Incredible Power of The Buddhist Sutra

Incredible Power of The Buddhist Sutra

In my childhood, I was often haunted by visions of shadowy creatures at night. My parents would tell me that these were simply a figment of my imagination, but the creatures felt so real that I was always scared of sleeping at night. I was also often sick, and had to be hospitalized several times. Although my physical illnesses became less severe as I grew into an adult, I continued to have disturbing dreams.

Some of the worst years of my life were in my early 30’s, when nearly every single night I would dream of a monster suffocating me, and I would wake up gasping for my breath. My fear led me to keeping the lights on at night, but these terrifying visions continued unabated. I knew that I had to seek help, and one day I ventured into a Buddhist temple to ask for advice.

At the temple, I was introduced to a sutra called The Original Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra. This Sutra is a Mahayana Buddhist teaching on the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who vowed not to attain final enlightenment until after the hell realm is emptied. Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is well-known in China. A big and sacred Buddhist site – Mount Jiuhua is dedicated to Ksitigarbha (Chinese Pinyin: Dizang), a bodhisattva and protector of beings in hell realms according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Many temples have Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva hall, people could worship and praise him.

The sutra illuminated how Ksitigarbha became a bodhisattva with his great vows for the well-being of all sentient beings. When I chant the sutra, I was really touched by those great vows of the bodhisattva.

In the charter six of the sutra, there is one paragraph says: “Moreover, Universally Expansive (name of a bodhisattva), when dreaming or dozing, living beings in the future may see ghosts, spirits and other forms that are either sad, weeping, or worried, fearful, or terrified. These are all past fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and relatives from one, ten, a hundred, or a thousand lives, who have not yet been able to leave the Evil Paths. They have no place from which to hope for the power of blessings to rescue them, and so they plead with their flesh-and-bone descendants to establish expedient devices for them so that they might leave the Evil Paths. Universally Expansive, using your spiritual power, you should cause all these descendants to recite this sutra with sincerity before the images of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, or to request others to recite it, either three or seven times. When the sutra has been sounded the proper number of times, relatives in the Evil Paths will obtain liberation and never again be seen by those who dream or doze.”

After I chanted the sutra, things got much better. The suffocating nightmare experiences I had been dealing with began to diminish in frequency. Once in a while I would still dream of some bloody or skull-exposed face. But afterward I would chant the sutra and dedicate the merits to these scary visions, and then I would not dream of them again.

At the end of the sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha said: “If there are good men and women in the future who see Earth Store’s image, or who hear this sutra or read or recite it; who use incense, flowers, food and drink, clothing, or gems as offerings; or if they praise, behold, and worship him, they shall attain twenty-eight kinds of advantages:

1. They will be remembered and protected by gods and dragons.
2. Their good roots will increase daily.
3. They will accululate superior causes of wisdom.
4. They will not retreat from Bodhi.
5. Their food and drink will be abundant.
6. Epidemics will not touch them.
7. They will not encounter disasters of fire and water.
8. They will not be troubled by thieves.
9. They will be respected by all who see them.
10. They will be aided by ghosts and spirits.
11. Women will be reborn as men.
12. If born as women they will be daughters of kings and ministers.
13. They will have upright and proper appearances.
14. They will often be born in the heavens.
15. They may be emperors or kings.
16. They will know their past lives.
17. They will attain whatever they seek.
18. Their families will be happy.
19. All disasters will be eradicated.
20. They will eternally be apart from the paths of karma.
21. They will always arrive at their destination.
22. At night their dreams will be peaceful and happy.
23. Their deceased relatives will leave suffering behind.
24. They will receive the blessings from their past lives.
25. They will be praised by the sages.
26. They will be intelligent and their roots will be keen.
27. They will have magnanimous, kind, and sympathetic hearts.
28. They will ultimately attain Buddhahood. “