Buddha Sutras |
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Mantras Sanskrit |
Foreword to Sūtra no. 1 (posted 04/2007, updated 03/2008)
Foreword
Five translations of the Sūtra of the Buddha-Crown Superb Victory Dhāraṇī are numbered 967 to 971 in the Chinese Buddhist Canon (Tripiṭaka), Volume 19, and two of them were translated by Divākara. This English translation of the Sūtra is based on Divākara's second translation in Text no. 970 because, of the five translations, it is the only one in which the Buddha spoke of the past lives of the god-son Good Stay (Supratiṣṭhita) and explained which of his past actions had led to the pleasant rewards he was enjoying and which ones were about to lead to certain miserable retributions. Divākara's translation does not include a preface. In fact, the only preface available is included with the version translated by Buddhapāla in Text no. 967. This preface tells an interesting story about why Buddhapāla took the Sūtra to China. Therefore, for the reader's interest, this English translation splices the preface in Text no. 967 with the Sūtra in Text no. 970. The Buddha usually gave several titles to a sūtra, and, in the interest of brevity, the shorter title of the Sūtra translated by Buddhapāla in Text no. 967 is adopted.
The Buddha has taught in this Sūtra of the Buddha-Crown Superb Victory Dhāraṇī that one's actions (physical, verbal, or mental) will lead to good or bad requitals without fail as one transmigrates in the cycle of life and death. Each action taken becomes a karmic seed in one's mind, which will ripen into a corresponding karmic requital in due time and under due conditions. This sūtra explains through a story that a good action and a bad action in separate events do not offset or mitigate each other and that their respective requitals pleasant or miserable must each run their due courses. The most effective way to mitigate or avoid a miserable retribution is through sincere repentance. Moreover, the Buddha has transmitted in this Sūtra a special mantra as a skillful means for purifying the evil karmic seeds in one's mind. One can also use it to rescue others who are in the midst of their sufferings.
This special mantra is the Buddha-Crown Superb Victory Dhāraṇī (Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī). In the eleventh year (776 CE) of the Dali years of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Daizong (唐代宗) decreed that all the monks and nuns in China should learn this mantra in a month's time and that they should recite it 21 times every day and report their compliance to the Imperial Court on the lunar New Year's Day each year. In April 860 CE, Heavenly Emperor Qinghe (清河天皇) of Japan also decreed that recitation of the Mantra 21 times a day should be a regular practice of the monastic community. This Mantra has been widely recognized and recited in China, Japan, and Tibet, and stories of its power have been documented. Timeless in its power, recitation of this Mantra is especially appropriate and needed in this modern age of greed, hatred, and delusion.