by Hsuan Hua
“Your body is composed of the four primary elements. Your visual awareness, your hearing, your tactile awareness, and your mental awareness6 become strictly defined, while water, fire, wind, and earth participate in bringing about the attributes of the faculties that have awareness. Thus awareness and the primary elements become entangled with each other. With this entanglement, based on delusion, the turbidity of perception comes into being. This is the second layer of turbidity.
There are external turbidities, which can be explained in terms of the world, but here the text discusses the internal turbidities, which can be explained in terms of the body. In fact the external turbidities exist because of the internal turbidities. If you can get rid of your internal turbidities, the external turbidities will subside as well.7 (IV, 148)
“Further, your mind is habituated to recollecting the past, to being aware of the present, and to anticipating the future. Because of these habits, the six consciousnesses arise and embrace the six kinds of perceived objects. Without these objects, your mind-consciousness has no attributes, and without your perception of them, these objects have no identity. Objects you perceive and your mind-consciousness become entangled with each other. With this entanglement, based on delusion, the mind becomes turbid with afflictions. These afflictions are the third layer of turbidity.
“Further, by night and by day, beings ceaselessly come into being and perish. They always desire to continue to experience the world indefinitely through their faculties of perception. Their karma leads them to continually move from one land to another. Their thoughts and their karma become entangled with each other, and with this entanglement, based on delusion, there is the fourth layer, the turbidity of individual beings.
“The fundamental natures of your seeing, your hearing, and your other awarenesses do not differ from one another, but the six objects of perception separate them so that your awareness is forced to become differentiated. Although the six sense-consciousnesses share a single fundamental awareness, their functioning has become distinct. The consciousnesses and their objects are no longer in their correct relationship. They become entangled with each other, and with this entanglement, based on delusion, there is the fifth layer, the turbidity of lifespans.
“Ānanda, now you wish to transform your visual, aural, tactile, and mental awareness, together with the other kinds of awareness, into the permanence, bliss, true self, and purity of the Thus-Come One. To accomplish this, you must pull out the root of death and rebirth and rely on that pure and perfect nature that neither comes into being nor ceases to be. Use the purity of your true nature to make disappear the distinction between your original state of enlightenment and the illusory state of what comes into being and ceases to be. The original enlightened understanding, which neither comes into being nor ceases to be, must be the basis of your practice.8 Then you will attain the awakening that will be the result of your practice.
“The process may be compared to the settling of turbid water. If you keep it undisturbed in a container so that it is completely still and quiet, the sand and silt in it will settle naturally, and the water will become clear. This may be compared to the initial stage of subduing the afflictions that arise from transitory perceptions of objects. When the sand and silt have been removed so that only clear water remains, then fundamental ignorance has been eliminated forever. When the water is quite pure and clear, nothing that may happen will be a cause of affliction. All will be in accord with the pure and wondrous attributes of nirvana.”
When someone throws dirt into clean water, the water turns muddy. The dirt loses its solidity, and the water loses its clarity. This is an analogy for beings, who are within the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, but who get mixed up with the four primary elements and the five layers of turbidity and give rise to ignorance and affliction. From the one truth arises the false.... An analogy could compare the true to our body and the false to our shadow. Our shadow exists only when there is a light shining on the body. The shadow represents ignorance, because ignorance is also unreal; it is something false which arises from the true. But, because this one falseness arises, every kind of falseness arises.
As for the analogy of dirt thrown into water, when you practice meditation in order to return to purity, your body is like the undisturbed container.... But you must be completely unmoving. It’s not the case that you can move your legs at the first sign of pain, or that you can lean back and relax when your back hurts.... One who is still and unmoving is not afraid of anything, much less a little leg pain. With the settling of the sand and silt, which represent your ignorance and affliction, your true nature, represented by the pure water, appears.... But if you simply let the mud stay in the bottom of the container, then as soon as the vessel is moved, the mud will be stirred up again. That represents a resurgence of ignorance and affliction in your mind.... If the mud is completely removed from the water, then you will have rid yourself of your fundamental ignorance forever. At that point, you have become a Buddha. (IV, 154–6)
Choosing One Faculty in Order to Liberate All Six
“The second principle is that, if you are resolved to become fully awakened, you must courageously dedicate yourself to practice in accord with the Bodhisattva Vehicle. You must decisively let go of everything that has conditioned attributes. Carefully examine the source of your afflictions, which since time without beginning have created your karma and nurtured its growth. Who is it that creates this karma and undergoes retribution? If, during your quest for full awakening, Ānanda, you do not examine and contemplate the sources of affliction, you will not be able to understand the illusory and distorted nature of the perceiving faculties and their objects. At what point did you become so disoriented? If you do not know that, how can you expect to subdue your afflictions and aspire to becoming a Buddha?
“Ānanda, consider some worldly person who wishes to untie a knot. If he cannot see the knot, how will he know how to untie it? You have never heard of space being broken into parts. Why? Space has no shape or form. Therefore, it can neither be divided nor put together again.
Untying the knot refers to the instruction that you must know the source of delusion if you are to get rid of it.... The fact that there are no knots in space represents the nature of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One, which is inherent in you and is free of delusion. (IV, 161)
“But now your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are like conspirators who have introduced thieves into your house to plunder your valuables. In this way, since time without beginning, beings and the world of time and space have been tied to each other because of illusion, and that is why beings cannot transcend this world.
People think that the six faculties are helpful, but actually it is just these six destructive things that steal the Dharma-jewels of our true nature. People consider their eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind to be their best friends.
But these so-called friends are the ones who invite thieves into your house to plunder your valuables. It is said,
What the eyes don’t see
The mouth won’t crave.
What the ears don’t hear
Won’t lead the mind to error.
You see someone eating something, and it’s as if a hand reaches out of your throat to grab it. The mouth is gluttonous because the eyes have seen something good to eat. Or you see something or someone beautiful and you want that person or thing, but once you get your wish, it becomes a source of affliction. And if you don’t get your wish, you’re also afflicted.... The six consciousnesses that are produced by the interaction of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind with their objects are what is meant by “outflows.” But the thieves will not be able to rob you if you can reach the level at which —
The eyes see visible forms,
But inside there is nothing;
The ears hear sounds,
But the mind is unaware.
If you don’t have the skill — if you lack samādhi — and if you run out through
your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind instead of turning your light around to illumine within, then you have outflows, and you are being robbed of your inherent wealth,... which is nothing less than your everlasting true mind within the Matrix of the Thus-Come One. (IV, 162–5)
“What do I mean, Ānanda, by ‘beings and the world of time and space’? ‘Time’ denotes flux and change; ‘space’ denotes location and direction. You already know that the directions are north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest, above, and below, while time is divided into past, present, and future. Thus locations are tenfold and the flow of time is threefold, making ten directions and three periods of time. Because beings are entangled in illusion, they constantly move about in time and space, which become interconnected.
“Although space can be defined as extending in ten directions and can be clearly understood as such, people in general only take account of north, south, east, and west. They do not consider above and below to be specific directions, and they see the four intermediate directions as merely relative to the others, while the four cardinal points are understood to be fixed. Therefore, we can say that space is fourfold and time threefold, and that the three times and four directions multiplied together make a total of twelve.
“Again, if we multiply these numbers in three stages; first, by each other, to make twelve, next by ten and then again by ten, we reach a total of twelve hundred. Applying this to the six faculties of perception, we may measure the efficacy of each, with a total of twelve hundred signifying the greatest possible efficacy.
“Ānanda, you can now determine the degree of efficacy of each of the faculties of perception. Consider the efficacy of the eye-faculty. You can see in front of you but not behind you. In front of you there is light, but behind you there is darkness. Adding in your partial vision at your left and right, your capacity to see is effective by only two thirds. The overall efficacy of the eye-faculty, then, is incomplete, in that it functions in three directions but not in the fourth. Know then that the efficacy of the eye-faculty may be expressed as eight hundred.9
“Consider the ability of the ear-faculty to hear in all ten directions without exception. The sounds we hear may be distant or nearby. When there is silence, our hearing is unbounded. Know then that the efficacy of the ear-faculty may be expressed as twelve hundred.
“Consider the ability of the nose-faculty to smell. The breath moves through the nose in and out. But in the space between inhaling and exhaling, the breath is lacking. Upon examination, we can say that the nose-faculty is lacking one of three aspects. Know then that the efficacy of the nose-faculty may be expressed as eight hundred.
“Consider the ability of the tongue-faculty to proclaim wisely both worldly and world-transcending wisdom. Languages differ from place to place, but meanings know no boundary. Know then that the efficacy of the tongue-faculty may be expressed as twelve hundred.
“Consider the ability of the body-faculty to be aware of contact. It is conscious of pleasure and discomfort. It has awareness upon contact and lacks awareness once there is separation. Separation is a single quality, while contact is twofold. Upon examination, then, we may say that the body-faculty is lacking in one of three aspects. Know then that the efficacy of the body-faculty may be expressed as eight hundred.
“Consider the ability of the cognitive faculty to silently include within its scope all worldly and world-transcending phenomena in all ten directions and all three periods of time. It excludes neither the thoughts of sages nor the distorted thoughts of ordinary beings; it knows no boundary. Know then that the efficacy of the cognitive faculty may be expressed as twelve hundred.
“Ānanda, you now wish to go upstream against the current of the river of desire, which leads to death and rebirth. You wish to go against the current that flows through the faculties until you reach the source, where there is neither coming into being nor ceasing to be. You should investigate how the six faculties function: which ones function upon contact with their objects and which ones function while apart from their objects; which are the more easily employed in the practice of reversing your attention and which ones are less easily employed;10 which ones are best suited for breaking through to enlightenment and which ones are not fully efficacious. If you can discern which of your faculties can lead you to break through to enlightenment, then you will be able to go upstream against the current that carries the karma in which, due to your delusion, you have been immersed since time without beginning. One day of practice that relies on a fully effective faculty is equivalent to an eon of practice that relies on a faculty that is not fully effective. I have already given you a full explanation of the fundamental purity and perfect clarity of the six faculties, and I have now given numerical equivalents for the efficacy of each one. It is up to you to choose carefully which one to concentrate on. I will clarify this to help you move forward vigorously.
“The Thus-Come Ones in all ten directions chose one of the eighteen constituent elements of perception for their practice that led to their gaining the perfect, supreme, complete awakening. For them, none of the eighteen constituents was superior or inferior. But because you are at a lower level and have not yet fully developed that wisdom which is independent of conditions, I have explained all this to you in detail so that you will be able to choose one faculty as a gateway to deep practice. If you take that path until you have left behind all distortion within that one faculty, then all the other faculties will be purified as well.”
Ānanda said respectfully to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, how can I choose one gateway that will allow me to reverse my outflows and purify all six of my faculties of perception at the same time?”
The Buddha said to Ānanda, “You have already reached the level of one who has entered the stream of the sages,11 and you have abandoned the deluded views held by beings in the three realms of existence.12 But you still do not understand the illusory habits which you have accumulated in life after life since time without beginning. You will need to practice even more to get rid of the subtle aspects of your habits as they come into being, abide, decay, and perish.
“Now you should consider whether the six faculties are one or six. If they are one, Ānanda, why can’t the ears see, and why can’t the eyes hear? Why can’t the head walk? Why can’t the feet speak? If the six faculties are indeed six, which one of them is now receiving my instruction in this subtle, wondrous gateway to the Dharma as I explain it to this assembly?”
Ānanda replied, “I am hearing it with my ears.”
The Buddha said, “If it is just your ears that hear it, do they then have no connection to your body or your mouth? And yet you ask about the teaching with your mouth, and as you receive it, you show your respect with your body. Therefore — as to the idea that the faculties must be one if they are not six, and that they must be six if they are not one — we cannot say that fundamentally they are both one and six, nor can we say that they are neither one nor six. In your disoriented state, in which you have been sinking and undergoing change13 since time without beginning, you have conceived the idea that there is “one” and “six” within the fundamental perfect clarity. As a sage at the first level, you have purified the six, but you have not done away with the one.
“By analogy, suppose one were to try to fit some space into a variety of containers. Because containers differ in shape, we could say the spaces within them also differ in shape. If you take away the containers and look at the space that was within them, you will say that the space has become one again. But how could space become unified or separated because of what you have done? Indeed, how could the space be said to be either one or not one? You should understand that the same is true of the six faculties of perception.
“The essence of seeing14 is generated out of the wondrous perfection of the pure mind because it adheres to the appearance of the two attributes of light and darkness. That essence of seeing then reveals the essence of visible objects,15 and th
e two then become entangled with one another, thus creating the essence of the eye-faculty. The essence of the eye-faculty is composed of the four primary elements in their pure state, and that is why it may be called the faculty’s ‘essence.’ The physical eye takes the shape of a grape and is composed of the four primary elements in their coarse state. The eye-faculty recklessly races outward in pursuit of visible objects.
“The essence of hearing is generated out of the wondrous perfection of the pure mind because it adheres to the two opposing attributes of sound and silence. That essence of hearing then gathers into itself the essence of sound, and the two then become entangled with one another, thus creating the essence of the ear-faculty. The essence of the ear-faculty is composed of the four primary elements in their pure state, and that is why it may be called the faculty’s ‘essence.’ The physical ear takes the shape of a curled new leaf and is composed of the four primary elements in their coarse state. The ear-faculty recklessly races outward in pursuit of sounds.
“The essence of smelling is generated out of the wondrous perfection of the pure mind because it adheres to the two contrasting attributes of openness and blockage. The essence of smelling takes in the essence of odor, and the two then become entangled with one another, thus creating the essence of the nose-faculty. The essence of the nose-faculty is composed of the four primary elements in their pure state, and that is why it may be called the faculty’s ‘essence.’ The physical nose takes the shape of a pair of talons and is composed of the four primary elements in their coarse state. The nose-faculty recklessly races outward in pursuit of odors.
