King of Prayer – 1
༄༅ །།འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་ སྤྱོ ད་པའི་ སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།།
PHAG PA ZANG PO CHÖ PE MÖN LAM GYI GYAL PO
King of Prayers
The Extraordinary Aspiration of the Practice of Samantabhadra
Samantabhadracaryā pranidhānaraja
PHỔ HIỀN HẠNH NGUYỆN VƯƠNG
Today we will start with the ‘Samantabhadra Prayer’, generally, sometimes it is known as ‘King of Aspiration Prayer’. Actually there are lots of sutras which talk about practices, and the reason why we choose this Samantabhadra Prayer is because we thought to share extraordinary practices of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. So for those who aspire to benefit all the sentient beings, those who wish to achieve the state of Buddhahood and in such a time where the whole world is going through a lot of crisis not just from COVID, but from various angles. So in such a time, such a critical time when things are collapsing one after another, as a Buddhist monk, as a Buddhist practitioner, we all have seen everything going downwards, seen the Amazon fire.
There are many of the people in this world might not have taken that seriously, the Amazon fire, but from a Buddhist perspective, from perspective of Mahayana practitioner, a situation like that Amazon fire is absolutely unbearable. Millions of animals and of course, countless insects have died. After that, Australian fire and then there was a fire in some smaller countries as well, then started the COVID, then the war. So in such a time, I myself, taking few steps to accumulate lots of merits, I have requested many of my dharma friends to pray for world, of course, you all have this, and many of you are still sharing me the practices that you are doing. Being to Nepal and then there are some monasteries where I also had in privilege, fortunate to organize some prayers, but still to do something in a large scale, to do something for the whole sentient beings, there is not just one or two practitioners that will make a big difference, but we all have to step forward to do something for the whole world, to all for the sake of all sentient beings, for the sake of all the beings in this world and another world.
So this we are going through right now, the King of Prayer or the Samantabhadra Prayer of Aspiration, this is actually a prayer which comes along with the practices of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas so this text expresses or elaborates the profound and extensive practices of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, hence, it is absolutely, so very powerful to pray. Those who of you have been to Bodhgaya might have seen that monks from all over the world gather at Bodhgaya for a sort of prayer festivals during December, January and February. Around December to February, March, monks, sometimes in 1000, sometimes in like more than 10,000 monks or nuns gather over there along with the teachings for the prayer. So this prayer that we are going through, Samantabhadra Prayer, is the main tool or the main prayer that they perform when they gather for the prayer at the holy place of Bodhgaya.
As I just mentioned, the reason why this sprayer is so very famous, the reason why this prayer has been considered as so very powerful and very effective, it’s because it actually elaborates, it actually talks about all the special advance extensive and profound practices, and also the way those great beings and Bodhisattva practice in order to achieve Buddhahood, this is the way of their practices. If we want to achieve Buddhahood, we have to understand such extensive and profound practices.
So yes, it is a prayer, but going through these also help us to understand the way Boddhisattva’s practices and also to aspire ourselves in such a way. By understanding that we can also try to practice in such a way so that we can be able to purify the negative karmas that we had, in which we have engaged in our previous lives and also it explain about the sort of a shortcut or a very quickest way to accumulate lots of merits, of course there are lots of benefits of this prayer, and within a year or two might be less, in terms of time, to express the benefits, there are lots of different stories, there are lots reasons and logics behind the importance of this prayer.
And then I just pinpoint before going through that text, today I thought to go through this text, today we’ll just clear away the name, what does this name means and of course there is a story behind it. Actually it’s a lovely story behind how these prayers come to exist, of course it’s a very long story in Sutra, Avataṃsaka Sūtra [The title is rendered in English as Flower Garland Sutra, Flower Adornment Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture], the way this prayer come to exist has been explained in many pages – I really have no idea how to conclude all of this story in this section, but I cannot be there, the story for all many sections, so I’ll try to conclude in some ways, but before concluding, I just wish to mention few points as I recall.
Few points why this prayer, of course, I’ve mentioned that this is one of the very special in prayer, and when the monks gather in thousands, this is the prayer, this is the go to prayer, and then let me explain why. If I make few numbers:
- First, this player shows or explains the extensive or this prayer explains how to accumulate the vast merits and also this prayer explains about how to purify the negative karma in the most effective way. Number one.
- The second, this prayer consists of all the effective ways to accumulate merits and also this prayer includes not only the method, but also the prayer to obtain rebirth in pure land, those who wish to achieve rebirth in the pure land.
- And the number third, this is one of the most suitable prayer to pray for those who have passed away, one of the most suitable and effective prayer for the deceased.
- Number four, this is the prayer with which we can repay the karmic debts, especially for the monks who basically rely on the devotees. Generally when someone passed away, when someone is sick, this and that, they requests for certain prayers and during the request they offer a tea, maybe a bread, they make the offerings by requesting the prayer for those who have deceased, for those who have passed away, for those who are sickness and this, and that. In such a manner, monks are receiving offerings and donations, let’s say. So for a monk, if you don’t do the practices as it is supposed to be, then monks fall into a sort of debts which a monk might have to repay in this or future lives.
And so to consume the offering that has been made by donors, when the donors make the offering when someone is sick or someone passed away, it is not that’s easy to digest that sort of offerings, so this prayer is also very effective to repay the karmic debts. So that’s why this sprayer is one of the mostly used – I don’t know that I make sense here – mostly used prayer by the monks as a daily prayer to repay the karmic debts because sometimes when a person requests for certain prayer for those who passed away, or for those who are sickness, and if your practices and prayers are not as it is supposed to be, then as a substitute for those donors and those who have requested for the prayers, if monk does this prayer, then it can substitute in a way that it can fulfill the wishes of the one who offers to the monks to repay the karmic debts, otherwise even to accept a donation or an offerings by people, by the monks, are not really easy. So the reason why I’m saying this is because we all might have lot of karmic debts to others, because of which we have to do a lot for others, even if we don’t wishes to. There are many cases like that, I’m sure all of you might have been through such cases. Sometimes you don’t want to do things, but you have to do it for somebody else that express that you have some karmic debts to repay. So this prayer is perfect to go on to repay the karmic debts to whoever we have such.
- I forgot the number now, so the next point is if you want to do something, if you want to benefit all the sentient beings through a prayer, then there is no other prayer which is more effective and which is more suitable than this prayer. If you wish, if you want that you want to benefit all the sentient beings, then here you are, you already have this prayer.
- Now, the next point here, maybe the sixth point. We all have the negative karmas and positive karmas of past. Our mind is like a bag full of seeds, many of these are positive seeds, many of these are negative seedSo to ripen those which are positive, this prayer by practicing or even praying this can be a perfect condition to ripen any sort of positive karma. So if you wish to, if you are wishing something in your life, if you’re wishing something for others. Then basically you are wishing that “May such a karma ripens and may I achieve such and such”.
To ripen the karma, you need a condition, it’s more like to ripen a seed you need to put a water, by saying this prayer can be exactly as watering the positive seeds that you have accumulated in the past and thus your wishes can be, of course, and the time is a condition and this can be a condition. It’s not like if I say like “Your wishes can be granted or da da da… or the positive karma shall happen, it may happen that you say this prayer for few times and then you had a wish”. Then next time you’re complaining to this prayer or to me saying that “Oh, I did this prayer and then nothing is happening” [laugh].
Yeah, but yes, this can be a power faith condition that I can say. Sometimes when the seed doesn’t grows, even if you put the water, it doesn’t mean that water doesn’t have the capabilities, it may also mean that it is not the right time for seed to develop. For example, this comes in my mind very quickly, in winter, at the place where I was born, in winter it is like minus 20 or minus 30 degree Celsius, not the Fahrenheit something, degree Celsius, nothing grows, even if you have the water in the ground, even if you put a lot of water, nothing grows, it is just dead. Some other condition has to be encountered or gathered, or maybe sometimes the seed is not ready even if you put the water it doesn’t grow. But when the seed is ready, when the time is OK, but still, sometimes that seed doesn’t grow because it need a moisture, so among all the other conditions, moisture is one of the very important one. So by seeing this prayer, it can be the moisture for those positive seeds to grow. OK, now I’m happy this sounds more precise, in some sense.
- Perhaps number There are some prayers where you just pray, you just say the qualities of the Buddhas, there are some prayers where you just say that “May all the sentient beings be happy”. But here in this prayer there is a special quality in this, as I’ve said, this explains the practices, not just saying “May all sentient beings be happy”, but it it is doing something for that, it shows some practical practices that you can imply, then you can practice in the individual life. You’ll go through it from the next classes then you’ll be able to realize how the practice is. Actually, as I said in a previous class, practice is nothing but transforming the mind, taming the mind, subduing the mind is what practices means.
Doesn’t matter whether you are doing something, you’re practicing physically, verbally, or mentally, it is all about subduing the mind, it is all about controlling the negative mind, it is all about training the mind towards positive. This is what Buddha or Buddhist practices are all about, so these texts explain about how to tame, how to train the mind to reduce negativity, to reduce those emotions and weakness within our mind, and of course, to bring happiness in a simple words.
Of course, it will definitely help you in the future and future lives. If it is not easy for you to just think of that, you can just think that yesterday is a past life, today is the present life, tomorrow is the future life, because when we sleep when we get up tomorrow it is exactly like a next life. That’s what happens when we die, we cannot sleep for 49 days, pretty much similar in some sense, then we wake up tomorrow, of course, we don’t need an alarm because we are controlled by karma and emotions.
And also this prayer is perfect length, it’s like not too short that sometimes if the prayer is so short and then you have a little more energy or time to spend for, then you don’t feel like enough, sometimes it happens. And if the prayer is so long, then you don’t have that much concentration and then you are not concentrated much on the prayer; if the prayer is so long, then after a while you get sort of bore and then you don’t feel it. But this is a perfect length to pray, and also every verses carries a different practices, you get to learn and understand a different technique of practice.
And also this has about 62 verses/stanzas, the one that you have might have 63, I’ll have to check, but the first 62 verses are the real as it is in the sutra, the last verse is been added by the translator, those who have translated this prayer from Sanskrit to Tibetan and then from Tibetan it has been translated into English, so basically the past Tibetan translator has added one dedication verse at the end, so there is also translated into English – Sorry I couldn’t go through the English version, but I believe that they have translated that as well, you can count there must be 63 verses. Out of 63, 62 verses are the real sutra, and the 63rd one is the dedication that has been added, that is not the real verse of Sutra. When I talk about Sutra I’m talking about the teaching of Buddha and then yes, of course, a perfect dedication, it can be a bit longer just for dedication, but many people may use this prayer as a dedication, it is a perfect dedication.
So these are the reasons why this prayer is very famous and known, why this prayer is considered as a very powerful prayer, and I also feel very fortunate, and I’m really happy that we settle on this prayer for the next, I don’t know how many weeks, let’s see. Sometimes I may go through one verse, sometimes let’s go with two verses, maybe three, let’s see. But then this is a complete set of practices, so it would be wonderful to go through this.
So this prayer actually has been spoken or said by Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, but this is actually the teachings of Buddha. Buddha’s teachings are a few different types: there are some Buddha’s teachings which comes from some musical instruments, there are some Buddha’s teachings that Buddha gave from the crown of the Buddha, for example ‘White Umbrella Buddha Sutra’, there are some teachings that has been by the power of Buddha, some words comes out of the wind when the wind and tree meets some teachings comes, these are all the miracle powers of Buddha, for example, the Heart Sutra is basically a question by Shariputra and an answer by Buddha, as I’ve told before when we had the Heart Sutra class, the Shariputra asked a question by the power of Buddha. So sometimes a person might not have such a knowledge, sometimes a person might not even think of saying such, but by the power of Buddha when Buddha was meditating, by the power of Buddha meditation, from the mouth of Shariputra and Avalokiteshvara, Heart Sutra automatically came out. It was not as we intend to say something and say, he had to ask that naturally by the power of Buddha, so those are also he concluded in the sutra, those are also the teachings of Buddha.
So basically verbally Samantabhadra Boddhisatva said this prayer, but then actually it is the teaching by Buddha himself, and then majority of the sutras you’re going to find that: “Thus, I have heard once”, so this is the line that comes at the beginning of the Sutra when they write down the teachings of the sutra, they write “Thus, I’ve heard once, when Buddha was dwelling in this and this place, when Buddha had these and these students around, Buddha gave this topic” and at the end, so during that there was God, Demi-God, Human, they all praise the Buddha and da, da, da… So you can find these two at the beginning and at the end in most of the sutras, but this one although is a Sutra, you don’t see “Thus I’ve heard once” or the conclusion at the end, it is because this has been taken out from a large sutra Avataṃsaka Sūtra, so this was taken out from one chapter of Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and then this is being said or used nowadays as a whole Sutra, because of the profound message that it carries.
So I’ll just say the brief, ‘How did Sutra come to exist?’ When Buddha was at Shravasti, it is a place Buddha spent most of his summer time or summer retreat time, when Buddha was there, the Manjushri Buddha, the Manjushri Pusa or Manjushri Bodhisattva has been to a place called Kyid pei Jungney where Manjushri was giving, of course, Mahayana teachings to the people over there and during that time many people take refuge, at the same time, many people generate bodhicitta by promising that “May I achieve Buddhahood to benefit all the sentient beings”. So many people promised at that time or generated bodhicitta at that time.
Among them, there was this practitioner called Sudhana, he used to be a child of a businessman or a merchant, he generated the mind of Buddha, a bodhicitta, he aspired to achieve Buddhahood to benefit all the sentient beings. But then to achieve the actual Buddhahood just by aspiring to achieve Buddhahood to benefit all the sentient being is not enough to become Buddha, so now he promised that “I will achieve the Buddhahood to benefit all the sentient beings”. But now he wanted to know “What am I supposed to practice? Yes, of course, I have aspired as a Buddhisattva, but what are the practices that I am supposed to practice to achieve Buddhahood?”.
Then Manjushri advised him the importance of relying on a Teacher because it’s more like we, those of us who are in Samsara is exactly like we are in a mud. Let’s say, there is a mud and then you literally are drowning into the mud, it is very similar if a person is drowning into the mud, then the longer period of time you are in mud the deeper you get into the mud. It is extremely hard to get out of the mud by yourself, so you need someone to guide you, someone to help you to get rid of the mud. Exactly the same way those of us who are in Samsara, it is very easy to fall into the lower and lower realms in Samsara and very difficult to get rid of it by ourselves, so we exactly like the way we have to rely on someone to get out of the mud, we have to rely on a Teacher to get rid of the Samsara.
So Manjushri explained him and inspired him “To rely on a Mahayana Teacher so that you can know the practices to practice to achieve Buddhahood”. Then Manjushri told him there is a place called ‘Memo Gyanomchok’ and there is a monk called TrinGi pel, I’m not sure what is it in English, but TrinGi pel is the name of the Teacher, “You have to go there and request him to give a teaching”, so then he really thanked the Manjushri, he went around Manjushri, he paid homage to Manjushri and he went on to search for the next Teacher that Manjushri recommended.
Of course it’s not like there was the aeroplane, train or car to find such a Teacher, and there is this village or place, and that place there is this mountain called this and that, and there is a Master called /…/, he has to find that Master and and then of course it took him months and months, and then likewise the second Teacher said that “You have to look for the another Teacher”. So the second Teacher referred to the third Teacher, the third Teacher referred to the fourth Teacher and the fourth, fifth, fifth, sixth, sixth, seventh. Sometimes he had to go to Sri Lanka, sometimes he had to go to India, in some another part of India. So at that time, sometimes he had to spend like more than ten years to find a Teacher, the village the Teachers living, the name of the Teacher and then to find a Teacher sometimes it took like 10 years to find a Teacher. So likewise he had to go through 52 teachers before and then at the end that 53rd, so all this story has been mentioned is Avatamsaka Sutra which is why there is like 53 different stories every time he has been to this Teacher, and then this Teacher has recommended that Teacher and then the second one, the third, the fourth.
So this is the way he has been around as a sort of a pilgrim, he had to spend pretty much of his life searching for teachers, so that he can attend and learn the ways to practice. To learn the practices, he had to practice to achieve Buddhahood, he had to rely on 53 Masters and at the end, the 53rd Master that he found was Bodhisattva Samantabhadra and then at last Bodhisattva Samantabhadra gave this teaching to him where not only explain Bodhisattva’s practices, the practices that Bodhisattvas and Buddhas are practicing, but Samantabhadra also said this in a very poetic way, in a very nice way, in the form of prayer.
Actually I thought to go through the name Arya bhadra charya prani dana raja [Samantabhadracaryä pranidhänaraja] is the name I thought to go with the explanation, but then yeah we can go through next. So this is the brief explanation on how this Sutra comes to exist.
We will go through maybe one verse or two verses depend on the verse and the meaning from the next classes. So till that I recommend all of you to read this and try to understand this is in English as well, I believe that you all understand English, but those who prefer to read it in some other languages you can let me know, I’ll try to find if there is any translation in some other languages, there must be. And, of course, this is surely translated into Chinese, not sur, could be in Vietnamese as well, and then maybe in Spanish, of course in Hindi, in different languages, if you don’t find it, just let me know I’ll try to find it for you, but what I’m trying to say here is to pray, to read, try to understand then it would be a lot easier for you when we go through in the next classes.
Source.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GAhmya79N0gbQSCUULM29TSg_3pvyZY0/view?usp=sharing
