顯密圓通成佛心要集 1.28.2

1.28.2

Question: "Since reciting a single dhāraṇī-mantra with single-minded focus brings swift accomplishment, why do you predominantly indicate the Cundī mantra to have people recite it?"
Answer: "First, it is because Cundī completely subsumes all mantras. Cundī can subsume all dhāraṇī-mantras, but other dhāraṇī-mantras do not subsume Cundī, just as the great ocean can contain the hundred rivers, while the hundred rivers cannot contain the great ocean. (Cundī completely subsumes all dhāraṇī-mantras, as explained below.)
Second, it is because the maṇḍala rites of Cundī are easily performed: merely using a new mirror that has never been used constitutes the maṇḍala rite. It is not like the maṇḍala rites established for other dhāraṇī-mantras, which require selecting a pure place, plastering the ground with fragrant mud, broadly fashioning Buddha images, and using many offerings before accomplishment is possible. (Those with material wealth may broadly fashion Buddha images, prepare many offerings, and arrange the mirror maṇḍala before the Buddha images; reciting facing it is even more marvelous.)
Third, it is because Cundī may be recited without discriminating between defiled and pure: regardless of whether one is householder or monastic, drinks alcohol or eats meat, or has a wife and children, all may recite it; it is not like other dhāraṇī-mantras that require upholding the precepts before one may recite and practice them. (Now, for the worldly common folk, possessing wives and children and drinking wine and eating meat are their ordinary occupations. Although they meet monastics who instruct them, their ingrained habits are difficult to reform; if one does not use this great and inconceivable dhāraṇī-mantra rite to save and deliver them, when will such people ever escape birth and death? For those who maintain pure fasting and precepts and recite in accord with the Dharma, it is all the more superior and marvelous. Therefore the Cundī Sūtra says: 'How much more so if one is able to undertake fasting, fully uphold the precepts, and recite in accord with the Dharma: without casting off this mortal body, one goes to the Fourth Heaven and attains the supernatural powers.')
For these reasons, I predominantly indicate the Cundī mantra to have people recite it. If there are those who delight in reciting other mantras, they may do so according to their wishes; one must not rigidly cling to a single path. (Although focusing on the recitation of these two dhāraṇī-mantras, one must first give rise to perfect faith, believing that the dhāraṇī-mantras of all five divisions are gates to attaining Buddhahood; if one accepts one while disparaging the rest, it mostly amounts to slandering the Dharma.)
Furthermore, when the mantra practitioner begins the daily recitation facing the mirror, they may simply rely on the preceding practice of first visualizing atop their own crown a Brahmā letter RAṂ, like a luminous pearl, and then recite the lesson. Moreover, according to the teachings in dozens of texts such as the Mahāyāna Sūtra on Visualizing Maṇḍalas, the Vidyādhara Pitaka Sūtra on Rites of Accomplishment, and the Yoga Practice Method of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā, one may also visualize the letter RAṂ atop one's own crown transforming into a triangular wheel of fire, burning one's body entirely from head to foot, so that across the entire dharmadhātu only purity is seen. (Even if one has the five sins of immediate retribution, burning the body with this syllable will completely eradicate them without remainder.) Next, visualize a Brahmā letter A generating one's own body (this means the letter A is in its essence the signless dharmadhātu, and from the signless dharmadhātu the practitioner's body is generated). Again visualize an AṂ letter within the crisscross seam of one's own crown fontanelle (this means the letter AṂ is in essence the luminous Dharma-water of all Buddhas of the ten directions used to consecrate the crown of the Buddha-child; this is the esoteric consecration teaching). Then recite.
Alternatively, visualize one's own mind as a full, pure moon disk, within which is a Brahmā letter OṂ (when the Tathāgata was on the causal stage, he cultivated the path for many years without attaining bodhi; later he practiced this visualization and attained perfect enlightenment in the first watch of the night. This means that the letter OṂ fully contains immeasurable Dharma gates and is the mother of all mantras; all Tathāgatas attain Buddhahood by visualizing this syllable). Alternatively, visualize within the mind-moon disk a letter A (this means the letter A is the body of Buddha Vairocana, and is also the dharmadhātu and the bodhicitta; if one contemplates it, it can produce immeasurable merits). Alternatively, visualize within the mind-moon disk a letter HŪṀ (this means the letter HŪṀ completely gathers all mantras of the Vajra division, is the body of the lord of the Vajra division, and is also the three gates of liberation; if one constantly contemplates it, it can eliminate all obstacles of sin and accomplish all virtues). Alternatively, visualize a letter RAṂ or a letter HŪṀ upon the tongue; having completed the visualization, then recite.
Alternatively, visualize a great lotus flower emerging from one's own neck, upon which appears a letter A; again visualize the letter A transforming into a moon disk, and the moon disk transforming into the letter HŪṀ, and the letter HŪṀ transforming into a five-pronged vajra pestle; again visualize this pestle moving onto the tongue, which only then is called the 'vajra tongue', and then recite. (Next, also visualize a letter A in both hands; the letter A transforms into a moon disk, the moon disk transforms into the letter HŪṀ, and the letter HŪṀ transforms into a white five-pronged vajra pestle; only then are they called 'vajra hands', and then one binds all mudrās.)
Alternatively, visualize the nine sacred Brahmā syllables of Cundī, each possessing diverse rays of light, placed within one's own bodily parts: namely, visualize the syllable OṂ placed on the head, CALE on the two eyes, CULE on the neck, CUNDE on the heart, SVĀ on the two shoulders, HĀ on the navel (these syllables are arranged as: visualize OṂ placed on the head, CA placed on the two eyes, LE placed on the neck, CU placed on the heart, LE placed on the two shoulders, CUN placed on the navel, DĪ placed on the two thighs, SVĀ placed on the two shins, and HĀ placed on the two feet); having completed this visualization and placement, then recite. (The Vidyādhara Pitaka Ritual Sūtra says: 'If one seeks accomplishment in the rite of Cundī Bodhisattva, first visualize the fundamental subtle syllable-wheel of Cundī Bodhisattva and place it distinctly within one's own bodily parts; all sinful karma created in past lives by this person will be completely eradicated, and whatever they seek will definitely be accomplished.' The arrangement of the nine syllables is stated in several places in the canon.)
All the virtues of visualizing the Brahmā syllables are broadly explained in the various dhāraṇī sūtras. (As for the above visualization gates of the Brahmā syllables, it is even more marvelous if one constantly contemplates them throughout the four deportments. Whenever the sūtras speak of visualizing mantra syllables, they all refer to Brahmā syllables, not the writing of this land; thus the Ritual of the One-Syllable Uṣṇīṣacakra-rāja says: 'What is called contemplating the syllables refers only to gazing upon the Brahmā syllables; they are not the characters of local regions, and possess great supernatural power.')
For those who are unable to visualize the Brahmā syllables, merely reciting with single-minded devotion also endows all samādhis. Thus the Great Compassion Heart Sūtra says: 'The dhāraṇī is the storehouse of dhyāna-concentration, for hundreds of thousands of samādhis constantly manifest before one.'
When one is intensely reciting, if one encounters various demonic obstacles, or sudden dread, or difficulty of the tongue in reciting, or unease of body and mind, or much anger and drowsiness, or sees diverse strange signs, or conversely gives rise to doubt regarding the dhāraṇī-mantra and does not wish to recite, and so forth: as an antidote, one should visualize the Brahmā letter RA, or visualize the letter RAṂ, or visualize the letter A, and so on; merely visualizing any single syllable, that realm will naturally vanish. If conceptual discrimination is excessive, one should visualize the letter SA, which brings about non-discrimination. If attachment to existence is excessive, one should visualize the letter HA, recognizing that conditioned dharmas are fundamentally empty. (The above is merely spoken from one perspective.)