you go deeper. No matter what form of meditation you practice,
the wisdom of the Surangama can easily be woven into it. Two, and this is very
important, it can help us avoid meditative self deception, which causes us to grasp and
become attached to meditative states, thereby turning wholesome states into
unwholesome ones.

If you are a novice, and bewildered by a path that seems so vast as to lack an entrance,
the Surangama's simplicity will bring you comfort by providing a beginning, something
you can sink your teeth into and do. You can begin right away meditating correctly,
what you achieve will depend entirely on your own sincerity and effort.

This particular translation of the Surangama Sutra, published by the Buddhist Text
Translation Society, is the best available for several reasons. First and foremost it was
done by a committee of translators, some of whom had the good fortune to listen to a
multi-year daily lecture of the Sutra by the Tripitika Master Hsuan Hua, an enlightened
master who until his passing was head of the Chan lineage of Chinese Buddhism and
himself a master of the Sutra. Hearing the entire text, with the Master's commentary,
was of great benefit to the translators, one that is passed on to us as readers. Moreover,
the principle translators are themselves lifelong Buddhists and practitioners of the
Sutra. One person on the committee of translators has memorized the entire Sutra.
Another holds a Phd in Buddhist studies and taught Asian Philosophy for thirty years
at San Francisco State University. In short, all on the committee of translators are
themselves, individually, qualified to translate this Sutra, all the more so as a team
working to honor the Sutra by producing a translation that accurately conveys the
meaning and is therefore a reliable practice text.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: Free e-book of Shurangama Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

July 15, 2014 the e-book of the new sutra translation will be available for free:

http://www.buddhisttexts.org/ebook---su ... sutra.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT -wrong date
Last edited by Nicholas Weeks on Sun Jul 06, 2014 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
User avatar
dzogchungpa
Posts: 6333
Joined: Sat May 28, 2011 10:50 pm

Re: Free e-book of Shurangama Sutra

Post by dzogchungpa »

Will wrote:July 14, 2014 the e-book of the new sutra translation will be available for free:

http://www.buddhisttexts.org/ebook---su ... sutra.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Actually, it appears that it will be available for free starting July 15, which is my birthday. What a nice birthday present!
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: The Shurangama Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Here is the new BTTS revised translation of the sutra, with selected comments by Master Hua:

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/6/3/3/1/6 ... lation.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
JKhedrup
Posts: 2328
Joined: Wed May 30, 2012 8:28 am

Re: The Shurangama Sutra

Post by JKhedrup »

http://www.buddhisttexts.org/surangama.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Buddhist Text Translation Society is pleased to announce that The Surangama Sutra: A New Translation ebook will be made available for free to download from July 15, 2014. Since it was published in 2009, thousands of copies have been sold around the world, and it has become our most popular English title
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: The Shurangama Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Here is how the Introduction to the new version begins:
For over a thousand years, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra — the “Sutra of the Indestructible” has been held in great esteem in the Mahāyāna Buddhist countries of East and Southeast Asia. In China the Sutra has generally been considered as important and has been as popular as the Lotus Sūtra, the Avataṁsaka Sūtra, the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Heart Sūtra, and the Diamond Sūtra. The appeal of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra lies in the broad scope of its teachings and in the depth and clarity of its prescriptions for contemplative practice...

More specifically, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra has traditionally been regarded as a complete and practical manual for spiritual practice that will eventually lead to enlightenment. It gives instruction in the correct understanding of the Buddha-nature, which is the potential within all beings for becoming a Buddha. The Sutra explains how and why this true nature is hidden within our ordinary experience of ourselves and of the world, and it shows how we can uncover this nature and recognize that it is our own true mind.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
DGA
Former staff member
Posts: 9466
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:04 pm

Re: The Shurangama Sutra

Post by DGA »

The basic thesis is that enlightenment eludes us because we don't know how to inquire properly.
Excellent.

The notion that this Sutra is a practice manual has real merit. I'd like for it to be better known as such.
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4209
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:21 am
Location: California

Re: The Shurangama Sutra

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Several dead or wrong links, so here is one to the free new e-book translation version, plus links to print version with the full Master Hua commentary.

http://www.buddhisttexts.org/surangama.html
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Post Reply

Return to “Sūtra Studies”