by Hsuan Hua
“Ānanda, your mind is coarse and shallow. You have not realized that, fundamentally, your eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, and your discerning, distinction-making mind-consciousness are all inherent in the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. You should contemplate all of your six consciousnesses: are they identical to each other, or are they different?
Do they exist, or are they empty? Are they neither identical to each other nor different? Are they neither existent nor empty?
The Buddha admonishes Ānanda again: “Your thoughts are too coarse, too superficial.” Ānanda doesn’t stop and think or look into things. He’s too impulsive and reckless. The word “shallow” refers to his mind, the mind which is the opposite of his deep mind. In the verse he is about to speak, Ānanda says, “This deep resolve I offer in the myriad Buddha-lands. By this may I repay the kindness shown me by the Buddha.” But now the mind that he is relying on is shallow; it’s not his deep mind. He is not paying close attention to what is going on. (III, 198)
“You simply do not know that the primary element consciousness is inherent in the Matrix of the Thus-Come One and is the enlightened understanding, and that the illumination of enlightenment is the true consciousness. It is the wondrous and pure enlightenment that extends throughout the Dharma-Realm. It contains all space throughout the ten directions. How could it be limited to one particular place? In fact, it becomes apparent to beings in accord with their karma. In their ignorance, ordinary beings mistakenly suppose that consciousness comes into existence from causes and conditions or that it comes into being on its own. These are distinctions and constructs made by the conscious mind. They are mere words, devoid of real meaning.”
Ānanda’s Vow
At that time, Ānanda and the rest of the great assembly, having received the subtle and wondrous instruction given by the Buddha, the Thus-Come One, felt that their bodies and minds were emptied and hardly seemed to exist. They were free of all concerns and impediments. All in the assembly became aware that their minds pervaded the ten directions and that they could see everything throughout space in all ten directions as clearly as one might see an object such as a leaf in the palm of one’s hand. They saw that all things in all worlds are the wondrous, fundamental, enlightened, luminous mind that understands, and that this mind, pure, all-pervading, and perfect, contains the entire universe. They looked back upon their own bodies born of their parents and saw them to be like minute particles of dust drifting about everywhere in the air, arising and perishing, or like solitary bubbles floating on vast, calm seas, appearing and then vanishing without a trace. They fully understood that the fundamental, wondrous mind is everlasting and does not perish.
“Their bodies and minds were emptied” means that, basically, there wasn’t anything at all. Everything was empty; the defilements had been washed away, and all that was left now was the light of the Buddha-nature. This is serenity. Everything is empty. Inside, there is no body or mind; outside, there is no world. When one attains this state, there isn’t anything at all. Why aren’t we serene? It is because we are still attached to our bodies. If someone says one sentence about us, we become afflicted. Whenever anyone is the least bit rude to us, we can’t let it go. We are not at peace. The members of the Buddha’s Śūraṅgama assembly, however, were serene, and they were “free of all concerns and impediments.” Because they were serene, they were not hindered by their bodies and minds.... If we look upon everything as being no problem, as being very ordinary, then there’s nothing going on at all. There’s a saying: “If a mountain collapsed right in front of you, you wouldn’t be surprised.” No matter what great calamity occurs, even if your house should fall in, you pay no attention. If you pay no attention, then even if your house does fall in on you, it won’t harm you. Why do things harm you? It’s because you can’t let go of them. You are hindered by them. You get scared, and so you get hurt. If you aren’t afraid, if you have your wits about you, then it doesn’t matter where you are....
The members of the great Śūraṅgama Dharma-assembly awakened at that time to the truth that the emptiness throughout the ten directions, and the entire experience described here, was in their own minds. It was not beyond a single thought of the mind. To the ends of space, throughout the Dharma-Realm, there is no place that the mind does not reach. Since the mind is that big, the great is compressed into the small. The members of the Śūraṅgama Dharma-assembly could see the emptiness of the ten directions as clearly as you can see something that you are holding in the palm of your hand. All had now opened the celestial eye and the wisdom-eye.37 Therefore, they could perceive that the myriad phenomena are only the mind and that the mind contains the myriad phenomena. Our true mind contains the true and the false and is without a location. It reaches to the ends of space and pervades the Dharma-Realm. So where is it? It is neither there nor not there. Thus, the mind contains the myriad phenomena, and the myriad phenomena arise from the mind. All phenomena perish due to the mind as well.
When the mind arises, all phenomena arise;
When the mind ceases to be, all phenomena cease to be.
Thus, the true mind neither comes into being nor ceases to be, and phenomena, too, neither come into being nor cease to be.... (III, 202–4)
With the celestial eye open, you can see not only outside your body but inside it. When you look at your body, you see it as a crystal container. You look in this crystal container and can see what color your blood is. When you open your celestial eye, your wisdom-eye, and your Buddha-eye, you can see what is in every part of your body. You can see what sickness there is, the places where the blood and energy don’t flow well. You can see inside and outside. Here the members of the great assembly looked upon everything in the ten directions as upon something held in the palms of their hands, and they also saw their own internal organs. They saw the insides of their own bodies. Their bodies were the same size as the empty space of the ten directions. (III, 205–6)
Then Ānanda, having understood what he had not understood before, bowed to the Buddha, and placing his palms together, spoke these verses in the Buddha’s praise:
“The deep and wondrous honored one, all-knowing, pure, and still,
Śūraṅgama, the King of Mantras, rarest in the world,
Extinguishes distorted thoughts from countless eons past —
No need to wait forever to attain the Dharma-body.
“I vow to reach enlightenment, and as a Dharma-King,
Return to rescue beings countless as the Ganges’ sands.
This deep resolve I offer in the myriad Buddha-lands.
By this may I repay the kindness shown me by the Buddha.
“I ask the Buddha to be witness as I take this vow
To enter first the murky realms of five turbidities,38
If even just one being still has not become a Buddha,
Then I will wait before I seek the leisure of nirvana.
“Greatest in valor and in power! Great Compassionate One!
I pray you’ll now eradicate the subtlest of my doubts
And lead me quickly to attain supreme enlightenment,
And sit within the places for awakening everywhere.
“If emptiness should vanish, even that
Will never shake this vajra-solid vow.”
* * *
Skt. skandha, Ch. yun 蘊. See the introduction, p. xlvii.↩
The twelve sites consist of the six faculties of perception together with the six categories of perceived objects.↩
The eighteen constituent elements are the six faculties, the six categories of perceived objects, and the six consciousnesses.↩
Skt. Tathāgata-garbha, Ch. rulai zang 如來藏. See the introduction, p. xxxi and note 33.↩
Ch. jian fen 見分 and xiang fen 相分. The fundamental division of the eighth, or “storehouse,” consciousness into observer and what is observed was basic to the teachings of the Consciousness-Only school. This division is described at some length in this Sutra at
part 4.1. See also the introduction, p. xxx.↩
In this part of the Sutra, the Buddha corrects wrong understandings of the causes of the coming into being of the various fundamental categories of our experience. He makes several points. First, although objects that we experience are dependent on causes and conditions, which must all be present for these objects to temporarily exist, they do not come into being out of any of those causes and conditions. Second, they do not come into being on their own; that is, they cannot come into being independent of those causes and conditions. Third, since there is no process of something real actually coming into being, the objects that we experience have no real, independent existence of their own. Rather, they are distorted experiences that are based on our fundamental ignorance. When that fundamental ignorance is transcended, we experience ourselves and the world as they really are.
Throughout part 3, the Buddha presents his argument in a series of syllogisms according to the procedures of logical argumentation that were later codified as part of Buddhist logic. For each syllogism, the Buddha begins by briefly describing a situation drawn from common experience to serve as an instance of the truth of what he is proposing. Having applied the instance to the proposition, he next offers one or more negative examples to show the absurdity of negating the proposition. Lastly, he states the conclusion, in which the proposition is restated as proven. See p. xxxiii.↩
The rubbing of the palms together represents fundamental ignorance; the sensations of smoothness, etc., represent the aggregate of sense-perception.↩
No actual plum is present. The person in the example merely thinks of plums. The thought of the plums represents fundamental ignorance, and the watering of the mouth represents the aggregate of cognition.↩
Ch. pinqie 頻伽, probably an abbreviated form of jialing pinqie 迦陵頻伽, a trans-literation of the Skt. kalaviṅka. In its usual sense, kalaviṅka is the name of a bird. Here it probably refers to a pitcher with two spouts crafted in the shape of the bird.↩
That is, the strain placed on the mind by fundamental ignorance.↩
The text has jian xing 見性, literally the “nature of seeing,” but here the reference is not to the enlightened nature of our visual awareness but to the ordinary process of seeing.↩
The argument here is similar to that in parts 1.2d, and 2.1.↩
The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma-Jewel Platform Sūtra, with the commentary of Tripitaka Master Hua, Buddhist Text Translation Society, trans. (San Francisco: Sino-American Buddhist Association, 1977), 52–8.↩
A reference to the tree under which the Buddha Śākyuamuni was sitting when he attained full awakening (bodhi). The tree is a species of banyan (ficus religiosa).↩
That is, the eighth consciousness.↩
That is, the six faculties and the six kinds of perceived objects.↩
The notion “space” only makes sense in contrast with the notion of what is not space — that is, visible objects.↩
Skt. candana, Ch. zhan tan 旃檀.↩
Because what produces something must be like in nature to the thing produced.↩
The reference is to breakfast and the midday meal. With some exceptions, Buddhist monastics take a vow not to eat after noon.↩
The translation here follows the commentary of the Ven. Yuanying (421).↩
The mind is constantly experiencing the sensations presented to it by the first five consciousnesses (the consciousnesses of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body), and these sensations are divided by the mind into the categories of pleasant, unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Thoughts and emotions may also be analyzed according to the same three categories.↩
Were they to arise from the cognitive faculty, then they would share its capacity to be aware.↩
They could not have the attributes of both the cognitive faculty and objects of cognition at the same time.↩
Probably one of the jackfruits.↩
This list of edibles exemplifies seven flavors in sequence: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, pungent, hot, and astringent. Coptis rhizome (Ch. huang lian 黃連), is a low-growing perennial of the family ranunculaceae. The root is bitter and astringent to the taste. It is still widely used to control infection and reduce fever. Wild ginger (Ch. xi xin 細辛) is a medicinal plant distinct from ginger; it represents pungency. However, the translation is uncertain.↩
“Cognitive faculty” here is the seventh or individuating consciousness. Both the sixth consciousness and the seventh make distinctions, but those made by the seventh are more subtle (Yuanying, 450).↩
The “essential nature” and the “real nature” (below) of the primary elements are the Matrix of the Thus-Come One; their attributes are solidity, heat, liquidity, and movement.↩
According to the Abhidharmakośa 85d-88a (2: 474), the smallest particles of matter are called paramāṇu (Skt.), and seven paramāṇu make one aṇu (Skt.). A paramāṇu cannot be divided, because if it were, its earth-element nature would disappear and all that would remain would be space (Vasabhandu, Abidharmakośabhāsyam, Leo M. Pruden, trans., from the earlier French translation by Louis de la Vallée Poussin [Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1988–90], 4.23).↩
Skt. ṛṣi. See part 9.10.↩
The sage Kapila has already been mentioned; see the prologue, note 25. Cakra, Padma, and Hastā are probably abbreviations of longer names, but they are not clearly identified in the commentarial tradition.↩
Space is unconditioned.↩
These are, respectively, the priestly class of traditional Indian society, the warrior class, the merchant class, the peasant class, and a class of outcastes.↩
All six consciousnesses are understood to be included in this and similar passages throughout.↩
“Consciousness” here includes the first six consciousnesses: the consciousnesses of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.↩
That is, consciousness and awareness.↩
The five spiritual eyes are the physical eye; the celestial eye, which can see things at a distance and in the past and future; the wisdom eye, which discerns the emptiness of phenomena; the Dharma-eye, which illuminates the teachings: and the Buddha-eye, which allows one to see Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.↩
Of time, perception, afflictions, individual beings, and lifespans. See part 5.1.↩
The Coming into Being of the World of Illusion
Adding Understanding to Understanding
Then Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra stood up amidst the great assembly. He uncovered his right shoulder, knelt with his right knee on the ground, respectfully placed his palms together, and said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, you who are foremost in virtue and in inspiring awe have just now eloquently proclaimed, for the sake of all beings, the ultimate truth taught by the Thus-Come Ones. The Thus-Come One has often praised me as the one most skilled in expounding the Dharma, but as I have been listening to the Thus-Come One’s voice as he has been setting forth such subtle and wonderful Dharma, I might as well be a deaf man trying to hear a mosquito from a distance of more than a hundred paces. Such a man could not even see the mosquito, let alone hear it.
“Although the Buddha’s clear explanations have largely dispelled my doubts, I have not yet reached the point at which I might thoroughly understand this truth and so be free of doubt entirely. World-Honored One, although Ānanda and those like him have become enlightened,1 they have not yet put an end to their habits and outflows. But I am among those in the assembly who are free of outflows. And yet, having just now heard the Buddha explain this Dharma, I find that I am assailed by doubts.
“World-Honored One, if in fact the aggregates, the faculties, the various perceived objects, and the consciousnesses are all the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, which is itself fundamentally pure, then how is it that suddenly there came into being the mountains, the rivers, and all else on this earth that exists subject to conditions? And why are all these subject to a succession of changes, ending and then beginning again?
“The Thus-Come One also said that everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm, the primary elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — are in their fundamental nature completely interfused with each other, tranquil and everlasting. World-Honored One, if the primary element earth extended everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm, how could it coexist with water? And if the primary element water extended everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm, the primary element fire could not come into being. How may we understand that primary elements water and fire can both pervade empty space without overcoming each other in mutual annihilation?
“World-Honored One, the nature of the primary element earth is that it is solid, while the nature of the primary element space is that it is a transparent void. How could they both exist everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm? I am not sure how I should understand the implications of this concept. I only hope that, out of great kindness, the Thus-Come One will explain this to all of us and so clear away the clouds of our confusion.”
