The Esoteric Significance of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

Section 4  Ānanda's Vow Gāthā

Original text of the vow gāthā:

妙湛总持不动尊。首楞严王世稀有。销我亿劫颠倒想。不历僧祇获法身。

愿今得果成宝王。还度如是恒沙众。将此深心奉尘刹。是则名为报佛恩。

伏请世尊为证明。五浊恶世誓先入。如一众生未成佛。终不于此取泥洹。

大雄大力大慈悲。希更审除微细惑。令我早登无上觉。于十方界坐道场。

舜若多性可消亡。烁迦罗心无动转。

Explanation: The tathāgatagarbha, wondrously tranquil and still, is the general guide and essential outline of the Buddha-dharma; within the worldly dharmas of the three realms, it is always suchness immovable, not merging with the myriad dharmas, and therefore it is supremely venerable. This treasure, hard as the Śūraṅgama, is rare and difficult to see in the worldly dharmas, because He is a transcendent dharma, not belonging to the dharmas of the three realms, and therefore He is not within the world of the three realms.

When I heard the World-Honored One expound the tathāgatagarbha, I understood that the five aggregates are not the true self, but illusory appearances conjured forth by one's own tathāgatagarbha; thus the inverted thinking, held throughout beginningless kalpas, of taking the five aggregates as the real self, was thoroughly extinguished. At the moment I awakened to the tathāgatagarbha, this true dharma, I instantly realized my own pure Dharma body, attaining sudden enlightenment without having to pass through the length of asaṃkhyeya kalpas.

I now make the vow to attain the Buddha fruit soon and become a Dharma King, and then to deliver sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. I offer this deep vow-mind to the jeweled buddha-lands as numerous as dust motes and sands, to deliver the immeasurable, boundless sentient beings within those jeweled lands; only thus can I repay the grace of the buddhas who delivered and transformed me. I humbly request the World-Honored One to bear witness: I vow to enter first this evil world of the five turbidities to universally deliver sentient beings; if even one sentient being has not accomplished the Buddha Way, I shall never attain the supreme Buddha fruit — the great nirvāṇa, that is, the nirvāṇa without abode (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa) of the buddha-stage.

O Buddha, World-Honored One, heroic and mighty, of great loving-kindness and great compassion, I hope You can further help me, carefully removing the countless, immeasurable latent afflictions (anuśaya) and the dust-and-sand ignorance within my mind, letting me break through all subtle ignorance completely, ascend the supreme throne of the Dharma King, sit at the place of practice in the worlds of the ten directions, subdue the demon armies of the ten directions, and deliver the sentient beings of the ten directions. My floating mind, illusory and empty, may arise and cease, may vanish in an instant; yet my solid and immovable vajra mind (vajra-citta) absolutely never has a moment of movement or turning.