Surangama Sutra

 

The Surangama Sutra is one of the major texts of Mahayana Buddhism.

According to tradition, it was translated in 705 from Sanskrit to Chinese. The original Sanskrit version has been lost.

It gradually became the object of particular interest for the masters of the Chan school, including Hsuan Hua 宣化 (1918-1995) and Charles Luk (1898-1978) who contributed greatly to its dissemination and understanding.

 

 

The salient points of the Sutra are:

The worthlessness of the (intellectual) study of the Dharma without the practice of Meditation and the respect of moral precepts.

The importance of not falling victim of delusion and demonic influence that may arise during meditation, and of fake self appointed masters and gurus

 

2 Translations side by side

I have put side by side two translations by Hsuan Hua 宣化 (1918-1995) and Charles Luk (1898-1978) into English of this sutra.

You can download them by clicking on the link:

 

Surangama Sutra 2 Translations

 

 

LOYALTY

"Loyalty is a precious quality that we have almost lost sight of today. Instead of loyalty, almost everyone talks about freedom, (this is especially  true of relationships. The idea is that if two people come together in freedom, each can walk out of the arrangement. This is supposed to be a complete safeguard against unhappiness. Unfortunately, even where both are free to walk out – where there are no obligations, no bonds, not even any ties – they go on doing this over and over and do not acquire the capacity to love. Without loyalty, it simply is not possible to love deeply." 

Allthough this quote is originally about  the romantic love between 2 individuals, I found that it also actually applies to every kind of relationships, between 2 persons, between groups and individuals, and within groups  such as teams, schools, companies, churches, countries...

People sometimes leave organizations for they believe they were not giving them their due, or because, for whatever reason, they just did not wish to participate anymore. 

"I don't like it anymore, I don't get what I want anymore, I quit."

When life does not turn out the way one would love, one may decide to quit. 

Not only is this a spoiled kid and selfish attitude, but it will simply not solve the problem. Things do not get better when we quit. It may feel better for a while, but eventually, the same situation will occur again until the individual (if he left) or the group (if it kicked the individual out) has the courage to  address and solve it. 

If on the contrary both parties decide to stay and try to solve the problem together, then it might be solved, and both party might grow from it.

When things go well, loyalty is easy. When they don't, loyalty is about fixing them together. And it is not easy, but it is the only way to go. If you try to escape by quitting,  a similar situation will occur again, until you decide to address it and solve it. I have seen this happen, again and again (to me too). There is no escaping. You may try, you won't succeed. You might as well accept things now, and work them out.

And this my friends, might well be one way Karma works.

How can we change Humankind ?

Below is my own translation from French of an extract of “Zen and daily life” (Zen et vie quotidienne) by Master Taisen Deshimaru. I do not know that this book exists in English.

It provides an explanation of Karma, a concept I have been struggling with for quite a while... Karma as the flame that burns the wood. The wood burns and turns into ashes, but the Wood does not see the ashes, or knows nothing about them, and the ashes know nothing about the wood. What stays its the fire...

This is also an obvious reference to Genjokoan of Master Dogen.

One of the most simple explanation I heard of Yin and Yang is the analogy to a burning candle : the wax is Yin, the flame is Yang. Without wax, there can be no flame; without a flame, the wax is useless.

When the whole wax is burnt, the flame dies, but it might have set another candle in fire. Is this the same flame, or another flame ?

…

To believe in reincarnation and wish it, or not to believe in it and fear it, these are two erroneous attitudes. In Buddihsm, the 2 aspects are correlated. On one hand, the Buddha repelled all idea of transmigration, and on the other hand, certain texts affirm its reality. In fact, if we want to go beyond the world of transmigration, and beyond ethics, we need to understand the reason for this transmigration. During Zazen, we can understand the cause that provokes transmigration, reach the state of satori and realize this through our whole body and our spirit.

If one cuts all attachment, the substance of transmigration all of a sudden vanishes. And if there is no numen, there is nothing left to cut ! No more fear of death, no attachment to life, no attachment to the ego, no desire to keep on living: the subject is not attached to the ego anymore and the thought of transmigration is not necessary anymore. The burnt wood turns into ashes : it is a progressive transformation of the wood, while the fire keeps going. Karma is perpetuated through the prolongation of our thoughts, our words, our acts.

It is the flame of karma, while the ego is transformed like the wood is burnt. Wood turns into ashes, but wood cannot see the ashes, and the ashes neither can see the wood. There is no numen. By the practice of Zazen and Hishiryo consciousness, you can understand this difficult philosophy. But it is useless to try to get an intellectual understanding of it.