This is my personal blog, but it also links to a Zen meditation group that meets at my house and also online. If you are looking for the Dae Do Sah Zen Group – that web page is here.
This blog consists mostly of stuff that I find here and there, and that I don’t want to forget. The two most common themes for posts are Buddhist Chanting and Chinese – and these very often overlap.
冥祥記
Record of Mysterious Wonders, aka, Signs from the Unseen Realm
冥 míng dark, the underworld (not in hsk)
祥 xiáng auspicious, propitious (hsk6)
記 jì record (hsk3)
First, the merit of waking us from sleep.
Second, the merit of surprising and repelling malicious spirits.
Third, the merit of the sound reaching to the ten directions.
Fourth, the merit of resting the suffering of the three lower paths.
Fifth, the merit of keeping out exterior sounds.
Sixth, the merit of keeping the mind which is chanting from scattering.
Seventh, the merit of (helping us) to make ferocious effort.
Eighth, the merit of making all the buddhas happy.
Ninth, the merit of bringing the experience of samādhi directly to us.
Tenth, the merit of bringing about rebirth in the Pure Land.
Light and dark oppose one another like the front and back foot in walking. (English translation)
Most of the characters in this line from the Sandokai are very common Chinese words. Six out of the ten characters are part of the most basic level of Chinese proficiency for those learning it as a foreign level (HSK level 1). Only two of the characters are relatively “advanced”, one is HSK level 4 (各), and other is level 5 (暗). But in fact both of these characters are easy to recognize and have fairly simple meanings.
今天無論你多忙，請把《消災吉祥神咒》念一遍！
No matter how busy you are today, please recite the Mantra of Disaster Elimination and Auspiciousness one time!
又稱消災咒、消災真言、消災陀羅尼。乃消除諸種災害，成就吉祥事之神咒。
Also known as Disaster Elimination Mantra, Disaster Elimination Mantra, Disaster Elimination Dharani. It is a divine mantra to eliminate all kinds of disasters and achieve auspicious things.
This Dharani is found in the Twelve Buddhas Sutra (十二佛名神呪校量功德除障滅罪經)
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh511.html
The Twelve Buddhas (十二佛) are also known as the “Twelve Honored Buddhas Who Remove the Karmic Store for Those Who Repent” (懺除業障十二尊佛).
“If you cannot achieve pure and single right-mindfulness and if torpor and distraction arise, do not drive them away consciously. Drop the huatou [Amituofo], turn the illuminating light of the mind inward, and find the source from which torpor and distraction come.”
朝 念 觀 世 音
cho nen kan ze on
I call on Kuan Shi Yin in the morning
暮 念 觀 世 音
bo nen kan ze on
I call on Kuan Shi Yin in the evening
Great Compassion Mantra in Siddham: http://www.siddham.org/yuan_english/mantra/emantra_84s_s.pdf Aksharamukha: Script Converter: https://aksharamukha.appspot.com/input/Siddham Proposal to Encode the Siddham Script in ISO/IEC 10646 by Anshuman Pandey: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1zx6t75q The Siddham script (Chi. 悉曇文字 xītán wénzì; Jap. 悉曇 shittan; Kor. 실담 siltam) is a Brahmi-based script historically used for writing Sanskrit in China, Japan, and Korea. It is also known in […]
The gong’an exercise of Buddha recitation uses the invocation of Amituofo as a huatou. At the very moment the name is uttered, it must be the focal point in respect to which all doubts and delusions are laid aside. At the same time you ask “Who is this person reciting Amitābha’s name?”
