The Miracle Stories Of the Added Phrase Version Of The Usnisa Vijaya

Dharani

The Usnisa Vijaya Dharani is the secret treasure of all the Tathagatas, a
Dharani Dharma door which is also the Wisdom Seal of the Tathagata
Maha Vairocana. Auspicious, excellent and pure, it is a strong and
powerful spiritual Dharani, which is capable of destroying all evil paths.
During the years of Yi Feng (676-678AD) of the Tang Dynasty, the
edition of this Dharani brought by Buddhapala had been circulated to all
the temples in China. Cultivators who had upheld It were enormously
numerous.
I, Wu Cheh, before the age of twenty,had started to uphold and recite
this Dharani.In the first year of Yong Tai (765AD), after the death of my
wife, I became even more sincere in my cultivation and practice, seeking
the Way to transcend the world of samsara. Then there was an aide
palace official called Jiang Shin, who was also frequently upholding and
reciting this Dharani. One day, he suddenly came to visit me in my
private quarters and told me, "I have found the ultimate Way (Supreme
Way) that is extremely difficult to meet!"
I sincerely and respectfully asked him what it was, and it turned out that
he had obtained a copy of the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani. There and then, I
invited him to recite It, and found that the phrases of the Dharani he
recite had more sentences and sounded rather different. Hence I
respectfully asked him from where he got this Dharani. He told me that
he learnt It from a man called Wang Kai Shi, who in turn had learned It
from Tripitaka Master Vajraboddhi. The Great Master had told Wang
Kia Shi, "It is very difficult to obtain such a complete version of the
Dharani even in India. I had brought along only a Sanskrit copy, and
hence can only transmit It secretly to you. "Jiang Shin sat down for
while but only talked about some peculiar/strange efficacious and then
left. Unfortunately, I did not ask him to get a copy of the said Dharani.
Soon after that, he was punished and killed. I always felt that it was a
great regret. Hence whenever I met any diligent and proficient
cultivator, I would enquire them about this edition of the Dharani,
hoping some of them might have the said version.
Then,at last, I met a monk name Ji Gong, who to my surprise, had a
copy of the said Dharani.

In the years of Kia Yuan (713-741AD), at the foot hill of Wu Tai

Mountain, lived a diligent cultivator name Upasaka Wang, who because
of some responsibily, had to visit places far away from his home. His
father fell ill unexpectedly and passed away after he left. When he came
home, being unable to see his father, he was filled with deep sorrow
(extremely sad). Hoping to know where his late father had been
reincarnated and the karmic retribution he was suffering from, he
sincerely and single mindedly recited the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani, and
devotedly praying for Its efficacious. However after reciting the Dharani
for Dharani for several hundred thousand times, he did not response and
was very disappointed. He decided to stop his recitation and then leave
the mountain.On his way out, he met an old man who said to him, "It
cannot be denied that you have upheld and recite the Dharani most
diligently, many of the sentences of the Dharani you recited were either
ommited or missing, and hence its meritorious virtues were not notable.
I shall now transmit the complete text to you. "Upasaka Wang was
overjoyed. There and then he bowed to the old man and received the
teaching. After the transmition, the old man further advised. "You
should sincerely recite this Dharani a thousand times, and you will
certainly see Its efficacious results."
True enough, after upholding and reciting the Dharani for several days,
on the middle of one night he suddenly heard the sound of flutes (and
rings?) coming down from the sky descending into the courtyard.
Upasaka Wang got surprised from his sleep and woked up to investigate.
He saw couples of heavenly beings clustering around a heavenly being
who walked up to him and said, "Can you recognise me?"
Upasaka Wang answered, "I don't think so."
The heavenly being said, "I'm your late father. Because of your years of
upholding and reciting the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani, I had already received
Its merits, and born as a heavenly being; but in the last few days, the
merits I received suddenly multiplied far exceeding that accumulated
over the past few years. I don't know what excellent copy of the Dharani
you had obtained. Owing to the accumulated merits you transferred to
me from upholding the Dharani, I have made the king of devas. I now
know that the merits acrued from upholding and reciting this Dharani are
certainly boundless."
Having said that. he rose into the sky and left. Felt highly delighted,
Upasaka Wang knelt down to send him off. From then onwards,
Upasaka Wang doubled his efforts in his cultivation. At a later time, he
went to Dong Gin.

At that time, there was a scholar in Dong Gin name Wang Shao Fu, who
was specially upholding and reciting the edition brought by Buddhapala.
The sum he recited the Dharani had already accumulated to several
myriad times. Suddenly, on the middle of one night, he dreamt of an
Indian monk who came to tell him, "You have recited the Usnisa Vijaya
Dharani with absolute sincerity; unfortunately the version of Dharani
you were reciting was incomplete, many words had been left out, (hence
the merits accrued from upholding It will not be much.)? "Wang bowed
respectfully and begged to be told the complete text. The Indian monk
then transmitted the wider version of the complete text to him orally.
When the transmition complete, Wang escorted the Indian monk to the
door of his house and saw what it was already daylight. After Indian
monk had left, Wang returned to his room, where he saw his young
servant was still fast asleep on the bed. Suddenly, he awoke from his
dream and called out to reproach his servant, "Wake up! It's already
daylight!"
His young srevant replied, "It's still midnight."
Suddenly, the brightness disappeared and it was still in the middle of the
night. Wang was very surprised with what he had seen; closing his eyes
to recited the Dharani trasmitted by the Indian monk, the whole incident
was still very fresh in his mind. From then onwards, he was even more
sincere and diligent in his cultivation.
In the first year of Tien Bao (742 AD), Upsaka Wang of Wu Tai
Moutain and Wang Shao Fu were both staying in Dong Du (Luo Yang),
but did not know each other. Then,one day, Wang Shao Fu suddenly
died. He became alive again after 7 days. All the busybodies in the city,
including Upsaka Wang and one Wang Kai Shi also came to ask him for
the causes of his revival. Wang Shao Fu then told them, "That night,
soon after I went to bed, two guards of the underworld suddenly
appeared and asked me to follow them. We walked for several tens ?of
miles until we came to the foot of a big tree. The two guards stopped to
rest, so did I. Then,suddenly I remembered the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani,
and immediately I closed my eyes and recited the Dharani 21 times.
When I opened my eyes and looked around, there was no sign of the two
guards and I did not know where they had gone. A short while later, four
persons came and knelt in front of me saying, "Compassionate one, how
do you cultivate and obtain such great merits and power? The guards
who came to arrest you had already been reborn in the heaven. " Wang
Shao Fu replied, "I only recite the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani. " The four of
them begged to me, saying, "It must be the power of the Dharani! Please
recite it on our behalf to deliver us from our sufferings and miseries."
I again closed my eyes and recited the Dharani twenty one times, when I
opened my eyes, again,the four persons had dissapeared. After a short
while, I heard the sound produced by the movement of the armours and
weapons in the sky. A deity wearing full armour covered with a purple
robe, looking very dignified and stern, with many followers, appeared.
He came forward and knelt down in front of me saying, "I'm the Senior
Officer of the underworld who controls the reincarnation of the five
realms. Though my position can be considered as high, I'm still confined
to the god realm, and I hope to be reborn in heaven. The previous six
persons were all reborn to the heaven due to the dharma power of you,
Master. Now please come to my residence and recite the Dharani for us,
so that we can all obtain Its great benefits."
"Hence I followed him to a large residence. The size of which was
several tens of square miles. Within it were seen all offenders, shackled
and chained, ready to be executed; this, actually was the place for
interrogation and torture of the underworld. The Senior Officer then
invited me to occupy a high seat while he knelt at the foot of the seat to
listen to the recitation of the Dharani. I closed my eyes and very
sincerely recited the Dharani for forty nine times. When I opened my
eyes and looked around; no one was in sight. Only broken locks and
chains, damaged shackles were seen; the place was in total disorder. I
was very frighten, and didn't know what to do; when suddenly another
four or five people came in and said, "The King (Yama) had ordered that
you should leave here quickly. You have created choros among our
system, sealed off the punishment document and records, disrupted the
laws and order of the underworld!"
"I was then driven into an empty valley, and became alive again. This
was truly the inconceivable power of the merits of Usnisa Vijaya
Dharani." Since Upsaka Wang of the Wu Tai Mountain, Wang Kai Shi
and Wang Shao Fu were all some practioners of the Usnisa Vijaya
Dharani, each of them took out their own treasured copy to compare the
text. All the three texts were exactly the same as though they were one
book. They congratulated each other for their own rare luck.
Upsaka Wang of the Wu Tai Mountain said, "My copy was given by the
old saint from Wu Tai Mountain."
Wang Shao Fu said, "Mine was given by the saintly monk."
Wang Kai Shi told them, "I received mine from Tripitaka Master
Vajrabodhi, the Sanskrit text is still with me. "The three were all
astonished when they heard each other's saying. They readily agreed to
read and check their copies, and found that the order of sounds and
numbers of the words were exactly the same. Hence, sentient beings
hear the Dharma, sometimes spread the Dharma, and also sometimes
that the Dharani is truly rare in this world.

This particular copy is translated from the Sanskrit edition of Tripita

Master Vajrabodhi, when It was checked against the copy brought by
Buddhapala, it was found that the sentences of the two versions were
essentially similar, only that this particular copy contain 9 more
sentences, and 69 more words than the version brought by Buddhapala.
In the 14th year of Yuan He (819 AD), a monk, name Hui Lin, while
revising the contents of the Tripitaka, which consisted of more than 600
rolls of Sutras that this article was being left out. He hence included a
brief account of the efficacy of the Dharani written by Wu Che into the
Tripitaka; and personally checked and wrote a preface at the end of the
article.

Then there were three persons in the previous Dynasty-Jiang Da Fu,

Zhang Cheng Fu and monk Bai Ji Seng, who had all happened to have
been pursued by the guards of the Underworld; but were all spared of
their evil karmic retibutions because of the inconceivable merits and
power accrued by upholding the Dharani. And in addition, they had also
deliver many suffering beings. This was recorded in their individual
biographies. Master Hui Lin found them recorded in the right section of
the Tripitaka, which was kept in the government office of Chendu. The
article was named, "The miracle stories of the efficacies of Usnisa
Vijaya Dharani. "

That was on the 26th year of Kai Yuan (738 AD) in the Shan Du (Luo
Yang), there was a major official named Zhang Yi, who had been very
filial to his parents since very young. After his parents had passed away,
he was very much afraid that they might have fallen into the evil paths.
He sincerely wanted to repay their kindness in bringing him up and
always thought of delivering them. Hence he went into the mountain to
recite the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani and wished that his late parents would
be reborn in the a peaceful and happy place. Diligently he recited the
Dharani day and night, continuously and earnestly prayed for 6 years.
During which time, he never see his late parents, so he suspected that the
Dharani was not effective and began to have doubts over its efficacy. As
these thought arose from his mind, he suddenly saw an old man, with a
very distinctive appearance stood before him. The old man then told
him, "It is not the Mantra being not efficacious, nor is it that you have
not been wholehearted in your recitation, but because (time has leap too
long ) after Buddha attained nirvana, the translated text that you now
possesed is full of errors, and words of the Mantra have been left out,
causing It to lose Its efficacy!"
The old man immediately transmitted the Dharani verbally to Zhang Yi
and asked him to make a copy of It. "Recite the Dharani accordingly for
seven days, and you will definitely see your late parents." The old man
told him. Zhang Yi accepted the old man instruction, very respectfully
he bowed to the old man, when he lifted up his head, the old man was
nowhere to found.
"Was he a Saint or a Sage?" he thought to himself and was very
surprised. He then became even more sincere, and concentrated all his
attention towards upholding and reciting the new version of the Dharani
taught to him by the old man. On the beginning of the 6th day, his late
parents appeared before him; they were still as loving as they had been
when they were alive. Hugging and crying, they were both happy and
sad at once-completely overcome with emotion. It was really a gathering
between the beings of the spiritual and living of this world.
Zhang's father told him, "After we had passed away, we fell into the big
hell, and suffered all types of pain and miseries for a long time. Due to
the merits and power of your sincere and whole-hearted cultivation
(reciting the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani), and the merits transfered to us,
recently, we have been reborned in the heaven. Now we have come from
the Higher Realm to see you." They diminished the powerful light
radiated from their bodies, showing their original human forms and
talked about the reasons for their present existence. The feelings were
like those old-days when they were alive as human. When any filial son
sees this article of miracle, how can he not place his heart in this saintly
teaching? What good will there be to indulge in the 6 desires and
seeking only pleasure and enjoyment, what benefits will he obtain?
Moreover, the story of how the Buddha's chief disciple Maha
Maudgalyayana delivering his mother were all recorded in the sutras.
Official Zhang's sincerity had also produced such efficacious results.
Later, it was being said that a monk who recited this Dharani obtained
many Sariras in addition to experience many spiritual realms. He came
to Dong Du, and all his efficacious incidents that were known to by
many people, had also been recorded down. Later on, some Buddhist
devotees who knew about these incidents, spread and circulated the
informations.

In the mid-April in the 3rd year of Chang Qing, a former retired junior
officer of the Feng Tian district, name Yang Qiu Man, moved back to Pu
Ban and stayed in his old house at Stone Lane in the eastern side of the
city. He had upheld and recited Buddhapala's version of the Usnisa
Vijaya Dharani for 15 years, and had never fallen behind in his practice.
After arriving back several months, one night he dreamt of a divine
being with very special appearence, clad in a full suit of armour, saying
"Since you are so sincere in upholding this Dharani, why don't you pay a
visit to the Jing Fu temple at the Eastern lane to seek out a monk who
upholds this practice. He has the efficacious version of the Dharani, and
the merit acrued from upholding this version is nine times more
superior."
Having heard that, Yang Qiu Man was suddenly awoke and found
himself drenched in sweet.The next day he went specially to visit the
temple to seek out the monk. Only after several days of visits, he finally
met the monk, whose Dharma name was Yi Zui, a monk who was really
earnest and proficent in upholding the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani. He had
many followers, who came from far and near. When he enquired Yang
about the reason of his visit, Yang told him about the dream. The monk
was surprised and said, "This is truly amazing! The Sankrit text of the
Dharani I kept was known to nobody! Since you, young man, had been
directed here by a divine, how can I remain so selfish?"
Immediately Master Yi Zui asked his disciple to take It out from his
bamboo case, and sincerely taught Yang the Dharani. Yang then asked
permission to take the text home compare with that of Buddhapala's.
Only then did he realised that some words and phrases were missing out
in Buddhapala's version. From then onwards, Yang upheld and recited
the rectified Dharani accordingly, and found that Its efficacy was so
much different from before. Later on, Master Yi Zui also passed over to
Yang two rolls of Sutra of the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Yoga. Since
then,only did he realize that saintly teaching has a clear fixed method
upholding and recitng the Dharani, and that cannot do so according to
one's whims and fancies. Hence this particular cause recorded for the
reference of fellow cultivators and effinity