Buddhist Apocrypha: 妙沙經 The Scripture of Wondrous Sand

妙沙經 (偽造)

Miao Sha Jing 

The scripture of Wonderous Sand: APOCRYPHAL 

The frontispiece to a Ming-dynasty (萬曆辛丑年=1601  copy of the Scripture, now kept in Tokyo. From  Open Museum 

This scripture will be a first in a series of apocryphal scriptures that are collected in this 1931 edition of Chanmen Risong: 禪門日誦 Zen Daily Recitations. The heart of this book are the Buddhist morning and evening services: collections of scriptures that are chanted in the mornings and evenings by buddhist monasteries, a practise that continues to this day. However, in addition to the morning and evening services, the book contains other material that would be useful to buddhists, like  hymns that would be sung before and after sutras were recited, essays on various aspects of buddhism, tables of religious festivals, mantras for various purposes, and finally, short sutras. 

This is where the current apocryphal text, the "Scripture of Wondrous Sand" Miaosha Jing 妙沙經  fits in. This extremely short scripture is an incantation, invoking hosts of buddhas. The scripture proclaims that reciting it would allow you to deliver yourself- and your ancestors- from hell. In that respect, it resembles things like the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Litany 八十八佛懺 or the Three Thousand Buddhas Repentance litany 三千佛洪名寶懺: Still-practised rites which consist of lists of buddhas's names. it is not inconceivable that this "sutra" started off life as a similar litany that eventually was ascribed magical powers. Indeed, as we shall see, all the apocrypha in the Zen Daily recitations have a common feature: Reciting them has magical power. 

 Unlike other scriptures in the collection, The compilers of this text clearly marked it as 偽造 FALSELY CREATED, or perhaps idiomatically "Apocryphal" But if it was marked as "false", why would it be included in such a collection in the first place?

This was probably because the scripture was probably very popular, The scripture is rather short, and easily memorised even by people of meagre ability, empowering them to take over the destinies of their ancestors and themselves. Indeed, as can be seen above, this popularity spread to elite circles. Emperor Shenzhong-- the Wanli Emperor-- commissioned a copy of the sutra written in gold characters.  Religious professionals could ill-afford to ignore the wishes of their lay clients, who placed trust in such scriptures. 

However, in the end, orthodoxy triumphed. As far as the author can tell, This scripture is no longer recited by modern-day buddhists. As such, this intriguing little incantation has no English translation, apart from what is presented below. 

The edition from which I have taken the scripture is accessible here at google books: https://books.google.com/books?id=qObnAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=%E5%A6%99%E6%B2%99%E7%B6%93&pg=PP95#v=onepage&q=%E5%A6%99%E6%B2%99%E7%B6%93&f=true   

Note, however, that this book has been digitalised back to front, so as you scroll down the page, you will go earlier in the book. There is a 1915 edition of the Zen Daily Recitations that has this scripture, but it is not punctuated. https://books.google.com/books?id=_pMqJbJsDt4C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=%E7%A6%AA%E9%96%80%E6%97%A5%E8%AA%A6&pg=PP276#v=onepage&q&f=true 

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妙沙經 (偽造)

The scripture of Wonderous Sand: APOCRYPHAL 

佛佛佛

Buddha! Buddha! Buddha!

三十六萬億億佛    二萬九千無數佛 
五百萬珍藏恆河沙數佛 八萬聰明智慧佛

Thirty six Myriad Hundred Million, Hundred Million buddhas!
Two hundred and ninety thousand innumerable buddhas!
Five million ganges river's sands' store of buddhas!
Eight hundred thousand buddhas of intelligence and wisdom!

念取當來彌勒佛    星宿天宮一切佛 
在地微塵劫數佛 七日七夜細雨佛 

[1] Recall the name of the Future Buddha, Maitreya;
All the Buddhas in the Constellations and heavenly palaces;
All the buddhas on earth, as many as grains of fine dust;
[as many] Buddhas [as droplets in] seven days and seven nights of fine rain

江河兩岸流沙佛 天下園林樹木佛 
枝枝葉葉光明佛 靈山會上世尊佛 
七祖爹娘父母佛 三世如來一切佛 

[As many] Buddhas [as] grains of fine sand flowing between riverbanks
[as many] buddhas as trees in all forests and parks under heaven,
Every branch, every leaf [a] brilliant-light buddha
Numinous mountain assembly World- honoured Buddha
Seven generations dad, mom Father, mother, buddha
Tatagathas of the three times-all buddhas!

有人持念妙沙經  奈河橋上看分明。
妙沙經四卷為一藏  天下鬼神不敢侵 

If a person chants the scripture of marvellous sand
They will be distinguished on the River Nai's bridge
Four recitations of the scripture of marvellous sand are one store
Ghosts and gods under heaven will not invade

彌陀童子撞金鐘 連撞六聲地獄空
間羅天子得成佛 一切眾生離地獄
The Golden lads of Amida strike the golden bell
They strike it six times, and hell is emptied 
Prince Yama becomes a buddha
All sentient beings leave hell.