ESTABLISHING THE BODHIMANDA
Ananda said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, enveloped in
the Thus Come One’s unsurpassed, compassionate instruction, my mind has already
become enlightened, and I know how to cultivate and be certified to the Way
Beyond Study. But for those who cultivate in the final age and want to
establish a bodhimanda: how do they secure the boundaries in accord with the
rules of purity of the Buddha, the World Honored One?”
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.”
