..续本文上一页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!
为什么要讲这个〈楞严咒〉呢？因为这一部《楞严经》，就是为着〈楞严咒〉而说的；如果没有〈楞严咒〉的话，根本就不会有《楞严经》。所以翻译英文这一位先生，他把〈楞严咒〉不要，把结坛这种仪规也都不翻译，这可以说，就好像一个人没有了头似的。一个人没有个头，这有什么用呢？所以在翻译经典时，不能武断，不能自己用自己这个小智小慧，或者以管窥天、以蠡测海，用自己这种知见来断章取义，妄加去取，对于经上，这是不可以的。
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.
我们现在在金山圣寺也是翻译经典，那么凡是经上所有的，绝对是保留的，不会或者把这个经的头给砍去，或者把脚给剁去了。也不会像某某一个professor(教授)，翻译这个「两足尊」，他翻译成什么呢？就翻译成「两条腿」，他说「皈依佛，两条腿。」那么这种的翻译法，也不能说是完全不对，但是有多少是大相径庭了，与这个经的本意是不相合的。因为这种关系，所以我们金山圣寺所翻译的这个经典都特别谨慎小心，不是随便就把经某一段取消了。那么今天讲这《楞严经》，顺便说一说这个意思。
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.
节录自《大势至菩萨念佛圆通章浅释》
Excerpted from the explanation of
The Chapter on the Perfect Penetration
through Mindfulness of the Buddha
by Great Strength Attained Bodhisattva
《〈楞严咒〉的妙用 The Wonderful Effects of the Shurangama Mantra》全文阅读结束。