Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [88]
All Buddhas past, present, and future live prajna paramita and thus attain perfect awakened enlightenment.
Therefore, know that prajna paramita is the great mantra, the wisdom mantra, the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra, which completely removes all suffering.
This is truth, not deception. Therefore, set forth the prajna paramita mantra, set forth this mantra and say:
Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi Svaha.
Buddhists believe that the sacred energy, blessings, and wisdom released through this chant, combined with focused attention, is of benefit in subtle ways to all beings seen and unseen. The efficacy of prayers depends as much or more on the concentration and intention of the practitioner as upon the prayer itself. Sometimes in Tibetan monasteries if someone is ill, monks will chant this sutra all day long; witnessing this, I perceived an almost palpable energy field around these chanting monks.
If you chant outside in nature, or in your backyard, remember that your Vajra (enlightened) speech is informing and spreading the Dharma to everything out there—people and pets as well as crickets, fireflies, beetles, mosquitos, wild animals, and even ticks and fleas. Dharma energy that blesses and edifies the land and everything on it is being generously shared. Lamas say that wherever this sutra is recited, chanted, studied, copied, or taught, the teachings of enlightenment will be established and eventually flourish. So we do our part daily by chanting the Heart Sutra.
SILENCE RESOUNDS LIKE THUNDER
During the early days of Buddhism in India, there lived an enlightened layman, a family man named Vimalakirti. An ethical businessman and an impeccable member of the community, Vimalakirti was known as the wisest person in town.
One fine day all of the Bodhisattvas, enlightened arhants, monks, and nuns gathered to discuss transcendental wisdom. They congregated in Vimalakirti’s small bedroom, which was only about six feet by six feet square. It is said that this august sangha gathering included all the most exalted Bodhisattvas, including Manjusri, Avalokitesvara, Vajrapani, and Tara; amazingly, through the magic of interpenetration and emptiness, all of these enlightened beings and human sangha members too were able to fit into this one room. Perhaps they all made themselves as small as those angels that reportedly dance on the head of a pin. However they managed it, the Mahayana sutra that tells this story recounts that they were all there—arhants, monks, nuns, and Bodhisattvas alike, with their robes and lotus thrones, in Vimalakirti’s tiny bedchamber.
Once gathered, each member of the assembly expounded on transcendental wisdom; one by one each gave a brilliant verbal description of the absolute, the indescribable and ineffable. Each speaker was more eloquent than the last; each speaker in turn delved deeper and deeper into the true meaning. Finally Manjusri, the Maha Bodhisattva of Wisdom, began to speak. And his golden speech was extraordinarily marvelous; it was the ultimate exposition of non-dual truth, the highest and most profound transcendental wisdom. When he was finished, everybody bowed reverently to him. And if you ever read this Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, I guarantee that you will feel like bowing also. What else can be said?
Finally they all turned to Vimalakirti and asked him to pronounce the final word on transcendental wisdom. And then the sutra says,
“HIS SILENCE RESOUNDED LIKE THUNDER.”
Amen.
True inner silence puts you in touch with the deeper dimensions of being and knowing—gnostic awareness and innate wisdom. Because it is impossible to express the inexpressable, the spiritual sound or song of silence is beyond words and concepts. Mere words are weak translations of what we really mean to say. Inner silence and emptiness can help provide easier access to universal mystery and primordial being, for almost anyone, without relying on foreign forms and arcane concepts.
Silence is the