by Hsuan Hua
Skt. prakṛti. According to the Sāṅkhya school, which was founded by the sage Kapila, prakṛti was the origin of everything in the world that is not the cosmic person (Skt. puruṣa).↩
The “essence of visual awareness” is the observing division of the eight consciousnesses, while the “wondrous, essential, understanding mind” is the true mind.↩
As the Buddha demonstrated in part 2.1 with the instance of the blind man in the street.↩
The three heavens of the first dhyāna are the first three heavens of the realm of form: the Heaven of Brahma’s Retinue, the Heaven of the Ministers of Brahma, and the Heaven of the Great Brahma. See part 9.11b.↩
Aniruddha was foremost among the Arhat disciples of the Buddha in the power of the celestial eye.↩
Jambudvīpa (the name means “Rose-Apple Island”) in Buddhist cosmology is the southernmost of the four continents and the one on which we live.↩
A pure land (Skt. sukhāvatī; Ch. jing du 淨土) is inhabited by a Buddha and other pure beings. The Pure Land, or Land of Ultimate Bliss, of Amitābha Buddha in the West is the focus of the Pure Land School of Buddhism.↩
The recommended method of practice explained by the Bodhisattva Who Hears the Cries of the World (Skt. Avalokiteśvara). See part 6.3 below.↩
Commentaries are not in agreement as to the meaning of this sentence. The present translation follows the Ven. Master Hsüan Hua’s interpretation.↩
It is established in part 2.8 below that our visual awareness is not separate from the objects it is aware of (nor is it identical to them). The Buddha here argues that if awareness were an object, it should be visible, and it should above all be visible at the place where it is looking at something. If it is not looking at something, then it cannot be identified with the object it is no longer looking at (nor, by extension, can it be identified with any object). Therefore it cannot be an object.↩
The Buddha extends his argument by pointing out that if our visual awareness were identified with the objects that it sees, then those objects would themselves become aware.↩
By “bodies and minds” the Buddha here refers to the Dharma-body and the enlightened mind. In his reply, however, Ānanda shows that he misunderstands the Buddha’s meaning in that he supposes that the Buddha meant the physical body and the mind-faculty (Yuanying, 262).↩
Ānanda’s argument here is that if his visual awareness is in front of him, it should be able to see him, and it should also itself be a perceived object; yet objects as objects lack sentience and therefore cannot see.↩
The first of the Sutra’s tetralemmas. See the introduction, page xxxiv.↩
That is, unenlightened beings and Arhats at the first, second, and third stages.↩
These four theories are described in more detail at part 5.5.↩
Cf. part 2.5, p. 56.↩
The same Kapila who taught the spell used against Ānanda earlier in the Sutra.↩
The Buddha condemned nonbeneficial ascetic practices. The text here probably refers to an ascetic sect that later became known as the pāśupatas; they were worshippers of the Hindu god Śiva. They smeared ashes on their bodies three times a day as part of their ritual purification practice.↩
The mountain in Sri Lanka where the Buddha taught the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra to the Bodhisattva Mahāmati and others.↩
Ch. ziran xing 自然性. That is, arising of its own accord without an external cause and therefore having an independent existence.↩
“Mind” here refers to the first, sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses.↩
The Buddha made a similar point above at the beginning of part 2.↩
“True awareness” here is the true mind, while the “essence of awareness” refers to the observing division of the eighth consciousness, which contains a small amount of distortion. The Buddha explains the difference between true awareness and the essence of awareness in part 2.11. The difference has already been expressed in terms of the example of a “real moon” and “a second moon.” The process by which our awareness becomes distorted is explained more fully in part 4.1.↩
That inhering and combining cannot account for awareness is the subject of part 2.12 below.↩
Skt. dhāraṇī, mantra. The Great Dhāranī is the Śūraṅgama Mantra.↩
Skt. preta. Ch. 餓鬼. See part 9.7.↩
The symptoms the Buddha describes suggest that glaucoma is probably meant.↩
Of these meteorological phenomena, the “two suns” can be identified as parhelia, or mock suns, and the “rings,” “half-rings,” and the “energies in a bowed shape or in the shape of ears” may be identified as four different types of solar halo. All of these are rare occurrences due to reflections from clouds of ice crystals in the atmosphere.↩
That is, the observing division and the observed division of the eighth conscious-ness.↩
For a full explanation of this important point, see part 4.2 below.↩
This “true nature” which is not defective is the Buddha-nature.↩
“Inhering” (Skt. samavāya) translates Ch. he 和, and “conjoining” (Skt. saṁyoga) translates Ch. he 合. The allusion here is probably to the teachings of the Indian Vaiśeṣika school. “Inhering” refers to the inseparable inhering of essential qualities and karma in a substance, whereas “conjoining” refers to the coming together of two substances in ways that do not change their distinct, essential qualities.↩
That is, the enlightened nature of visual awareness.↩
Ch. jian jing 見精. In previous appearances in the text, this has meant the observing division of the eighth consciousness, but the context here makes plain that our enlightened awareness, expressed previously as Ch. jian xing 見 性 , is meant in this case.↩
Because if one could see darkness without visual awareness being conjoined to it, the corollary would be that to be conjoined to darkness would not allow one to see it. The same would apply in the case of light.↩
The Matrix of the Thus-Come One
The Five Aggregates Are the Matrix of the Thus-Come One
“Ananda, you have not yet understood that the objects we perceive are unreal and illusory. They are subject to change, appearing here and there and disappearing here and there. Yet these illusions, each with its conventional designation, are in fact within the essential, wondrous enlightenment. The same is true of the five aggregates,1 the six faculties, the twelve sites,2 and the eighteen constituent elements.3 It is an illusion that they come into being when both their causes and their conditions are present, and it is an illusion that they cease to be when either their causes or their conditions are absent. You simply have not yet understood that, fundamentally, everything that comes and goes, that comes into being and ceases to be, is within the true nature of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One,4 which is the wondrous, everlasting understanding — the unmoving, all-pervading, wondrous suchness of reality. But, though you may seek within the everlasting reality of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One for what comes and goes, for confusion and awakening, and for coming into being and ceasing to be, you will not find them there.
Each and every perceived object looks to you like it actually exists, but in reality it is entirely illusory and transitory.... The coming into being of the objects we perceive is an illusion, and their ceasing to be is an illusion.... Nevertheless their nature is in truth the luminous essence of wondrous enlightenment. They come forth from our true mind. When delusion arises, there is a division into what observes and what is observed.5 Both arise from the pure nature and luminous essence of wondrous enlightenment, which is the everlasting true mind. They do not come from elsewhere....
When you do not understand, there is coming and going, there is confusion and enlightenment, there is death and rebirth. But if you understand the everlasting true mind, if you recognize your own fundamental nature, the pure nature and luminous essence of the everlasting true mind, you put an end to all the illusory coming into being and ceasing to be. Then if you look
for such characteristics as coming and going, confusion and enlightenment, and death and rebirth, you won’t find them. (III, 1–3)
A. The Aggregate of Form
“Ānanda, how is it that the five aggregates are, fundamentally, the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, whose nature is the wondrous suchness of reality?6 Consider this example, Ānanda: a clear-sighted person looks up at a clear sky, where nothing but empty space is to be seen. Suppose that, for no particular reason, this person happens to stare, without moving his eyes, until they are stressed to the point that he sees in the empty air a disordered display of flowers, along with various other images that are disordered and chaotic and lack any real attributes. You should know that the aggregate of form can be described in similar terms.
“Now, this disordered display of flowers, Ānanda, does not come into being from space, nor does it come into being from the person’s eyes. Suppose, Ānanda, that the display of flowers did come from space. But what has come into being from space would have to be subject to disappearing back into space; and space would not be empty if things came into being out of it and disappeared back into it. But if space were not empty, there would not be room in it for those displays of flowers to appear out of it or to disappear back into it, any more than there is room in your body, Ānanda, for another Ānanda.
“On the other hand, if this disordered display of flowers came from the person’s eyes, the display of flowers could disappear back into his eyes. Now, we may suppose that, if this display of flowers has come from the eyes, it must share in the visual awareness of the eye-faculty. If it were visually aware, then having come out from the eyes into the air, it would be able to see the eyes from the air. But if it does not share in the awareness of the eye-faculty, then having obscured a portion of the otherwise empty air, it will also obscure the vision of the eye-faculty as it returns to the eye-faculty. Besides, the person’s vision cannot have been obscured, since he is seeing the display of flowers. And did we not say to begin with that this person was clear-sighted as he looked up at the clear sky?
“Therefore you should know that the aggregate of forms is an illusion. It does not come into being from causes and conditions, nor does it come into being on its own.
B. The Aggregate of Sense-Perception
“Ānanda, consider the example of someone whose hands and feet are at rest and whose entire body is at ease. At this moment, he has forgotten about his body, and he is feeling neither comfort nor discomfort. Then, for no particular reason, he rubs the palms of his hands together in the empty space in front of him, and he has the illusory experience of roughness or smoothness and of cold or heat. You should know that the aggregate of sense-perception can be described in similar terms.
“Now, these illusory sense-perceptions, Ānanda, do not emerge from space, nor do they emerge from the palms of the person’s hands. That is to say, Ānanda, if space could cause tactile perceptions in the palms of his hands, would it not equally be able to cause tactile perceptions elsewhere on the body? But it makes no sense to say that space can cause tactile perceptions in one part of the body and not another.
“If the tactile perceptions had emerged from the palms of his hands, what need would there have been to rub the palms together in order to produce the perceptions? Further, if the tactile perceptions had emerged from the palms of his hands, then the person’s palms would have been aware of the perceptions emerging. And when the person moved his hands apart, the perceptions would have to sink back into his wrists and arms, into the bones and marrow, which would have to be aware of the path those perceptions took. In such a case, what the mind perceived as emerging and returning would have to be something that was capable of coming and going in the body. If there were such a thing, what need would there have been for the person to rub the palms of his hands together in order to experience these tactile perceptions?7
“Therefore you should know that the aggregate of sense-perception is an illusion. It does not come into being from causes and conditions, nor does it come into being on its own.
C. The Aggregate of Cognition
“Ānanda, consider the example of someone whose mouth waters at the mention of sour plums, or who feels a sudden ache in the sole of his foot as he thinks of walking along the edge of a precipice. You should know that the aggregate of cognition can be described in similar terms.
“Now, the circumstance of the mouth watering at the mention of the plums, Ānanda, was not caused by the actual plums that were mentioned, nor was it caused by the person’s mouth. Why? If the mouth watered because of the actual plums, Ānanda, that would mean that the plums were responsible for mentioning themselves. What need would there be for some person to mention them? On the other hand, if the mouth were responsible for the watering, would that mean that the mouth heard the plums being mentioned? Were not ears needed for that? If the ears were the cause, then would that not mean that the ears could produce saliva?8
“The same points about the watering of the mouth at the mention of sour plums can be equally applied to the ache that is felt in the sole of one’s foot when one thinks of walking along the edge of a precipice.
“Therefore you should know that the aggregate of cognition is an illusion. It does not come into being from causes and conditions, nor does it come into being on its own.
D. The Aggregate of Mental Formations
“Ānanda, consider the example of a stretch of rapids. The waves follow one upon another, and those that are behind never overtake those that are ahead. You should know that the aggregate of mental formations can be described in similar terms.
“Now, the rapids are not brought about by space, Ānanda, nor are they brought about by the water itself. They are not identical to the water, but though they are not themselves the water, they are at the same time not separate from the water. Nor are they separate from space.
“Understand it this way, Ānanda: if the rapids were brought about by space, then that would mean that space in its infinite reach throughout the ten directions would be a ceaseless deluge, and the entire universe would inevitably drown. If the rapids were brought about by the water, then the nature of the rapids would not be the same as the nature of water. The rapids and the water would be separate and distinct; but clearly, they are not. On the other hand, if the rapids and the water were identical, then when the water became still, it would cease to be water. However, the rapids and the water cannot be separate either, since there can be no rapids without water. Nor can the rapids be separate from space, since outside of space nothing exists.
“In this way you should know that the aggregate of mental formations is an illusion. It does not come into being from causes and conditions, nor does it come into being on its own.
E. The Aggregate of Consciousness
“Ānanda, consider the example of a person who takes up an empty pitcher9 and plugs up its two spouts so that it seems he has confined some space in the pitcher. Believing that he is carrying this pitcherful of space, he travels a thousand miles to another country with the intention of making a present of it. You should know that the aggregate of consciousness can be described in similar terms.
“The space that is in the pitcher, Ānanda, does not in fact come from the place where the person began his journey, nor is it transported to the country he travels to. It is like this, Ānanda: if the space had been transported from the first country by being confined in the pitcher, there must have been a loss of space at the place where the pitcher had come from. Moreover, if the space had been brought to the second country, then if the spouts were unplugged and the pitcher turned upside-down, the space within it would be seen to pour out.
“In this way you should know that the aggregate of consciousness is an illusion. It does not come into being from causes and conditions, nor does it come into being on its own.”
The Six Faculties Are the Matrix of the Thus-Come One
A. The Eye-Faculty
“Moreover, Ānanda, how is it that, fundament
ally, the six faculties are the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, whose nature is the wondrous suchness of reality? Ānanda, you will recall the example of a person who stares into space to the point that his eyes become strained. What the eye-faculty perceives when it is under strain, and also the eye-faculty itself, come into being through the strain placed on the awakened mind. The strain causes the distortion in perception.10
“For seeing to take place, the illusory phenomena of light and darkness must first enter the eye-faculty; this is what we call seeing.11 Apart from light and darkness, seeing has no ultimate basis. Understand it this way, Ānanda: what we call seeing does not take place because of light or darkness, nor because of the eye-faculty, nor because of space. Why? If what we call seeing took place because of light, it would cease in total darkness, and you would not see the darkness. If it took place because of darkness, it would cease once light were present, and so you would not see the light.12
“Further, seeing cannot take place because of the eye-faculty, because clearly there is a need for light or for darkness if seeing is to occur. It follows that the eye-faculty has no independent existence. Finally, if seeing took place because of space, then when we look straight ahead, we would see the objects before us as usual, but we would also be able to look back on our own eyes from space. If space were doing the seeing, what would seeing have to do with the eye-faculty?
