Shurangama Lectures

Considered as one of the masterpieces of scripture in the Mahayana Buddhism, the Shurangama Sutra is revered by millions of Buddhists and scholars as containing the core and culmination of the Buddha's teaching. The content of the scripture emphasizes on dismissing the illusory conscious mind to reveal the inherent true mind and ultimately reach Perfect Enlightenment via the Samadhi gateway.

          This important sermon contains the very essence of the Buddha's teaching. The discourse is compartmentalized into three categories: illustrating the fundamental principles, selecting the supreme practice method, and realizing the various stages on the way to Buddha hood.

          Directly, the sermon opens with a probe into fellow Ananda' locations of the mind, and one by one the Buddha eliminated each of the fellow's proposition, thus illustrating the conscious mind is an illusion and locationless. Using the visual awareness as the example, The Buddha certified that the true mind in fact, lied in the awareness of six faculties. He further elucidated that every phenomenon in both material and spiritual world is ultimately an illusion of the true mind, and that in an unenlightened state, beings are confused and continue to reside in an illusionary world created by their own fundamental ignorance. Having identified the source of delusion which obstructs the awareness of the true mind, at the sincere request of Ananda, the Buddha in this next phase pointed way to reach the true mind. To demonstrate this, He invited twenty five sages of the forum to describe their individual methods in attaining enlightenment. Among the sages, Manjusri praised Guan Yin Bodhisattva's for Her best technique by means of auditory awareness which is the most suitable for human beings. The last part concerned a talk on the various stages of development and advancement to Buddha hood. As the sermon nears the end, the Buddha rose from His Lion seat, issued his closing statement warning that the power of samadhi is so inconceiveable that it can challenge the fifty demonic states to interfere and manifest during one's concentration practice. Having heard this lifetime discourse, Ananda and the enlightened beings all felt joyfully delighted, paid reverence and withdrew.

          Through this complex and dense literature, the Shurangama Sutra has successfully captured the sermon spoken by the Buddha on the principles and techniques of reaching the great Shurangama Samadhi. It is a text requiring some working knowledge in Buddhism to grasp and get through it. For this reason, Gold Summit Monastery is offering lectures on this sutra bilingually each week in form of open discussions. The meetings for the Chinese lectures are held on Fridays from 7-9pm and English lectures are on Sundays from 9:40-11:00am and 1:30-3:00pm. The lectures are open to public, freestyle, and most importantly free of charge. Free because we believe this sort of teaching is priceless.