tread on living grasses, much less uproot them. How then can it be compassionate to gorge on other beings’ blood and flesh? Monks who will not wear silks from the East, whether coarse or fine; who will not wear shoes or boots of leather, nor furs, nor birds’ down from our own country; and who will not consume milk, curds, or ghee, have truly freed themselves from the world. When they have paid their debts from previous lives, they will roam no longer through the three realms. “Why? To wear parts of a being’s body is to involve one’s karma with that being, just as people have become bound to this earth by eating vegetables and grains. I can affirm that a person who neither eats the flesh of other beings nor wears any part of the bodies of other beings, nor even thinks of eating or wearing these things, is a person who will gain liberation.The sutra also teaches the practice of the burning of the body as an offering to the Buddhas. The White Parasol Crown Dhāraṇī In addition to the sūtra's doctrinal content, it also contains a long dhāraṇī (chant, incantation) which is known in Chinese as the Léngyán Zhòu (楞嚴咒), or Śūraṅgama Mantra. It is well-known and popularly chanted in East Asian Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the dhāraṇī is known as the Sitātapatra Uṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī (Ch. 大白傘蓋陀羅尼). This is sometimes simplified in English to White Canopy Dhāraṇī or White Parasol Dhāraṇī. In Tibetan traditions, the English is instead sometimes rendered as the "White Umbrella Mantra." The dhāraṇī is extant in three other translations found in the Chinese Buddhist canon, and is also preserved in Sanskrit and Tibetan. This dhāraṇī is often seen as having magical apotropaic powers, as it is associated with the deity Sitātapatra, a protector against supernatural dangers and evil beings. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra also states that the dhāraṇī can be used as an expedient means to enter into the Śūraṅgama samadhi. According to Rounds, the sutra also "gives precise instructions on the construction and consecration of a sacred space in which a practicioner can properly focus on recitation of the mantra." The Śūraṅgama Mantra is widely recited in China, Korea and Vietnam by Mahayana monastics on a daily basis and by some laypersons as part of the Morning Recitation Liturgy. The mantra is also recited by some Japanese Buddhist sects. Realms of rebirth, bodhisattva