For more a thousand years, the Surangama (Shurangama) Sutra — the "Sutra of the Indestructible” has been held in great esteem in the Mahāyāna Buddhist countries of East and Southeast Asia. Regarded as a complete and practical manual that leads to enlightenment, it gives instruction in the understanding of the Buddha-nature, the potential within all beings for becoming a Buddha.

In much of the Sutra the Buddha Sakyamuni instructs the young monk Ānanda, teaching him to turn the attention of his sense-faculties inward in order to achieve a focused state of meditation known as samādhi. By practicing the Surangama Samādhi, anyone who maintains purity of conduct and develops right understanding can gain awakening. At the heart of the Sutra is the Surangama Mantra. The practice of this mantra can eliminate internal or external obstacles that lie in the way of spiritual progress.

Due to its wealth of theoretical and practical instruction the Surangama Sutra has often been the first major text to be studied by newly ordained monks in China, particularly those of the Chan School.