There are numerous rituals and practices, prayers and mantras that people around the world are doing to promote well-being for all. In times of epidemic or famine or natural disaster, even more people pray or invoke protectors or perform a practice to cast out negative forces.

The Way of the Buddha has such practices also. In all cases, the practices or action or combination of these with mantra/dharani will invoke the well-being of all beings not merely some. The practice will never involve the harm of any being such as a sacrifice or the harm of the virus or confused spirit or human being that has gone astray into darkness. The practice will evoke their departure, yes, but that is for the benefit of both the confused being and those subjected to the being’s confusion. The confused being is perpetrating harm thus accumulating negative karma which will require resolution. Ceasing that beings harmfulness truncates the accumulation of self-harming karma.  And, the suffering of beings who are affected by the confused one will cease or decrease.

Both parties are also encouraged to ponder cause-condition-result in order for confusion to be dispelled through one’s own investigation and understanding; for ultimately all beings are confused to varying extents.

84000.co is an effort to translate the extant words of the Buddha into modern language. The words and deeds of the Buddha are conveyed in sutras, which are the subject of the translation project. Sutras are usually discourses on subject matters such as mind, awareness, dependent arising of phenomena, buddha nature, the mind of awakening, and the way of the bodhisattvas as examples. Also within the collection are sutras are those that can be recited to promote well-being in times of illness or great difficulty. The sutra “On Entering the city of Vaisali” is one. It takes me about 12 minutes to recite, if you are interested in time commitment.

If you download the sutra, please make a donation to 84000. Every $5 or 10 helps this world-benefitting project. Animated video about the project.