Original Text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Seven

于初七中，至诚顶礼十方如来，诸大菩萨，阿罗汉号。恒于六时诵咒围坛，至心行道。一时常行一百八遍。第二七中，一向专心发菩萨愿，心无间断。我毗奈耶先有愿教。第三七中，于十二时，一向持佛般怛啰咒。至第七日，十方如来一时出现。镜交光处，承佛摩顶。即于道场修三摩地。能令如是末世修学，身心明净犹如琉璃。阿难。若此比丘本受戒师，及同会中十比丘等，其中有一不清净者，如是道场多不成就。从三七后，端坐安居，经一百日。有利根者，不起于座，得须陀洹。纵其身心圣果未成。决定自知成佛不谬。汝问道场，建立如是。 

1. The Śūraṅgama Mantra is especially supreme and wondrous; everyone should be able to recite it from memory, persisting daily in reciting it seven times to one hundred and eight times.

2. Making vows is especially important. With the sustaining power of vows, nothing cannot be overcome. If you wish to achieve accomplishment in studying Buddhism, if you wish to resolve the great problem of birth and death, you must learn from the Buddha to make great vows, to protect and uphold the Buddhadharma and Buddhism, benefiting both yourself and others. Without the drawing power of vows, cultivation is slower than an old ox. Among those who have achieved accomplishment in cultivation, there is not a single one who was not drawn along by the power of vows; without the power of vows, one is drawn along by the power of karma. Without making vows, compassion cannot arise. When drawn along by the power of vows, the mind becomes resolute and one no longer fears hardship. After making vows, the aspirations of the mind will gradually be fulfilled. 

3. If one strictly cultivates the above two practices within the ritual platform—reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra and making vows and prostrating to the Buddha—one will certainly enter samādhi and receive the Buddha's touching of one's crown. 

4. If the precept-transmitting master's body and mind are not pure, the precepts received by the precept recipient will not be pure. If the bhikṣu presiding over the Way-place has an impure body and mind, the Way-place will also not be accomplished, and cultivating within such a Way-place will be of no benefit. Therefore, everyone should, first, receive the precepts as early as possible; second, examine whether the precept-transmitting master has a pure mind; and third, investigate whether the abbot of the Way-place where one cultivates has a pure body and mind. 

Here the Buddha tells us that in cultivation we must choose a precept-transmitting master and a bhikṣu teacher to follow who have pure minds, as well as choose a Way-place whose abbot has a pure mind. If you have previously received the precepts, you should examine whether you obtained the precept substance. If you suspect that you did not obtain the precept substance, it is best to purify your karmic offenses through repentance, and then once again choose a pure precept-transmitting master to receive the precepts. 

The Buddha taught us in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra that if one establishes a ritual platform, then during the third seven-day period, one should devote twenty-four hours each day exclusively to reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra one hundred and eight times; then the Buddha will come to touch one's crown and offer reassurance, and one will enter samādhi. Thereafter, during one hundred days of dwelling in peace and sitting in stillness, unmoving and unshaken, one will realize the first fruit of stream-entry (Srotāpanna). Nowadays, to establish a ritual platform—a pure Way-place—it seems one can no longer find ten bhikṣus with pure minds. Even the ten masters who transmit the Three Platforms of Great Precepts at precept assemblies are not all pure, so whether monastics can accomplish the precept substance has become uncertain. If we do not cultivate diligently in this life, who knows when in a future life we might obtain a human body and encounter the Buddhadharma; and even if we do encounter the Buddhadharma, what the Dharma will have become by then is truly hard to say. By observing the suffering of beings in the three evil destinies right now, we can know that when we ourselves go to the three evil destinies in the future, it will be just like this, not much different. Everyone truly has no excuse to waste time and fail to take responsibility for their own future.