Special Topics
Surangama Hall
The Surangama Sutra is recited reverently in the Surangama Hall, followed by The Surangama Mantra and the Heart Sutra. Every day, there is a session where practitioners practice the meditative contemplation of "entering the flow and extinguishing all objects", which is the perfect penetration, or method, used to attain liberation. This is the method based on using the organ of the ear that was cultivated by Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
The Surangama Sutra is one of the greatest treasures in the Chinese Buddhist canon. It is beautifully written and it reveals profound and wondrous meaning. This sutra expounds the faith of Tathagata-garbha thought, and it exhibits deep philosophical understanding as well as rich literary expression.
This sutra is better described as a practical guide to practice rather than a theoretical treatise about dharma theory, since it includes a psychological analysis of spiritual practice; an introduction to methods and conditions of practice; and, finally, guidance to verify practice experience and a way to determine the proper course of practice.
This Sutra introduces twenty-five Dharma doors, or entry points of perfect penetration, that were by twenty-five bodhisattvas and arhats in the Mahayana tradition. All of these Dharma doors can lead to liberation.