Establishing the Bodhimanda
In the seventh volume of the Shurangama Sutra, the Buddha taught the method for establishing a Shurangama Dharma Assembly. Ananda said to the Buddha: Thanks to the unsurpassed compassionate teachings of the Tathagata, my mind has awakened and understood, and I now know the path of cultivation and realization leading to unsurpassed enlightenment. But for practitioners in the Dharma-ending age who wish to establish a Dharma assembly, how should they establish the boundary so that it accords with the pure rules of all Buddhas?
The Buddha said to Ananda, “If there are people in the Dharma-ending Age who wish to establish a bodhimanda, they should first find a powerful white ox in snowy mountains, one which eats the lush and fertile sweet-smelling grasses of the mountain. Since such an ox also drinks only the pure water of the snowy mountains, its excrement will be very fine. They can take that excrement, mix it with chandana, and plaster the ground with it.
If it is not in the snowy mountains, the ox’s excrement will stink and cannot be used to smear on the ground. In that case, select a level place, dig down five feet or so, and use that yellow earth.
Mix it with chandana incense, sinking-in water incense, jasmine incense, continuously permeating incense, burnished gold incense, white paste incense, green wood incense, fragrant mound incense, sweet pine incense, and chicken-tongue incense. Grind these ten ingredients to a fine powder, make a paste, and smear it on the ground of the platform. The area should be sixteen feet wide and octagonal in shape.
In the center of the platform, place a lotus flower made of gold, silver, copper, or wood. In the middle of the flower set a bowl in which dew that has collected in the eighth lunar month has been poured. Let an abundance of flower petals float on the water. Arrange eight circular mirrors in each direction around the flower and the bowl. Outside the mirrors place sixteen lotus flowers and sixteen censers, so that the incense-burners are adorned and arranged between the flowers. Burn only sinkingin-water incense, and do not let the fire be ‘seen.’
Place the milk of a white ox in sixteen vessels, along with cakes made with the milk, rock-candy, oil-cakes, porridge, turushka, honeyed ginger, clarified butter, and filtered honey. These sixteen are set around the outside of the sixteen flowers as an offering to the Buddhas and great Bodhisattvas.
At every mealtime and at midnight, prepare a half-pint of honey and three tenths of a pint of clarified butter. Set up a small incense burner in front of the platform. Decoct the fragrant liquid from the turushka incense and use it to cleanse the coals. Light them so that a blaze bursts forth, and toss the clarified butter and honey into the flaming censer. Let it burn until the smoke disappears, and present it to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
About the four outside walls one should suspend flags and flowers, and within the room where the platform is located, one should arrange on the four walls images of the Thus Come Ones and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions.
In the most prominent place, display images of Vairocana Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya Bodhisattva, Akshobhya Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, and all the magnificent transformations of Gwan Yin Bodhisattva. To the left and right, place the Vajra-Treasury Bodhisattvas. Beside them display the lords Shakra and Brahma, Ucchushma, and the Blue Dirgha, as well as Kundalin and Bhrukuti and all Four Heavenly Kings, with Vinayaka to the left and right of the door.
Then suspend eight mirrors in the space around the platform so that they are exactly opposite the mirrors on the platform. This will allow the reflections in them to interpenetrate ad infinitum.
During the first seven days, bow sincerely to the Thus Come Ones of the ten directions, to the great Bodhisattvas, and to the names of the Arhats. Throughout the six periods of the day and night, continually recite the mantra as you circumambulate the platform. Practice the way with a sincere mind, reciting the mantra one hundred and eight times at a stretch.
During the second week, direct your intent by making the vows of a Bodhisattva. The mind should never be cut off from them. In my vinaya, I have already taught about vows.
During the third week, one holds the Buddha’s mantra, Bwo Da La, for twelve hours at a time, with a single intent; and on the seventh day, the Thus Come Ones of the ten directions will appear simultaneously. Their light will be mutually reflected in the mirrors and will illumine the entire place; and they will rub one on the crown of one’s head.
If one cultivates this samadhi in the Bodhimanda, then even in the Dharma-ending Age one can study and practice until one’s body and mind are as pure and clear as Vaidurya.
Ananda, if any one of the bhikshu’s precept transmitting masters or any one of the other bhikshus practicing with him is not pure, the Bodhimanda as described will not be successful.
After three weeks, one sits upright and still for a hundred days. Those with sharp faculties will not arise from their seats and will become Shrotaapannas. Although their bodies and minds have not attained the ultimate fruition of sagehood, they know for certain, beyond exaggeration, that they will eventually accomplish Buddhahood.
You have asked how the Bodhimanda is established. This is the way it is done.”
Explanation:
White buffalo: symbolizes fundamental wisdom.
Snow Mountain: symbolizes suchness.
Fragrant grass and flowers and leaves: symbolize the wondrous wisdom of the Middle Way.
Clear water, mist and dew: symbolize the wondrous samādhi of the Middle Way.
Buffalo dung, sandalwood, plastering the earth: the three non-outflow studies, perfuming the Dharma-body and becoming the true cause at the ground of practice.
No white buffalo: this is a person of middling faculties.
Dig five feet of earth: let go of external affairs and exclusively turn hearing inward to break through the five aggregates.
Mix with the ten kinds of incense: the 10 pāramitās. The ten kinds of incense:
- Chandana: symbolizes the nature that is unborn and undying.
- Aloeswood: very heavy core powder that sinks immediately when placed in water.
- Jasmine: cooked and blended into a paste.
- Continuously permeating: used to relieve aches and pains.
- Burnished gold: used to calm the spirit.
- White paste : removes poisonous qi and prevents boils.
- Green wood: like licorice, making one sleep well.
- Fragrant mound: makes the eyes bright.
- Sweet pine: relieves abdominal bloating and promotes the downward movement of qi.
- Chicken-tongue incense: when taken for a long time, the body and mouth constantly emit a fragrant aroma.
Ground into powder: the 10 pāramitās expand into the myriad practices.
Foundation of the ritual platform: symbolizes the principle and essence.
Eight-sided platform: the 8-fold Noble Path.
Round mirrors: symbolize the fu nction of wisdom.
Each mirror: reflects one right angle of the platform. The sixteen round mirrors reflect one another. The round and square images, square and round alternating with one another, symbolize the nonduality of essence and function, and the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena and principle.
Burning incense without a visible flame: the wondrous precepts without characteristics.
Cakes: the Dharma joy of meditative delight.
Making offerings to the Buddha: turning toward the virtues of fruition.
Making the Bodhisattva vows: the four great universal vows
Sentient beings are boundless, I vow to liberate them
Afflictions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them
Dharma gates are immeasurable, I vow to learn them
The Buddha Way is unsurpassed, I vow to accomplish it
Bwo Da La Mantra: reciting the mantra “Tát Đát Ra Bát Đát Ra” taught by the Buddha, which is the Shurangama Mantra.
Practice hall for cultivating Samādhi: cultivating the Dharma method of turning the light back and reflecting inward to contemplate freely, or cultivating the Dharma of Perfect Penetration through the Ear Faculty of Guanyin Bodhisattva