明代 · 《了凡四训》MING · FOUR LESSONS OF LIAOFAN
袁了凡持咒改命Yuan Liaofan Changes His Destiny
明代袁了凡年轻时遇算命高人孔先生，推算他一生际遇——某年考第几名、某年当贡生，甚至断言他命中无子、寿数有限。此后二十年，所算竟一一应验，分毫不差。了凡从此心灰意冷，认定「进退有命，迟速有时」，澹然无求。
As a young man, Yuan Liaofan met a master diviner named Kong who calculated his entire life — his exam rankings year by year, his official posts, even that he would die at a set age without an heir. For twenty years every prediction came true to the letter, and Liaofan resigned himself: all is fated, why strive?
后于栖霞山遇云谷禅师，对坐三昼夜不瞑目。禅师告以「命由我作，福自己求」之理：算数能拘者，只是凡夫；改过积善，广积阴德，命运即可自造。并授以准提咒，嘱其持诵之法：
Then at Qixia Mountain he met the Chan master Yungu, and they sat facing each other three days and nights. The master taught him that destiny is self-made and fortune self-sought: only the ordinary are bound by the numbers; reform, goodness and hidden virtue remake one's lot. He then transmitted the Cundī mantra with this instruction:
「但能持准提咒，无记无数，不令间断，持得纯熟。于持中不持，于不持中持。到得念头不动，则灵验矣。」"Simply hold the Cundī mantra — without counting, without interruption, until it is utterly ripe: reciting yet not reciting, not reciting yet reciting. When the stream of thought no longer stirs, it will prove efficacious."
了凡自此立命自新，力行善事，日诵准提咒不辍。此后孔先生所算全部失效：命中无子而得贤子，命中无进士而中进士，命中五十三岁而享寿七十四。他将此段经历写成家训传世，即流传四百余年的《了凡四训》，准提咒亦随之广为人知。
Liaofan set about remaking his life — doing good and reciting daily. Every one of Kong's calculations then failed: destined to be childless, he raised a worthy son; never to pass the highest examination, he became a jinshi; fated to die at fifty-three, he lived to seventy-four. He set the story down as a family instruction — the Four Lessons of Liaofan — through which the Cundī mantra became known throughout China for four centuries.
出处：袁了凡《了凡四训·立命之学》Source: Yuan Liaofan, Four Lessons of Liaofan, "Establishing Destiny"
经典所载 · 唐译CANONICAL · TANG TRANSLATION
经中亲说的验相Signs Promised in the Sūtra
《准提陀罗尼经》中，佛陀亲说持诵的验相：若有重罪者至心持诵满遍数，便于梦中见诸佛菩萨圣众，或梦见口吐黑物——此即罪障消灭之相；更精进者，梦见饮食白物、腾空自在、渡越大海大河、上楼登山、见善僧善相，皆是业净障除、所求将遂之验。
In the Cundī Dhāraṇī Sūtra the Buddha himself describes the signs of progress: one who recites the full count with a whole heart may dream of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, or dream of spitting out black matter — a sign of obstructions dissolving; with deeper practice come dreams of white food and drink, of soaring through the sky, crossing great rivers and seas, climbing towers and mountains, or meeting virtuous monks — all signs that karma is clearing and one's aims will be fulfilled.
经中又说，依法于镜坛前持诵，专注纯熟，可于镜中得见圣像，与法相应。这些验相并非玄谈，而是佛陀为令行者于修持路上自知进境、增长信心而说。
The sūtra adds that one who practices before the mirror altar with ripened concentration may behold sacred images in the mirror. These are not mystifications but markers the Buddha gave so that practitioners can gauge their own progress and grow in confidence.
出处：《七俱胝佛母所说准提陀罗尼经》（唐·不空译）Source: Cundī Dhāraṇī Sūtra (trans. Amoghavajra, Tang dynasty)
辽代 · 显密圆通LIAO · THE PERFECT FUSION
道殿大师的庆遇Daodian's Fortunate Encounter
辽代道殿大师遍学显密教典，深感末法众生障重福轻，遍寻能普摄群机之法，最终于准提法中得之——此法不拣净秽、不问在家出家，皆可持诵，正是为薄福恶业众生而设。大师于《显密圆通成佛心要集》卷末「庆遇述怀」中，自叙多生多劫流转，庆幸此生得遇如此圆顿法门，感极而书。
The Liao master Daodian studied the full range of exoteric and esoteric teaching, grieved that beings of the degenerate age were too burdened for the great systems, and searched for one gate open to everyone. He found it in the Cundī practice — open to lay and monastic alike, designed precisely for beings of thin merit. In the closing chapter of his Essentials, "Rejoicing at the Encounter," he tells of the countless lifetimes he wandered before meeting so complete a teaching in this one.
此书一出，显密圆通的准提法自辽代流传至今九百余年不绝，明清高僧大德相继依之修持弘扬——一部书带起一个法门千年的传承，这本身便是准提法最大的感应。
His book has now carried the practice for over nine hundred years, with the great masters of the Ming and Qing practicing and teaching from it in turn — a single text sustaining a millennium of transmission, which is perhaps the greatest response of all.
出处：道殿《显密圆通成佛心要集》Source: Daodian, Essentials for Attaining Buddhahood through the Perfect Fusion of the Exoteric and Esoteric