The Surangama Sutra

by Hsuan Hua

  The Buddha replied, “Since you understand that, why have you asked whether mountains, the rivers, and everything else in this world will arise again for the Buddhas, who are the Thus-Come Ones and who have realized wondrous emptiness and luminous understanding?

  “Again, consider the example of a gold mine. The ore contains gold mixed with impurities. Once the gold has been refined, it will not revert to ore. Nor will wood that has burned to ash ever become wood again.

  “The same is true of the nirvana that is the full awakening realized by all Buddhas, the Thus-Come Ones.”

  The Interfusing of the Primary Elements

  “Pūrṇa, you have also asked how it is that the primary elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — are in their fundamental natures completely interfused with each other everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm. You wonder how it is that the primary elements water and fire do not overcome each other in mutual annihilation. You also asked why it is that the primary elements space and earth can both exist everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm while being incompatible with each other.

  “Consider, Pūrṇa, that the essential attribute of space is the absence of anything else; still, that does not prevent everything else from appearing within it. How can that be, Pūrṇa? The sky is bright when the sun shines. It darkens when clouds gather. There is movement through it when the wind blows. After a rain, the sun reappears and the air is clear. A turbid mist arises when water condenses out of the air. In a dust storm, the air is obscured. And reflections appear in water that is clear and still. Do these various conditioned phenomena appearing in different circumstances come into being because of these conditions, or do they come into being from space?

  “Suppose, Pūrṇa, that these phenomena arise because of the circumstances just mentioned. Then, for example, when the sun is shining, does the brightness in the air come into being because the sun is shining? If so, then the sun should be everywhere in the ten directions. Why do we see it as a distinct round object in the sky? If, on the other hand, the brightness of the sky comes into being because of space, then all of space would be shining of its own accord. Why is it not resplendent with light at midnight, or when there are clouds or fog? It should be clear to you that the brightness in the sky is not due to the sun or to space, although the brightness cannot be present without both the sun and space.

  “The same can be said of the true, wondrous understanding which is enlightenment. If one develops the category ‘space’ in one’s mind, then space will appear within enlightenment. Earth, water, fire, and wind each appear within enlightenment if one establishes each of them as categories. All of them appear interfused together in enlightenment if one establishes the category ‘all.’

  “How can they all appear together? Pūrṇa, it is like the sun’s reflection in a body of water. When two people who are observing the reflection move apart, one to the east and one to the west, they will each see the sun’s reflection moving along with them. The reflection moves east with the person moving east and west with the person moving west; in itself the reflection has no fixed location. Do not quibble by asking how a single reflection can move in two separate directions. And do not ask how the two reflections appeared previously as one. Such questions concern mere illusions, and nothing about reality can be established from them.

  “You should realize that all these phenomena are fundamentally unreal, and so one cannot specify anything about them. To assert anything about them would be as absurd as to expect illusory flowers in the sky to bear fruit. How then can you ask whether the primary elements will overcome each other in mutual annihilation? You should realize that, in their fundamental natures, the primary elements are a single reality, which is simply the wondrous, awakened enlightenment — the wondrous, awakened, enlightened mind. Fundamentally, the primary elements — water, fire, and the rest — do not exist at all. Why then do you keep asking how they can exist together?

  “Pūrṇa, you mistakenly suppose that within the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, space and the primary element earth are mutually incompatible and cannot coexist. But within the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, space and the world of perceived objects are everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm. Movement associated with wind, the stillness associated with space, the brightness associated with the sun, and the darkness associated with clouds are all present within the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. Beings, however, suffocated by their confusion, turn their backs on enlightenment and embrace this world of perceived objects. Amidst the stress of beings’ entanglement with perceived objects, the world of conditioned phenomena appears.

  “With my wondrous, luminous understanding that neither comes into being nor ceases to be, I am identical to the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. The Matrix of the Thus-Come One is itself the wondrous, enlightened, luminous understanding, which illuminates the entire Dharma-Realm. Within it, therefore, the one is infinitely many and the infinitely many are one. The great appears within the small, just as the small appears within the great. I sit unmoving in this still place for awakening, and my Dharma-body extends everywhere and encompasses the infinity of space in all ten directions. On the tip of a fine hair, magnificent Buddha-lands appear. Seated within each mote of dust, I turn the great Wheel of the Dharma. Because I have freed myself from the world of perceived objects, I have become one with enlightenment. Therefore the suchness of reality manifests — the inherent nature that is wondrous, luminous, and awake.

  “Thus the Matrix of the Thus-Come One — the fundamental, wondrous, perfect mind — is not the distinction-making mind, nor is it space, nor is it earth, nor water, nor wind, nor fire. It is not the eye-faculty, nor the ear-faculty, nor the nose-faculty, nor the tongue-faculty, nor the body-faculty, nor the cognitive faculty. Neither is it visible objects, nor sounds, nor odors, nor flavors, nor objects of touch, nor objects of cognition. It is not the eye-consciousness, nor the mind-consciousness, nor any of the other consciousnesses. It is neither the fundamental ignorance that is the adding of an understanding to our inherent enlightenment, nor the ending of that ignorance, nor is it old age and death nor the ending of old age and death.18 Neither is it the fundamentally unsatisfying nature of existence, nor is it the accumulation of the causes of dissatisfaction, nor the ending of dissatisfaction, nor the path to the ending of dissatisfaction.19 It is neither wisdom nor the attaining of wisdom. It is none of the six perfections — neither giving, nor following precepts, nor vigor, nor patience, nor mindfulness, nor wisdom.20 Nor is it anything else — not the realization of the enlightenment of the Buddha, who is the Thus-Come One, the Arhat, the One of Right and Universal Wisdom.21 It is not the permanence, the bliss, the true self, or the purity of the great nirvana. It is not any of these things, be they mundane or world-transcending. To be none of these is what the Matrix of the Thus-Come One is. That is the wondrousness of the inherently luminous mind that understands.

  If you can understand that within the Buddha’s Dharma there is no “is” and no “is not,” you can become enlightened. In the Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma-Jewel Platform Sūtra, the Patriarch Hui Neng asks Hui Ming, “When there is no thought of good and no thought of evil, what is the Venerable Ming’s original countenance?”22... The absence of affirmation and negation, or rightness and wrongness, is itself the inherent Buddha-nature, the fundamental, wondrous, perfect mind. If you can truly understand that, you will have everything, and at the same time you will have nothing.... You will have all the Dharma-treasures in the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, and you will have no afflictions....

  The paragraph of text just above spoke of the emptiness of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. Next the Buddha will show how this emptiness is not empty. (IV, 75–6)... Words of negation are used, but that does not signify total negation; what still exists is the fundamental, wondrous, perfect mind. (IV, 87)... The Sutra has said that all things are not the Matrix of the Thus-Come One; now it will say that all things are the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. (IV, 89)... If the Matrix of the Thus
-Come One were empty and if that were all there is to it, it would not be wondrous. But true emptiness is what gives rise to wondrous existence, and wondrous existence produces true emptiness.... The Matrix of the Thus-Come One is apart from emptiness and existence and yet not apart from emptiness and existence. (IV, 90–1)

  “Yet it is the distinction-making mind, it is space, it is earth, it is water, it is wind, it is fire. It is the eye-faculty, the ear-faculty, the nose-faculty, the tongue-faculty, the body-faculty, and the cognitive faculty. It is visible objects, it is sounds, it is odors, it is flavors, it is objects of touch, and it is objects of cognition. It is the eye-consciousness, the ear-consciousness, and all the other consciousnesses. It is that fundamental ignorance which is the adding of an understanding to our inherent enlightenment, and it is the ending of that ignorance; it is old age and death and the ending of old age and death. It is also the fundamentally unsatisfying nature of existence, the accumulation of the causes of dissatisfaction, the ending of dissatisfaction, and the path to the ending of dissatisfaction. It is all of the six perfections — giving, following precepts, vigor, patience, mindfulness, and wisdom. It is everything, including the Thus-Come One, who is the Arhat and the One of Right and Universal Wisdom. It is the permanence, bliss, true self, and purity of the great nirvana. It is every one of these, be they mundane or world-transcending. To be all of these is what the Matrix of the Thus-Come One is. That is the wondrousness of the inherent luminous mind that understands.

  “It is apart from ‘is’ and ‘is not’ and yet both is and is not.23

  “How then, with their conscious minds,24 could beings who are bound to worlds in the three realms of existence — or even world-transcending Hearers of the Teaching and the Solitary Sages — possibly fathom the supreme awakening of the Thus-Come Ones? How could they gain the Buddha’s ability to know and to see merely by using the world’s words?

  “Marvelous sounds can be brought forth from lutes, harps, and mandolins only when there are skilled fingers to play them. In the same way, all beings, including you, are fully endowed with the resplendent, enlightened, true mind. When I arrange my fingers to form the ocean-mudra, the light of the ocean-mudra samādhi shines forth. But the moment a thought arises in your mind, you must endure the stress of involvement with perceived objects. It is simply because you have not diligently pursued the path to supreme enlightenment. Instead, you are fond of the Lesser Vehicle and are content with a lesser goal.”

  Delusion Has No Basis: The Parable of Yajñadatta

  Pūrṇa said, “The Thus-Come One and I are alike in that we are both fully endowed with the precious, awakened, perfect, luminous, true, wondrous, pure mind that understands. Nevertheless, for a time without beginning I was plagued with the deluded acts of my mind, and for a long time I was bound to the cycle of death and rebirth. Although I have since become a sage,25 my enlightenment is not fully perfected, whereas the World-Honored One has put an end to all delusion so that only what is wondrous, true, and everlasting remains. I venture to ask the Thus-Come One why all beings suffer from delusion. Why do they keep covered their wondrous, luminous understanding so that they continue to be submerged in saṁsāra?”

  The Buddha said to Pūrṇa, “You have put your coarser doubts to rest, but your more subtle doubts have not yet been ended. I will now question you about this matter by referring to a mundane event. Have you not heard about Yajñadatta, the man from Śrāvastī who saw a face with perfectly clear features in the mirror one morning and became enraptured with it? Then he became upset because he supposed he had lost his own face. It struck him that he must have turned into a headless ghost.26 For no good reason he ran madly out of his house. What do you think? What caused this man to run madly about for no good reason?”

  Pūrṇa replied, “He was clearly insane. That and nothing else was the cause.”

  The Buddha said, “The luminous understanding of wondrous enlightenment is perfect; that fundamental, perfect luminous understanding is wondrous. How could there be in it any basis for what is clearly a delusion? And if there were a basis for this delusion, how could it be what we call deluded?

  “Thus your deluded thoughts have followed one upon another, each one leading to the next. Confusion is added to confusion, eon after countless eon, numberless as motes of dust. Although the Buddha can reveal this process to you, he cannot reverse it for you.

  Most people put their energy into the physical body, which has no life of its own and which keeps you hopping on its behalf. But in the future, your body will certainly die. Those who practice in accord with the Dharma should apply their skill to what does have life, which is our true nature that does not die. (IV, 105)

  “Therefore beings are not aware of the cause of their confusion. Because they do not realize that confusion is based only on confusion, their confusion persists. They need merely to realize that confusion has no ultimate basis, and the basis of their deluded thoughts will disappear. There is no need for them to wish that the cause of their confusion would disappear, because no cause existed in the first place. Thus someone who has become fully enlightened is like one who relates the events of a dream from which he has just awakened. His mind is now sharp and clear; what reason could he have then to wish to try to return to his dream to obtain some object that he had dreamt of?

  You encounter confusion and it seems to really exist, but actually it is an illusion. Confusion lacks any real existence.... The person who said he didn’t have a head thought he didn’t have one, but it was really there on his shoulders all along. Confusion is a temporary lack of clarity. It can’t obliterate your enlightened nature....(IV, 105)

  The person whose mind is sharp and clear represents the Buddha, who can speak of the Dharma... to destroy confusion and delusion, but he cannot physically get hold of deluded and confused mental states and show them to you. All he can do is use analogies to instruct you. Don’t expect him to pull out the states of mind for exhibit. In this way he’s like a person who awakens from a dream and can talk about all the things that took place in the dream, but he can’t pull out the things that he dreamt of and show them to you. (IV, 106)

  “Even less could delusion have any basis; fundamentally, delusion has no existence. In the same way, there was no reason for Yajñadatta’s experience that day in the city. Were his madness to suddenly cease, it would not be because he had recovered his head from anywhere outside of himself. How could his head have actually been missing, even while he was still in his madness?

  “Pūrṇa, the same is true of the essential nature of delusion. Where could its basis lie? All that is needed is for you not to follow after the distinctions you make concerning the perpetuations — the world, beings, and retribution in accord with karma. Once you have eliminated the three conditions27 that are necessary for the coming into being of these three perpetuations, their three causes will not become active again. Thus the madness in your mind that is like Yajñadatta’s madness will cease of its own accord, and just that ceasing is enlightenment. That supreme, pure, luminous mind that understands has always extended everywhere throughout the Dharma-Realm. It cannot be bestowed upon you by someone else. What need is there to work yourself to the bone in pursuit of awakening?

  “Consider, for example, a person who does not know that a wish-fulfilling pearl is sewn into his coat.28 Destitute and homeless, wandering from place to place as he begs for his food, he is indeed poor, but his wish-fulfilling pearl is still with him. Then it so happens that someone wise points out his pearl to him, and now it can fulfill his every wish. He becomes very rich, and he realizes that his magical pearl can only have come from within himself.”

  If the Yajñadatta within you, your mad mind, ceases — if your distorted thinking, your perpetual state of confusion, your lack of enlightenment disappears — then full awakening appears. But awakening does not come from outside yourself. Nor do you need to nourish it within yourself. You have had it all along. (IV, 110)

  People who d
esire riches and honor and entertainment and pleasure, don’t realize that these mundane attainments are not the genuine riches or the genuine honor. The poorest people are those who do not recognize truth and do not understand that their true nature is like the hidden wish-fulfilling pearl in the parable. They don’t understand about their true nature, but it is still the nature of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, the supreme, pure, luminous mind. It is not lost; it is still inherently yours. If you practice according to the Buddha’s Dharma and have faith in it, you will understand that your true nature is inherent within you, and you will come to discover your innate wealth. This is the true riches and honor.

  The wise person in the parable is the Buddha. Showing the poor person the pearl in his clothing represents his pointing out to us our true inherent nature.... The person’s becoming wealthy represents someone’s awakening as he comes to understand his inherent enlightened nature.... When we study the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, we should each discover the wish-fulfilling pearl in our clothing. If you discover the pearl, you will be the world’s wealthiest person, in this sense:

  Stopping the thoughts of the mind

  Is true wealth and honor.

  Ending selfish desires forever

  Is the true field of blessings.

  If your deluded mind comes to a stop and your disorderly thoughts disappear, then you have obtained genuine wealth and honor. (IV, 111–2)

  Then Ānanda came forward from his place in the great assembly to bow at the Buddha’s feet. He stood and said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, you have just now been saying that once we put to rest the karmas of killing, stealing, and sexual desire so that these three conditions no longer arise, their three causes will not become active again.