The Surangama Sutra

by Hsuan Hua

  [12] “Further, revolving in a cycle of death and rebirth in this world may come about from malice, which arises from distortions due to killing. This killing combines with monstrousness to produce eighty-four thousand kinds of thoughts of devouring one’s parents. The result is the development of beings which sometimes lack and sometimes do not lack a cognitive capacity. These are such beings as owls whose young are hatched on the ground and mirror-smashing birds that lay their eggs in a toxic fruit.16 These offspring then feed upon their parents. In their multitudes, they have spread throughout the world.

  “These are the twelve classes of beings.”

  Three Gradual Steps

  A. Avoiding the Plants of the Onion Group

  “Ānanda, all twelve of these classes of beings are affected by all twelve of these distortions.17 Like the disordered and elaborate images that appear when pressure is exerted upon the eye, these distortions completely obscure the wondrous, perfect, pure, true, and understanding mind with deluded and disordered mental activity. Now, however, you wish to practice and to master the samādhi of the Buddhas. You should take three gradual steps in order to eradicate the fundamental factors that are the source of this disordered mental activity.18 Taking these steps will be like cleaning a pot that has held poisonous honey by scouring it with hot water mixed with the ashes of burnt incense. Once the pot has been cleaned in this way, it may be used to store even a celestial ambrosia.19

  “What are the three steps? The first is the practice that eliminates contributing factors. The second is the practice of truly ending any violation of the fundamental rules of behavior. The third is the practice of vigorously turning away from intentional engagement with perceived objects.

  “What are the contributing factors, Ānanda? Consider it this way: the twelve classes of beings of this world cannot sustain themselves without some kind of nourishment, which may be taken in one of four ways: by mouth, by touch, by thought, or by consciousness. That is why the Buddha says that all beings take nourishment in order to sustain themselves.

  Ghosts, spirits, and some gods eat by touching. In the Realm of Form, the gods get their nourishment by thinking. They take the bliss of meditation in stillness as their food. In the Planes of Formlessness, the formless gods are nourished by means of consciousness. (VII, 4)

  “All beings must take nourishing food to live, Ānanda, and if they consume a toxic substance, they may die. Beings who seek to enter samādhi must refrain from eating the five plants of the onion group.20 When eaten cooked, these plants arouse sexual desire; when eaten raw, they increase anger.

  Eating meat has similar effects. If eaten cooked, it increases desire; eaten raw, it can cause people to lose their temper. This is one reason why people who follow the Path should not eat meat. (VII, 6)

  “Gods and ascetic masters of the ten directions keep their distance from anyone who eats these plants, because the plants cause people to stink, including even people who can expound upon the twelve types of discourse spoken by the Buddha.21 Hungry ghosts, meanwhile, will come to lick and kiss the lips of people who have eaten these plants. Such people will always be accompanied by ghosts, and their blessings will lessen day by day. They will experience no lasting benefit.

  “When people who eat the plants of the onion group practice samādhi, the Bodhisattvas, gods, ascetic masters, and wholesome spirits of the ten directions will not come to protect them. Demon-kings of great power, however, will seize the opportunity to appear before these people in the form of a Buddha and will pretend to speak Dharma to them. These demons will denounce the precepts and will praise sexual desire, anger, and delusion. Such people, at the end of their lives, will inevitably join the retinues of demon-kings. Once they have exhausted the blessings that they may enjoy as demons, they will fall into the Unrelenting Hell.

  “Ānanda, those who practice in pursuit of full awakening must forever refrain from eating the five plants of the onion group. This is the first step they should take in their practice in order to make progress on the Path.

  Why don’t Dharma-protectors and good spirits guard such people? It’s because people who eat these five plants smell bad. Preferring purity, the Dharma-protectors avoid the stench.... However, protectors are essential to spiritual practice.... In the absence of protectors, powerful demon-kings are able to do as they please. They will appear in the body of a Buddha and speak to practitioners about what they claim is the Dharma. Seeing an unprotected practitioner, the demon-kings come on the scene to gather him into their retinue. They will enter when they catch you off guard. How great is their power? They can seem to turn into Buddhas! I’ve advised you that if in the future you open your Buddha-eye,22 you may see Buddhas or Bodhisattvas or gods or spirits or ascetic masters come. If they are genuinely what they appear to be, they will have a light about them that is pure and cool, and when it shines on you, you will experience extreme comfort such as you have never known. That, then, is a true Sage. A demon, meanwhile, puts out heat. However, it requires a lot of wisdom to make this distinction. If you lack sufficient wisdom, you will not notice the heat and so may take the demon to be a Buddha. Another way you can tell the difference between a demon appearing as a Buddha and an actual Buddha is to look at the Dharma they teach. Demon-kings will denounce the precepts and praise sexual desire, anger, and delusion. They will say, “Don’t follow precepts. That’s a Lesser Vehicle practice. Followers of the Greater Vehicle may kill, but it’s not really killing; they may steal but it won’t count as theft.... Violations don’t matter.”... In fact, if you don’t take the precepts and then follow them carefully, you will not be able to make any spiritual progress.... Recently a book was published in India praising the tantric practices, claiming that enlightenment can be reached through sexual practices. This is a book written by demons. (VII, 8–11)

  B. Ending Any Violation of the Fundamental Rules of Behavior

  “What is meant by the ‘fundamental rules of behavior’? Ānanda, beings who wish to enter samādhi must strictly observe the pure precepts. They must rid themselves of sexual desire once and for all. They must not consume alcohol or meat. They may eat raw food only when it has been made allowable after it has been exposed to fire, to ensure the plant’s vital energies are not consumed for nourishment.23 Ānanda, if people who practice do not put an end to their sexual desire and do not refrain from taking life, it will be impossible for them to transcend the three realms.

  The text here refers to improper sexual desire. It is absolutely unprincipled to think that a lustful person could become a Buddha.... Love that is a loving regard for one’s spouse and children is not what is meant here. Also, if special circumstances arise where one wishes to help someone else and one is not just seeking ephemeral bliss, that too would be a temporary expedient rather than a violation because one’s wish is to help someone else, and one is basically doing something one would prefer not to do.

  What disadvantages are there in consuming alcohol and meat? Taking alcohol deranges one’s nature. Once you drink alcohol, you lose your focus. And then you are likely to engage in confused behavior.... Another reason is that the odor of wine and other alcoholic drinks, which people and ghosts may consider to be fragrant, makes the good spirits upset, and they and the Bodhisattvas and Arhats do not like the smell. Bodhisattvas and Arhats regard the smell of wine as we regard the smell of urine....

  Further, all foods should be cooked before they are eaten, because almost all raw foods will increase one’s anger. (VII, 15–6)

  “People of this world who are accomplished in following the precepts will be free forever of the mutual karma that arises when one kills in this life and so is killed in turn in a subsequent life. Further, people of this world who do not steal from one another will never become indebted to one another; they will incur no debts from the past.

  You control your physical behavior and avoid the offenses deserving of expulsion.24... Then you follow the Bodhisattva’s pure regulations, the ten major and forty-
eight minor Bodhisattva precepts, in order to control your mental activity.... This is the path that people who practice must walk. (VII, 16)

  “When such pure people practice samādhi, they will very naturally be able to see the worlds of the ten directions while remaining in their bodies born of their parents and without needing the celestial eye.25 They will see the Buddhas and hear the Dharma, and they will respectfully receive the sages’ instructions in person. They will gain great spiritual powers, they will be able to roam playfully throughout the ten directions, and they will have clear knowledge of past lives. They will never encounter danger or difficulty.

  “That is the second step they should take in their practice, in order to make progress on the Path.

  C. Avoiding Intentional Engagement with Perceived Objects26

  “What is meant by ‘intentional engagement with perceived objects,’ Ānanda? People who practice in this way — who observe the prohibitory precepts with purity and who have no sexual desire — allow themselves few outflows in response to the six kinds of perceived objects. Because their outflows are few, these people are able to redirect the attention of their faculties inward to the faculties’ source. Since their faculties are no longer paying attention to objects of perception, the faculties and objects are no longer paired. Once the attention has been redirected inward, the faculties become one and cease to function in six separate ways. Then the lands throughout the ten directions will be as pure and as transparent as a bright moon appearing within a crystal. In their bodies and minds they will experience bliss, wondrous perfection, and their essential equality with all beings and all things. They will know peace and great tranquility.

  In their midst all the Thus-Come Ones will appear — mysterious, perfect, pure, and wondrous. These people will soon develop patience with the state of mind in which no mental objects arise. Because they take these steps in their practice, they will, as a result of their practice, abide peacefully in the succession of stages on the path to become sages.

  “That is the third step one should take in one’s practice in order to make progress on the Path.”

  The Fifty-Seven Stages of the Bodhisattva’s Path

  A. Arid Wisdom

  “Ānanda,27 when in good people emotional love and desire have dried up and their sense-faculties are no longer paired with sense-objects, their remaining habitual tendencies no longer arise. Their attachments are emptied out, and their minds are clear. What is left is pure wisdom, whose brilliant and perfect nature shines throughout the worlds of the ten directions. This pure wisdom exists because their desires have dried up, and so this stage is called ‘Arid Wisdom.’ Although their habits of desire have now dried up, they have not yet entered the stream of the Thus-Come Ones’ Dharma.

  B. Ten Stages of Stabilizing the Mind

  [1]28 “When these people have reached the very essence of that stage,29 they enter the stream of the Middle Way, where a wondrous perfection opens out before them. From this true and wondrous perfection, yet another true and wondrous perfection appears, and they experience a wondrous and unshakable confidence. All their deluded acts of mind are ended, and the Middle Way remains as the only truth. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Confidence.’

  These people, by means of Arid Wisdom, which is the initial vajra-mind... reach the state where a wondrous perfection reveals itself and opens out in abundance.... From the truth of that wondrous perfection there repeatedly arise further wonders of truth. In the wondrous perfection of the suchness of reality within the mind’s true nature, truths within truths come forth.... At that point, all deluded mental activity is ended, without exception. (VII, 28)

  [2] “This true confidence brings about complete clarity so that all is fully understood, and the aggregates, the sites, and the constituent elements can no longer be a hindrance. These people are now able to see before them all the habits they cherished during their successive lives throughout countless eons in the past; they can even tell what habits they should expect to have in the future. These good people, then, can remember all their habits, forgetting none. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Recollection.’

  [3] “When only the true and wondrous perfection remains, the essence of this true perfection begins to transform these people’s habits, which have accumulated over time without beginning, into a single essential clarity. By means of this essential clarity, these people advance into a true state of purity. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Advancement by Means of Essential Clarity.’

  [4] “As this essential clarity becomes more and more present to them, their minds function by means of wisdom alone. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘The Mind Residing in Functioning with Wisdom.’

  [5] “As they become steadfast in this wisdom and its light, their minds extend everywhere in clarity and stillness — a stillness that is wondrously constant and unchanging. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Abiding in Samādhi.’

  [6] “As this samādhi becomes more luminous, their wisdom grows, and with this wisdom they enter yet more deeply into samādhi so that they only advance; they never retreat. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Resolve.’

  [7] “As they advance in this state of mind, they are ever more tranquil. They cherish this state and do not let go of it, and they become connected with the energy of the Thus-Come Ones of the ten directions. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Protecting the Dharma.’

  [8] “As they successfully protect their enlightened understanding, they use its wondrous power to become able to redirect the light of the Buddhas’ compassion inward to the Buddhas’ tranquil abode. It is as if light were being reflected between two mirrors and as if wondrous images of light were appearing in the mirrors in an infinite regress. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Redirecting One’s Light Inward.’

  [9] “As the light of their minds is thus mysteriously reflecting, they attain the steadfastness and the unsurpassed wondrous purity of the Buddhas. They abide in the unconditioned and will no longer lose ground. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Steadfastness in Precepts.’

  With this secret interplay of light, they obtain the Buddhas’ steadfastness and unsurpassed wondrous purity. There is a hidden connection between the light of the practitioner’s mind and the light of the Buddhas’ minds. Your mind’s light reaches the Buddhas, and their light reaches you. After the Buddhas’ light has entered your mind, it returns to the Buddhas. After the light of your mind has entered the Buddhas’ minds, it returns to you. This mutual exchange of light goes full circle. (VII, 36)

  [10] “Having mastered this steadfastness in precepts, they are able to roam playfully throughout the ten directions, going wherever they wish. This stage of stabilizing the mind is called ‘Accomplishing What One Wishes.’

  C. Ten Abodes30

  [1] “Ānanda, these good people have entered these ten states of mind with true skill-in-means, and their minds’ essence is radiant. The functions of these ten states of mind are now completely integrated. This stage is called ‘The Abode of the Resolved Mind.’31

  [2] “From within that state of mind, light shines forth like pure gold appearing from within a flawless crystal, and these good people rely upon that wondrous state of mind just described to discipline themselves as if they were leveling a piece of ground. This stage is called ‘The Abode of Leveled Ground.’

  [3] “On this level ground of the mind, their wisdom is integrated so that they attain a luminous understanding. Their travels throughout the ten directions are now without hindrance or obstruction. This stage is called ‘The Abode of Practice on the Path.’

  [4] “They walk the Buddhas’ Path and share in the Buddhas’ energy, and so — just as beings who seek new parents while in the passage between death and rebirth connect with their new parents without the parents’ being aware of it — so these good people, as if at the moment of conception, enter into the Thus-Come One’s
family. This stage is called ‘The Abode of Noble Birth.’

  The intermediate consciousness32 is what is reborn.... After the old set of five aggregates has been left behind, the intermediate consciousness lives in a world as black as ink. There is no light for it at all. Though the sun and moon still appear, this intermediate consciousness dares not look at them.... But when its future parents engage in intercourse, then no matter how far away from them the intermediate consciousness may be, it perceives a bit of yin light, and in an instant, in response to this thought, it arrives at the place where its parents are. It is drawn to that place like iron filings drawn to a magnet, except that in this case the force of the magnetic field extends for thousands of miles. When the intermediate consciousness arrives at that place, conception occurs immediately, and so there is rebirth.

  The birth of the Bodhisattva of the Fourth Abode into the household of the Buddha is likened to the process just described, but only as an analogy. It merely suggests the force of attraction that brings these Bodhisattvas to birth in the household of the Dharma-King.... No matter how many thousands of miles away it may be, it is as if there is a mutual connection based on confidence and trust. The Bodhisattvas in this way enter the Thus-Come One’s family. The Bodhi-sattva is born into an honorable and wealthy household, the Buddha’s home. To say that the Buddha has a home and family is also just an analogy, since the Buddha long ago left the household for the monastic life. (VII, 39–40)

  [5] “They have now entered the Thus-Come One’s family, so they inherit the attributes of the Awakened Ones, just as every human feature is already fully evident in the unborn child. This stage is called ‘The Abode of Full Development of Expedient Attributes.’