The Surangama Sutra

by Hsuan Hua

  “He will often tell them: ‘All beings throughout the ten directions are my children. It is from me that all Buddhas come into being. I created the world and did it effortlessly. I am the original Buddha and always have been; I did not become a Buddha through some spiritual practice.’

  “This is called ‘being troubled by the king of the Heaven of Pleasure Derived from What Others Create.’34 This king will send down to earth a member of his retinue — perhaps a goddess35 from his own heaven or a young energy-eating demoness36 from the Heaven of the Four Kings, but not one who has made a resolve to practice in accord with the Dharma. This being will take advantage of the good person’s vacuous clarity, and it will devour his vitality. The possessed person who acted as the practitioner’s teacher may not be involved at this point. The demon will appear directly to the practitioner, taking the form of a vajra-wielding spirit. It will tell the practitioner that it has come to grant him immortality. It will appear to him in the form of a beautiful woman, and together they will engage in such a frenzy of lust that before a year has passed, the practitioner’s physical vitality will be depleted. To those who can hear him, he seems to be having conversations with himself in the gabbling language of ghosts. They will not understand what is happening to him. He is likely to run afoul of the laws of the royal domain. If he does, his vital energies will have already been so greatly depleted that he will die before his punishment can be meted out to him. Thus by troubling and confusing him, the demon will have brought about his death.

  “You should be aware of this in advance, so that you will not be reborn among these celestial demons. If you do not recognize what is happening to you, you will become confused, and you will fall into the Unrelenting Hell.

  “You should know that in the time of the Dharma’s ending, Ānanda, these ten kinds of demons will join communities of monastics who practice in accord with my Dharma. These demons may possess people or may appear in a body that they have created for themselves, but in either case they will make the claim that they have already attained the right and universal awakening of a Buddha.37 They will praise sexual desire and will violate the Buddha’s regulations. These evil and demonic teachers that I have just described will transmit their teachings to their followers by engaging in sexual acts with them. In these ways, depraved demons will take control of practitioners’ minds, and for the practitioners’ next nine lives, or for as many as a hundred lives, the practitioners will join the retinues of demons, although they may have wished to be true to their former practices. At the end of those lives, they will inevitably become demons themselves. Having failed to realize their claim to right and universal awakening, they will fall into the Unrelenting Hell.

  “There is no need for you to seek the nirvana of the Arhats. When you reach the level at which no further instruction is needed, you should still hold fast to your vow to be reborn during the time of the Dharma’s ending.38 Let your great compassion come forth. Rescue beings whose minds are true and whose faith is deep. Make sure that they are not possessed by demons and that their knowledge and viewpoints are correct. The Buddha is rescuing you now from the cycle of death and rebirth. By respectfully carrying out the instructions that the Buddha has given you, you will requite the kindness that he has shown you.

  “These ten states, Ānanda, may manifest as these beings practice meditation in stillness while they are engaged in interaction with the aggregate of cognition. They may become dulled and confused by this experience, and they may no longer be able to take a proper measure of themselves. When faced with these circumstances, they may become further confused, and in their failure to know themselves, they will make the claim that they have reached the level of a sage. This egregious falsehood will cause them to fall into the Unrelenting Hell.

  These ten states are changes that occur while experiencing the aggregate of cognition as a result of effort one applies in one’s practice. When you are practicing with maximum effort, such states will manifest. If you encounter these states,... don’t be confused by them. When you meditate, your mental effort interacts with the aggregate of cognition; they engage in a battle.... If your samādhi is strong enough, the aggregate of cognition will be conquered. But if not, your samādhi may disintegrate, and you may become ensnared in a demonic state and experience the phenomena described in the text. (VIII, 168)

  “After my nirvana, you must explain my teachings and transmit them to beings of the time of the Dharma’s ending so that all beings everywhere will understand what I have taught. Do not allow the celestial demons to have their way. Protect these practitioners and lend them support so that they can realize the supreme enlightenment.”

  Ten Demonic States of Mind Associated with the Aggregate of Mental Formations

  “Ānanda, when a good person who has been practicing samādhi has reached the end of the aggregate of cognition, the usual cognitive processes involved in dreaming will disappear from his mind. For him there will no longer be any difference between waking and sleeping. His awareness will be as luminous, as empty, and as still as a cloudless sky. Images of gross external objects will no longer appear before him as objects of cognition. He will view all the phenomena in the world — the mountains, the rivers, and everything else — as mere reflections that briefly appear in a clear mirror, leaving nothing behind, disappearing without a trace, receiving and reflecting, nothing more. He has done away with his habitual and long-cherished karmic impressions. Only the true essence of consciousness remains.

  “As the source of the coming into being and ceasing to be is exposed to him, he may have a clear vision, which extends throughout the ten directions, of all the kinds of beings in their twelve classes. Although he cannot yet discern the thread of causes that is unique to each individual life, he will be able to perceive the origin that is common to all lives. This origin will appear to him as a subtle, glimmering, vibrating mirage. This is the ultimate point, the pivotal point, at which the faculties and their objects meet. He has reached the region of the aggregate of mental formations. If he is able to see the subtle, glimmering vibrations, which are the origin of beings, revert to the clarity that is their original nature, then his habitual karma will become still, just as clear waters become calm when waves are stilled. He will have reached the end of the aggregate of mental formations. He will be able to transcend the turbidity of individual beings. He will contemplate how this aggregate arises, and he will see that its basis lies in mental distortions in the deep recesses of the mind.39

  The aggregate of cognition is like a raging torrent, whereas the aggregate of mental formations is like a series of ripples on the water. When the only aggregate remaining is the aggregate of consciousness, there are no more waves and the water is clear and calm. (VIII, 178)

  [1] “Ānanda, you should know that this good person has gained right knowledge and has calmed his mind such that he is firmly settled into the light generated by his correct mental state. None of the ten kinds of celestial demons will have any chance to influence him.40

  At this point, external demons can no longer use their tricks to disturb the practitioner’s samādhi. However, sometimes transformations take place in his own aggregate of mental formations, causing him to have wrong ideas. These are demons of one’s own mind. (VIII, 188)

  “He may now focus intently on a thorough investigation of the origins of the lives of all the classes of beings. He will observe the subtle movement that is the origin of all beings in each of their twelve classes. As the source of their lives becomes apparent to him, he may begin to speculate about all that he has observed concerning these origins. In so doing, he may fall into the error of adopting either of two theories that deny causation.41

  “First, this person may not discern any causes for the origin of life. How might this be? This person will have already completely eliminated the means for the arising of cognitive distortions.42 Employing his eye-faculty, with its eight hundred degrees of efficacy,43 he will now be able to see all beings caught i
n the swirling flux of their karma during the previous eighty thousand eons, as they meet their death in one place and are born again in another. But he will not be able see beyond eighty thousand eons, and therefore he will suppose that eighty thousand eons ago, all beings in the worlds throughout the ten directions came into being of their own accord, independently of any cause. Because of this speculation, he will lose all the ground that he has gained in his quest for right and universal wisdom. In his confusion about the nature of full awakening, he will fall and take a wrong path.

  “Or second, this person may not discern any cause for the ending of life. How might this be? This person has already observed the origins of all beings. He has discerned that some humans are reborn as humans, and he has been aware of birds being reborn as birds. He may therefore conclude that black crows are inevitably reborn as black crows, while swans are inevitably reborn as white swans. He may conclude that people and gods are always reborn among beings who walk upright and that animals are always reborn as beasts that walk on four legs, and also that washing is not what makes white swans white, nor dyeing what makes crows black. He will therefore conclude that for the last eighty thousand eons until the present moment, no being has been reborn into a different class. He further concludes, ‘In all this time I have observed no instance of full awakening. How then could a being who is not awake change into a being who has awakened? I can only conclude that to this very day all creatures have existed without any special cause for their being what they are.’

  Although the text says that this person can see for eighty thousand eons, this practitioner is actually under the influence of a delusion.... This individual may feel that eighty thousand eons have passed by, but it actually may not be that long.... Controlled by his own deluded thinking, he experiences a totally unreal state in which he sees birds being reborn as birds.... If he had really seen as far back in time as eighty thousand eons, he would have seen those birds being reborn as something else. It’s clear that the experience of eighty thousand eons is only a false perception of his mind. (VIII, 182)

  In addition, he has no idea of what occurred longer ago than eighty thousand eons, and so he mistakenly concludes that there is no cause of the existence of anything, because he has no knowledge of events that occurred previously. (VIII, 187)

  “Because of this speculation, the practitioner will lose all the ground that he has gained in his quest for right and universal wisdom. In his confusion about the nature of full awakening, he will fall and take a wrong path. These two theories that deny causation constitute the first group of wrong paths.

  [2] “In his practice of samādhi, Ānanda, this good person’s mind has settled into the light generated by his correct mental state. No demon will have any chance to influence him. He may now focus on a thorough investigation of the constant and subtle movement at the origin of the lives of all the classes of beings. He may begin to speculate about all that he has observed about the constancy of this movement, and in so doing he may fall into the error of adopting one of four theories concerning universal everlastingness.

  “First, as this person fully investigates the nature of his mind and what it experiences,44 he may conclude that there is no cause either for the mind or for what it perceives. His practices may enable him to discern the deaths and rebirths that all beings throughout the ten directions have suffered during the previous twenty thousand eons. He may observe that throughout that period of time, as these beings have clung to the cycle of death and rebirth, their minds and their minds’ experiences have not been lost. On that basis he may speculate that the mind and its experiences are everlasting.

  “Second, as this person fully investigates the origins of the four primary elements, it may seem to him that these primary elements never change. His practices may enable him to discern the cycle of death and rebirth that all beings throughout the ten directions have undergone during the previous forty thousand eons. He may observe that throughout this period of time, there has been no alteration in the nature of the primary elements. On that basis he may speculate that it is the nature of the primary elements to be everlasting.

  Actually the four primary elements — earth, water, fire, and air — are created from beings’ deluded mental activity. They don’t have an independent existence of their own. Therefore, how can they be everlasting? (VIII, 189)

  “Third, as this person fully investigates the perceptual functions of the sixth consciousness, the individuating consciousness,45 and the storehouse consciousness,46 it may seem to him that, from their very origins, it has always been the nature of these consciousnesses to be everlasting. His practices may enable him to discern the cycle of death and rebirth undergone by all beings throughout the ten directions during the previous eighty thousand eons. It may seem to him that throughout this period of time, beings’ consciousnesses have maintained their original natures. On that basis he may speculate that the inherent nature of these consciousnesses is everlasting.

  “Fourth, as this person comes to the end of the aggregate of cognition, it may seem to him that the source of coming into being and ceasing to be has stopped functioning. Since he has put a stop to the activity of the aggregate of cognition, he may reason that there can be no resumption of that activity. On that basis he concludes that the coming into being and ceasing to be of cognition, with its ebb and flow, have come to a permanent end. He will therefore conclude that this state in which there is neither coming into being nor perishing must be everlasting.

  “Because of this speculation, the practitioner will lose all the ground that he has gained in his quest for right and universal wisdom. In his confusion about the nature of full awakening, he will fall and take a wrong path. These four theories about what is everlasting constitute the second group of wrong paths.

  [3] “Further, when in his practice of samādhi this good person’s mind is firmly settled in his correct mental state, no demon will have any chance to influence him. He may now focus on a thorough investigation of the constant and subtle movement at the origin of the lives of all the classes of beings. He may begin to speculate about self and other, and in so doing he may fall into error by adopting one of four deluded theories that consider some entities to be everlasting and others not to be everlasting.

  “First, as he observes the above,47 this good person may speculate that his mind’s wondrous understanding pervades all the worlds throughout the ten directions. He may take his mind in its profound stillness to be the ultimate cosmic self,48 and he may speculate that this unmoving cosmic self, with its focused understanding, pervades the ten directions. He may suppose that within his cosmic mind, all beings die and are reborn. Therefore he may conclude that his mind, which he takes to be the cosmic self, is everlasting, while the beings that upon their death are reborn within his mind are not everlasting.

  “Second, instead of observing his mind, this person may observe the worlds everywhere throughout the ten directions, as many as the sand-grains in the River Ganges. He may see worlds that are in the declining eon of their life cycle, and he may conclude that these worlds must ultimately be impermanent. He concludes that worlds that are not in a declining eon must belong to a category of worlds that are everlasting.

  “Third, this person may instead focus his observations on the refined, subtle, and hidden aspects of his mind, which may seem to him like the tiny motes of dust that float and swirl about throughout the ten directions, their nature never changing. He may speculate that this subtle aspect of his mind controls the death and rebirth of his body. He may conclude that this subtle aspect of his mind is an indestructible and ever-lasting self, whereas he as a person who repeatedly dies and is reborn from that permanent self must be impermanent.

  “Fourth, as this person becomes aware of the ending of the aggregate of cognition, and as he observes the wave-like flux of the aggregate of mental formations, he may speculate that the constant flux of the aggregate of mental formations is everlasting. Since at that point, the agg
regates of form, sense-perception, and cognition have already ceased functioning, he may conclude that these three aggregates are not everlasting.

  “Because of these speculations, the practitioner will lose all the ground that he has gained in his quest for right and universal wisdom. In his confusion about the nature of full awakening, he will fall and take a wrong path. These four theories about what is everlasting and what is not everlasting constitute the third group of wrong paths.

  [4] “Further, when in his practice of samādhi, this good person’s mind is firmly settled in his correct mental state, no demon will have any chance to influence him. He may then fully investigate the origins of the lives of all the classes of beings. If he speculates about the existence of certain distinctions, he may fall into error by adopting one of four deluded theories concerning what is finite and what is not.

  “First, this person may speculate that the wave-like flux that is the source of life continues to function without cease. He may conclude that both past time and future time are finite, while the mind functioning in the present moment continues indefinitely and so is infinite.

  “Second, in his samādhi this person may be able to see beings throughout eighty thousand eons of the past. When he attempts to perceive earlier eons, he does not see or hear anything there. The expanse of time in which he sees and hears nothing he supposes to be infinite, while the expanse of time in which he perceives beings he supposes to be finite.

  “Third, this person may speculate that his own awareness is infinite and that all other people appear within his awareness. However, he is not aware of other people’s awarenesses, and therefore he may conclude that their awarenesses are merely finite, not infinite, as he supposes his is.