by Hsuan Hua
[32] “To nonhuman beings who wish to be free of being nonhuman — whether they have bodies or are bodiless, whether they are capable of cognition or are not capable of cognition — I will appear to them as they are and will instruct them in the Dharma that will lead them to fulfillment of their wish.
“These are the thirty-two pure and wondrous forms in which I appear in all lands in order to respond to what beings require. I accomplish this in samādhi, which I enter by redirecting my faculty of hearing inward to merge with the enlightened nature of hearing within, until the wondrous power of my self-mastery becomes effortless.
“World-Honored One, through the effortless, wondrous power of my vajra-solid samādhi, which I enter by redirecting my faculty of hearing inward to merge with the enlightened nature of hearing, I feel, as if they were my own, the sorrows and yearnings of all beings in the six destinies in all ten directions and in the three periods of time.66 Therefore, by using both body and mind, I can cause all beings to develop such perfect merit that they will have nothing to fear in fourteen kinds of dangerous situations.
“First, because I did not listen to sounds and instead contemplated the listener within, I can now hear the cries of suffering beings throughout the ten directions, and I can bring about their liberation.
“Second, I was able to turn my awareness around and restore it,67 and therefore, should beings be caught in a conflagration, I can make sure that they are not burned.
“Third, since I was able to turn my awareness around and restore it, I can make sure that beings who are adrift in a flood will not be drowned.
“Fourth, because I have put an end to deluded acts of mind, and so have no thoughts of harming or killing, I can make sure that any being who enters the realms of ghosts will not be harmed by them.
“Fifth, when I had succeeded in merging my faculty of hearing with the enlightened nature of hearing, my six faculties dissolved into each other to become one with my faculty of hearing. Therefore, if beings are about to be attacked, I can cause the attackers’ blades to shatter so that these beings will suffer no hurt, any more than water will be hurt by a knife that is plunged into it, or any more than light will be affected by a puff of wind.
“Sixth, my hearing was infused with an essential brilliance that illuminated the entire Dharma-Realm and dispelled the darkness of all hidden places. Therefore, I can ensure that beings will be invisible to any yakṣas, rākṣasas, kumbhāṇḍas, piśācas, pūtanas, or other such ghosts that might approach them.
Line 247 in the Śūraṇgama Mantra, “yao cha jie la he,” refers to the yakṣas. In the mantra, the names of the kings of various kinds of ghosts are called out. In general, ghosts may travel by land or in the air, and they may be male or female. (V, 154–5) Yakṣas, for example, are male; rākṣasas are female. Both are extremely fierce; their diet consists of human corpses. They recite mantras to remove the stench of a corpse so they can stand to eat the flesh.
A kumbhāṇḍa is a ghost shaped like a barrel. This ghost gives people nightmares. People may dream of some weird apparition, and though in
their dream they are mentally alert, they can’t move physically. They become paralyzed. Sometimes, if a person’s yang energies are weak and his yin energies prevail, the person can be paralyzed for a long time, and the ghost can eventually cause the person’s death. There are many of these kumbhāṇḍas in this world.68
Piśācas are ghosts that eat human essence and energy and also the essence of grains. Pūtanas can cause people to get sick and have a fever. But if you cultivate the skill of redirecting your faculty of hearing inward to hear your true nature, or if you recite the name of the Bodhisattva Who Hears the Cries of the World, these ghosts will not be able to see you, though they may come right up beside you because you emit light which they fear. Since the ghosts belong to yin, they cannot see you if you have yang light. They can only find you if you give off yin energy. (V, 163–4)
“Seventh, sound itself completely dissolved as I reversed the direction of my hearing and became free of distorted perceptions of sense-objects. Therefore, if a being is confined by a cangue, I can make that cangue disappear.
“Eighth, when sound was extinguished once and for all and my hearing was perfected, my kindness gained an all-pervading power. Therefore, should beings be traveling on dangerous roads, I can make sure that they will not be robbed by highwaymen.
“Ninth, once my faculty of hearing had become merged with the enlightened nature of hearing and so had gained independence from perceived objects, then no object, no matter how enticing, could affect me. Therefore, I can cause beings who have a great deal of desire to break free of their desire.
In the Lotus Sūtra in the chapter on the universal gateway of the Bodhisattva Who Hears the Cries of the World, it is said that people who have a great deal of desire can get rid of their desire through being constantly mindful and respectful of this Bodhisattva. That is the meaning of the present lines of text as well. “A great deal of desire” specifically refers to sexual desire. The biggest problem in human life, the one that is nearly impossible to resolve, is sexual desire. To see through the involvements of men and women and let these involvements go is to gain genuine liberation. If you can’t see through your desire and let it go, you cannot get free, and you cannot become enlightened. If you have real spiritual skill, then when you eat you won’t know that you’re eating, and though you are fully dressed, you won’t be aware of wearing what you are wearing. If you can forget about eating and wearing clothes, you will be even more able to renounce external things.... You can’t decide that you want to become enlightened and at the same time be unwilling to part with the experiences of this world. If you can’t separate yourself from the affairs of this world, you cannot become a Buddha. (V, 166–7)
“Tenth, once sounds were so purified that they ceased being objects of perception, then the ear-faculty and its objects became completely interfused so that there was nothing that perceived and nothing that was perceived. Therefore, I can cause beings burdened by anger and hatred to be free of their enmity.69
Earlier in the Sutra, the Buddhas of the ten directions told Ānanda that the six faculties of perception, which are the six thieves, are what cause people to fall, and that the six faculties are also what enable people to become Buddhas. If you use them well, they can help you. If you are unable to use them correctly, they can destroy you. It’s like money: when you have it, if you understand that you should perform good and meritorious deeds with it to benefit other beings, then you won’t have spent your money in vain. But if you gamble it away or buy drugs and other unwholesome things, then you have used your money to commit offenses. The principle is the same with the six faculties. (V, 168)
“Eleventh, once perceived objects had disappeared from my mind as I turned the light of my understanding inward, my body and mind and the entire Dharma-Realm were as bright and translucent as crystal. Therefore I can bring freedom from stupidity to beings whose natures have been so darkened by their dullness that they have had no intention of ever becoming enlightened.70
“Twelfth, once perceived objects became interfused and returned to the enlightened nature of hearing, I could travel to distant lands without leaving the place for awakening, and all at the same time, without any disruption, I could travel among the worlds. There I can make offerings to an infinite number of Buddhas throughout all ten directions and serve each of these Buddhas as a Dharma-Prince. For that reason, should childless beings anywhere in the ten directions wish for sons, I can cause them to have sons who will be virtuous, blessed, and wise.
Thirteenth, once my six faculties perfected an interconnected functioning and became united in their capacity to clearly perceive everything in all the worlds throughout the ten directions, my mind became like a great flawless mirror that reflected the emptiness of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. I reverently served an infinite number of Thus-Come Ones and thoroughly mastered esoteric aspects of the Dharma. Theref
ore, should childless beings anywhere in the ten directions wish for daughters, I can cause them to have daughters who are upright, blessed, virtuous, compliant, wholesome in appearance, and liked and respected by all.
“Fourteenth, sixty-two times as many Dharma-Princes as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges appear in each of the worlds of this system of a billion worlds, with its hundreds of billions of suns and moons, to practice the Dharma and to act as exemplars in order to teach beings how to transform themselves. With skill and wisdom, these Dharma-Princes respond in various ways to what various beings require. I have broken through to the fundamental source of my ear-faculty, thus revealing the ear as a gateway to the wondrous. My body and mind, in a subtle and wondrous way, have encompassed and pervaded the Dharma-Realm. Therefore, I can cause someone who recites my name to gain as many blessings and as much merit as someone else would gain from reciting the names of all those multitudes of Dharma-Princes — sixty-two times as many of them as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges. The blessings and merit that those two reciters will gain will be the same. World-Honored One, because, by means of my spiritual practice, I have completely broken through to enlightenment, the power of my name alone is equal to the power of all those many other names.
“In this way I cause beings to develop such merit that they will have nothing to fear in fourteen kinds of dangerous situations.
“Further, World-Honored One, because I have broken through to enlightenment and have reached the final destination of the Supreme Path, I have also mastered four immeasurably efficacious and wondrous powers.
“First, once I had realized the wondrousness within the wonder at the heart of my hearing, and once my hearing had disappeared into the essence of my mind, my hearing became indistinguishable from seeing, smelling, tasting, tactile awareness, and cognition. All six were completely interfused into a single pure and magnificent awareness. Therefore, I can assume many different and wondrous forms and can proclaim numberless esoteric and efficacious mantras. I may appear with one head, three heads, five heads, seven heads, nine heads, eleven heads, as many as one hundred and eight heads, or a thousand heads or ten thousand heads and more, even as many as eighty-four thousand indestructible heads. I may appear with two arms, four arms, six arms, eight arms, ten arms, twelve arms, or with fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, or twenty-four arms, or with as many as one hundred and eight arms, or with a thousand arms, or ten thousand arms and more, even as many as eighty-four thousand arms, with each hand forming a mudra. My hands may have two eyes, three eyes, four eyes, nine eyes, as many as one hundred and eight eyes, or a thousand eyes or ten thousand eyes and more, even as many as eighty-four thousand pure and magnificent eyes. In these forms, by displaying kindness, by inspiring awe, and by manifesting samādhi and wisdom, I can rescue and shelter beings, allowing them to attain great mastery and ease.
“Second, due to my practice of listening and contemplating, I broke free of the six kinds of sense-object such that I was no more obstructed by them than a sound is obstructed by a low wall. Therefore I have the wondrous power to appear in various forms, each of them reciting various mantras. Because these forms and these mantras have the power to deliver beings from danger, I am known in countless lands throughout the ten directions as one who causes beings to have nothing to fear.
“Third, by means of the fundamental, wondrous practice that led me to break through to enlightenment, I reached the pure source of the ear-faculty, and therefore, in whatever worlds I travel to, I can cause beings to disregard their bodies and their valuable possessions in their quest for my compassionate aid.
“Fourth, I have realized the ultimate, which is the Buddha-mind. Therefore, in all lands I can make offerings of precious valuables not only to the Thus-Come Ones throughout all ten directions but also to beings in the six destinies throughout the Dharma-Realm. As a result, those who seek a spouse shall obtain a spouse, those who seek a child shall have a child, those who wish for samādhi shall gain samādhi, those who wish for a long life shall live long, and those who seek the Great Nirvana shall attain it.
“The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. By the means that I have described, I entered through the gateway of the ear-faculty and perfected the inner illumination of samādhi. My mind that had once been dependent on perceived objects developed self-mastery and ease. By entering the current of the awakened ones and entering samādhi, I became fully awake. This then is the best method.
“World-Honored One, that other Buddha — that Thus-Come One who is called ‘He Who Hears the Cries of the World’ — praised my mastery of this method for breaking through to enlightenment. Before his great assembly, he bestowed on me his own name, He Who Hears the Cries of the World. Because I hear throughout all ten directions with perfect clarity, my name ‘He Who Hears the Cries of the World’ is known in all the worlds throughout the ten directions.”
Then the World-Honored One, seated on his Lion’s Seat, sent forth a magnificent light from his hands, his feet, and his forehead. The light traveled far to pour down upon the crowns of the heads of as many Thus-Come Ones and Dharma-Prince Bodhisattvas as there are motes of dust throughout the ten directions. And all those Thus-Come Ones, from as many places as there are motes of dust, sent forth from their hands, their feet, and their foreheads magnificent beams of light that poured down upon the crown of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s head and poured down as well upon the great Bodhisattvas and Arhats in the assembly. As the sound of Dharma reverberated from groves and ponds, those beams of light interlaced with each other like the strands of a magnificent net — something no one in the assembly had ever seen before. All gained the ability to enter the vajra-solid samādhi. Then lotus-flowers — some blue, some yellow, some red, some white, each adorned with a hundred gems — floated down together from the heavens, and space throughout the ten directions took on the colors of the seven precious things. The mountains, the rivers, and everything else in this Sāha world all vanished at the same time. Throughout the ten directions, Buddha-lands as many as motes of dust were seen to merge into a single world, while there rang forth everywhere the sounds of chant and song.
The Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī’s Recommendation
Then the Thus-Come One said to the Dharma-Prince Mañjuśrī, “Consider now what has been said by these twenty-five sages — these great Bodhisattvas and these Arhats who need no further instruction — about the methods they used in order to take their first step toward awakening. They all said that theirs was the best method for breaking through to enlightenment. In fact, none of the methods employed by these sages can be ranked as superior or inferior to the others. But now it is Ānanda whom I wish to teach how to become enlightened. Which then of these twenty-five methods of practice is most suitable for beings at Ānanda’s level? And which one, after my nirvana, will lead beings of this world to practice in accord with the Vehicle of the Bodhisattvas and to follow the path to supreme enlightenment? Which of these methods will lead them most easily to success?”
Having respectfully received the Buddha’s instruction, Mañjuśrī stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and infused with the Buddha’s majestic spirit, responded to his request by speaking these verses:71
“Clear is the oceanic nature of enlightenment;
Flawlessly clear it is, and wondrous at its origin.
But from within that fundamental mind that understands,
Objects appear, and with creation of these objects then
The fundamental understanding vanishes.
“Then from confusion and delusion, empty space appears;
And all the worlds come into being clinging to that space;
Due to delusion, clarity will turn to solid land;
Due to false awareness, beings then come forth as well.
“And thus does space arise within the great enlightenment,
Appearing like a solitary bubble on the sea,
And thus do beings with outflows and the world
s uncountable
Arise within that empty space, and when space disappears —
And when that bubble bursts — could the three realms not vanish also?
“Single is the fundamental nature we return to;
Many are the Dharma-gateways that will bring us there.
Not one among these sages failed in gaining perfect insight.
Their methods — some of them directed outward and some inward —
All will succeed, some rapidly, and some more slowly,
Once they’ve made their resolution to attain samādhi.
“Objects of sight,72 entangled with cognition, will become
Defiled. Essentially, such objects lack transparency,
And how could objects that one cannot see through clearly
Guide beings toward a breakthrough to enlightenment?73
“Language and speech require a mix of various sounds74
In order to form words and sentences expressing meanings.
But words and phrases can’t express all meanings; how could sounds
Guide beings toward a breakthrough to enlightenment?
“Odors must be in contact with the nose for us to smell them;
If nose and odors aren’t in touch, no smelling can occur.
And since the act of smelling is inconstant, how could odors
Guide beings toward a breakthrough to enlightenment?
“Experience of flavors is not part of our true nature;
For tasting to occur, there must be contact with a flavor.
Tasting is discontinuous; how then could flavors
Guide beings toward a breakthrough to enlightenment?
“Objects of touch are sensed upon their contact with the body;
