My Personal Experience of Peacefully Reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra

Last night while reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra, I remembered that in my master's teachings on the Dharma it was said one may recite it while tapping a wooden fish, so I tapped the table with a pen as I recited. At first everything was normal, but after a few minutes, I felt that my enunciation, rhythm, and pitch were completely different from usual, as if it were not I who was reciting. These changes were not controlled by my mind consciousness; they seemed to emerge automatically. At the time my mind consciousness felt very weak, my eyes could barely stay open, and I could only barely make out the words. Yet the recitation was smooth and fast, with a rhythm like chanting. After finishing, my mind consciousness was still very weak; I had to hold onto the table to get myself onto the bed. Only after resting for quite a while did my mind consciousness return to normal.

Assessment: This is the blessing power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas—truly inconceivable. Ordinarily, recitation and voice are both the doing of the mind consciousness, but at that time one's own mind consciousness had nothing to do and was powerless; therefore this recitation was not an act led by the mind consciousness. This recitation was, first, produced under the embracing and blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas or the Dharma-protecting deities, and second, regulated by one's own manas—a recitation led by the manas, that is, the manas's own recitation. The first is easy to understand; how is the second to be understood? Why would the manas take control of the mind consciousness, even replacing its recitation? This involves the power of meditative concentration (samādhi). The blessing power is certainly present, but let us set that aside for now. Because the manas has recognized the importance of the Śūraṅgama Mantra, it participated in the mind consciousness's recitation, and having become very familiar with it, it will recite autonomously, replacing the mind consciousness, which becomes powerless. This is a state of being in a light samādhi of mantra recitation; deeper states of samādhi will subsequently appear, and the subsequent practice will proceed quickly and smoothly. Because samādhi has arisen and the manas personally takes the stage, memorizing the Śūraṅgama Mantra becomes easy—no need for the mind consciousness to recall or remember; only slight participation from the mind consciousness is needed.

If there were no actual examples demonstrating this, most people would not believe it, and some would say: How could the manas recite or memorize? It is simply nonsense. So what exactly is the principle behind memorization and samādhi? Memorization and samādhi are the doing of the manas, led by the manas—there is no other reason, because the mind consciousness is clearly powerless, unable to control it, at a loss, unable even to see the words clearly—so how could it recite?

This state was exactly the same as my own state back when I was doing the Śūraṅgama retreat and reciting the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. At that time, because I recited extremely fast, without deliberation, as I recited my eyes could no longer see the words in the book, yet my mouth recited at great speed—so fast that others could not keep up. This should more accurately be called reciting from memory. At that time my mind was empty and still, like water unmoving, as if in meditative absorption; I only wished the wooden fish would not stop, that the sutra would not end, that the recitation could continue forever without stopping. From then on I could recite the Śūraṅgama Sūtra from memory, without ever having deliberately memorized it.

From this we can see how great the blessing power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is, how extraordinary the resonant response, and how rapid the progress in practice, when one receives, upholds, and recites the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Mantra, and other Mahāyāna scriptures. The merit of reciting and memorizing the Śūraṅgama Mantra is inconceivable; its merits and benefits are described in detail in the seventh volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. I hope that those whose practice has not yet gotten on the right track will resolve to cultivate the Śūraṅgama Mantra, make good use of it, and advance their progress on the Path.