The Surangama Sutra

by Hsuan Hua

  [8] Kṣudrapanthaka19 stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “I have a poor memory and have little learning. When I first encountered the Buddha, heard the Dharma, and entered the monastic life, I tried for a hundred days to memorize a single line of one of the Thus-Come One’s verses. But when I had learned the second part of the line, I could no longer remember the first part, and when I had learned the first part of the line again, I could no longer remember the second part.

  When one enters the monastic life, the first thing one is given to learn is a short verse to be recited every morning, as follows:

  Do no evil deed with body, speech, or mind;

  Give no trouble to any being in the world.

  With right thought, see the emptiness of the realm of desire;

  And keep your distance from unhelpful asceticism.

  Although five hundred Arhats were there to help him, Kṣudrapanthaka had failed to learn a single line of this verse after a hundred days of study, He was that slow. He’d remember “with body, speech, and mind,” but then he’d forget “do no evil.” By the time he’d learned “do no evil” again, he’d forgotten “body, speech, and mind.” His brother, Kṣudra, saw what was happening and ordered him to go back to being a layman. “Go find a wife and be done with it,” he said, and he sent Kṣudrapanthaka on his way. Kṣudrapanthaka thought, “I want to be a monk like all these other people. What meaning is there in my being a layman again?” So he took a rope, went into the back gardens, and prepared to hang himself. Just as he was ready to do it, the Buddha appeared in the form of a tree spirit and asked him, “What are you up to?”

  “I’m not going to go on living.”

  “Not go on living? After you die, what then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t die,” the tree spirit said. “Don’t take your own life. There’s a reason why you are stupid. You should strive to change your faults of the past. Once you change, everything will work out fine.”

  “What are the reasons from the past that make me so stupid now?” Kṣudrapanthaka asked.

  When Kṣudrapanthaka asked that question, Śākyamuni Buddha appeared in his own form and said, “In a past life you were a Master of the Canon with five hundred disciples. Every day they wanted to study with you, but you did not teach them. You didn’t lecture on the Sutras or explain the Dharma, even if people requested it. They might kneel before you for three days and nights, and still you would not speak to them about the Dharma. Because you would not explain the Dharma, you became stupid to the point that you don’t understand a single sentence of the Canon.”

  Upon hearing that, Kṣudrapanthaka was greatly ashamed....

  The Buddha then picked up a broom and asked, “Do you know what this is?”

  “It’s a broom.”

  “Can you remember that?”

  “Yes.”

  Then the Buddha instructed him, “Just recite ‘Sweep, sweep, sweep’ all day long.”

  Kṣudrapanthaka recited that for a few weeks.

  Then the Buddha stopped by to ask, “How are you doing? Can you remember what I told you?”

  “Yes, I remember it,” Kṣudrapanthaka replied.

  “Fine,” said the Buddha. “I’ll just change the words a little to ‘Sweep clean.’ Try reciting that now.”

  So Kṣudrapanthaka recited “Sweep clean, sweep clean, sweep clean.” And he used that invisible broom to sweep his own defilement clean, the defilement of his stinginess with the Dharma. Remember this. Take the principles that I am explaining to you in the Śūrāṅgama Sūtra and explain them to others. If you do that, in future lives you will have exceptional wisdom and intelligence. If you practice the giving of Dharma, you will never be stupid. (V, 45–7)

  “The Buddha took pity on me for being so slow, and he instructed me to find a quiet place where I could regulate my breathing. I contemplated my breath in the most minute detail until I could discern in every instant its arising, continuing, diminishing, and ceasing. All of a sudden my mind was freed from every impediment such that my outflows were ended. So it was that I became an Arhat. I took my place at the Buddha’s feet, and he verified that I needed no further instruction. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I believe that contemplating the emptiness of the breath is the best method.”

  Kṣudrapanthaka recounts how the Buddha taught him to regulate the breath. This practice involves holding the in-breath for ten counts and then extending the out-breath for ten counts. One inhalation and one exhalation is counted as one breath. One observes the arising, continuing, diminishing, and perishing of each breath.... When Kṣudrapanthaka says, “All of a sudden my mind was freed from every impediment,” he is referring to enlightenment. It is like a door suddenly being thrown open to the outside. All the air in the room is immediately purified. (V, 50–1)

  [9] Gavāṁpatī20 stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “I committed an offense in the karma of speech. Once, during an eon in the past, I insulted an elder monk, and as a result, in life after life I have suffered from an illness which causes me to chew like a cow. The Thus-Come One showed me how, by practicing a Dharma of the mind-ground, I could make all flavors become one and so be purified. By this practice my distinction-making mind ceased, and I entered samādhi.

  Then my contemplation was that the knowledge of flavors does not come from the tongue-faculty and does not come from any object of taste. By means of this contemplation, I transcended all worldly outflows. Within, I let go of my mind and body, and without, I took my leave of this world. I left the three realms of existence far behind; I was like a bird escaping from its cage. I departed from all impurity and put an end to my defilements, and my Dharma-eye became clear. So it was that I became an Arhat. The Thus-Come One himself verified that I need no further instruction. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I believe that redirecting the awareness of flavor away from the flavors and back to itself is the best method.”

  [10] Pilindavatsa21 stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “After I had first committed myself to following the Buddha on the Path, I heard the Thus-Come One say many times that nothing in this world can bring true joy. One day, as I was reflecting upon this teaching during my almsround in the city, I failed to notice a poisonous thorn lying in the road. I stepped on it, and pain suffused my entire body. I reflected on the sensation: I was aware of a deep pain, but I was also aware of my awareness of the pain, and I realized that in the pure mind there is neither pain nor awareness of pain. I had this further thought: how can it be that one body has two awarenesses? I held fast to this thought, and before long my body and mind became suddenly empty. During the next twenty-one days my outflows gradually ceased. So it was that I became an Arhat. The Buddha himself verified that I need no further instruction. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I believe that to purify one’s tactile awareness until the body is forgotten is the best method.”

  [11] Subhūti22 stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “Ever since a time during the eons of the remote past, my mind has been without impediment, and I have been able to remember as many of my past lives as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges. Even in my mother’s womb, I have been aware of the stillness of emptiness. I have understood that everything throughout the ten directions is empty, and I have also led other beings to understand that all is empty. The Thus-Come One revealed to me that the essential nature of our awareness is true emptiness and that the essential nature of emptiness is perfect understanding. So it was that I became an Arhat, and I immediately entered the sea of the magnificent, luminous emptiness of the Thus-Come Ones. My wisdom and my vision were then the same as the Buddha’s. He verified that I needed no further instruction and that I had no equal in my achievement of liberation through understanding that all is empty. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to
enlightenment. I understood that all is empty and also that what understands emptiness and the emptiness that is understood are empty as well. To return the cognitive faculty to purity so that all phenomena are understood to be empty: that is the best method.”

  [12] Śāriputra23 stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “Ever since a time during the eons of the remote past, my eye-consciousness has been pure. Thus for as many lifetimes as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges, I have been able in a single glance to understand without impediment the various changing phenomena, both worldly and world-transcending. I once met the Kāśyapa brothers walking together along a road. I joined them, and they explained to me the doctrine of causes and conditions. I thereupon woke up to the boundlessness of the mind. I followed the Buddha into the monastic life. The clarity of my visual awareness was perfected, and I became utterly fearless. So it was that I became an Arhat and the Buddha’s senior disciple. I was reborn from the Buddha’s mouth — reborn by being transformed by the Dharma. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I myself was able to verify that my eye-consciousness had become radiant with light, and when that light reached its ultimate intensity, it illuminated the wisdom and vision of the Buddhas. I believe that this is the best method.”

  Before Śāriputra became a monk, according to one account, he met Aśvajit while he was out walking along a road. Aśvajit was one of the five monks whom the Buddha taught first, in the Deer Park. Śāriputra saw Aśvajit walking in a most awe-inspiring and correct manner, with magnificent deportment.

  His eyes did not look,

  His ears did not listen.

  That is, he didn’t look at people out of the corner of his eye, and he didn’t listen to what was going on around him....

  Śāriputra had studied with a non-Buddhist teacher, a Brahmin, and after the teacher died, Śāriputra had no teacher. It was then that he met Aśvajit while he was walking along a road. Because he admired Aśvajit’s deportment, he asked Aśvajit who his teacher was. Aśvajit replied with a verse:

  All phenomena arise from conditions,

  All phenomena cease because of conditions:

  The Buddha, the great elder monk,

  Often speaks of this.

  When Śāriputra heard that verse, he immediately became enlightened as a first-stage Arhat. Upon his return to his living quarters, he repeated the verse to Maudgalyāyana. When Maudgalyāyana heard it, he too became enlightened. Then, together with their two hundred followers, they became disciples of the Buddha. They all entered the monastic life and became part of the assembly that always accompanied the Buddha.

  That’s one account. Here the Sutra says that Śāriputra met the Kāśyapa brothers. Since some say that Śāriputra met the Kāśyapas and others say that he met Aśvajit, I think they were probably all out walking together. Note that the text uses the word “brothers,” which could include Aśvajit as well as the Kāśyapa brothers, since monks are brothers in the Dharma. While they were walking, they were discussing causation, and one said: “I say that phenomena arising from causes and conditions are empty. Their names are false, and yet they are also the truth of the Middle Way.” Probably when Śāriputra heard that, he approached them and asked, “What are you talking about? And who is your teacher?” It was then that Aśvajit spoke the verse quoted above. (V, 63–4)

  [13] The Bodhisattva Universal Goodness24 stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “I have been a prince in the Dharma in the assemblies of as many Thus-Come Ones as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges. Throughout all ten directions, the Thus-Come Ones teach their disciples who have an innate propensity for the path of the Bodhisattva to undertake the practice of universal goodness — the practice for which I am named.

  “World-Honored One, with my ear-consciousness I am aware of the thoughts and viewpoints of every individual being, including the beings in worlds that are beyond still other worlds as many as the sand-grains in the River Ganges. Whenever any of these beings even considers undertaking the practices of Universal Goodness, I generate hundreds of thousands of distinct bodies, and mounted on my six-tusked elephant, I go separately to the places where these beings are. Even if a being is heavily impeded25 and is not able to see me, I circle my hand on the crown of that being’s head to lend support and give comfort in order to help him succeed in his practice. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I have described the basis of my practice: my mind listens with the complete understanding that results from free and unattached discernment. That is the best method.”

  The Bodhisattva Universal Goodness is distinguished by the greatness of his practice. He is noted for his Ten Great and Royal Vows, which are:

  to revere and respect all Buddhas;

  to praise the Thus-Come Ones;

  to practice the giving of offerings;

  to repent of one’s faults and to reform;

  to rejoice in the merit of others;

  to request that the Wheel of Dharma be turned;

  to ask the Buddhas to remain in the world;

  to always practice as the Buddhas instructed;

  to always remain in harmony with other beings;

  to dedicate one’s merit to the benefit of all.

  These are the Ten Great and Royal Vows of the Bodhisattva Universal Goodness. The fortieth chapter of the Avataṁsaka Sūtra is devoted to this Bodhisattva and his vows. His practices and the power of his vows are especially great, and so he has a great deal of affinity with beings. He rides a six-tusked white elephant. The color white symbolizes the Buddhas’ Vehicle, and the six tusks represent the six perfections.26 (V, 66)

  Here he tells the World-Honored One that he listens with the true mind, not with the ear-faculty.... Whenever he discerns someone practicing in accord with his Ten Vows, he circles his hand on the crown of that person’s head to convey comfort and support. So people who practice in accord with Dharma will sometimes feel as if there were a bug crawling on the top of their head or as if someone were patting them on the head. Sometimes you might feel as though an insect were crawling on your face. When this happens you should not try to brush away the sensation with your hand, since it could be a Buddha or a Bodhisattva blessing you. If you are sincere, you can experience this feeling. (V, 67)

  [14] Sundarananda stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “When I first entered the monastic life to follow the Buddha on the Path, I kept the precepts perfectly, but in trying to enter samādhi, my mind was always too scattered and too easily distracted so that I could not put an end to my outflows. The World-Honored One taught Mahā-Kauṣṭhila and me to focus our attention on the whiteness visible at the tip of the nose. After three weeks of focusing my attention in this way, my breath looked like smoke as it entered and left my nostrils. My body and mind shone with an inner light that illuminated the entire world. Everything became as clear and as pure as crystal. The smokiness of the breath in my nostrils was gradually refined until it became white. My true mind was revealed and my outflows were ended. My in-breath and out-breath were transformed into light that shone upon worlds throughout all ten directions. So it was that I became an Arhat. The World-Honored One predicted that in the future I would realize perfect enlightenment. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I refined my breath until at length it shone with light, and when the light shone everywhere, my outflows were ended. This is the best method.”

  [15] Then Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “Ever since a time during the eons of the remote past, I have been able to speak with unimpeded eloquence. When I have explained suffering and emptiness, I have penetrated deeply into ultimate reality. Indeed I have been able to give subtle and wondrous instruction to the assembly in the hidden gateways to the Dharma taught by as many Thus-Come Ones as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges. In doing so, I have become complete
ly fearless.

  “Knowing that I was endowed with great eloquence, the World-Honored One instructed me to use the sound of my voice to propagate the Dharma. I followed the Buddha as his assistant in turning the Wheel, and so it was that by means of the Lion’s Roar, I became an Arhat. The World-Honored One verified that my skill in speaking the Dharma was without peer. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. With the sound of Dharma I overcame adversaries and subdued demons,27 and I put an end to my outflows. This then is the best method.”28

  [16] Upāli then stood up, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to him respectfully: “I was the one who accompanied the Buddha when he escaped the city and left his household. I was there to watch the Thus-Come One as he diligently practiced austerities for six years. I myself saw the Thus-Come One subdue demons, bring under his influence the followers of wrong paths, and free himself from the outflows of worldly greed and desire. The Buddha instructed me in the precepts that I had received, and I gradually mastered the three thousand kinds of awe-inspiring deportment with their eighty thousand subtle aspects of demeanor. I purified my conduct by following the fundamental precepts and the precautionary regulations.29 My body became still and my mind vanished. So it was that I became an Arhat. Now I am the precept-master in the Thus-Come One’s assembly. He himself verified that I follow the precepts with my mind and with my conduct. Everyone in the assembly sees me as a leader. The Buddha has asked us how we broke through to enlightenment. I learned to govern my conduct until my body was at ease in being governed, and next I gradually learned to govern my mind until my thoughts accorded naturally with what is right. Only then did both my body and my mind gain unobstructed understanding. This is the best method.”30