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The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

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The Dharma Gate way of the Cund Dhra

Back ground and his tory
It is said that in the Bud dhism, there are 84,000 Dharma gate ways, mean ing that there are a myr iad of dif f er ent ben e f i cial prac tice meth ods to help peo ple on the path to en light en ment. These meth ods all arose due to the dif f er ences in peo ple, cul tures, and times, but they are all meth ods to cul ti vate med i ta tive con cen tra tion (samdhi) and tran scen dent wis dom (pra j). A large class of these meth ods are those of the es o teric teach ings, which pre scribe pre cise med i ta tion meth ods, often with mys ti cal over tones or rit u als in volved. This ar ti cle teaches es sen tial es o teric prac tices re lated to Cund Bod h i sattva, in clud ing the prin ci ples of mantra and dhra prac tice. Es o teric Bud dhist teach ings gen er ally come from the later pe riod of In dian Bud dhism, from the 7th cen tury on wards. Today, the only rep re sen ta tives of the early Es o teric Bud dhist tra di tions of India are the es o teric teach ings of East Asia. Within these tra di tions, there is a small but spe cial fam ily of teach ings that stem from the early pe riod of In dian Es o teric Bud dhism, which are cen tered on Cund Bod h i sattva ( Cund Dhra ( in the West. In China, the Cund Dhra first ap pears as a spe cial method in the 7th cen tury CE, when Trepiaka Di vkara first trans lated the Sap t akoibud dhamt Cund Dhra Stra into Chi nese (T20n1077). The title of this text means lit er ally, Stra on the Cund Dhra, the Mother of Seven Myr i ads of Bud dhas. Over the next few decades, the text was trans lated into Chi nese again by Va jra bodhi (T20n1075), and then again by

der neath the sur f ace of Bud dhism in East Asia, and have not re ceived much at ten tion yet

: U } Zhnt Tulun). These prac tices have been hid den just un -

: k E Zhnt Ps) and the

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The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

Amoghava jra (T20n1076). All three of these trans la tors were In dian mas ters who would play im por tant roles in the for ma tion of Es o teric Bud dhism in East Asia. Shortly after the first trans la tion of the Cund Dhra Stra was made, these meth ods be came highly re garded and widely prac ticed in China, and then nat u rally spread to Japan, Korea, and Viet nam as well, where they also con tinue to this day. Through out his tory, the Cund Bod h i sattva meth ods were used widely through out Chi nese so ci ety by both monas tics and laypeo ple, and by not only the elites of so ci ety, but by the or di nary peo ple as well. The suc cess of the Cund Dhra is in part due to the fact that it is a very clean and sim ple method. Most other es o teric meth ods or teach ings re quire ini ti a tions or trans mis sions, or carry spe cial rules with them. Or oth er wise, they may be full of com plex rit u als, prayers to mem o rize, and step-by-step for mu las that are dif f i cult for many peo ple to fol low. In con trast, the meth ods re lated to Cund Bod h i sattva are suc cinct and easy to learn and prac tice. This means that the Cund Dhra Dharma gate way is not only au then tic early Es o teric Bud dhism, but it is also a sim ple, straight f or ward, and self-con tained set of prac tices that has con tin u ed to be re garded as very use f ul and ef f ec tive since its in cep tion.

Prin ci ples of mantra prac tice

Al though the prac tices as so ci ated with Cund Bod h i sattva con tain a num ber of meth ods, nearly all of them are re lated to the one basic prac tice of the Cund Dhra, which is also called the Great Cund Mantra. Re gard ing the terms dhra and mantra, it should suf f ice to say that a dhra is a longer mantra, al though this clas si f i ca tion is not a pre cise one, and the two terms are often in ter change able. In mod ern Eng lish usage, the term mantra is com monly used, but few peo ple have an ac cu rate un der stand ing of what a mantra is. The num ber of those who ac tu ally un der stand prin ci ples for ef f ec tive mantra prac tice is much smaller yet. In order to prac tice the Cund Dhra ef f ec tively, it is very ben e f i cial to first un der stand the es sen tial prin ci ples of using mantras and dhras. On the sim plest and most basic level, mantra and dhra prac tice in volves the rep e ti tion of a spe cific phrase or pas sage as a form of med i ta tion. The lit eral mean ing of the mantra is not so im por tant and does not nec es sar ily need to be un der stood by the med i ta tor, as mantras are not a form of self-sug ges tion, or a med i ta tion sub ject to be pon dered with dis cur sive thought or analy sis. In fact, in South Asian cul tures, mantras and dhras are re garded as being sort of mys ti cal prac tices, more like spells or in can ta tions. How ever, a more ac cu rate view is that these prac tices are a prac ti cal form of med i ta tion that re lies on a set for mula to achieve cer tain ef f ects. There is no need to su per sti tiously re gard these prac tices as mag i cal, and after un der stand ing the prin ci ples of med i -

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The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

ta tion prac tice using them, one would not re gard them in such a col or f ul way. The es sen tial ef f ect that is com mon of all mantras and dhras, is to help a med i ta tor de velop samdhi, or med i ta tive con cen tra tion. As the med i ta tor re peats a mantra, he or she should also lis ten to each syl la ble of the mantra, even if the rep e ti tion is silent. When ob serv ing the rep e ti tion of the mantra in this way, the prac ti tioner is able to main tain re laxed but steady con cen tra tion on the sounds of the mantra syl la bles. No spe cial ef f ort is re quired to con cen trate on the mantra other than lis ten ing to it con tin u ously. When one be gins prac tic ing this way, un der stand ing the basic prin ci ples of de vel op ing con cen tra tion, then ex tra ne ous thoughts will nat u rally begin to die down. If the prac ti tioner rec og nizes that his or her mind has be come dis tracted, then he or she should sim ply re sume prac tice with out en gag ing in any other extra thoughts. The reader should take note that if some one tries to ac tively con trol the mind and focus it on an ob ject of con cen tra tion, the op po site will ac tu ally hap pen, and the mind will be come even more scat tered. True and ef f ec tive con cen tra tion is con tin u ous and seems ef f ort less, and this can only hap pen with the mind is in a state of re laxed aware ness. This ap plies not only to mantra prac tice, but to any form of med i ta tion. Along with the prin ci ple of men tal con cen tra tion dur ing mantra recita tion, there is the mat ter of the recita tion method it self. There are many meth ods used in var i ous tra di tions, but sim ply re peat ing the mantra in a nor mal tone and in an or di nary way will cer tainly suf f ice. The most im por tant rule to fol low re gard ing the ac tual recita tion of the mantra is that the method of recita tion should fa cil i tate con cen tra tion. For those who have dif f i culty con cen trat ing, prac tic ing out loud at a nor mal speak ing vol u me will help to quiet the mind. How ever, when one is prac tic ing with steady con cen tra tion and thoughts have begun to die down, then recita tion at a typ i cal speak ing vol u me will seem too coarse, and will often ac tu ally serve as a dis trac tion. If and when this hap pens, the recita tion method should be ad justed to be qui eter, or to only con tinue men tally. How ever, if this qui etude goes too far, the mind may be come lost and stray from its con cen tra tion. There f ore, the prac ti tioner should skill f ully ad just the recita tion to his or her own gen eral state of mind, in order to main tain con cen tra tion ef f ec tively. A mantra also di rects the vital en ergy of the med i ta tors own body to ward cer tain tasks. In In dian Bud dhism, vital en ergy is called pra, while in Chi nese Bud dhism, it is called q (

9). This vital en ergy flows through var i ous en ergy chan nels, called ni in India and

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qmi (

flow of vital en ergy through these chan nels sus tains the body and sup ports the link be tween con scious ness and the el e ments of the body, which is the es sen tial rea son that med i ta tive prac tices can pro duce changes in the body and mind of an in di vid u al. When using a mantra cor rectly, the con cen tra tion of the mind will begin to unify the en ergy of the body and di rect it in a way that is spe cific to that mantra. The com mon goal of such prac tices is to pu rify the body and mind in order to fa cil i tate entry into ad vanced states of med i ta tive con cen tra tion. The mun dane goals of mantras, though, tend to vary, and so cer tain mantras may be used for spe cific ef f ects. In order to learn more about these mun dane goals, clas si cal texts are the es sen tial ref er ence, which de scribe these in de tail. The third major func tion of mantra prac tice is to de velop a con nec tion through karma with a par tic u lar en light ened being. For the Cund Dhra Dharma gate, for ex am ple, this en light ened being is Cund Bod h i sattva. When this con nec tion be gins to take place, it is com mon for the prac ti tioner to have aus pi cious dreams about that being, and this is widely re ported by med i ta tors. It is also com mon for the per son to ob serve the mantra even when it is not being re cited, or to re cite it in dreams to help other be ings. These are all minor in di ca tions of cor rect prac tice, and should not be re garded as very spe cial or as an ob ject of in ter est. At more ad vanced lev els, the prac ti tioner may see shin ing en ergy points on a pic ture of Cund Bod h i sattva, which in di cate the parts of the body to focus the mantra at, which will lead to the most ef f ec tive prac tice at that par tic u lar time. Many other pos si bil i ties exist, which will all de pend upon the karma of the in di vid u al and what is help f ul at the time. In gen eral, one should not re gard aus pi cious events as par tic u larly im por tant in the over all scope of prac tice, as all these things are es sen tially tran sient phe nom ena. Cul ti vat ing samdhi and es tab lish ing a karmic con nec tion with an en light ened being are gen er ally ben e f its for the med i ta tor. How ever, it is also pos si ble to ded i cate the mer its of this prac tice in order to help oth ers. This is not only ben e f i cial for the re cip i ents, but tends to in crease the merit of the prac ti tioner as well. It is often as sumed that when some one ded i cates merit to oth ers, that all or most of the merit is then trans f erred. Oth ers go to a dif fer ent ex treme and do not be lieve that merit can be trans f erred at all. In fact, some Bud dhist teach ings clar ify the sit u a tion by stat ing that if one ded i cates merit to an other per son, only around one sev enth of that merit will ac tu ally be trans f erred, so most of

9 ) in China, and there are thou sands of these chan nels, if not mil lions. The

The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

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The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

it does stay with the prac ti tioner. An other fac tor to con sider is who will ac tu ally ben e f it the most from merit trans f er. In gen eral, higher be ings in the heav ens are more dif f i cult to help, while lower be ings will ben e f it much more from the merit. There f ore, it is a good prac tice to ded i cate merit to be ings who in h abit lower realms, such as an i mals, hun gry ghosts, and hell-be ings, who are the ones who need it the most.

Using the Cund Dhra

With a clear un der stand ing of the prin ci ples of mantra recita tion, one can then pro ceed to learn a mantra and use it ef f ec tively. For Cund Bod h i sattva, this mantra is the Cund Dhra, which is the fol low ing in the orig i nal San skrit: nama sap tn samyak sa bud dha kon tady ath o cale cule cunde svh In the clas si cal trans la tion made by Di vkara in the 7th cen tury CE, the Cund Dhra is translit er ated from the In dian Sid dha script into Chi nese char ac ters as the fol low ing:

qWwUH ;@ .A
nm sdunn snmiosnbtu jzhnn dzht n zhl zhl zhnd suph The ma jor ity of Chi nese prac ti tion ers sim ply use the ver sion translit er ated into Chi nese, which is fine. Al though its pro nun ci a tion is some what dif f er ent than that of the San skrit orig i nal, the basic ef f ects of the mantra will still be the same. Some Chi nese prac ti tion ers are start ing to learn the San skrit ver sion, though, since that has be come avail able in re cent times as well. For na tive Eng lish speak ers, it is ad vis able to sim ply use the San skrit ver sion, since this is the orig i nal pro nun ci a tion of the Cund Dhra. Exact pro nun ci a tion is not re ally nec es sary, but a gen eral idea is use f ul, and there are re sources avail able on the Web that will allow one to hear San skrit and Chi nese pro nun ci a tions of the Cund Dhra. The Cund Dhra has many uses, but these mostly fol low a few major func tions. Per haps the most no table of these func tions is to pu rify evil karma, which hin ders one from de vel op ing samdhi, and to fa cil i tate ad vance ment on the path to en light en ment. In the Cund Dhra Stra, the Bud dha states: If there are bhikus, bhikus, up sakas, or up siks who mem o rize and re cite this dhra 800,000 times, their deadly karma in every place, cre ated over in nu -

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The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

mer able eons, will be com pletely an ni h i lated. In every place where they are born or re side, they will al ways meet bud dhas and bod h i sattvas. They will al ways have ad e quate re sources and abil i ties to do as they wish. In any birth, they will al ways be able to leave the home life, and will have the abil ity to main tain the pure pre cepts of a bod h i sattva. They will be born in human or heav enly realms, they will not fall into evil des tinies, and they will al ways be pro tected by all the heav enly guardians. The Cund Dhra also helps to fa cil i tate the de vel op ment of tran scen dent wis dom, and to gen er ally de velop the Fac tors of Bodhi which will help one on the path to en light en ment. At the clos ing of the Cund Dhra Stra, the Bud dha says that if there are sen tient be ings who lack merit, good roots, nat u ral abil ity, and the Fac tors of Bodhi, that this mantra will help to speed up their progress to ward com plete en light en ment. The func tion of chang ing for tune is per h aps what the mantra is most known for in East Asia, and a num ber of fa mous his tor i cal fig u res have used the Cund Dhra to do so. It should be ad vised, though, that at tain ing com plete en light en ment and bud dha h ood is re ally the best for tune. A bet ter for tune and a bet ter des tiny will nat u rally de velop when past karma is pu ri f ied.

Mak ing progress

When med i tat ing using the Cund Dhra, some peo ple may enjoy it from the be gin ning, while oth ers may find it in ex plic a bly ir ri tat ing or dif f i cult to prac tice. This is just re lated to the karma and habit en ergy of each per son. The med i ta tor should sim ply per sist and main tain con cen tra tion re gard less, though, as any ap pear ances of ir ri ta tion or sub tle af f lic tions es sen tially just serve as dis trac tions. In order to main tain con sis tency and a clear un der stand ing of prac tice habits, it is also good to keep a per sonal sched u le for track ing med i ta tion prac tice. When doing so, ei ther the num ber of dhra rep e ti tions or the prac tice time would be a good unit of mea sure. When track ing rep e ti tions, count ing beads are help f ul, and these seem to be used in all tra di tions in which mantras are prac ticed. Read ing the Cund Dhra Stra, we can see that most In dian prac ti tion ers were recit ing the Cund Dhra hun dreds of thou sands, if not mil lions of times, be f ore they achieved any truly aus pi cious ef f ects as a re sult. We can see the same prin ci ple with the Japan ese es o teric mas ter Kkai. As a young man,

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Kkai often went to the forests for long pe ri ods in order to cul ti vate a mantra prac tice re lated to kagarbha Bod h i sattva. Al though he knew lit tle at this time about the prin ci ples of mantra prac tice, he prac ticed dili gently for years, and on the basis of this prac tice, he nat u rally de vel oped samdhi and ex tra or di nary pow ers of mem ory. It was only after this that he had the good for tune of com ing to China to learn the es o teric teach ings from Mas ter Huiguo, and he was then able to found the Shin gon school of Japan. These ex am ples show us that ex cel lent re sults come only after a basis of ded i cated prac tice and self-cul ti va tion. When some one be gins prac tic ing with the Cund Dhra, then un less they have un u su ally good karma, or are al ready at an ad vanced stage from other prac tices, then great aus pi cious ef f ects will not typ i cally hap pen right away. When using a mantra or any other form of med i ta tion, most of the en ergy de vel oped sim ply goes into pu ri f y ing evil karma and break ing through old ob struc tions. There is no way around this, and in order to ad vance along the path or get other re sults of merit and for tune, this is an en tirely nec es sary first step. The only thing one can do to speed up the process is sim ply to em ploy the es sen tial prin ci ples of cul ti va tion prac tice, and to con cen trate ef f ec tively on the mantra.

Vari a tions
In ad di tion to the es sen tial prac tice of med i tat ing using the Cund Dhra, there are many other prac tices and vari a tions in cluded in the Dharma gate way of the Cund Dhra. One such vari a tion is that after one mil lion rep e ti tions, or after per mis sion is given from a mas ter, or an emis sary of Cund Bod h i sattva, then only the sec ond line of the dhra needs to be prac ticed, which is the heartmantra. An other vari a tion in cludes a spe cial mudra to as sist with open ing the heart cakra, and this can be held while recit ing the dhra. Yet an other vari a tion is to prac tice with a small vi su al iza tion, such as a shin ing flame or a shin ing bud dha at a par tic u lar point on the body. There are also some prac tices de rived from the Cund Dhra Stra, such as the use of a spe cial mir ror with the dhra in scribed on it, and this is pop u lar in East Asia. There is even a full sd h an for the Cund Dhra, and this sd h an is widely prac ticed in mod ern times. Many other re lated meth ods also exist, some pop u lar and some ob scure, but these are gen er ally be yond the scope of this work, which is to in tro duce the es sen tial Cund Dhra prac tice. It is help f ul, how ever, for cul ti va tors to know that these other meth ods and vari a tions exist, as these may be come use f ul at times.

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The Dharma Gateway of the Cund Dhra

Con tin u ing prac tice

By un der stand ing the basic his tory of the Cund Dhra, the pur pose and use of mantras, and some de tails re gard ing prac tice with the dhra, read ers should find it eas ier to get started if they choose to do so. If some one is able to prac tice dili gently ac cord ing to the prin ci ples of de vel op ing samdhi, then re sults will cer tainly man i f est in time. No mat ter what sort of phe nom ena arise when prac tic ing this med i ta tion, though, it is best to nei ther be come at tached to them nor to re ject them. The es sen tial key to prac tice is in sim ply main tain ing con cen tra tion on the mantra as it is re cited. In Chi nese Bud dhism there is the say ing, Con cen tra tion brings re sults that are ef f i ca cious, while being scat tered re sults in noth ing at all. When prac tic ing the meth ods of Cund Bod h i sattva, this is a sim ple and yet pro f ound teach ing that is worth bear ing in mind.

Cund Dhra re sources

Full sd h an for Cund Bod h i sattva prac tice Video fea tur ing Cund Dhra pro nun ci a tion CC0 1.0 Uni ver sal. Un less oth er wise stated, all orig i nal trans la tions and ar ti cles on this site have been ded i cated to the pub lic do main by the au thor.

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