True Buddha Dharma-character Treasury – Shakyamuni Buddha
【Shakyamuni Buddha Mudra :】
Inward Three-Mountain Mudra
Inward Three-Mountain Mudra
Outward Three-Mountain Mudra
Outward Three-Mountain Mudra
Inward Three-Mountain Mudra:
Put the palms together. Bend the index and ring fingers inside the palms and keep them touching while maintaining the rest of fingers straight and touching.
Outward Three-Mountain Mudra:
Put the palms together. Bend the index and ring fingers and cross them outside the palms while keeping the rest of fingers straight and touching.
Seed Syllable: white Huo
【Shakyamuni Buddha Seed Syllable :】
Huo (white in color)
【Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra :】
「Om。mou-ni。mou-ni。ma-ha-mou-ni。shi-jia-mou-ni。so-ha。」
【Shakyamuni Great Karmic Hindrance Removing Mantra】 108 times:
Na-mo-he-la-dan-na-zhi-ga-ni。dan-ta-go-do-ye。ah-la-ge-di-sam-myak-sam-mo-to-ye。
dan-ning-ta。 om-la-dan-ni-la-dan-ni。su-la-dan-ni。la-dan-nu-na-po-wei-mo-ho。la-dan-na-zhi-la-ni。la-dan-na-sam-po-wei-so-ha.
【Shakyamuni Buddha Dharmalakṣaṇa Brief Introduction】
Shakyamuni is golden in color. His right hand touches the ground while his left hand forms the meditation mudra upon which there is a bowl filled with nectar. He wears a monk’s three garments. His appearance is perfect, dignified and brilliant. He body is translucent and he is meditating within the peaceful illumination of a white lotus seat.
【Living Buddha Lian-sheng Sheng-yen Lu Dharma Talk – Shakyamuni Buddha Background and Magnificence】
Shakyamuni Buddha is the founder of Buddhism. ”Shakya”is his family name, the clan of Shakya. ”Muni” means ”able to be kind,” a saint ”able” to truly perform ”kind”-ness in heaven and in the human realm, namely a sage born in the clan of Shakya.
Namo Fundamental Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha is honored in both Sutrayana and Vajrayana.
According to the two Vajrayana mandalas, Buddha Shakyamuni is the chief deity in the Womb mandala and shares the same position with Amoghasiddi in the Vajradhatu mandala. There is this passage in the Vairocana Sutra: ”Shakyamuni’s entire body displays a true golden hue and manifests in full glory the thirty-two marks of Buddhahood. With a yellow cassock wrapped around him, he sits atop a white lotus expounding the Dharma in his emanation body.
Buddha Shakyamuni, who was known as Siddhartha Gautama before he was ordained, was born on the eighth day of the fourth month under the Asoka tree in the Lumbini Grove of Jambudvipa in Kapilavastu. He was in the Shakya clan where his father was King Shuddhodana and his mother was Queen Mayadevi. He was ordained at the age of 29, and became enlightened at the age of 35. He then spent the next 45 years in dharma teaching, delivered more than 300 discourses, and helped innumerable humans and devas to reach Enlightenment. At around 543 B.C.E, he entered nirvana under the twin Sal trees by the river Vati at the age of 80.
Shakyamuni Buddha’s first converts were the five ascetics headed by Ajnata-Kaundinya and the three Kasyapa brothers. Buddha Shakyamuni later went on to teach many other disciples, including some who were kings. He frequently travelled throughout the ancient kingdoms of Magadha, Kosala, and Vaishali teaching the dharma.
Shakyamuni’s mantra is ‘‘Om。mou-ni。mou-ni。 ma-ha-mou-ni。shi-jia-mou-ni。so-ha。”
which means ”Able to be kind, able to give the most immense kindness, the saint.”
Shakyamuni’s teachings were truly marvelous. When Shakyamuni turned the dharmachakra for the first time at Deer Park, he discoursed the doctrines of ”Suffering, Accumulation, Extinction, and Path,” the ”Four Noble Truths” of Hinayana:
The meaning of the Four Noble Truths is that life in this world is characterized by affliction and suffering. There is happiness but not much. Ultimately, everything in this world will completely vanish and be extinguished. If before one ”disappears” one becomes enlightened to the meaning of ”extinction” one will, at that very moment, become enlightened to the principle of ”Buddha.”
In this world there is therefore no true happiness. Happiness, for the most part, is fleeting and momentary. One’s happiness in this world is outweighed by suffering.
Through the continuous accumulation of all one’s suffering, one finally realizes that there is ”neither suffering nor happiness.” This realization is ”extinction.” At the moment of realizing ”extinction” one is able to attain the ”Path.” This was Shakyamuni’s discourse to Hinayana practitioners on ”Suffering, Accumulation, Extinction, and Path” during his first turning of the dharma wheel.
During Shakyamuni’s second turning of the dharmachakra, he discoursed on the ”Prajna Vehicle,” the Mahaprajnaparamita Vehicle. Shakyamuni’s teaching on the Mahaprajnaparamita Vehicle encompasses all the myriad deeds of the Six Paramitas. The actions of a bodhisattva are to benefit others, to engage in the exchange of self with others, to know the equality of self and others, and to generate bodhicitta to deliver sentient beings. These actions of a Bodhisattva are the ”Mahaprajnaparamita Vehicle,” which is also known as the ”Bodhisattva Vehicle.”
To transform oneself into a Bodhisattva one must perform the six paramitas of giving, morality, patience, meditation, perseverance and wisdom in the deliverance of sentient beings. The performance of these six paramitas is what Shakyamuni discoursed as the ”Bodhisattva Vehicle.” The ”Bodhisattva Vehicle” emphasizes ”generating bodhicitta.” This ”bodhicitta” has so-called ”equality” which means that all sentient beings are equal. Grandmaster is equal to everyone and everyone is equal to Grandmaster because every person equally has the buddha nature.
”Benefitting others” means to not think of oneself. To think of sentient beings and to take other people into consideration is to benefit others.
What is meant by ”the exchange of self with others?” It means, as Confucius said, ”Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want done to yourself.” Would you enjoy being defamed and insulted by another person? If not, then don’t insult and defame other people. One who violates this principle is not practicing buddhadharma.
If you wouldn’t like something done to yourself, then don’t do it to someone else. Don’t place burdens on others which just increase their suffering.
As I have said before, one must be grateful for the kindness of others. One must appreciate the kindness of one’s parents. How did you grow up? Without your parents could you have grown up? No, you could not have. One’s ”parents” are not just those who gave birth to you and raised you. Even though they may not be your biological parents, those who raised you are still the same as your parents. One must therefore recognize and be grateful for this kindness! Ultimately, one must repay this kindness. This gratitude for and repayment of kindness is the ”principle” of which the Buddha spoke.
During this period, Shakyamuni also taught ”Pratyekabuddha,” who attains enlightenment through the ”twelve links of interdependent origination.”
The real greatness of the Buddha was his three turnings of the dharmachakra. His last turning was the Esoteric Vehicle. In the Esoteric Vehicle Shakyamuni taught how to transform oneself into Buddha, to become enlightened and see one’s buddha nature. All of the aforementioned vehicles were discoursed by Shakyamuni and this is where his greatness is. There are three key points. The first and most important point is renunciation. One must realize that this saha world is nothing but suffering, that there is nothing worth seeking after, that everything is unattainable and there is nothing to attain. It is stated in the Heart Sutra that ”it is because there is nothing for one to attain that one is able to become a Bodhisattva.”
Shakyamuni stated it in this way: don’t you know that there is nothing to attain in this world? That nothing whatsoever can be gained? There is nothing that one can gain and for this reason, after one has realized there is nothing to gain one is able to reach enlightenment instantaneously and become a bodhisattva who is truly able to benefit others.
People should stop this constant fighting amongst themselves. All this worldly bickering can be described in two words: ”fighting” and ”competition.” If one has a mind of ”equality,” if one is determined to be of benefit to others and performs the ”exchange of self with others” then one may ”cross over” and transform into a Buddha when one at last understands that this world is all about ”nothing to gain.” This is the teaching of Shakyamuni.
When today’s monks and nuns give up their ordinary household life, they enter the family of the Dharma King. At the same time, they give up their family name and adopt the surname of Shakya. The origin of this custom may be traced to the Reverend Taoan of the Chin Dynasty who advocated such a changeover. It is also explained in the Agamas that ”When rivers from the four directions flow into the ocean, they lose their names. When people of various family names take up the vow of renunciation they are addressed as the ”clan of Shakya.” This is the reason why ordained disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha change their last names to Shakya.
Many monks and students of Buddhism are aware of the numerous methods for purifying karmic hindrances, but they do not know that the mantra of Buddha Shakyamuni holds a great secret power to purify karmic hindrances of the most severe kind. Most students know that teachings given by the Buddha when he was alive have been collected and formulated into the Hinayana and Mahayana scriptures and are a cultural treasure of eastern civilization. But they do not know this great esoteric secret.
From the book Karma Yoga written in Pali, I learned that Buddha Shakyamuni was a Bhagavan Samyak-sambodhi Merit King, a founder of religion in samsara, and that within the esoteric school of practice he is regarded as the principal deity for repentance and purification.
Practitioners of the ”Shakyamuni Merit King Practice” will very quickly develop the power to read their own past lives, which will appear before their eyes as if on a movie screen. By doing this practice, they will instantly know the karmic causes and results of previous lifetimes and be able to know their past lives with utmost clarity.
The key to the Shakyamuni Merit King Practice is the visualization of the white light of the nectar. Doing this practice is tantamount to receiving an empowerment from Buddha Shakyamuni, who is instilling the Buddha’s supreme wisdom through one’s crown into one’s body, bringing all virtues to great perfection. Such a practice is, of course, the greatest method to purify karmic hindrances.