| Sutras |
|
The sutras are often a synthesis of discourses attributed to Buddha or discourses by other Buddhist masters. In the Sangha (the Buddhist monastic community) their everyday recitation to the rhythmic accompaniment of bells and other wooden instruments is part of the tradition as well as an important breathing practice to be made simultaneously by all. The 4 vows are recited three times with hands in gassho. I vow to save all beings The four vows are usually recited in Japanese. SHU JO MU HEN SEI GAN DO NAMU KARA TAN NO NAMU KARA TAN NO KOZEN DAITO KOKUSHI YUIKAI Monks of this mountain monastery remember that you are here for the practice of the Way and not for the clothes or the food because as long as you have shoulders you have clothes to wear and as long as you have mouths you have food to eat. Don’t forget to devote yourselves to the study of the Way during the twelve hours of the day. Time passes like an arrow; so don’t let your mind get disturbed by temporal worries. Attention! Attention! After my death some of you will be managing temples in prosperous conditions with grand halls and books decorated in gold and silver, and whose devotees will be growing numerously. Others will be passing the time reading sutras and reciting dharanis seated for long periods in meditation without sleep. Eating once a day and observing the days of fasting practicing all kinds of ascetic practices during the six hours of the day. Yet even if they apply themselves to external practices, if their thoughts do not dwell on the mysterious and unimpartable Way of the Buddha and the Patriarchs, they ignore the law of causation and result in the complete destruction of religion. All of them belong to the family of the evil spirits and for as long I may be absent from the world they cannot be called my descendants. Yet, it will be enough if only one lives in solitude in a hut covered in straw and passes his days eating wild roots cooked in a pot with broken legs applying himself with concentration to his affairs he will be the only one to meet me all days and be the master of his own life. Who can make anything of him? Be conscientious! Be conscientious! KAN ZE ON Recited three times MAHA PRAJNA PARAMITA SUTRA Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, doing deep Prajna paramita clearly saw emptiness of all the five conditions and was saved from all suffering. O Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form. Sensation, conception, discrimination, awareness are likewise like this. O Shariputra, all dharmas are forms of emptiness, not born, not destroyed, not stained, not pure; without loss , without gain. So in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, conception, discrimination, awareness. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. No colour, sound, smell, taste, touch, phenomena. No realm of sight, no realm of consciousness, no ignorance and no end to ignorance. No old age and death and no end to old age and death. No suffering, no cause of suffering. No extinguishing, no path, no wisdom and no gain. No gain and thus the Bodhisattva lives Prajna Paramita with no hindrance in the mind, therefore no fear; far beyond deluded thoughts, this is Nirvana. All past, present and future Buddhas live Prajna Paramita and therefore attain unsurpassed complete perfect Enlightenment. Therefore know Prajna Paramita is the great mantra, the supreme mantra, the best mantra, it completely clears all pain; this is the truth, not a lie. So set forth the Prajna Paramita mantra and say: Gate! Gate! Paragate! Parasamgate! Bodhi Svaha! |