請觀世音菩薩消伏毒害陀羅尼三昧儀 1.75

1.75

The Zhiguan asks: "'The three samādhis above all have an exhortation to practice; why does this one alone lack it?' It answers: 'The six obscurations are non-paths, which are [taken as] the path to liberation. If one were to further exhort practice, one would miss the purport even more.'" Now why especially contravene the Zhiguan and establish an exhortation to practice? However, following one's own thought generally relies on four dharmas; in discussing practice, what harm is there in exhorting good? The purport of its not exhorting is already in the answer text. Now, specifically relying on the methods based on the sūtra, the Buddha himself exhorts practice in the sūtra; how could this pertain to human sentiments? The sūtra says: "This dhāraṇī is called Consecration Phrases, Unsurpassed Brahmacarya, Definite Auspiciousness, and Great Ocean of Merit." Sentient beings who hear it obtain great beneficial advantages, and should recite it by heart (the Commentary indicates that this is the exhortation to practice). The entire sūtra fully extols the bestower of fearlessness of great compassion, the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi, and the jewel banner of merit. If one wishes to see Avalokiteśvara in this present body, wishes to see the peerless bodily form of Śākyamuni, wishes to see countless Buddhas on the tip of a hair, wishes to see eighty billion Buddhas all coming to extend their hands in this present body, in order to obtain the merit of great compassion and fearlessness, and even in this present body give rise to the non-forgetting revolving dhāraṇī, so that all good vows may be fulfilled, and in the next life be born before the Buddhas, forever parting from suffering—such is praised as good. Causing those who uphold this dhāraṇī to extinguish the three obstacles: for the people of Vaiśālī, grave illnesses of the six sense faculties were immediately cured; famines, royal perils, fierce beasts, thieves, prisons, cangues and gyves, rākṣasas, poisons, hardships caused by swords and blades, and the four hundred and four diseases all at once did not arise (this is retribution). For those who violate brahmacarya and commit the ten evil deeds, when they hear this dhāraṇī, filth and impurities are washed away and they become pure once again; past karmic conditions, present commission of myriad evils, evil karma and evil actions, bad and evil aggregates, extremely heavy evil karma, the monk Sena's past evil deeds of killing countless living beings, are all eliminated (this is karma). Severing the roots of the three poisons, the realization of the Buddha path is without doubt! When a great fire comes from the four directions to burn one's body, the dragon kings send down rain. Supposing fire burns the body and every joint aches, reciting this dhāraṇī three times will immediately heal it without being bound; the terrors of cultivating the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion are, like a fierce wind blowing away heavy clouds, immediately eliminated (this is affliction). Losing one's country and losing one's wife, the suffering of meeting the hated, the three wretched destinies, and the eight difficulties are all liberated from—the praises are endless! Furthermore, a verse says: "All evil people and those with evil speech / who contravene this dhāraṇī and give rise to what is unwholesome, / will in this present body suffer white leprosy with pus and blood flowing, / and afterwards fall into the hells to suffer during the long night. / Therefore one should protect it with a benevolent heart, / upholding, reading, and reciting the consecration phrases; / the hells become pure like lotus flowers, / and the hungry ghosts are relieved of the eight difficulties. … / Taking lotus flowers as parents in apparitional birth, / the mind is pure and gentle, without dust or defilement." Alas! Such is the compassionate voice of the Buddhas, sincere and true in praise, not false. May you read again and reflect again, courageously generating the intention for the path, striving a little for a great reward. One must, in each case, relying on the ten classes of practitioners up to equal enlightenment, generate good and eliminate evil, making clear the power and function of the sūtra, in full as spoken in the sūtra. The brief exhortation to practice is finished.