..續本文上一頁ot the case that just anyone can casually use the Shurangama Mantra. When one uses it, one doesn”t necessarily have to use the whole mantra, because it contains over thirty types of dharmas. When I mentioned this, some professors in the United States didn”t really understand Buddhism, and they thought, "Oh! Now I see that the Shurangama Mantra is just a combination of many little mantras." How ridiculous! They themselves do not understand, so they use the scientific mind of a professor to speculate on the inconceivable state of the Shurangama Mantra. This is what I”ve heard. What a joke!
爲什麼要講這個〈楞嚴咒〉呢？因爲這一部《楞嚴經》，就是爲著〈楞嚴咒〉而說的；如果沒有〈楞嚴咒〉的話，根本就不會有《楞嚴經》。所以翻譯英文這一位先生，他把〈楞嚴咒〉不要，把結壇這種儀規也都不翻譯，這可以說，就好像一個人沒有了頭似的。一個人沒有個頭，這有什麼用呢？所以在翻譯經典時，不能武斷，不能自己用自己這個小智小慧，或者以管窺天、以蠡測海，用自己這種知見來斷章取義，妄加去取，對于經上，這是不可以的。
Why do we want to talk about the Shurangama Mantra
Because it was for the sake of the Shurangama Mantra that the Shurangama Sutra was expounded. Without the Shurangama Mantra, there wouldn”t be any Shurangama Sutra. Therefore, since that person from Hong Kong left out the Shurangama Mantra and didn”t translate the rites of setting up the platform, you could say that his English translation is like a person without a head. What can a person do if he has no head
When we translate Sutras, we shouldn”t arbitrarily add or delete sentences by interpreting passages out of context or using our own limited understanding and wisdom. If we did, it would be like viewing the sky through a reed or measuring the ocean with a gourd. This is not allowed when we are translating Sutras.
我們現在在金山聖寺也是翻譯經典，那麼凡是經上所有的，絕對是保留的，不會或者把這個經的頭給砍去，或者把腳給剁去了。也不會像某某一個professor(教授)，翻譯這個「兩足尊」，他翻譯成什麼呢？就翻譯成「兩條腿」，他說「皈依佛，兩條腿。」那麼這種的翻譯法，也不能說是完全不對，但是有多少是大相徑庭了，與這個經的本意是不相合的。因爲這種關系，所以我們金山聖寺所翻譯的這個經典都特別謹慎小心，不是隨便就把經某一段取消了。那麼今天講這《楞嚴經》，順便說一說這個意思。
Now, we are also working on Sutra translations at Gold Mountain Monastery, and we absolutely must retain all the text that is in the Sutras. We will not chop off the head or do away with the feet. Nor will we be like a certain professor who translated liang zu zun (which means "Doubly Perfect Honored One") as "Most Venerable of Two Legged Beings," implying that we should "Take refuge with the Buddha”s two legs." [The Chinese character zu can mean perfect or foot.] This way of translating (word-for-word) cannot be said to be completely incorrect, but it is quite far from the intent of the text and does not agree with the original meaning in the Sutra. For these reasons, we are extremely attentive and careful in all the Sutras we translate at Gold Mountain Monastery. We would not casually delete a paragraph in the Sutras. Since I”m talking about the Shurangama Sutra today, I have taken an opportunity to bring this up.
節錄自《大勢至菩薩念佛圓通章淺釋》
Excerpted from the explanation of
The Chapter on the Perfect Penetration
through Mindfulness of the Buddha
by Great Strength Attained Bodhisattva
《〈楞嚴咒〉的妙用 The Wonderful Effects of the Shurangama Mantra》全文閱讀結束。