Surangama Sutra Comprehensive Commentary (楞嚴經圓通疏)

No. 281-A Preface to Perfect Penetration Commentary on Shurangama Sutra

Tiantai (Zhiyi) bowed from afar toward the Shurangama Sutra, wishing it would soon reach this land. Then, compelled by his westward journey, he said: “I shall not see the Shurangama Sutra. There will be a bodhisattva in the form of an official to translate its text, and a flesh‑and‑blood monk to explain it according to our teachings.” Thus Minister Fang fulfilled the prophecy of the official bodhisattva. All those who, with black‑and‑white script or red‑and‑green chapters, dyed the western thread and made it brilliant, were able to attach themselves to the minister. And the monks who explained the sutra, such as Yuan and Yue, seemed to fulfill Tiantai’s expectations, and they refuted the miscellaneous traditions from outside the mountain. Were they not indeed bodhisattvas of this land?

Later, Jiaoguang refuted the Three Contemplations, Shunzheng confused the Five Lamps, Yiqing praised the deaf and mute, and Chengyin encountered an extraordinary person. Were they officials? Monks? Dharma masters? Chan masters? In Chan, it is said that Tiantai’s “Heavenly” already had a “Complete Explanation.” Zhongfeng ordered the monk Mulin to take Weijing’s restored small version and hand it to Tianru, saying: “The Shurangama Sutra is often taken as a standard by Chan practitioners. My examination of mind and discrimination of seeing have only been briefly indicated. You must compose a Complete Explanation to illuminate the entire sutra.” After years of editing, the work achieved harmony like gold and jade, and Shanjia’s Endless Lamp Master recognized it as a comprehensive accomplishment, naming it “The Yuantong Commentary.” It not only explains the sutra’s perfect penetration, but also advances ten people into the ranks of the twenty‑five perfections. For this body is a golden city, a moated fortress, imperishable through a thousand autumns; and within the realm of time, flavor, principle, and practice, it raises the battlements of Red City, spans the embankments of Qian Pond, weaving the subtle texts and secret meanings horizontally and vertically. Could this be the twenty‑sixth perfect penetration shown by the bodhisattva?

Some say: “Master Zhiyi bowed facing west, but his eyes never saw this sutra. Yet the flesh‑and‑blood monks claim they saw the Buddha expounding the sutra, and they correct the confusion of various teachers. That is merely an omen of rebirth in the Pure Land. Who saw the assembly that never dispersed at Vulture Peak? Who followed Nanyue to the Western Heaven? Through previous bodies and later bodies, they personally leaned on the Buddha’s cave, attained the rotation of the wonderful teaching, and long approached the holy stage. Once the middle rank is born, the flesh‑body manifests in five ways, and the bed curtains suddenly vanish. People see them as coming from Guanyin, but before seeing Guanyin they realize the perfect penetration of the ear faculty. Why still labor to look west? This shows the rarity of encountering the secret meaning, and guides the deep attainment of the highest disciples. Tiantai’s prophecy was quite accurate, and the hundred‑year count has passed. How do we know that the confusion is not the words of Mara? Mara has not yet been destroyed; we must rely entirely on the mantra mind. People only know of the Buddha Crown Sutra, but not of the Consecration Section. The sutra is the introductory part of the mantra; the mantra is the core of the sutra. It is originally the perfect practice of the Buddha vehicle. The lay scholar tears the dharma and focuses only on Chan, beginning with the rescue of Maṅgalā. The white‑robed woman mingles with the ten people and is about to violate the precept against lust, ending with the exposition of the five skandha demons. The great demon king increases the six periods and doubles the ascetic exertion. This is why the teacher established an altar to manifest the dharma, conforming to custom and what is appropriate. Even if the golden mouth has flaws, they must come from the Buddha seen during the twenty‑one‑day practice. Observing the height or shallowness of the mirror’s light, one should see the demon that has been old for thousands of years. Therefore he first produced the Profound Meaning, which Tang Ruoshi often praised for its clarity and lack of confusion. Later he produced the Altar Ritual, which Sengru’s younger brother praised for its excellence in creation, inscribing the plaque and writing the record. I am ashamed to be an official with only mortal eyes, yet I protect the flesh‑and‑blood bodhisattva, and this distant fulfillment of the prophecy is indeed a once‑in‑a‑thousand‑years moment.

I once dreamed of Zhongfeng and composed a record of six dreams. Zhongfeng praised Tiantai’s teaching as summer among the four seasons, and entrusted Tianru to spread the light of great virtue. Or the steward of a hundred districts, when the rain prayers were prolonged and the floods lost their timing, the Lamp Master harmonized them. Thus Tiantai and Tianmu, two mountains, stood together. I never expected that this commentary would clear the mud of slander, surpass even the pure qing bell, and emerge so uniquely. It raises the city of Tiaocheng as if heaping up earth, and deepens Dragon Pool as if digging. It advances Zhongfeng and his son into perfect penetration—does it not add two bodhisattvas? As for its carving and block‑printing, it is the divine skill of the hand and eye; its collation and correction are the fine diligence of day and night. How could Daolin and Zhuofeng surpass it? When the Tathāgata sees it, he will predict that after Moonlight expounds the dharma, this sutra will remain. This commentary will not perish before other sutras, because it directs the people who circulate it toward the Land of Immeasurable Life, and it is equal to the Sutra of Immeasurable Life.

In late summer of the first year of the Tianqi reign of the Ming dynasty, on the day of the new crescent moon, I, Yu Chunxi, a Tiantai practitioner who has received the Bodhisattva precepts, respectfully write this preface.