Audio: Shurangama Sutra 楞嚴經有聲書

Up

If people with scattered minds enter stupas or temples, and say but once, "Namo Buddha," they have realized the Buddha Way. --Dharma Flower Sutra, Chapter 2: Expedient Devices

若人散亂心  入於塔廟中  一稱南無佛  皆已成佛道   --大乘妙法蓮華經方便品第二

Om Mani Padme Hum  Om Mani Padme Hum  Om Mani Padme Hum

唵嘛呢叭彌吽  唵嘛呢叭彌吽  唵嘛呢叭彌吽

A Note regarding the audio files on the Shurangama Sutra with Commentary:  We are making available English audio files (currently, only 1 file on Chapter 1) on a provisional basis, until an official version is published. 

The English text, Chinese text, and Chinese audio files have been published (available on bttsonline.org) and are also  available online (cttbusa.org and drbachinese.org).

 
HOME主頁

Audio: Chan 普門品有聲書
Audio: Shurangama Sutra 楞嚴經有聲書
Audio: The Sutra in 42 Sections 四十二章經有聲書
Audiobooks 有聲書
Calendar法會時間表
Daily Recitations早晚課
Gallery長堤剪影
History成立因緣
On Death & Dying 臨終法要
Posters長堤海報

DHARMA_JEWEL法寳

Amitabha Buddha Recitation持名念佛
Cherishing Life護生放生
On Death & Dying 臨終法要
Resources網上資源
Shurangama Mantra學會楞嚴咒
The Five Schools五宗並進
The Precepts戒律

SANGHA_JEWEL僧寳

Ven. Hsu Yun虛雲老和尚
Ven. Hsuan Hua宣公上人

LINKS相關網站

CTTB萬佛聖城
Veggie Recipes淨素食譜

 

The Shurangama Sutra with Commentary -

Audio Files & Text

 

(本目錄以英文爲主;中文音頻公佈在法界佛教總會中文網站,自由下載)

 

 

The Shurangama Sutra with Commentary

by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

法總中文網站:

 

大佛頂首楞嚴經淺釋 - 音頻 Audio Files

 

大佛頂首楞嚴經淺釋- 内文 Text Files

English Files

 

 經前懸談

 

Introduction

 

No English audio file at this time.

 

卷一

 

音頻:

大佛頂首楞嚴經淺釋 卷一〈6〉

直播  或  MP3下載

 

内文:

大佛頂首楞嚴經淺釋(二)序分-三番破識

如是我聞。。。不是我自己杜撰出來的,而是佛以前講的法。

Volume 1

 

Audio File:

SSwC-01-ThusIHaveHeard-TheBuddhaSpoke.mp3

Text: See below, or see cttbusa.org:  Vol. 1, Ch 3, The Testimony of Faith

Thus I Have Heard...It is the dharma the Buddha spoke. 

Text

Outline:

A10 The specific explanation of the meaning of the text
B1 The preface
C1 The testimony of faith
D1 An explanation of the six fulfillments

Sutra:

如是我聞

Thus I have heard. 

Commentary:

Thus 
expresses faith. Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin and the foremost in learning of all his disciples, edited and compiled the sutras. At the beginning of each sutra he says, “Thus I have heard,” indicating that the words to follow are the Buddha’s words.

 

“Thus” means “Dharma such as this, the eight volumes of the Shurangama Sutra, is what I, Ananda, have heard. I, Ananda, myself heard the Buddha speak this.” Therefore, dharma that is “thus” can be believed; dharma that is not “thus” cannot be believed. “Thus,” then, refers to the text of the sutra. 

”Thus” satisfies the fulfillment of faith. All sutras spoken by the Buddha begin with the six fulfillments: the fulfillment of faith; the fulfillment of hearing; the fulfillment of time; the fulfillment of a host - one who speaks the dharma; the fulfillment of a place; and, the fulfillment of an audience.

1. The fulfillment of faith.

“Why must one have faith?” someone may wonder. 

Faith is the source of the Way 
And the mother of merit and virtue 
Because it nourishes all good dharmas. 
Such is its great importance. 

It is said, 

The Buddhadharma is like a great sea; 
Only through faith can one enter it. 

There is no other way to enter the sea of dharma except by faith. Only by means of faith can one “deeply enter the sutra treasury and have wisdom like the sea.” One should have faith that the Shurangama Sutra is extremely fine. Believe in the sutra. That is to have faith. That is what is meant by the fulfillment of faith.

2. The fulfillment of hearing.

Those with the fulfillment of faith still must come to listen to what is said. If you have only the fulfillment of faith, then when lecture time comes you may be off in the park or at a coffee house and miss the lecture entirely. That would be a case of there being no realization of hearing.

But if instead you aren’t out drinking coffee while sutras are being lectured - what is more, if you aren’t even thinking about food though you’ve skipped dinner and are thus making absolutely certain that you hear the sutra - you have achieved the fulfillment of hearing. Since you have all come to listen and have brought about the fulfillment of faith with your sincerity, I will realize the fulfillment of hearing for you.

3. The fulfillment of time.

If you have faith and hearing, but you don’t have the time, then there’s no way to hear the sutra. There must be an appropriate time. Usually, you are either going to school or going to work and have no time to come and listen to sutra lectures. But now we have found the time to assemble and investigate the sutra.

4. The fulfillment of a host.

You must also have a host to speak the dharma. If, for instance, you want to listen to sutras, you must find someone to lecture them for you. However, if you were to request one of your “do-it-yourself dharma masters” (laypeople who use this title even though they have not left the home-life in the orthodox tradition) to lecture, you would find that you might as well lecture yourself. You already understand what they lecture.

Therefore you must find a host who can speak the dharma. It was for this reason that you pulled me out of the grave. Basically I’m known as the “Monk in the Grave,” but you have brought me out to lecture sutras and speak dharma for you. 

”Who is the host of the sutra?”

Shakyamuni Buddha spoke the Shurangama Sutra; he represents the fulfillment of a host.

5. The fulfillment of a place.

“Once there is a host to speak the dharma, then everything is ready for dharma to be spoken, right?” you ask. 

No, you still need a place to lecture the sutras.

”What about the park? It’s big enough. We could go there for lectures.”

That might work for a day or two, but by the third day the authorities would prevent it. “This is a public park,” they would say. “You can’t occupy it like this.” So you have to find somewhere appropriate to bring about the fulfillment of a place.

6. The fulfillment of an audience. 

Finally, there must be people who come to listen. If there’s no audience for the sutra lecture, you can go ahead and lecture to the tables and chairs, but can they listen? No, an audience is necessary. 

For the Shurangama Sutra, the place is the Jeta Grove, in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, at the city of Shravasti, where the Buddha dwelt with his disciples. 

In this sutra, the audience is composed of the great bhikshus and Bodhisattvas who came to listen. 

When Ananda says, “Thus I have heard,” the “I” refers to the “hypothetical self” of the Bodhisattva. There are four kinds of self: 
 

  1. Ordinary people have an “attachment to the self” which comes from their attachment to the body.

  2. Non-Buddhist religions speak of a “divine self.” They maintain that there is a God-head, or say that they themselves are God.

  3. Bodhisattvas follow worldly custom and manifest a “hypothetical self.”

  4. The Buddhas have the ”true self” of the dharma body.

The ordinary person is attached to his body and feels that it is his real self. Actually the body is but a temporary dwelling, like a hotel. You can live in a hotel for a while, but eventually you will have to move. You can’t stay forever.

Ordinary people do not understand this principle. They think, “My body is me,” and they strive to feed it well and dress it beautifully. They look for pleasure to indulge it in. They want an elegant home and beautiful surroundings. They busy themselves dressing well, eating rich food, and living high - all only to help out their “stinking skin-bags.”

The human body is merely a stinking skin-bag. You don’t believe it? Take a look. Unclean matter oozes from your eyes. Your ears discharge wax, which is also unclean. Your nose is full of filthy mucus and your mouth is full of unclean saliva and phlegm. If you don’t bathe for four days, your body begins to stink, and if you perspire, it becomes foul in just a day or two. Feces and urine are also filthy. Impurities are constantly being discharged from the nine bodily apertures of the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, anus, and urethra – they’re all unclean. What is there to love about your body?

You may dress it in finery; dab it with perfume; slave for it all day applying lipstick, rouge, and powder as some women are wont to do - all for the sake of the false shell of the body. No matter how good the food, it still turns into excrement. Decorating the body is just like decorating a toilet with beautiful material. No matter how elegant the toilet turns out, it is still a place to deposit filthy things. Would you say the insides of a human body are clean? 

Tell me, what’s so good about your body? When the time comes to die, it retains no sentiment for you. It doesn’t say, “You’ve been so good to me, I’ll live a few extra days and help you out.” It can’t do it. So what good is the body after all? Nonetheless, the ordinary person is attached to his body and takes it as himself. “This is MY body,” he says. “You hit ME! I can’t allow that! How dare you insult ME!”

Ultimately, who is that “me”? He doesn’t even know who he is, and yet he says others are insulting him or hitting him. He hasn’t recognized his original face and thinks the flesh body is “me.” The spirit and the self-nature are the true self, but he has not found them. He can't see them. He doesn’t even know enough to look for them. He just assumes he’s doing the right thing by slaving for the sake of his body. 

If your primary concern is to get the better half of things for yourself, you haven’t figured out life right. Anyone like that won’t be able to make things add up. He is busy for the sake of himself to the exclusion of all else. Therefore, a Bodhisattva is never busy for himself. He is busy for the sake of others. If people want his help, he will give it to them, regardless of the circumstances. 

Non-Buddhist religions speak of a “divine self.” “What is the self?” they say. “It is God.” There are many varieties of this kind of self, but they will not be discussed at this time. 

What is the “hypothetical self” of the Bodhisattva? Ananda says, “Thus I have heard.” However, Ananda is enlightened; at the time he recalls the Buddha’s words for us, he has already attained arhatship, and so he no longer has any “I” - any ego. In saying “I have heard,” he is simply following worldly custom and assuming a hypothetical self in order to be comprehensible to ordinary people who have an attachment to the self. 

Bodhisattvas do not have the characteristic of a self. They recognize the ordinary attachment to the self as false, and they seek the true self of one’s own nature. It is from the false self that you can arrive at the true self, for only if you recognize the false can you find the true. If you don’t recognize the false as false, how can you find the truth?

Why are we now investigating the Buddhadharma? It is because we are searching for true principle. Why do we seek true principle? Because we know that everything in the world is false, and we want to find the truth within falsity. What is the true self of one’s own nature that the Bodhisattva seeks? It is the Buddha. The Buddha is the true self.

Before you have realized Buddhahood, your “I” is false. The Bodhisattva knows the self is false, but the ordinary person says, “You say the self is false, but as I see it, my body is excellent. It is strong, tall, well-proportioned and handsome. You may say it is false, but I think it is true.” He can’t see through it, and so he can’t put it down. Unable to put it down, he cannot become truly independent. 

The phrase “I have heard” indicates the fulfillment of hearing. 

”Now, basically,” you may say, “the ears hear. Why doesn’t it say, .Thus the ears heard,. instead of ‘Thus I have heard.’?” Actually, the ears cannot hear. They are merely the organ of hearing. What hears is the nature, which is eternally present. It is the mind that heard. What it heard was the dharma which is “thus.” 

”Which dharma is ‘thus’?” you ask.

It is the Shurangama Sutra that Dharma Master Paramiti wrote out on sheer silk, placed in an incision he made in his arm, carried to China, and translated into Chinese. Now it has come to America, where it has been translated into English. It is what Ananda himself heard the Buddha speak. It is what the Buddha has transmitted to China. It is not something that Ananda as an individual put together and made. It is the dharma the Buddha spoke. 

   
   

 

 

 

 

長堤聖寺

Copyright © 2001  Long Beach Sagely Monastery.  All rights reserved.
Revised: 09/12/11.