楞嚴經宗通

PART ONE: PREFACE

THE ORIGIN OF THE PERFECT PENETRATION OF THE ŚŪRAṄGAMA SUTRA THROUGH THE CHAN SCHOOL

Preface by Zeng Fengyi of Nanyue, Registrar of the Golden Tablets, styled Shunzhengfu.

Long ago, the Wise Master Zhiyi of Tiantai studied under Chan Master Huisi at Mount Nanyue and attained the Lotus Samadhi, beholding the Dharma assembly on Vulture Peak as still solemnly present and not yet dispersed. From then on, when he examined the sutras and Vinaya, he suddenly understood them thoroughly. When he came to explain the meaning of the purification of the six faculties in the Lotus Sutra, he pondered for a very long time.

An Indian monk said to him, “Only the Śūraṅgama Sutra clearly explains the merits of the six faculties and is sufficient to serve as proof.” From then on, Master Zhiyi yearned for and revered this sutra. For sixteen years, every morning and evening, he faced west and bowed in worship. To the left of the Tiantai monastery on Mount Nanyue, the Sutra Platform still remains.

More than a hundred years after his time, the Śūraṅgama Sutra finally entered China. The sutra was transcribed by Chancellor Fang Rong, and its language was refined and elegant; therefore, scholars and high officials all recited it. I once visited the Sutra-Veneration Platform three times.

Each time, I lingered and was reluctant to leave, inwardly lamenting, “The ancients yearned for this sutra for more than ten years yet never saw it. Now copies of the Śūraṅgama are spread everywhere, yet people do not even look at them! Why is this?” Because of this, I resolved to inscribe the Śūraṅgama on stone, hire artisans to engrave it, and arrange the tablets within a stone chamber, so that all who visited the Sutra-Veneration Platform could read it and say, “The sutra has now arrived here!” It would be as though I were making up for something that Master Zhiyi had lacked.

Just as I took up my brush to begin writing, it suddenly occurred to me: what I am writing here consists of words, not meaning! Master Zhiyi hoped that this sutra would come here because he hoped that everyone would understand its meaning. Master Xuansha Shibei, for example, awakened to the essential nature of mind through reading the Śūraṅgama; this was to penetrate deeply into its meaning.

Chan Masters Lingyan An, Changshui Xuan, Zhu’an Gui, Huanglong Nan, Shaolong Anmin, and others likewise awakened through the Śūraṅgama. Thus, these masters did not fail to honor the purpose for which this sutra was transmitted. If one merely follows the text to interpret its meaning and annotates its sentences and words, though there may be dozens of commentators, the meaning of the sutra grows ever more remote.

This error arises from failing to seek within one’s own mind. If one awakens to one’s own mind, then even before this sutra arrived, every meaning established by Master Zhiyi in accordance with the teachings accorded with the Śūraṅgama. If one does not awaken to one’s own mind, then even with the Śūraṅgama Sutra before one, it is as though the sutra were still in India.

What use is there in filling one’s house with scriptures? The practice of the Chan masters is to sweep away interpretations based on written words, regarding them as unworthy of esteem. How truly reasonable this is!

Yet when they guided those of beginning capacity, their every utterance and expression, their words and meanings, closely resembled the Śūraṅgama. Even their revelation of the supreme matter and their realization of bodhi did not differ in condition and occasion from the twenty-five modes of perfect penetration. Thus, though they did not recite the Śūraṅgama, the Śūraṅgama was already fully present.

Though the Śūraṅgama had not yet reached this land, it cannot be said that this land did not already possess the Śūraṅgama.

Without knowing the measure of my own abilities, I gathered teachings from throughout the Chan School and matched them with passages from the sutra. Some are placed in tacit accord; some allow both to illuminate one another; some expand upon the sutra’s meaning; and some reveal what it leaves unrevealed. I, too, never imagined that I could accomplish this. How could such a discourse be produced anywhere between heaven and earth? Perhaps it has arisen from vows made throughout many past lives.

In this work, I rely upon the venerable masters to clarify the sutra’s meaning; it does not come from me alone. I use the Chan School to illuminate the sutra; I do not explain it through interpretations based on written words. I have therefore entitled it Perfect Penetration through the Chan School. Penetration through the Chan School goes together with Penetration through Exposition. Only by personally realizing the Fundamental Mind can one meet the venerable masters as though wearing the same robe. Not only is the Śūraṅgama assembly still solemnly present and not yet dispersed, but Master Zhiyi also remains here to this very day.

[Note: “Penetration through the School and Exposition” means that the principles one teaches are freely and thoroughly understood. It is said: “Penetration through the School is Penetration through Exposition.” In the method of Chan—the Chan school—when one has awakened completely and penetrated thoroughly, it is called Penetration through the School; when one expounds the Dharma freely, without obstruction, it is called Penetration through Exposition.

It is said: One who has penetrated both the School and Exposition is a Great Master of the School.

The Zuting Shiyun Ji states: Patriarch Qingliang said that Penetration through the School is one’s own practice, while Penetration through Exposition is for those who have not yet awakened.

The Laṅkāvatāra Sutra: The Buddha taught Mahamati, “All śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas possess two kinds of characteristics of penetration. They are called Penetration through the School and Penetration through Exposition.”

The Dong Commentary says: The School is the root of the Way. Exposition is the trace left by the teaching of the Dharma.

The Song of Enlightenment says: The School is penetrated, and Exposition is penetrated. Samadhi and wisdom shine perfectly, without stagnating in emptiness.

A verse of praise says:

Sixty-three thousand words in ten fascicles,

Teaching, Practice, and Principle; contemplation of Emptiness, Provisional Existence, and the Middle.

Perfect penetration of the Flower Treasury; faith, practice, understanding;

Upon realization, samadhi and wisdom abide in nirvana.

Destroy delusion and reveal the True—the True is the One Reality;

Turn hearing inward and refine the skandhas until the skandhas dissolve.

The offenses of ignorance are the prisons of the ten directions;

When those offenses melt like ice, one sits in the Buddha’s place of awakening.

Namo to all Buddhas, great bodhisattvas, sages, and noble members of the Sangha in the Śūraṅgama Assembly.

THE SUTRA OF THE GREAT BUDDHA’S CROWN, THE TATHAGATA’S SECRET CAUSE, THE COMPLETE MEANING OF CULTIVATION AND REALIZATION, THE MYRIAD PRACTICES OF ALL BODHISATTVAS, AND THE ŚŪRAṄGAMA, WITH PERFECT PENETRATION THROUGH THE CHAN SCHOOL.

During the Tang dynasty, Pramiti, a śramaṇa from India, translated it; Meghaśikhara, a śramaṇa from Udyāna, interpreted the language. Fang Rong, formerly an Upright Deliberation Grand Master and a disciple of the bodhisattva precepts, transcribed it.

During the Ming dynasty, Zeng Fengyi of Nanyue—a disciple of the bodhisattva precepts, formerly a Grand Master for Admonition and Instruction, an Auxiliary Secretary in the Bureau of Sacrifices of the Ministry of Rites—composed Perfect Penetration through the Chan School.

Penetrating Commentary: Why is this sutra entitled “The Great Buddha’s Crown, the Tathagata’s Secret Cause, the Complete Meaning of Cultivation and Realization, the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, and the Śūraṅgama”? The sutra states: “At that time, Dharma Prince Mañjuśrī rose from his seat among the great assembly, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said, ‘What should this sutra be called? How should I and all living beings receive and uphold it?’

The Buddha said to Mañjuśrī, ‘This sutra is called The Great Buddha’s Crown, Sitātapatra—the White Parasol—the Unsurpassed Precious Seal and the Pure Ocean-Eye of the Tathagatas of the Ten Directions. It is also called Rescuing and Protecting One’s Kin, Delivering Ānanda and the Bhikṣuṇī Prakṛti in This Assembly, Enabling Them to Attain the Mind of Bodhi and Enter the Ocean of Omniscience. It is also called The Tathagata’s Secret Cause and the Complete Meaning of Cultivation and Realization. It is also called The Great and Vast, Wondrous Lotus King, the Dhāraṇī Mantra of the Mother of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. It is also called The Consecration Chapter and Verses, the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, and the Śūraṅgama. You should receive and uphold it.’

The preceding passage of scripture contains many meanings, yet the three words “Great Buddha’s Crown” alone encompass them all. For the Buddha’s Crown mantra is precisely the dharani mantra of the Mother of the Buddhas of the ten directions; it is precisely the Consecration Phrases; and it is precisely that which delivered Ananda and the bhikshuni Prakriti. Therefore, these need not be repeated.

This mantra is “Maha Sitata Patra,” translated as the “Great White Parasol,” the great white canopy that covers all. It is wholly immaculate and pure, and shelters everything; hence it is called great. Only this inconceivable Great Buddha’s Crown mantra may be called the Tathagata’s Secret Cause at the causal ground and the definitive meaning of cultivation and realization.

Through it, the bodhisattva’s myriad practices are fully provided for, and thus everything is ultimately firm and secure. A Dharma that can be gradual but not sudden cannot be called Great. One that can be sudden but not perfect and complete likewise cannot be called Great.

Here, to speak of the Secret and the Definitive already encompasses the meaning of Sudden. To speak of Cultivation and Realization and of the Myriad Practices implicitly conveys the meaning of Perfect and Complete. This Dharma-gate of Perfect and Sudden teaching is no different from the Great and Vast Buddha Avatamsaka Sutra and the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma.

From the Ten Faiths, Ten Abodes, Ten Practices, and Ten Dedications up to Wondrous Enlightenment, all are encompassed within the Avatamsaka; while the Perfect Penetration of the Faculty of Hearing corresponds entirely with the Universal Gateway chapter. Fully embodying the purport of both these sutras, how truly vast is the Surangama Sutra!

Before awakening, one turns That Which Is Neither Born nor Extinguished into that which is born and extinguished; this is not the definitive meaning. After awakening, one turns that which is born and extinguished into That Which Is Neither Born nor Extinguished; this is the meaning of “everything is ultimately firm and secure.” Therefore, on the single road leading upward [the one path beyond], one cannot proceed without awakening.

How, then, are the Mantra and Awakening related? What connection does Awakening have with the Mantra, such that both are called the Great Buddha’s Crown? The Mantra is inconceivable, and Awakening is likewise inconceivable.

The Mantra is precisely the realm of Awakening, and Awakening is precisely the realm of the Mantra. Here, “the path of speech is severed, and the place of mental activity is extinguished”; when seeing is free from Seeing, that seeing is transcendent. Thus, to uphold the Buddha’s Crown means to be free from one’s own characteristic of Seeing.

Those of the lineage of the Buddha’s Crown leap beyond all at once and enter directly; this is therefore the most honored and most precious Dharma-gate. For this reason, the Combined Treatise names it the Honored Crown.

A monk asked Master Huangbo: “Why could the Bodhisattva Boundless Body [another name for the Tathagata] not see the Crown Mark of the Tathagata?”

Master Huangbo replied: “It truly cannot be seen. Why is this? The Bodhisattva Boundless Body is himself the Tathagata and cannot turn back to see himself.

You need only refrain from creating a view of Buddha, and you will not fall within the boundary of Buddha. Do not create a view of sentient beings, and you will not fall within the boundary of sentient beings. Do not produce a view of existence, and you will not fall within the boundary of existence.

Do not create a view of nonexistence, and you will not fall within the boundary of nonexistence. Do not create the view of an ordinary person, and you will not fall within the boundary of ordinary persons. Do not create the view of a sage, and you will not fall within the boundary of sages.

Simply empty all views whatsoever: this is Boundless Body. If there is anything seen, that is the way of outsiders. Outsiders delight in various views.

Bodhisattvas remain unmoved amid all views. Tathagata means the Suchness of all dharmas; hence it is said, ‘Maitreya is also Such.’ [Vimalakirti Sutra] Suchness is without arising; Suchness is without extinction. Suchness is without seeing; Suchness is without hearing.

The Crown means Perfect and Complete, yet there is no view of the Perfect and Complete; hence one does not fall within the boundary of the Perfect and Complete. Therefore, the Buddha-body is unconditioned and falls within no boundary. Provisionally take empty space as an analogy.

It is perfectly full like vast empty space, neither deficient nor excessive. Remain at ease, free of affairs; do not strain to discriminate the realm of awakening, for discrimination becomes consciousness.”

Another monk asked Patriarch Baizhang: “Why did the Bodhisattva Boundless Body not see the Crown Mark of the Tathagata?”

Patriarch Baizhang said: “Because he produced a view of the bounded and a view of the boundless, he could not see the Crown Mark of the Tathagata. If, just now, there are utterly no views whatsoever of existence or nonexistence, yet neither is there an absence of seeing, then that is seeing the Crown Mark.”

Consider how these two venerable masters expressed the meaning of the Buddha’s Crown: it is truly like a round pearl rolling upon a tray. Only one who knows this place may be said to have gained the single eye [the one eye, the eye of the Way] at the gateway of the Crown. Since it is called the Tathagata’s Secret Cause, it does not depend upon cultivation and realization.

Yet it is also called the definitive meaning of cultivation and realization [cultivating until one realizes the place where the meaning is understood] in order to distinguish it from that which is not definitive [where the meaning of the Tathagata’s Secret Cause has not yet been understood]. “Tathagata” refers to the fruition. The Diamond Sutra says: “If someone says, ‘The Tathagata comes, goes, sits, or lies down,’ that person does not understand the meaning of my teaching.

Why? The Tathagata comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; therefore he is called the Tathagata.” What, indeed, is this that “comes from nowhere and goes nowhere”? Only thus is it called Secret.

The Buddha’s Crown Divine Mantra is the Secret Speech of the Tathagata, and these two secrets—the Secret Speech and the Tathagata—are not two. Taking this Secret as the cause, one attains that very Secret as the fruition. It is like a lotus blossom, in which cause and fruition are simultaneously and inherently complete.

To use this in cultivation is to cultivate without cultivating. To use this for realization is to realize without realizing. The sutra says, “Why borrow the toil of cultivation and realization?” This is precisely the purport of the definitive meaning.

If one does not attain it thus, it is because one has not yet awakened to the definitive meaning.

Long ago, Huiming overtook the Sixth Patriarch in order to seize the robe and bowl.

The Patriarch instructed him: “Since you have come for the Dharma, bring all conditions to rest and do not give rise to a single thought; I shall explain it for you.”

Huiming remained silent for a long while. The Patriarch said: “Thinking neither of good nor of evil, at that very moment, what is the Original Face [the face originally before you] of Senior Ming?”

Upon hearing this, Huiming attained great awakening.

He further asked: “Apart from these secret words and this secret meaning, is there any other secret meaning?”

The Patriarch replied: “What has been spoken to you is no longer secret. If you illuminate inwardly, the Secret is at your own side.”

Master Ming said: “Although I was at Huangmei, I truly had not awakened to my own face. Now, through the kindness of your instruction, I am like one who drinks water and knows for himself whether it is cold or warm. You, practitioner, are now my teacher.”

The Patriarch instructed him: “Since you are thus, you and I now share the same teacher, Huangmei. Take good care to protect and uphold it yourself.”

When Master Huairang first met Chan Master Zhongshan An, he asked: “What is the meaning of the Patriarch’s coming from the West [India]?”

Patriarch An said: “Why do you not ask about your own meaning?”

Huairang then asked: “What is the meaning of one’s own self?”

Patriarch Zhongshan replied: “You must contemplate the Secret Function that gives rise to activity.”

Huairang asked: “What is the Secret Function that gives rise to activity?”

Patriarch Zhongshan demonstrated it by opening and closing his eyes.

Master Huairang did not comprehend. Patriarch Zhongshan then told him to go meet the Sixth Patriarch.

The Patriarch asked: “Where have you come from?”

Master Huairang replied: “Mount Song.”

The Patriarch asked: “What is it that has come? How did it come?”

The Master could not answer.

After eight years had passed, he finally said to the Patriarch: “I have come to understand.”

The Patriarch asked: “How is it?”

He replied: “To say it is like a single thing misses the mark!”

The Patriarch asked: “Can it still be cultivated and realized?”

He replied: “It is not that cultivation and realization do not exist, but defilement is impossible.”

The Patriarch said: “Excellent! That which is undefiled is what all Buddhas guard and keep in mind. You are thus, and I am also thus.”

Like those two venerable masters, he accorded deeply with the Secret Meaning and attained the Definitive Meaning of Cultivation and Realization.

Later, a master asked Patriarch Baizhang: “From ancient times until now, the patriarchs have all had secret words that they transmitted to one another. What does this mean?”

The Patriarch replied: “There are no secret words. The Tathagata has no Secret Treasury. Simply illuminate the meaning clearly right now; when you seek its form and plainly see that it cannot be apprehended, that is the secret word. From the stage of stream-enterer upward through the Tenth Bhumi, there are, after all, only letters and words—phrases that still belong entirely to the defiled objects of the senses. So long as there are words, all remains within affliction. So long as there are words, all belongs to the provisional meaning. So long as there are words, they cannot be accepted. In the Teaching of Definitive Meaning, nothing whatsoever is established; what secret words could still be sought?”

According to Patriarch Baizhang’s realization, even the single word “secret” must be vomited out, and not even the Teaching of Definitive Meaning may be established. Only then can one be said to proceed above the crowns of a thousand Buddhas.

The bodhisattvas have not yet departed from the cultivation and realization of the myriad practices, so why are these called “the ultimate solidity of all things”? It is because bodhisattvas who have not yet reached the stage of anointment must still cultivate and realize. Once they reach the stage of anointment and transcend directly into equality with the stage of Wondrous Enlightenment, what remains to be cultivated or realized? Although all conditioned activities are impermanent, every phenomenon flows forth from Wondrous Enlightenment and, precisely where it is, is quiescent extinction; therefore, it is called ultimately solid.

The Sutra says: “There is a samadhi [formerly called tam-muội], Right Concentration, named the Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama King, complete with the myriad practices. Through this single gateway, the Tathagatas of the ten directions transcend and emerge; this is the path of Wondrous Adornment.” This samadhi is the Great Śūraṅgama Concentration, the path of Wondrous Adornment complete with the myriad practices. It is not that, apart from the myriad practices, there is a separate thing called concentration.

Because everything is concentration, it is called the ultimate solidity of all things. During the day, Mahasattva Fu conducted business and labored; at night, he practiced the Way. He saw the three Buddhas Śākyamuni, Golden Grain, and Dīpaṃkara emit light that enveloped his body.

The Mahasattva then said: “I have attained the Śūraṅgama Concentration.” At that time, this sutra had not yet arrived, yet the name of the concentration had already been proclaimed. How extraordinary!

The Fourth Patriarch Daoxin [during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang dynasty, he inherited the Dharma from Patriarch Sengcan and transmitted it to Patriarch Hongren] instructed Master Lairong of Mount Niutou: “Hundreds of thousands of Dharma gates all return to the mind, and wondrous virtues as numerous as the sands of the Ganges are contained within the source of mind. All the gates of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, together with spiritual powers and transformations, are inherently complete within you and never depart from your mind.

All afflictions and karmic obstructions have always been empty and quiescent. All causes and effects are like dreams and illusions. There are no three realms to leave behind and no bodhi to seek.

Human beings and nonhuman beings are equal in nature and characteristics. The Great Way is empty and penetrating, beyond thought and beyond concern. You have now attained this Dharma just as it is, utterly without deficiency and no different from the Buddha; what other Dharma could there be?

Simply use it freely and at ease. Do not give rise to contemplative practices, nor settle the mind into stillness. Do not give rise to greed or anger, nor harbor anxiety or sorrow.

Be open and unimpeded, freely moving vertically and horizontally as you wish. Neither perform good deeds nor commit evil deeds. Whether walking, standing, lying down, or sitting, whatever meets the eye and whatever conditions you encounter—all are the Buddha’s wondrous functioning.

Being joyful and free from care is called being a Buddha.”

Upon hearing this, Master Lairong founded a separate branch called the Anointment Chapter and Phrases.

Master Fayan taught: “Cultivation may extend through three lifetimes and sixty kalpas, four lifetimes and one hundred kalpas, or an asaṃkhyeya of kalpas until fruition is attained; yet the ancients still said that this does not compare to a single thought of dependently arisen non-arising, which surpasses those of the Three Vehicles who study provisional teachings.” Therefore, it is said: With a snap of the fingers, the eighty thousand Dharma gates are perfectly accomplished; in a kṣaṇa, the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas are ended. In the Chan school there truly is such an extraordinary matter. Must one first complete the myriad practices and only afterward attain the Śūraṅgama Concentration?

A sutra is the Constant Way. The Shuowen Jiezi states: “In weaving cloth, there are warp threads and weft threads: the warp remains constant, while the weft changes.” This sutra was silently recited from memory by Nāgārjuna beneath the Dragon Palace and brought up from there. The king of the Five Indies [in southern India] treasured it and kept it hidden, not allowing it to be transmitted abroad. Did he not know that everyone inherently possesses this sutra—who could be without it? Only this is the Constant Way; how could it be secret?

A monk asked Master Shoushan: “All Buddhas arise from this sutra. What is this sutra?”

Master Shoushan replied: “Speak softly! Speak softly!”

The monk asked: “How should it be received and upheld?”

Master Shoushan said: “Do not defile it.”

Master Touzi [Chan Master Yiqing of the Tang dynasty, a Dharma successor of Chan Master Dayang Xuan] composed this verse:

“Waters flow from Kunlun; clouds rise from the mountains.

Those who come—the fisherman and woodcutter—do not know the visitor.

If they knew the mountain was high and the river overflowing,

They surely would not cast away the axe and abandon the line.”

(Shui chu Kunlun, shan qi yun

Diao ren, qiao fu mei lai ren

Zhi zhi hong lang, yan luan kuo

Bu ken pao si qi fu jin)

Patriarch Yaoshan ordinarily did not permit people to read sutras. Once, however, he himself was reading a sutra. A monk asked: “The Venerable ordinarily does not permit others to read sutras. Why does the Venerable read one?”

Master Yaoshan said: “I merely need to cover my eyes.”

The monk asked: “May I imitate the Venerable?”

Master Yaoshan said: “If you wish to read, you must first see through the oxhide [Oxhide: niupi. If one wraps oneself in oxhide and goes out into the sun, it constricts ever more tightly; if one binds oneself with dragon whiskers (longxu) and enters the water, they tighten further, causing pain. These two images indicate how the conditioned blessings of humans and devas harm the life of wisdom].”

Therefore, only when one understands this place of covering the eyes does one attain the wonder of receiving and upholding. And only by penetrating through it can one remain undefiled.

GENERAL PREFACE

Sutra: Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was dwelling in the Jeta Grove Monastery in the city of Śrāvastī, together with an assembly of one thousand two hundred and fifty great bhikṣus, all great arhats free from outflows [“outflow” is a term for affliction].

Penetrating Commentary: All sutras begin with: “Thus have I heard. At one time.” In obedience to the Buddha’s instruction, Ānanda compiled the sutras and first proclaimed these six words, thereby dispelling every doubt. “Thus, thus”—this can only be personally trusted and requires no verbal explanation. If one understands the Dharma of Thusness—the secret entrustment of the Buddhas and patriarchs—then all the circuitous words that follow are merely supplementary footnotes.

A monk came to pay respects to National Teacher Huizhong. The teacher asked: “What work do you do?”

The monk replied: “I lecture on the Diamond Sutra.”

The teacher asked: “What are its first two words?”

He replied: “Thus.”

The teacher asked: “What is that?”

The monk could not answer.

The teacher said: “Alas! Then on what basis do you lecture on the sutra?”

Chan Master Xuefeng Yicun [Chan Master Xuefeng, named Yicun, was a native of Fuzhou. He attained the Dharma under Patriarch Deshan. During the Xiantong era in the reign of Emperor Yizong of the Tang dynasty, he established a Chan monastery on Mount Xuefeng in Fuzhou. His assembly of practitioners often numbered as many as 1,500] also asked a lecturer: “The two words ‘Thus’ constitute the entire outline of the text; then what is the text itself?”

The lecturer [the leader of the great assembly] could not answer.

Master Wuyun answered on his behalf: “It has again been divided into three sections.”

Now tell me: when Master Wuyun opened his mouth, was that the outline or the text itself?

The term bhikshu has three meanings: mendicant; destroyer of evil; and frightener of Mara. The term arhat also has three meanings: worthy of offerings, slayer of thieves, and unborn. “Great” distinguishes them from the Lesser Vehicle. There are also three kinds of outflows: the outflow of ignorance, the outflow of desire, and the outflow of existence.

The Sutra says, “You have often heard that in my Vinaya there are three decisive principles of cultivation: collecting the mind constitutes morality; from morality arises samadhi; and through samadhi wisdom is brought forth. These are the three gates of the study of non-outflow. Restraint (morality) means that there is no leakage into sensual desire (the outflow of desire); tranquility (samadhi) ensures the absence of afflictions (the outflow of existence); and illumination of the mind (wisdom) ensures the absence of the affliction of ignorance.” These three aspects of non-outflow are called the decisive principles.

It would seem that wisdom is regarded as the ultimate point. Therefore, Master Dongshan said to Master Caoshan: “In the Dharma-ending age, most people possess dry wisdom (dry wisdom [the Stage of Dry Wisdom, the first stage among the Ten Grounds and the Three Vehicles. This wisdom is dry and therefore not yet mature.

The Treatise on the Meaning of the Mahayana says: Although wisdom is present, one has not yet obtained the pure water—that is, the tranquil mind, like still water. Moreover, with regard to contemplation of phenomena, as distinguished from contemplation of principle, the principle has not yet been fully realized, nor has purity been perfected]). To distinguish the genuine from the false, there are three kinds of leakage: First is the leakage of views [views acquired through learning]: one has not yet left the state of an ordinary being and falls into the poisonous sea.

Second is the leakage of emotion: one remains entangled in favorable and adverse conditions, and one’s view is not impartial. Third is the leakage of speech: one investigates the mysterious and subtle but loses the essential purport; both before and after, one’s responsive wisdom remains deluded and obscure, while defiled cognition continues to circulate. You must understand these three kinds.”

Within dry wisdom these three kinds are further distinguished. Without the Dharma Eye capable of discernment, one cannot illuminate and break through them. Therefore, arhats who dedicate themselves to the Mahayana must certainly contemplate and examine Master Dongshan’s teaching; only then will the meaning of non-outflow be complete.

Sutra: The Buddha’s disciples who uphold and perpetuate the Dharma skillfully transcend all realms of existence. In every land they perfect the deportment of dignity. Following the Buddha, they turn the Dharma wheel and are capable of worthily receiving the Buddha’s final injunction. They purify and adorn the precepts and Vinaya, thereby extending a model for the three realms. Manifesting innumerable bodies, they rescue and liberate sentient beings throughout the utmost reaches of future time from the bonds of all defiling objects.

Commentary: To uphold and perpetuate means that the ever-abiding awakened nature can sustain the myriad dharmas. This passage, although consisting of only a little more than a dozen phrases, truly encompasses the entire purport of the Sutra. “Skillfully transcend all realms of existence” means that the five skandhas, the six entrances, the twelve ayatanas, the eighteen dhatus, and even the seven elements can create no obstruction; thus the meaning of “breaking through delusion” is fully expressed.

“Perfect the deportment of dignity” refers to establishing the bodhimanda and the three gradual stages. The fifty-five stages constitute the path to bodhi; thus the meaning of “revealing the true” is fully expressed. “Wonderfully capable of receiving the final injunction” means that through the twenty-five Dharma gates to perfect penetration, all realize the self-nature and are equally capable of receiving a prediction of Buddhahood; thus the essential principle of “seeing the nature” remains intact.

“Extending a model throughout the three realms” means that this Sutra supports and upholds the precepts and Vinaya, earnestly enjoining the four prohibitions, the ten wholesome deeds, and the nine kinds of samadhi to set forth a standard for the three realms. Ananda’s manifestation of involvement in a sexual incident at the beginning of the Sutra was also for this reason. “Manifesting innumerable responsive bodies” instructs bodhisattvas and arhats to appear in the Dharma-ending age, transforming into all kinds of forms to rescue beings revolving in samsara.

To protect beings in the Dharma-ending age from demonic events, they enable them to “transcend the bonds of all defiling objects” and realize perfect penetration. This is truly the Tathagata’s final exemplary injunction.

Chan Master Fengxue Yanzhao taught: “If a single mote of dust is established [dust: a particle of dust], then even though the nation prospers, this old rustic still grieves. If not a single mote of dust is established, then even though the nation collapses, this old rustic still sings joyfully.”

Master Xuedou raised his staff and said, “Is there still a monk here who will live and die together with me?” The meaning of establishing a mote of dust lies precisely here. His verse says:

“The old monk teaches without raising his brows.

He wishes the nation’s foundation to stand firm.

Where now are wise ministers and valiant generals to assist?

For ten thousand miles the wind blows pure—only one knows it oneself.”

Within the gate of Buddhist activity, Master Xuedou did not reject a single dharma. In the realm of True Suchness, Master Tiantong accepted not a single mote of dust. These two dharmas proceed together in equality and emerge from the same place.

The verse says:

“On the limpid Wei River, he casts his fishing hook;

How could he resemble Boyi and Shuqi, who starved to death?

It is only because a single mote of dust gives rise to myriad appearances;

Good deeds and lofty fame are difficult indeed to relinquish.”

Patriarch Changqing also said, “Everything being as it is today is because the Old Barbarian [Old Barbarian: an old man of the barbarian tribes, referring to Bodhidharma] left something for people to look up to.”

Patriarch Baofu said, “Everything being as it is today is because the Old Barbarian utterly eliminated every place for people to look up to.”

Master Tiantong further taught, “The rich, though feeding a thousand mouths, still consider them too few. The poor, though having only this one body, still resent it as too much.”

Examining the instructions of these venerable masters, we see that all were given for the sake of others. How could this differ from the compassionate resolve of the Buddhas and Patriarchs to liberate beings of later generations? Therefore, they are copied here as a Dharma for perpetual preservation.

Sutra: Among them were Shariputra of Great Wisdom, Mahamaudgalyayana, Mahakaushthila, Purnamaitrayaniputra, Subhuti, and Upanishad, who served as leaders. There were also innumerable pratyekabuddhas beyond learning and those of initial resolve, all of whom came to the place where the Buddha expounded the Way. It was the day when the bhikshus concluded their summer retreat and held the Pravarana ceremony. Bodhisattvas from the ten directions arrived and asked the Buddha to resolve their doubts. Reverently obeying the Compassionate and Majestic One, they requested the profound and secret meaning.

The Tathagata arranged the Dharma seat and sat down at ease, revealing to the entire Dharma assembly the deeply secret and sublime meaning. The pure assembly attained what they had never experienced before.

Commentary: This describes the beginning of the Sutra. It says that the bodhisattvas requested the secret meaning, yet does not state what was secret. It says that the Buddha revealed the profound mystery, yet does not state what that profound mystery was. How, then, did the pure assembly attain what they had never experienced before?

Long ago, one day the World-Honored One ascended the Dharma seat. Manjushri struck the gavel and announced, “Clearly contemplate the Dharma of the Dharma King. The Dharma of the Dharma King is thus [Clearly contemplate the Dharma of the Dharma King. The Dharma of the Dharma King is thus].”

The World-Honored One then descended from the Dharma seat.

Patriarch Tiantong’s verse says:

“Do you see the single continuous piece of our house?

Vast through heaven and earth, the shuttle swiftly flies.

The ancient brocade is woven, filled with the colors of spring;

Why fear its disclosure by the Lord of the East [the deity of spring]?”

Master Xuedou’s verse says:

“The assembly of sages naturally understood at once;

The Dharma King’s Dharma decree was not like this.

Had a guest of the Chan school been present in this assembly,

Why would Manjushri have needed to strike the gavel?”

If one clearly comprehends the message in the World-Honored One’s ascending the seat and sitting there serenely, one truly and wondrously accords with the secret mystery, without needing to rely on troublesome words.

Among the pratyekabuddhas were also those of initial resolve, who were disciples of the pratyekabuddhas.

“Concluding the summer retreat and holding the Pravarana ceremony”: the Vinaya teaches that the three days for ending the summer retreat are the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth days of the seventh lunar month.

Sutra: The Buddha’s voice was harmonious and refined, like the song of the kalavinka bird, resounding throughout the ten directions. Bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges came to the bodhimanda, with Manjushri serving as their leader.

Commentary: While still within its egg, the kalavinka bird already possesses a wondrous voice with which no other bird can compare. This illustrates how the Sudden Teaching enters directly into the lineage of the Buddhas without needing to rely upon gradual cultivation; the Three Vehicles cannot compare with it. The Buddha used this voice to teach those with the capacity for sudden awakening.

Long ago, on one occasion, Mahamaudgalyayana wished to reach the utmost extent of the Buddha’s voice. Employing all his spiritual powers, he passed through worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges and arrived in a Buddha-land where the Reward Body was exceedingly vast. Leaning on his staff, he walked along the rim of the inhabitants’ rice bowl. The disciples there all asked the Buddha of that land, “Why is there an insect that looks exactly like a human being?”

That Buddha replied, “This is Maudgalyayana, a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha in the Saha world. Do not despise him because his stature is so small!” The Buddha then asked Mahamaudgalyayana why he had come there.

He replied that he wished to reach the utmost extent of the Buddha’s voice.

The Buddha taught, “The Buddha’s voice is inexhaustible; you cannot reach its limit.”

Mahamaudgalyayana then returned.

Thus, it is indeed correct to say, “Throughout all the ten directions.”

Each of the bodhisattvas, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, has a dwelling place. As with the worlds described in the Avatamsaka Sutra, the universe is boundless; what place is not a dwelling place of bodhisattvas? Now, hearing the Buddha’s voice, the bodhisattvas came to the Buddha.

Manjushri means Wondrous Virtue and represents True Wisdom. The revelation of the Sudden Teaching was precisely suited to his capacity, and so he served as the foremost among them.

Long ago, Chan Master Wuzhuo Wenxi went to Diamond Grotto on Mount Wutai to pay homage to Manjushri. He encountered an old man leading an ox, who invited him into the monastery.

The old man called, “Shramanera!” A young attendant answered and ran out to receive them. The old man released the ox and led the Chan master to the guest hall. All the buildings shone with golden light. The old man sat upon a couch and pointed to an embroidered stool, inviting the master to sit.

He said, “Where have you come from?”

Master Wenxi replied, “From the South.”

The old man asked, “How is the Buddhadharma maintained in the South?”

The master replied, “In the age of the decline of the Dharma, the bhikshus seldom uphold the precepts.”

The old man asked, “How numerous are the assemblies?”

The master replied, “Sometimes three hundred, sometimes five hundred.”

Master Wenxi then asked in return, “How is the Buddhadharma maintained here?”

The old man replied, “Dragons and snakes are intermingled; ordinary beings and sages dwell together.”

The master asked, “How numerous is the assembly?”

The old man replied, “Three by three before, and three by three after [the former three threes, the latter three threes].” He called for the young attendant to bring tea and cream [sulaka]. After the master had partaken of them, his mind and understanding became clear and unobstructed.

The old man raised a crystal cup and asked, “Do you have such a thing in the South?”

The master replied, “No.”

The old man asked, “What do you ordinarily use to drink tea?”

The master could not answer.

(What a pity! At that very moment, he should simply have smashed the crystal cup to pieces!)

Wenxi saw that the sky had grown dark and asked whether he might stay for one night.

The old man said, “You still possess an attached mind, so you cannot remain.”

The master said, “How could I have an attached mind?”

The old man asked, “Have you received the precepts?”

The master replied, “I received the precepts long ago.”

The old man said, “If you have no attached mind, why did you receive the precepts?”

The master took his leave. The old man instructed the young attendant to escort him back.

The master asked the young attendant, “How many are ‘three by three before, and three by three after’?”

The young attendant called loudly, “Venerable One!”

The master answered.

The young attendant said, “How many is that?”

Master Wenxi then asked, “What place is this?”

The attendant replied, “This is Diamond Grotto, Prajna Monastery.”

Only then did Master Wenxi awaken to the realization that the old man was Manjushri himself. Unable to meet him again, he bowed before the young attendant and asked for a parting word.

The young attendant recited this verse:

A face free from anger is an offering;

A mouth free from anger emits wondrous fragrance;

A heart free from anger is a precious jewel;

Undefiled and untainted is True Permanence.

When he finished speaking, both the people and the monastery disappeared.

Master Wenxi later studied under Patriarch Yangshan, swiftly awakened and attained accord with the mind, and served as chief cook [responsible for preparing meals for the Sangha in the Chan monastery]. While he was cooking, Manjushri often appeared above the pot of porridge. Master Wenxi stirred the porridge with a bamboo utensil, struck him, and said, “Manjushri is Manjushri unto himself. Wenxi is Wenxi unto himself.”

Manjushri then spoke this verse:

“The bitter gourd has bitter roots;

The sweet melon is sweet even to the stem.

Cultivating for three great kalpas,

Still rejected by this old monk.”

Having penetrated to Within This [the Principle Here], could one still speak of an attached mind?

Patriarch Xuedou composed this verse:

“A thousand peaks rise and fall, all one shade of blue;

Who is Manjushri, with whom one might converse?

How laughable—to ask how large the assembly at Qingliang [Mount Wutai] is:

Three by three before, and three by three after.”

Only when one has penetrated and passed completely through this point may one be said to have met Manjushri face to face.

THE OCCASION FOR THE ARISING OF THE SUTRA

Sutra: At that time, on the anniversary of his royal father’s death, King Prasenajit prepared a vegetarian feast and invited the Buddha to receive the meal. The king himself stood at the palace to welcome the Tathagata, arranged an abundance of precious foods, and personally went to invite the Buddha and the great bodhisattvas. In the city, elders and householders were likewise participating in offerings to the Sangha and awaiting the Buddha’s arrival to bear witness. The Buddha instructed Manjushri to assign the bodhisattvas and arhats to the homes of the various donors.

Ananda alone had previously accepted a separate invitation and had traveled far away without yet returning, so he did not arrive in time to join the Sangha. He returned alone, with neither a senior monk nor an acharya accompanying him, and on that day no one made offerings to him. At that time, carrying his alms bowl, he entered a city and went from house to house in proper sequence on his alms round. At first, in his heart he sought a final donor to serve as the meal sponsor. Without regard for whether the person was noble or lowly, he practiced an impartial mind of loving-kindness. He aspired to enable all sentient beings to perfect immeasurable merit.

Ananda knew that the Buddha had reproached Subhuti and Mahakashyapa because, although they were arhats, their minds were not impartial. Reverently following the Buddha’s instruction, he freed himself from all doubt and slander. Reaching the edge of the city, he entered the gate at a measured pace, maintaining dignified deportment and respectfully observing the rules for seeking alms.

Commentary: Why did King Prasenajit, together with the elders and householders, all participate so earnestly in offerings to the Sangha? Because the merit of offering meals to the Sangha brings immense benefit. The Buddha explained to Anathapindika the karmic rewards of giving: one may give much yet receive little reward, or give little yet receive great reward. Making offerings to a thousand Buddhas does not equal making an offering to one practitioner of pure conduct. Even making offerings to hundreds of thousands of Buddhas does not equal making an offering to one person of the Way who is free from mind.

The Sutra in Forty-Two Sections says: “The Buddha taught: Feeding one hundred evil people does not equal feeding one good person. Feeding one thousand good people does not equal feeding one person who observes the Five Precepts. Feeding ten thousand people who observe the Five Precepts does not equal making an offering to one stream-enterer.

Making offerings to one million stream-enterers does not equal making an offering to one once-returner. Making offerings to ten million once-returners does not equal making an offering to one non-returner. Making offerings to one hundred million non-returners does not equal making an offering to one arhat.

Making offerings to one billion arhats does not equal making an offering to one pratyekabuddha. Making offerings to ten billion pratyekabuddhas does not equal making offerings to all the Buddhas of the three periods. Making offerings to one hundred billion Buddhas of the three periods does not equal making an offering to one who is without thought, without abiding, without cultivation, and without attainment.”

In general, the preceding two passages correspond with one another.

A monk asked Patriarch Luopu [Luo was the name of a river landing and is now the name of a county. Because the patriarch lived in this county, he was known by the name of the place], “Making offerings to hundreds of thousands of Buddhas does not equal making an offering to one person of the Way who is free from mind. What fault do those hundreds of thousands of Buddhas have? What virtue does the person of the Way who is free from mind possess?”

The patriarch replied, “A wisp of white cloud passes before the grotto. How many birds lose their way back to their nests?”

Master Danxia [Chan Master Tianran, who lived on Mount Danxia in Dongzhou] composed this verse:

“Shide, heedless and uncomprehending”

Hanshan, languid, knows not to return [Shide and Hanshan were two monks who feigned madness. In truth, they were manifestations of two great bodhisattvas]

Before sound, a single phrase—the wondrous perfect voice;

Beyond all things, over three mountains, a sliver of moon shines.”

(Shide shu rong fei jue xiao

Hanshan lai duo bu si gui

Sheng qian yi ju yuan yin mei

Wu wai san shan pian yue gui).

The third line: the Perfect Voice is the wondrous echo that pervades everywhere; it pertains to the hidden.

The fourth line is the manifest.

This is a verse specifically concerning the man of the Way who is free of mind.

One day the practitioner Ganzhi went to the place of Master Nanquan [Chan Master Puyuan of the Tang dynasty, who lived on Mount Nanquan and succeeded to the Dharma of Mazu] to offer a vegetarian meal, and there encountered Patriarch Huangbo serving as head seat [the person who oversees the entire assembly in the monastery]. He asked to be permitted to make an offering of money. [The gift of material wealth.]

Patriarch Huangbo said, “The gift of material wealth and the gift of Dharma are entirely without distinction.”

Ganzhi said, “If you speak in this way, how can you be worthy of consuming my offering?” He then departed.

A short while later, he returned and said, “Please permit me to offer material wealth.”

Patriarch Huangbo said, “The gift of material wealth and the gift of Dharma are entirely without distinction.”

Ganzhi then presented his offering.

On another day, he entered the monastery to prepare porridge and asked Patriarch Nanquan to chant a dedication for him. Master Nanquan struck the wooden clapper [struck the signal board] and said, “May the great assembly recite Mahaprajnaparamita for the fox and the old ox.”

Ganzhi then flicked his sleeves and walked out.

After the porridge had been eaten, Master Nanquan asked the cook [the monk responsible for meals and offerings of rice, porridge, and so forth], “Where is the practitioner?”

He replied, “He left just now.”

Master Nanquan then smashed the pot to pieces.

Master Shushan [Chan Master Guangren, styled Shushan. Short and homely in appearance, he was brilliant in debate and was called the Short Buddha. He succeeded to the Dharma of Dongshan] composed this verse:

“Alone he served the porridge, displaying his excellence;

Who knew old Master Wang was elegant and free?

Smashing the porridge pot exposed his clumsy shame;

Fox and old ox were gathered in at once.”

Only someone like Ganzhi is truly worthy of being called one capable of making offerings to a man of the Way who is free of mind.

The practice of almsround has five meanings. First, inwardly one realizes equality, while outwardly one sees no marks of wealth or poverty. Second, one abandons the greedy and arrogant mind that pursues personal advantage.

Third, one possesses the power of great samadhi and does not fear the virulent poisons of a licentious woman’s household. Fourth, one relinquishes the suspicions and aversions of ordinary beings. Fifth, one breaks through the discriminations of the Two Vehicles.

Vimalakirti said, “When one is impartial with respect to food, one is also impartial with respect to the Dharma. Without regard for nobility or baseness, impurity or purity, all attain bodhi. This is the perfect accomplishment of the immeasurable merits of all sentient beings.” Subhuti abandoned the poor and followed the rich.

Mahakasyapa abandoned the rich and followed the poor. Thus their compassion was not impartial and could not be called equal compassion. Yet as soon as such a thought arose in Ananda’s mind, he had already fallen into discriminating consciousness and thereby entered the livelihood of the house of ghosts; hence Mara found an opportunity.

How could this compare with almsround practiced in the following manner? Long ago there was a venerable monk who always carried on his staff a cloth sack and a torn mat. He cast every article he used into that sack. Entering marketplaces and villages, he begged for whatever he saw. Whether sour meat or salted fish, as soon as he received it he put some into his mouth and placed the remainder in his sack. People of that time called him Changdingzi. One day, a monk was walking before him, and the Master patted him on the back. The monk turned his head.

The Master said, “Give me a coin.”

The monk said, “If you can say something, I will give you a coin.”

The Master put down his cloth sack, folded his hands, and stood perfectly still.

On another day, he was standing in the marketplace. A monk asked, “What is the venerable doing Within There [within this principle]?”

He replied, “The same as ‘that person.’”

The monk said, “He has come! He has come!”

The Master said, “You are not that person.”

The monk asked, “What is that person like?”

The Master replied, “Give me a coin!”

He had this verse:

“One bowl of rice from a thousand homes;

A solitary body roams ten thousand miles.

Blue-eyed, few people perceive him;

He asks the white clouds for the road ahead.”

(Yi bo qian jia fan

Gu shen wan li you

Qing mu du ren qian

Wen lu bai yun tou).

If one can accord with this place, one may be said to have attained the rite of the Buddhas.

One day, the Buddha told Ananda, “The time has come; you should enter the city carrying your bowl on almsround” [holding and carrying the bowl].

Ananda obeyed. The Blessed One said, “Since you are carrying the bowl, you must follow the rite of the seven Buddhas of the past.”

Ananda then asked, “What is the rite of the seven Buddhas of the past?”

The Blessed One called loudly, “Ananda!”

Ananda answered.

The Blessed One said, “Carry your bowl and go!”

Ah! Had Ananda understood this place earlier, how could the affair with Matangi ever have occurred?

Sutra: While going on almsround, Ananda passed the house of the licentious woman Matangi and was overcome by her sorcery—the heterodox Kapila spell. He was drawn onto her private bed, where she leaned against and caressed him, bringing him close to breaking the substance of his precepts.

The Tathagata knew that Ananda had fallen under a lustful spell, and immediately after completing the meal he returned. The king, together with ministers, elders, and lay practitioners, all followed the Buddha, hoping to hear the essential Dharma.

At that time, from the crown of the Blessed One’s head streamed forth brilliant, fearlessness-bestowing light. Within the radiance appeared a precious thousand-petaled lotus throne, upon which sat a transformation body of the Buddha in full lotus posture, proclaiming a divine mantra. He commanded Manjusri to take this mantra to Ananda’s aid, destroy the heterodox spell, and then bring Ananda and the woman Matangi back to the Buddha’s presence.

Commentary: The Collection of Harmonized Treatises says, “The Buddha had compassion for sentient beings, who drift through the Three Realms entirely because they are bound by desire.” Among all forms of desire, sexual desire alone is the gravest; therefore, this sutra opens with the incident involving the woman Matangi. This emphasizes that to sink into it is a great calamity, while to eradicate it is a great benefit. It is like herding goats by striking those at the rear; thus, whenever the opportunity arises, careful admonitions are given.

“There was a bhiksuni named Precious Fragrance who received the bodhisattva precepts but secretly engaged in sexual acts. She also spoke falsely, saying that sexual desire was neither killing nor stealing and therefore brought no karmic retribution. A great flame immediately arose from her female organ and gradually consumed her entire body, whereupon she fell into the Avici hell.

“Ushnisha, however, heard the Buddha teach that a person of excessive lust is like a great mass of fire. Through cultivation he transformed the nature of lust into the Fire-Light Samadhi and attained arhatship. He said, ‘When all afflictions had been extinguished, a precious flame arose, and I ascended to unsurpassed awakening.’

“Ah! Unsurpassed awakening is the station of Buddhahood, yet through contemplation of the nature of lust one can ascend to it! The Avici hell is an evil destination, yet by following sexual desire one may fall into it while still alive.

In the discussion of the ten kinds of habitual causes, habitual lust is placed first. Habitual lust is said to come first because it consists in intercourse, arising from mutual rubbing; hence an exceedingly fierce fire blazes forth within. For this reason, the Buddha called sexual activity the fire of desire.

Only afterward come the offenses of greed and arrogance. In the Vinaya, the three definitive principles of cultivation are taught: gathering the mind constitutes morality; from morality arises samadhi; and from samadhi arises wisdom. These are called the three undefiled trainings [the three teachings that eliminate afflictions].

In discussing the elimination of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and false speech, this sutra places the elimination of sexual misconduct first.”

“Furthermore, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara himself recounted the thirty-two responsive bodies through which he expounds the Dharma, saying: ‘The Brahma King, through awakening from the mind of desire, is, together with Buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and sravakas, alike called Liberated [at ease, set free], whereas the other twenty-eight classes bear only the designation of accomplishment.’ Moreover, the five pungent plants [the five pungent foods] arouse lust and increase anger; therefore, he taught the establishment of three gradual stages to eliminate them, calling this the foremost advancement.

He further taught that one must regard sexual desire as more dangerous than a venomous snake; if one succeeds in upholding the precepts, then with the fleshly eyes received at birth from one’s parents, one can see throughout all ten directions.”

Such was the meticulous counsel given when the occasion arose. This commentary has indeed straightened the entire thread and structure of the sutra, offering meticulous counsel and profoundly elucidating what the sutra reveals and teaches, taking the severance of sexual desire as foremost and causing people to be so alarmed that their hair stands on end and their spines grow cold. Nevertheless, one who has realized true wisdom sees all sounds and forms as illusory and dreamlike; those evil matters have not the slightest trace within it.

The Sutra in Forty-Two Sections says, “A person of many sensual desires is like one who carries a torch against the wind; his hands are certain to be burned.” A heavenly spirit offered a jade maiden to test the Buddha, wishing to see what his resolve for the Way was like. The Buddha said, “What has this leather bag filled with filth come here for? Go away! I have no use for it.” The heavenly spirit was filled with reverence and asked about the meaning of the Way. The Buddha instructed him, and he immediately attained the fruit of stream-entry.

There is also the following passage in the Vimalakirti Sutra: “Sariputra asked the goddess, ‘Why do you not transform your female body?’

“The goddess replied, ‘For the past twelve years, I have sought the characteristics of a woman but have been unable to find them. What, then, is there to transform? It is like an illusionist creating an illusory woman. If someone asked her, “Why do you not transform your female body?” would that question be correct?’

“Sariputra replied, ‘No, it would not! An illusion has no fixed characteristic, so what could be transformed?’

“The goddess said, ‘All Buddhas are likewise. All things are without fixed characteristics, so why ask why I do not transform my female body?’

“Thereupon, the goddess used her spiritual powers to transform Sariputra into a goddess, while she transformed herself to resemble Sariputra; she then asked, ‘Why do you not transform your female body?’

“Sariputra, in the form of a female body, replied, ‘I do not understand how I have been transformed into a female body.’

“The goddess said, ‘If Sariputra can transform this female body, then all women can likewise transform theirs. Just as Sariputra is not a woman yet manifests a female body, so too are all women: although they manifest female bodies, they are not women. Therefore, the Buddha said, “All dharmas are neither male nor female.”’

“The goddess then withdrew her spiritual power, and Sariputra returned to his former form.

“The goddess said, ‘Now, Sariputra, where are the form and characteristics of your female body?’

“Sariputra said, ‘The form and characteristics of the female body are nowhere, yet there is nowhere they are not.’

“The goddess said, ‘All dharmas are likewise: they are nowhere, yet there is nowhere they are not.’”

Alas! The goddess’s spiritual power could transform Sariputra, whereas the Brahma-heaven immortal’s spell could not destroy Ananda’s essence of precepts. The meanings of these two scriptural passages may thus be compared and clearly understood.

Sutra: Ananda saw the Buddha, bowed down, and wept sorrowfully. He bitterly regretted that, from beginningless time until then, he had devoted himself solely to extensive learning and prodigious memory and had not perfected his power of the Way. He earnestly implored the Buddha to teach him the subtle and wondrous dharmas of samatha (calming), samapatti (contemplation), and dhyana (meditation—the perfect cultivation of calming and contemplation), the initial expedients of cultivation through which the Tathagatas of the ten directions attain bodhi.

At that time, bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, great arhats, and pratyekabuddhas also came from the ten directions. All wished to hear the Buddha’s teaching. They withdrew to their seats and silently received the sacred instruction.

Commentary: Ananda’s question here is the backbone of the entire sutra. From beginning to end, the World-Honored One’s answer leaves nothing unaddressed. “Samatha” means ultimate stillness and is the contemplation of emptiness.

“Samapatti” means the transformative functioning (as illusion) and is the contemplation of provisional existence. “Dhyana” is quiescent cessation, meaning neither preserving the illusory transformations nor abiding in the characteristic of purity; this is the contemplation of the Middle. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment says: “The quiescent stillness of samatha is like a mirror reflecting the myriad images.

Illusory samapatti is like a seedling gradually growing. Dhyana is quiescent cessation, like a reverberation within a bell. These three kinds of wondrous Dharma gates are called accord with enlightenment.

Through them, the Tathagatas of the ten directions and all great bodhisattvas accomplish the Way. Perfect realization of all three is ultimate nirvana.”

Ananda had devoted himself solely to extensive learning and broad study; had he also cultivated these three Dharma gates, what need would there have been to ask? Since he was now ensnared by an illusion, all his previous efforts in contemplative practice and meditative concentration must have availed him nothing. He therefore thought that the Tathagatas of the ten directions must possess something wondrous concerning these practices. Considering the single word “wondrous,” it seems he had vaguely caught a glimpse: why should arduous and exhausting cultivation be necessary? He simply did not know that the foremost expedient consists entirely in awakening and entry.

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment also says, “Only those of sudden enlightenment do not follow a Dharma gate.” There is fundamentally a Dharma gate of sudden awakening, which takes seeing one’s nature as its essential principle. Therefore, if one sees the nature, one is without deliberate mind regarding calming and contemplation, yet calming and contemplation are naturally present. If one does not see the nature, then although one practices calming and contemplation every day, it remains difficult to withstand demonic states.

Only “seeing the nature” is truly “wondrous.” Later passages of the sutra speak of the wondrously luminous true mind, the sea of wondrous adornments, the wondrous luminosity of luminous wonder, and so forth, all to answer the meaning of the word “wondrous,” concluding with the verse:

“It is called the Wondrous Lotus,

The Vajra King, Precious Enlightenment,

Illusory samapatti;

With a snap of the fingers, one surpasses those beyond training.

This Dharma is unsurpassed,

The single path of direct entry into nirvana

Of all Buddhas throughout the ten directions.”

This Dharma of sudden awakening cannot be compared with ordinary forms of calming and contemplation or meditative concentration.

In ancient times, Master Xuefeng visited Patriarch Touzi three times [Chan Master Yiqing of the Tang dynasty, from Shuzhou, who resided on Mount Touzi. He succeeded to the Dharma of Chan Master Dayang Xuan], and questioned Patriarch Dongshan nine times [that is, Dongshan of Junzhou. He attained the Dharma under Patriarch Yunyan Sheng.

He established the Five Ranks of the Relative and the Absolute; his influence was powerful, and his Dharma flourished greatly. He was imperially bestowed the title Chan Master Wuben]. Thus, he too was a man of extensive learning.

After succeeding Patriarch Deshan, he went with Patriarch Yantou to Mount Ao in Lizhou. Snow began to fall. Patriarch Yantou concerned himself only with sleeping each day, while Master Xuefeng devoted himself continuously to seated meditation.

One day, Master Xuefeng called out loudly, “Elder Dharma brother! Elder Dharma brother! Get up!”

Patriarch Yantou said, “What are you doing?”

He replied, “If I do not settle this matter in this lifetime, that old fellow Wencui will bind me. Now that we have come here, you concern yourself only with sleeping.”

Patriarch Yantou shouted, “Banner pole, go to sleep! Every day you sit there like the village earth god, and later you will become a male or female apparition haunting people’s homes!”

Pointing to his own chest, Master Xuefeng said, “Within here, I am not yet at peace; I dare not deceive myself.”

Patriarch Yantou said, “I was about to say that one day you would build a thatched hermitage upon a rock on a bare mountaintop and proclaim the great teaching. Why, then, do you speak this way?”

Master Xuefeng said, “Within here, I truly am not at peace.”

Patriarch Yantou [Chan Master Deyan Kuo of the Tang dynasty, who lived on Mount Yantou. He studied under Patriarch Deshan and accorded with and understood the essential purport. When Emperor Wuzong questioned and scrutinized the Buddhist teachings, he went into hiding and worked as a ferryman. Later, he built a hermitage on Mount Wolong. Three years later, he passed away. He was posthumously bestowed the title Chan Master Qingyan.] said: “If it is truly so with you, then speak forth everything, one by one, according to what you have seen. If it is right, I shall confirm it for you. If it is not right, I shall refine and polish it for you.”

He said: “At first, I went to pay my respects to Master Jianguan [the personal name of Chan Master Qi’an]. Hearing him raise the meaning of Form and Emptiness during a Dharma talk, I gained an entry.”

Patriarch Yantou said: “That happened thirty years ago. It is most inadvisable to bring it up again!”

He said: “Later, I saw Patriarch Dongshan’s verse:

“Most strictly avoid seeking elsewhere;

With every step, it grows more remote.

He now is precisely I;

I now am not he.”

(Thiết kỵ tùng tha mích

Điều điều dữ ngã sơ

Cừ kim chính thị ngã

Ngã kim bất thị cừ).

Patriarch Yantou said: “If you take it to be such, you will not even be able to save yourself.”

He continued: “Later, I went to ask Master Deshan [Patriarch Shijian Xuanjian of the Tang dynasty, who lived at Deshan Monastery in Langzhou. He left the household life when young. He was highly versed in the sutras and Vinaya and thoroughly understood the Diamond Sutra. People of that time called him ‘Diamond Zhou.’ He did not believe in or accept the Way of the Southern Chan school—the Southern school of Huineng]: ‘In the matter transmitted from ancient times to the present within the School, do practitioners and students have any share in it?’ Patriarch Deshan struck me once with his staff and said: ‘What are you saying?’ At that moment, I was like a barrel whose bottom had fallen out.”

Patriarch Yantou shouted loudly: “Have you not heard it said, ‘What enters through the gate is certainly not the treasure of one’s own house’?”

He asked: “What then would be right in the future?”

Patriarch Yantou replied: “In the future, if you wish to propagate the great teaching, let each and every word pour forth from within your own breast. In days to come, join me in covering heaven and covering earth.”

Upon hearing this, Master Xuefeng attained great awakening. He bowed and joyfully cried out: “Elder Dharma brother! Only today has the Way truly been realized at Aoshan [the name of a mountain in Hunan. Tradition relates that in ancient times three monks—Jianxuan, Yicun, and Wencui—came here while traveling in search of the Dharma and awakened to the Way. Thereafter, their disciples spoke of ‘awakening to the Way at Aoshan’].”

Marvelous indeed, marvelous indeed! How could this critical phrase have been attained merely by one-sidedly sitting in meditation?

CHAPTER I: REVEALING THE TRUE MIND

SECTION ONE: INQUIRING INTO THE MIND

I. THE CAUSES OF PERMANENT ABIDING AND CYCLIC EXISTENCE

Sutra: The Buddha said to Ananda: “You and I are of the same lineage, and our affection is like that between blood brothers. When you first brought forth the aspiration, what excellent characteristics did you see within the Buddha-Dharma that enabled you to renounce the deep affections and attachments of the world?”

Ananda said to the Buddha: “I saw that the Tathagata’s thirty-two marks were extraordinarily fine and wondrous, and that his form was luminous and translucent like crystal. I often reflected that such marks could not have been born of sensual desire. Why? The essence of lust is defiled and foul, compounded of stench and impurity, with blood and pus intermingled. How could it produce such a pure, radiant, golden body? Thus, filled with yearning and reverence, I shaved my head and followed the Buddha.”

Commentary: Because Ananda had this reflection as the root of his initial aspiration for the Way, when he encountered the illusory spell, he was not utterly dazzled and confused. Although he entered the courtesan’s house, he did not destroy the substance of his precepts. Yet because he saw the Tathagata only through the thirty-two excellent marks, he could not avoid seeing by means of form and seeking by means of sound.

Thus, he still remained within erroneous understanding and was very far from the Buddha’s True Dharma Body. Chan Master Fazhi of Suizhou ascended the Dharma seat [mounted the seat to expound the Dharma] and said: “The Dharma Body has no form or appearance and cannot be sought through sound. The wondrous Way transcends all speech; how could it be understood through written words?

Even if one surpasses the Buddhas and transcends the patriarchs, one still falls upon the steps and stages. Even if one speaks of the wondrous and discusses the mysterious, ultimately it still hangs upon the lips and teeth. It is necessary that one enjoy not the slightest merit where merit and virtue are concerned, and that no image, trace, or mark remain; like a withered tree in a cold cavern [This expression alludes to words spoken by a patriarch in the account of the Old Woman Who Burned the Hermitage, a gong’an.

The account says: Long ago, an old woman—a widow—supported the master of a hermitage for twenty years. One day, she sent her maidservant to ask him: ‘How is it at present?’ The hermitage master replied: ‘A withered tree leans against a cold cliff; through three winters, there is no warmth. (Khô mộc ỷ hàn nham. Tam đông vô noãn khí).’ The maid returned and reported his words exactly.

The old woman said: ‘For twenty years I have made offerings to that common fellow.’ She then ordered him driven away and immediately burned down the hermitage. These were actually words through which the patriarch expressed that he had realized the Way, but the widow did not understand them.], utterly devoid of knowing; like an illusory person or a wooden horse, with all discriminating consciousness absent. Only then can one lower one’s hands and enter the marketplace, turning oneself among other kinds of beings.

Have you not heard it said:

‘Where could one dwell upon the undefiled ground?

One must return to lie amid cold sands, mist, and smoke.’”

If one awakens and understands at this point, must one still wait to see a pure, radiant, golden body before calling it the Tathagata?

Sutra: The Buddha said: “Excellent, Ananda! You should all know that, from beginningless time until the present, all sentient beings have undergone birth and death in unbroken succession because they do not know the permanently abiding True Mind, whose essential nature is originally pure and luminous, but instead employ various deluded thoughts. Because these thoughts are not true, there arises the turning and drifting of cyclic existence.

Commentary: Ananda earnestly and urgently requested the subtle and wondrous Dharma doors of shamatha, samapatti, and dhyana—the initial expedient means through which the Tathagatas of the ten directions attain Perfect Awakening. He wished precisely to know the permanently abiding True Mind, whose essential nature is pure and luminous—the indestructible fundamental essence that is not turned about in samsara. When he said, “Those marks could not have been born of sensual desire,” he had already understood clearly that defiled sensual desire and confused deluded thinking are the root of birth and death from beginningless time until the present.

Therefore, the Buddha praised him, saying, “Excellent!” The permanently abiding True Mind is originally neither born nor destroyed. The moment deluded thought arises, one enters samsara. It is not only intense sensual desire and manifold evil karma that are untrue; even the attachments not yet exhausted by sravakas and pratyekabuddhas are all delusion.

When deluded thoughts are completely exhausted, the essential nature is luminous and originally unborn—how then could there be any cyclic wandering? The entire sutra elucidates this essential purport. Therefore, to know the permanently abiding True Mind is to see one’s nature; to see one’s nature is to be free of affairs.

Master Lingyun [Chan Master Zhiqin of the Tang dynasty, who lived on Mount Lingyun. He initially stayed at Guishan and awakened to the Way upon seeing peach blossoms] ascended the Dharma seat and taught: “Virtuous ones, wherever there is long and short, there is no permanence. Observe the flowers and grasses of the four seasons: flowers bloom and leaves fall.

From ancient times to the present, throughout the seven paths of devas and humans, earth, water, wind, and fire undergo formation and destruction in ceaseless rotation; causes and effects follow one another; and there is suffering in the three evil paths. Yet neither the slightest hair nor the finest strand has ever increased or diminished; only the root of consciousness remains constantly present. Those of superior faculties who encounter a good spiritual friend and are illumined attain liberation right here; before their very eyes is the place of awakening.

Those of middling and inferior faculties are foolish and dull, unable to penetrate with illumination; confused, they sink within the three realms and revolve through birth and death. For their sake and for the sake of all devas and humans, the World-Honored Shakyamuni taught, demonstrated, and revealed the unsurpassed path. Do you understand?”

A monk asked: “How can one escape birth, aging, sickness, and death?”

The master replied:

“The green mountain has never moved;

Let the drifting clouds come and go as they will.”

(Thanh sơn nguyên bất động

Phù vân nhậm khứ lai).

This statement is sufficient to annotate the sutra passage above. Not a single word can be added or removed.

Sutra: “Now, if you wish to learn the Way of unsurpassed bodhi and bring the True Nature to light, you must answer My question with a Straightforward Mind. The Tathagatas of the ten directions all follow the same path to transcend birth and death: they do so through the Straightforward Mind. When the mind is said to be straightforward, it means that from the initial stage to the final stage, throughout the entire course between them, it remains consistently so, without any devious or crooked characteristics.

Commentary: The Combined Treatise says: “Here, it speaks specifically of the True Nature That Brings Illumination to Light. Does this mean, then, that there is also a Deluded Nature That Brings Illumination to Light? There is.

How are they to be distinguished? The answer is: To follow circumstances without contrivance, responding freely while knowing universally, fundamentally wondrously luminous yet constantly quiescent—this is the True Nature That Brings Illumination to Light.” This is what is meant by the statement, “The Tathagatas of the ten directions all follow the same path to transcend birth and death, and they all do so through the Straightforward Mind.” To go against the proper time, miss the conditions, and rely on deluded thoughts in a strained effort to understand is the Deluded Nature That Brings Illumination to Light.

This is precisely what is meant by the statement, “You employ all manner of deluded thoughts; because these deluded thoughts are not true, there is transmigration.” Fundamentally, they are one essence, but because it has no self-nature and no fixed time, differences appear according to its application. To follow circumstances freely, remaining constantly quiescent yet Able to Know, is necessarily in accord with the wondrous Original Nature [the virtuous nature that has inherently existed from the beginning].

To know while opposing the proper time and missing the conditions is necessarily to conform to illusory sensory objects.

Master Ashvaghosha [a Mahayana treatise master who appeared six hundred years after the Buddha entered nirvana; his Sanskrit name is Ashvaghosha; he was a disciple of the elder Parshva] taught: “The Original Nature is inherently pure, but because of the unawareness of ignorance, the characteristics of a defiled mind appear. Although there is a defiled mind, the Original Nature remains forever luminous and pure. The characteristics of the defiled mind are ignorance in active operation. The luminous and pure Original Nature is the unmoving essence of wisdom.”

A monk asked Patriarch Yunyan: “The Treatise on the Avatamsaka says: ‘Ignorance in active operation is itself the Tathagata’s Unmoving Wisdom.’ This is truly difficult to believe. How should it be understood?”

At that moment, an attendant boy was sweeping the ground.

Patriarch Yunyan called to him. The boy turned his head.

Patriarch Yunyan said: “Is that not Unmoving Wisdom?”

He then asked: “What is your Buddha-nature like?”

The boy looked left and right as though there were nothing, and then walked away.

Patriarch Yunyan said: “Is that not ignorance in active operation?”

The True Nature That Brings Illumination to Light is like the radiance of a luminous pearl, forever illuminating the pearl itself. Confucius taught, “Have no depraved thoughts,” which is also somewhat similar. The Deluded Nature That Brings Illumination to Light, however, is like the eastern sky just before dawn, when faint shapes and colors appear amid the dimness. The Book of Changes says, “Within the obscure and intermingled there is illumination,” which is somewhat similar.

Sutra: “Ananda, I now ask you: When you aroused the aspiration because of the Tathagata’s thirty-two marks, with what did you see, and what was it that delighted in them?”

Commentary: This is the Blessed One’s first step in gradually guiding him. Could the Blessed One not have known that seeing belongs to the eyes and delighting belongs to the mind? Yet that “seeing of what exists” is a seeing of conditioned forms, and that “having something in which one delights” is delighting in conditioned forms.

He therefore asked who sees and who loves, intending that Ananda recognize and grasp, at that very moment, his own true person who has existed from the beginning. If he could turn the light around and reflect it back, seeking that which sees and suddenly realizing it to be unattainable, then all desires and delights, which have never had any root, would immediately cease, and he would enter directly into the Shurangama Samadhi.

Would that not be delightful? Later, the Chan school frequently employed this pivotal device.

A monk asked Patriarch Baizhang [Chan Master Dazhi Huaihai of the Tang dynasty, who lived on Mount Baizhang and inherited the Dharma lineage of Chan Master Mazu Daoyi. He established the first set of regulations for Chan monasteries, known as the Baizhang Pure Rules. He left behind many koans, such as “Baizhang’s Wild Fox” and “Baizhang’s Three Days of Deafness”...]: “What is the Buddha?”

Patriarch Baizhang asked: “Who are you?”

He replied: “It is I.”

Patriarch Baizhang said: “Do you know that ‘I’?”

He replied: “Clearly.”

Patriarch Baizhang then raised his fly-whisk [an implement symbolizing the office of an abbot] upright and said: “Do you also see this?”

He replied: “I see it.”

Patriarch Baizhang then said nothing at all.

The monk’s question concerned the Buddha, yet Patriarch Baizhang said nothing about the Buddha. He merely prompted the monk at the very place of seeing. This case clearly reveals the pattern of the Shurangama Sutra.

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha: “Blessed One, that delight arose through my mind and my eyes. Because my eyes saw the Tathagata’s excellent marks and my mind gave rise to delight, I aroused the aspiration and vowed to abandon birth and death.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “As you have said, delight truly arises because of the mind and the eyes. If you do not know where the mind and eyes are, you will be unable to subdue the defilements. It is like a king whose country has been invaded by bandits. When he dispatches troops to suppress them, those troops must above all know where the bandits dwell. The chief culprits that cause you to undergo transmigration are your mind and eyes. I now ask you: Where are that mind and those eyes presently located?”

Commentary: The Blessed One’s question specifically reveals the One Path Beyond [the vehicle of the lineage and the essential purport of the Chan school, collectively called the One Path Beyond—the single path of looking upward]. When he said, “With what did you see, and who delighted?” he was clearly pointing directly at the moon. Ananda’s answer had not yet departed from conventional understanding.

He knew only how to conform to sensory objects and did not know how to accord with awakening. Who is at fault for turning one’s back on awakening and conforming to sensory objects? The Six Bandits—the six sense faculties—act as intermediaries and plunder the treasures of one’s own house.

Therefore, what Ananda called the “mind and eyes” were merely the sense faculties and consciousnesses, which draw one along after the defilements and circulate together with birth and death. The Permanently Abiding True Mind [the True Mind that is neither born nor destroyed] is like the king of a country. Because bandits have invaded, what is inherently pure is called defiled, and what is inherently luminous is called obscure.

The mind and eyes are indeed the bandits that assail the True Nature. Therefore, one must penetrate to the very depths of their lair and eradicate them. When one reverses the current of wandering existence and preserves the True Nature intact, the six functions—the six consciousnesses—no longer operate, and the inherent pure radiance shines forth.

The six sense faculties function interchangeably, and the fleshly eyes born of one’s parents see throughout the ten directions. What faults of being swept along in the current could then remain?

One night, Chan Master Zihu Li shouted loudly: “Thieves! Thieves!”

His disciples sprang up and vied with one another to pursue and catch them. The master seized one of them and said: “I have caught one!”

The disciple said: “No, it is me.”

The master released him and said: “Precisely [‘It is so, it is so’; that is indeed correct].”

It is only because one refuses to acknowledge it!

Thus, if one is willing to acknowledge it, the thief is one’s own child. If one cannot take responsibility for it, one’s own child becomes a thief instead. In relation to the story of the king dispatching troops to eliminate the bandits, this exchange is truly a playful performance intended solely for those who have eyes.

II. CLINGING TO THE VIEW THAT THE MIND IS INSIDE THE BODY

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha: “Blessed One, all beings of the ten classes throughout the world regard the conscious mind that is able to know as dwelling inside the body. I consider that the Tathagata’s eyes, which resemble blue lotuses, are also situated upon the Buddha’s face. I now see that my own physical eyes are likewise situated upon my face. Therefore, the conscious mind is indeed inside the body.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “You are now seated within the Tathagata’s lecture hall. Look and tell Me: Where is the Jeta Grove?”

“World-Honored One, this lofty and pure lecture hall is within Anathapindika’s Garden, while Jeta Grove is actually outside the lecture hall.”

“Ananda, now that you are inside the lecture hall, what do you see first?”

“World-Honored One, from within the lecture hall, I first see the Tathagata, then the great assembly, and afterward, looking outside, I see the garden and grove.”

“Ananda, by what means do you see the garden and grove?”

“World-Honored One, because the doors of the lecture hall are wide open, I can remain inside and see far outside.”

Commentary: The Floating Faculties and Four Dusts [the physical eye] are likewise associated with all six faculties, although here only the faculty of sight is meant. Earth, water, fire, and wind: their natures have always been intrinsically pure, yet the characteristics of earth, water, fire, and wind are each in motion like motes of dust, and hence are called “dusts.” When the six faculties are formed, they depend upon these four dusts: the six faculties are submerged within, while the four great elements float on the outside; hence they are called the Floating Faculties and Four Dusts.

In all ten classes of beings, the consciousness-mind is within, and the eyes are on the face—this goes without saying. The Tathagata’s eyes are on his face, but one cannot definitively assert that his consciousness-mind is within, for the Tathagata has already transcended consciousness, and the Dharma-body is perfectly complete, having neither inside nor outside. Ananda spoke with true deliberation, and the translator was also careful.

The World-Honored One wished to elucidate the meaning of “the mind is not within,” and therefore first used the lecture hall, garden and grove, and doors as an analogy. The lecture hall represents the inside of the body; the garden and grove represent external objects; and the doors represent the six faculties. If Ananda were one who had thoroughly understood and had seen Ananda’s true person—which belongs neither to the lecture hall, nor to the garden and grove, nor to the doors—then he would come and go freely; how could there be any inside or outside?

But if one clings fast to this mind, mistakenly supposing it to be within the physical body, taking the internal organs as a tightly sealed house, the six faculties as its doors, and external phenomena as its garden and grove, and then thinks that outside these there is nowhere to abide, then one day, when the house decays, its doors fall apart, circumstances change, and seeing perishes, where will there remain any place to abide?

Although the World-Honored One followed the conventional distinctions and sequence of inside and outside, he also clearly indicated that the physical body is fundamentally like an illusion and is not something to which one can cling. It is like a lecture hall, its doors, and its windows, which have nothing to do with me.

Before entering quiescence, Chan Master Zhihui composed this verse:

“I have a single house,

Built and roofed by father and mother.

For eighty years I have come and gone within it;

Recently I have seen that it is about to decay.

I planned early to move elsewhere—

What matter is there of hatred or affection?

When at last it collapses and is destroyed,

Neither here nor there will present any obstruction.”

(Ngã hữu nhất gian xá

Phụ mẫu vị tu cái

Vãng lai bát thập niên

Cận lai giác tổn hoài

Tảo nghị di biệt xứ

Sự thiệp hữu tắng ái

Đãi tha tồi hủy thời

Bỉ thử vô phòng ngại).

He then sat in the full-lotus posture and departed. Thus, both love and hate were forgotten, and his coming and going were unobstructed. Once the faculty of seeing [mind and eyes] has perished, what more can be said of inside and outside?

Sutra: At that time, amid the great assembly, the World-Honored One extended his golden-hued arm and rubbed Ananda’s crown, instructing him and the assembly: “There is a samadhi called the Great Buddha’s Crown Shurangama King, complete with the myriad practices. The Tathagatas of the ten directions have all transcended by means of this single Dharma-gate, the Path of Wondrous Adornment. You should now consider it carefully!”

Ananda bowed at the Buddha’s feet and reverently received the Buddha’s instruction.

Commentary: This single Dharma-gate of transcendence clearly reveals that the essential point of the path of sudden awakening lies in transforming consciousness into wisdom. Only through the pure use of Vajra Dry Wisdom can it be called the path of the True Way. Later, the sutra says: “Through this Wondrous Dharma, immeasurable Buddhas throughout kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges in the past attained the Unsurpassed Way by awakening to this mind.

When the consciousness skandha is exhausted, your faculties can immediately function interchangeably [the ears can see, the eyes can hear, and so forth]. From within this interchangeable functioning, you can penetrate the bodhisattva’s Vajra Dry Wisdom. The pure, single, perfectly luminous mind radiates from within, like pure vaidurya containing a precious moon.

You then transcend the Ten Faiths, the Ten Abodes, the Ten Practices, the Ten Dedications, and the minds of the Four Additional Practices; you reach the cultivation of the Vajra Bodhisattvas of the Ten Grounds and the perfectly luminous stage of Equal Awakening; you enter the Tathagata’s Ocean of Wondrous Adornment, perfect the Way, and return to that in which there is nothing attained.”

The beginning and the end correspond to each other, and both take transcendence of the consciousness skandha as the ultimate standard. The World-Honored One thoroughly understood that the continuity of birth and death in the world is merely the continuity of each successive deluded thought, while beings remain confused and never know to turn back. When the consciousness skandha is utterly exhausted, the Ever-Abiding True Mind manifests directly before one’s eyes; its essential nature is pure and luminously illuminating, no different from the Buddha.

Therefore, to break through the consciousness skandha is to enter the Sudden Gate. Although Ananda was intelligent and widely learned, in the end he had not escaped discriminating consciousness and emotion. So long as consciousness and emotion have not been eliminated, one remains merely in the domain of “something attained.” Yet the realization of bodhi lies solely in “nothing attained.” Therefore, in the later portion of the sutra, when the mind is revealed through seven examinations, Ananda repeatedly binds himself with “something attained,” while the World-Honored One sweeps everything clean through “nothing attained.” The Lankavatara Sutra says: “To have characteristics that can be attained is consciousness;

to have no characteristics that can be attained is wisdom.” This is truly the Sudden Gate by which bodhi is immediately realized.

The Second Patriarch, Shenguang [Patriarch Huike, a native of Luoyang during the Northern Wei dynasty. When Great Master Bodhidharma was at Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song, Shenguang sought the Way with utmost devotion. One snowy night, he severed his left arm. Bodhidharma was moved and accepted him, changing his name to Huike. Later, he received the robe and bowl from Patriarch Bodhidharma, inherited the Dharma of the Chan school, and became its Second Patriarch], cut off his arm before the First Patriarch Bodhidharma and requested the Dharma-gate of pacifying the mind.

The Patriarch said, “Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it for you!”

Shenguang replied, “I have searched exhaustively for the mind, but ultimately it cannot be attained!” [Mích tâm liễu bất khả đắc]

The First Patriarch said, “I have pacified your mind for you.”

If Ananda had been able to believe that the mind sought in all seven places was unattainable, why would the robe and bowl have been transmitted exclusively to Kasyapa?

Sutra: The Buddha said to Ananda, “As you have said: while inside the lecture hall, because its doors are wide open, you can see the distant garden and grove. Could there be any being inside the lecture hall who does not see the Tathagata yet can see outside the lecture hall?”

Ananda replied, “World-Honored One, for someone inside the lecture hall not to see the Tathagata yet to see the groves and streams outside—there can truly be no such principle.”

The Buddha said, “Ananda, it is the same with you. Your sentient mind knows and understands everything. If this knowing and understanding mind of yours is truly within your body, it should first know and understand the inside of your body.

Are there any beings who first see inside their bodies and only afterward see external objects? Even if they cannot see their heart, liver, spleen, and stomach, they should nevertheless clearly perceive their nails growing, their hair lengthening, their sinews moving, and their pulses beating. Why, then, do they not know these things?

Since they do not know what is inside, how can they know what is outside? You should therefore understand that your claim that the mind capable of knowing and understanding resides within the body cannot possibly be correct.”

Explanation: Because the eyes see and the mind knows, without departing from sense faculty and sense object, and because the outside is known from within, this is ordinary worldly seeing. The Blessed One therefore refuted this conventional view of seeing, saying, “Since it does not know the inside, how can it be inside?” Even a person of wisdom must yield to this reasoning. In truth, there is nothing of the heart, liver, spleen, or stomach that is not clearly known. There is nothing of the nails, hair, sinews, or vessels that is not perceived. If there were no awareness of them, would one not then be merely an insensible object?

Mahasattva Fu [His surname was Fu, his personal name Xi, and his style-name Xuanfeng. He was a Daoist who wore his hair long. From his surname he was called Mahasattva Fu; from his region he was also called Mahasattva Dongyang. He called himself Mahasattva Shanhui.] composed this verse:

“Night after night, embracing the Buddha, I sleep;

Morning after morning, together with the Buddha, I rise.

Standing or sitting, we always follow one another;

Speaking or silent, we dwell together in perfect accord.

Not even by a hair’s breadth are we apart,

Just as form and shadow resemble each other.

If you wish to know where the Buddha abides,

It is precisely these words and sounds.”

(Yạ yạ bảo Phật miên

Triêu triêu hoàn cọng khởi

Khởi tọa trấn tương tùy

Ngữ mặc đồng cư chỉ

Túng hào bất tương ly

Như thân ảnh tương tự

Dục thức Phật khứ xứ

Chỉ giá ngữ thanh thị).

According to these words, to say that “the clearly knowing mind is within the body” is not entirely incorrect!

Master Yunmen [Chan Master Wenyan of Mount Yunmen, a Dharma successor of Master Xuefeng. He was imperially bestowed such titles as Chan Master Kuangzhen and Chan Master Great Compassionate Cloud Kuangzhen Hongming. He left many critical phrases and koans, such as Yunmen’s One Treasure, Yunmen’s Three Phrases, and Yunmen’s Body Exposed in the Golden Wind...] said: “The Treatise on the Treasure Storehouse says, ‘Within heaven and earth, amid the universe, there is a precious treasure concealed in the Mountain of Form (the body).’ Taking a lantern into the Buddha hall and placing the three gates atop the lantern—what is this for?”

He himself answered in another’s place: “Following the object, the intent shifts.”

He also said: “Clouds gather and thunder rolls.”

Master Xuedou [An eminent monk. Xuedou is the name of a mountain. He received Dharma transmission from Master Yunmen. Chan Master Changtong and Great Master Mingjue also lived on this mountain and likewise took its name as their appellation.] chanted:

Look!

At the ancient ford, who is it that holds the fishing rod?

Clouds layer upon clouds; the waters stretch boundlessly.

The bright moon and reed blossoms—you yourself must discern them!

This koan explains that the knowing awareness and the perfectly luminous fundamental enlightenment are very easily confused, resembling the bright moon and reed blossoms; they therefore must be carefully examined and distinguished. If one can examine and distinguish them, one will not only penetrate the lantern and the exposed pillar [Exposed pillar: the pillar before a monastery. This refers to a koan of Master Yunmen: “The ancient Buddha and the exposed pillar commune with each other—which function is this?”], but will also suddenly penetrate the Mind School of Master Yunmen, and the precious treasure within the body will accord with Sengzhao [Sengzhao: the author of the Treatise on the Treasure Storehouse, also known as the Zhao Treatise].

How could common delusive spirits, merely playing games, borrow such words and speak of it?

III. CLINGING TO THE MIND AS BEING OUTSIDE THE BODY

Sutra: Ananda bowed his head and addressed the Buddha: “Having heard the Buddha’s teaching in this way, I now understand that my mind is truly outside my body. Why is this so? It is like a lamp lit inside a room: it must first illuminate the room, and only afterward shine through the doorway into the courtyard. All sentient beings do not see within their bodies but see only what is outside, just as a lamp placed outside a room cannot illuminate the room’s interior. This meaning is clear and surely cannot be mistaken, but I do not know whether it accords with the Buddha’s ultimate meaning.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “A short while ago, the bhiksus followed me into the city of Sravasti to seek alms. They have now returned to Jeta Grove. I have finished my meal. Now observe the assembly of bhiksus: when one person eats, do the others become full?”

Ananda addressed the Buddha: “No, World-Honored One. Although the bhiksus are arhats, their physical bodies are separate. How could the others become full when one person eats?”

The Buddha told Ananda: “If your discerning mind, which sees and knows, truly exists separately outside the body, then body and mind would be external to each other and have no connection whatsoever. Thus, whatever the mind knew, the body could not perceive; and whatever the body perceived, the mind could not know. I now raise my soft and supple hand for you to see. When your eyes see it, does your mind discern it?”

Ananda addressed the Buddha: “Yes, World-Honored One.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “If body and mind both know at the same moment, how could the mind be outside the body? Therefore, you should know that your assertion that the clearly knowing mind abides outside the body cannot possibly be true.”

Explanation: Because Ananda’s seeing was not yet genuine, he could not avoid forming an understanding by following words. The conceptual understanding that arises in dependence upon words is precisely the dwelling place of discriminating consciousness. The Blessed One intended to uproot the faculty of consciousness; therefore, he cut away each position in turn, leaving Ananda nowhere to cling. This is truly like a king setting out to suppress bandits: knowing where they are, he eradicates them.

Ananda believed that the mind was outside the body and that this accorded with the Buddha’s ultimate meaning; he was not without insight. For that mind, hidden within Heaven, is Heaven; hidden within Earth, it is Earth. It pervades the universe and extends broadly throughout many lifetimes; how could it remain forever confined within this single body? Therefore, he said, “I have awakened to the knowledge that my mind is truly outside the body.” He further added, “This meaning is clear and surely cannot be mistaken.”

The Blessed One used the example, “When another person eats, I certainly do not become full,” to show that if the mind were outside, what connection would it have with one’s own body? The physical life-body has form, so eating cannot be communicated from one body to another; how could one person eat and another become full? Yet cognitive awareness is numinously responsive—what obstruction could there be between inside and outside?

Ananda, however, rigidly clung to the notion that “the mind is outside,” like a luminous object that illuminates only the outside and cannot illuminate within. If so, then outside the body would be mind, while inside the body would not be mind! If the mind were outside the body, the body could not know what it knew, just as when another person eats, one does not feel full.

Yet whatever the eyes see, the mind immediately discerns. Would this not mean that the mind constantly abides within? Therefore, to say that it is outside is mistaken.

One day, Master Caoshan [Chan Master Benji, a Dharma successor of Master Dongshan Liangjie, of the Caodong school. Caoshan was the name taken from the place where he lived.] heard the sound of a bell and exclaimed: “Oh! Oh!”

A monk asked: “What is the matter, Venerable Master?”

He replied: “It struck my mind.”

The monk had no response.

Master Wuzu Jie answered on his behalf: “It has terrified the bandit’s mind!” [Tác tặc nhân tâm hư]

Mahasattva Fu composed this verse:

“The village of all Buddhas lies within the world;

The four seas, mountains, and rivers teem with their births.

Buddhas and sentient beings share the same essence;

‘Sentient beings’ is but a provisional name for Buddhas.

If you wish to see the Buddha, look throughout the three districts:

Forests, fields, houses, and gardens—everywhere he dwells.

At times he circles and soars through the open sky;

At times he makes rivers and mountains resound.

At times he joins companions and travels everywhere;

At times he walks alone in solitude.

At times he causes them to run to and fro by day;

At times he causes them to keep watch by night.

At times black, at times red, and then at times white;

At times purple or pink, yellow, or blue-green.

At times large, at times small and newly nurtured;

At times young, at times old, born long ago.

At times they bear a zither upon their wings;

At times they carry lanterns around their waists.

At times they dart wildly through the empty sky;

At times they are born among grasses and trees, roaming as they please.

At times, practicing silence, they emerge through the gate;

At times they enter earthen caves, lodging there for a while.

At times they bore holes in trees and make them their homeland.”

Or grasses and trees are bound together to form shelters,

Or nets are woven to make village pathways,

Or earth and stones are laid down to make terraces and dwellings;

All Buddhas and bodhisattvas are likewise—

That is called the city of Shravasti.”

If one realizes this place in accord with the truth [corresponding inwardly, one naturally knows the actual circumstances], then to say that the aware, discerning mind capable of knowing dwells outside the body is not altogether wide of the mark!

IV. CLINGING TO THE VIEW THAT THE MIND HIDES BEHIND THE EYES

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, as the Buddha has taught: because it does not see within the body, the mind is not inside the body. Because the body and mind know simultaneously and cannot be separated from one another, the mind cannot exist independently outside the body. Now, upon reflection, I know that the mind is in a certain place!”

The Buddha said, “Where is that place?”

Ananda said to the Buddha, “Since this mind capable of knowing does not know the interior but sees what is outside, as I consider it, it must be hiding behind the eyes. It is like a person placing crystal bowls over both eyes. Although the eyes are covered by objects, they are not obstructed; as soon as those eyes see, discernment immediately occurs. My knowing mind does not see within because it is situated at the eyes; yet it sees outside clearly and without obstruction because the mind hides behind the eyes.”

The Buddha said to Ananda, “According to what you say, the mind hides behind the eyes just as the eyes hide behind crystal bowls. Then, when that person places crystal bowls over both eyes and looks upon mountains and rivers, does he also see the crystal bowls?”

“Indeed, World-Honored One. When that person places crystal bowls over both eyes, he truly does see the crystal bowls.”

The Buddha said to Ananda, “If your mind hides behind the eyes just as the eyes hide behind crystal bowls, then when it looks upon mountains and rivers, why does it not also see the eyes? If it sees the eyes, the eyes themselves would be external objects, and it could not be that the eyes see and the mind immediately knows. If it cannot see the eyes, how can you say that the mind hides behind the eyes just as the eyes hide behind crystal bowls? Therefore, you should know that your assertion that the mind capable of knowing hides behind the eyes just as the eyes hide behind crystal bowls is truly incorrect.”

Commentary: The Treatise on the Verses Regulating the Eight Consciousnesses says, “The foolish have difficulty distinguishing the faculties from the consciousnesses.” Thus, the faculties and the consciousnesses have been difficult to distinguish since ancient times. If it is said that a faculty is not a consciousness, then the faculty is itself the faculty and the consciousness is itself the consciousness; the consciousness would constantly see the faculty.

If it is said that the faculty is itself the consciousness, then when a person dies, the eyes still visibly remain, so why do they not see? Therefore, it should be known that the five faculties are merely transparent material forms that reflect external objects, whereas the consciousnesses understand and discriminate. The seeds and manifest activities of these two kinds of perfuming are not the same.

The five faculties are material dharmas; they are the objective aspect of the Eighth Consciousness, possessing both the functions of grasping and receiving, and their nature is karmically indeterminate, pure, and transparent. The five consciousnesses belong to mental dharmas; they are the perceiving aspect of the Eighth Consciousness and possess all three natures—wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate. Because their clear knowing is called the realm as it is in itself and belongs to direct perception, the Treatise says, “The realm as it is in itself and direct perception extend through all three natures.” Only with the Sixth Consciousness does discrimination arise, belonging to inference [comparison and deliberation] and erroneous cognition [mistaken knowing].

This is the distinction between the faculties and the consciousnesses.

Ananda’s statement, “As soon as the faculty sees, it immediately discriminates,” is correct. But his subsequent claim, “The mind hides within the faculty as a crystal bowl covers the eye,” is wrong. For if it truly were like a crystal bowl covering the eye, then just as the eye sees both mountains and rivers and the crystal bowl, so too, when the mind sees mountains and rivers, it should also see the eye.

Yet the mind does not see the eye; thus, it is evident that the mind is not secretly hidden within the eye. Ananda’s analogy is not true and properly belongs to erroneous cognition. Judging from what Ananda indicates, the cognitive mind is merely the six discriminating consciousnesses.

From where do these six consciousnesses arise? They arise through the transmitting and conveying activity of the Seventh Consciousness and the containing and preserving activity of the Eighth Consciousness. Even if discrimination is easy to relinquish, the skandha of formations is difficult to eliminate.

Even if the skandha of formations is easy to dissolve, its seeds are difficult to transform.

At present, Ananda does not even know the abode of the six discriminating consciousnesses; how much less could he know the Seventh and Eighth Consciousnesses? If one does not even know their abode, how can one speak of dispatching troops to subdue them?

At the beginning, this sutra demolishes the lair of the six consciousnesses; hence there are the seven locations in which the mind is sought. In the end, it attacks the central command posts of the Eighth Consciousness, continuing until the consciousness skandha is utterly exhausted. This, in broad outline, is the transformation of consciousness into wisdom.

A later passage of the sutra says, “Although you have caused the Six to disappear [that is, the six consciousnesses have ceased], it seems that the One has not yet been lost” [the primary consciousness, the alaya consciousness]. When both the One and the Six have disappeared and there is no longer any place of reliance, then, looking back upon this passage about “hiding behind the eyes like crystal bowls placed over them,” how could one not burst into loud laughter?

Nevertheless, if an analogy is skillfully employed, there is nothing it cannot accomplish!

In former times, when Chan Master Zhongyi Hong [Patriarch Chan Master Hong’en] was visited by Master Yangshan, who came to express gratitude for the transmission of the precepts, Yangshan afterward asked, “What is the meaning of Buddha-nature?”

Patriarch Yi replied, “I shall give you an analogy. It is like a house with six windows, within which a great monkey is confined. Outside, another great monkey calls, ‘Simian!’ and the one inside immediately responds. In the same way, when the call resounds through all six windows, there is a response from each.”

Master Yangshan [Patriarch Chan Master Huiji, who lived on Mount Dayangshan in Jiangnan and was known as Yangshan. The Patriarch has three public cases: Yangshan’s Pillow, Yangshan Points to the Snow, and Yangshan’s Wisteria Vine] bowed in gratitude, then rose and said, “Thanks to the Venerable Master’s analogy, everything is clear. Yet there is one further matter: if the monkey inside is fast asleep and the great monkey outside wishes to meet with it, what then?”

Patriarch Yi descended from his seat, took Master Yangshan by the hand, danced, and said, “The simian has met with you now. It is like a mud-dauber making its nest upon a mosquito’s eyelash and, facing the crossroads, crying out, ‘The land is vast and the people are few; encounters are rare.’”

Patriarch Yunju [Mount Yunju: a mountain in Jianchang County, Jiangnan. Clouds often gather upon its summit, hence it is named Yunju, “Dwelling in the Clouds.” It is also called Mount Ou because the virtuous Ouji attained the Way there. Many patriarchs lived and taught there, so they often took the mountain’s name as their appellation] Xi said, “Had Zhongyi not received those words from Yangshan at that time, how could there have been a Zhongyi!”

Patriarch Zhongshou Chou said, “Can anyone determine the principle here? If you cannot determine it, you are merely someone who seizes the hands and feet of a disembodied spirit and makes a plaything of it. Where is the meaning of Buddha-nature?”

Chan Master Xuanjue [The Venerable Xuanjue of the Tang dynasty. At first, he thoroughly mastered the Tiantai method of calming and contemplation and regularly practiced meditative contemplation. Later, he went to Caoxi and, in a single night, realized the essential purport. He was named ‘One-Night Enlightened.’ After returning to Yongjia, his disciples called him Great Master Zhenjue.] said, “If it had not been Yangshan, how could Zhongyi have been seen? Tell me, where did Yangshan meet Zhongyi?”

Patriarch Tiantong versified:

The snow-bound house lies buried as the year draws to its close;

The moss-grown gate stays unopened through the deep and secluded night.

See the dry, cold gardens and groves undergo transformation;

The spring wind blows, awakening the pitch pipe Tongkui [a kind of flute].

This verse clearly praises the place where Master Yangshan slept, which did not fall into barren extinction. This is precisely where Master Zhongyi and Yangshan met; it is indeed the realm in which the One and the Six both vanish. Yet how vastly different it is from such matters as “The gardens and groves transform according to the law of Tonghui” and “Hands, feet, vital essence, and spirit”!

V. CLINGING TO THE VIEW THAT SEEING DARKNESS WHEN THE EYES ARE CLOSED IS SEEING INSIDE THE BODY

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, I now think further as follows: within the bodies of these sentient beings, the viscera and organs are inside, while the apertures and cavities are outside. Where there are organs, there is darkness; where there are apertures, there is light. I would now answer the Buddha that opening the eyes and seeing light is called seeing outside, while closing the eyes and seeing darkness is called seeing inside. What do you say of this meaning?”

The Buddha said to Ananda, “When you close your eyes and see darkness, is that dark appearance before your eyes or is it not before your eyes? If it is before your eyes, then the darkness is in front of your eyes; how could it be inside your body? If that darkness were inside your body, then when you were in a dark room without the light of the sun, moon, or lamps, would everything within that dark room be your viscera and organs? If the darkness is not before your eyes, how could there be seeing?

“If you maintain that, apart from seeing external brightness, there is an inward seeing of darkness, and that closing your eyes and seeing darkness is called seeing inside the body, then when you open your eyes and see brightness, why do you not see your own face? If you cannot see your face, then the proposition that seeing darkness is directed inward cannot be established. But if you could see your face, then your knowing mind and your eyes would both be suspended in empty space; how could they be inside your body?

If your mind and eyes were in empty space, they would certainly not be part of your body. Otherwise, would the Tathagata, who now sees your face, also be part of your body? Moreover, your eyes would know while your body would not know.

Thus, according to your attached assertion, the body and the eyes, being separate in this way, would each possess a knowing nature. You would then have two knowing natures, and your single body would become two Buddhas. Therefore, you should know that your statement that seeing darkness is seeing inside the body is utterly without reason.”

Commentary: It was only because Ananda was perplexed by the words “unable to see inside” that he gave rise to so many conjectures. Since “hidden behind the eyes” was already incorrect, could “the seeing of darkness turned inward” then be correct? This notion of “seeing darkness” led to even more speculations. Although Ananda had not yet expressed them, the World-Honored One brought each one forth and refuted it completely. First, he asked whether that dark appearance was before the eyes or not before the eyes. If it was before the eyes, it became an external object; if it was not before the eyes, it could not be seen. Thus, that darkness could not be called internal.

It had been proposed that the seeing of the “seeing faculty” resulted from looking back inward and did not depend upon the eyes. If closing the eyes and looking inward allowed one to see darkness, then opening the eyes and turning one’s gaze back should likewise allow one to see one’s own face. Since the face cannot be seen, how could the darkness be seen? Thus, that seeing cannot see inside. If, instead, one silently examined with the conscious mind, thinking, “These are the viscera and organs; this is the face and its features,” and called that seeing, would not that mind-eye be situated in empty space?

If it were asserted that the mind and eyes were originally in empty space and could see one’s own face and features, would the body of the Tathagata also be your body? If it were asserted that the Tathagata’s seeing was your seeing and that the Tathagata’s body was your body, could Ananda’s single body become two Buddhas?

From this notion of “seeing inside” arose so many speculations. Since “seeing directed inward” cannot be established, seeing darkness cannot be called “seeing inside.” Nevertheless, the seeing faculty itself is originally dark; who, then, is it that sees?

Master Yunmen declared, “Every person inherently possesses light. When one looks for it, one does not see it; all is utterly dark. What is the light possessed by every person?”

Answering on behalf of others, he said, “The kitchen storeroom and the three gates.”

He also said, “A good thing is not as good as no thing.”

Master Xuedou versified:

“Self-illumining, it displays solitary radiance;

For your sake, a single path is opened.

The flowers have fallen; the tree casts no shadow.

When one looks, who does not see?

Seeing, not seeing—

Riding the ox backward, ah, entering the Buddha hall.”

(Zi zhao lie gu ming

Wei jun tong yi xian

Hua xie shu wu ying

Kan shi shui bu jian

Jian bu jian

Dao qi niu xi ru Fo dian.)

If one understands the meaning of “riding the ox backward into the Buddha hall,” then saying that “seeing darkness is seeing inside” is not necessarily incorrect!

VI. CLINGING TO THE VIEW THAT WHEREVER THE MIND JOINS, IT EXISTS IN THAT VERY PLACE

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha, “I have often heard the Buddha instruct the fourfold assembly: ‘Because the mind arises, all dharmas arise; because dharmas arise, all kinds of mind arise.’ I now reflect that the essence which thinks is truly the nature of my mind. Wherever it joins, the mind exists in that very place; it is not inside, outside, or in between.”

The Buddha said to Ananda, “You now say that because dharmas arise, all kinds of mind arise, and that wherever it joins, the mind exists in that very place. If this mind had no intrinsic substance, it could not join with anything. If it had no intrinsic substance and could nevertheless join, could the nineteenth dhatu then join with the seventh sense object? This proposition is incorrect.

“If it does have an intrinsic substance, then when you scratch your own body with your hand, does the mind that knows the scratching come out from within your body, or does it enter from outside? If it comes out from within your body, it should see the inside of your body. If it enters from outside, it should first see your face.”

Ananda said to the Buddha, “It is the eyes that see. The mind knows but does not see as the eyes do; therefore, saying that the mind sees is not in accord with the meaning.”

The Buddha said, “If the eyes themselves could see, then when you were in a room, would the doorway also be able to see? Moreover, dead people still have eyes; they should therefore be able to see objects. If they could see objects, how could they be called dead?

“Ananda, furthermore, if your knowing mind has an intrinsic substance, does it have one substance or many substances? As the mind is now present in your body, does its substance pervade your entire body or not? If the mind has one substance, then when you scratch one limb with your hand, all four limbs should be aware of it.

If they were all aware of it, you would not know where the scratching occurred. If you know the location of the scratching, your theory of a single substance naturally cannot be established. If there are many substances, you would become many persons; which of those substances would you know to be yours?

If that substance pervades the whole body, then, as before, you would not know the location of the scratching. If it does not pervade the whole body, then when you touch your head and simultaneously touch your foot, if the head is aware, the foot should be unaware. Yet this is not presently the case with you.

“Therefore, you should know that the statement, ‘Wherever the mind joins, it exists in that very place,’ is utterly without reason.”

Commentary: When the head is touched, the head knows; when the foot is touched, the foot knows. Is this not precisely, “Wherever it joins, the mind accordingly exists in that place”? But if that were so, then wherever there is no conjunction, the mind would be entirely absent. Would this not be the wrong view of annihilationism and eternalism? The World-Honored One certainly did not rebuke this matter without reason.

It is solely with regard to the single word “combine” that the error is clearly discerned. Whatever combines must have an intrinsic substance. If it has no intrinsic substance, the meaning of combination cannot be established.

Just as there is no Seventh Sense Object, there can be no Nineteenth Dhatu. But if it does have an intrinsic substance, this substance neither comes in from outside nor goes out from within. Is that substance of mind one substance or many substances?

Within the human body, does it pervade everywhere, or does it not pervade everywhere? When one scratches a limb with one’s hand, awareness arises in accordance with the scratching. If that awareness is one substance, it must be present everywhere; but if it consists of many substances, there would be many persons!

If that awareness is present everywhere, then when one scratches, the place being scratched should not be distinctly known; but if it is not present everywhere, then when one scratches, there should be places of which one is unaware. Since all four of the foregoing alternatives are untenable, its intrinsic substance cannot be determined; how, then, could there be any combination? As for saying that “it combines wherever conditions occur,” does it combine with one substance?

Does it combine with many substances? Does it combine with a substance that pervades everywhere? Does it combine with a substance that does not pervade everywhere?

If it combines with that, it abandons this; if it combines with this, it abandons that. Moreover, it is neither one nor many, neither all-pervading nor non-all-pervading, and in the end there is no substance with which it can combine. Since combination is impossible, how can one perceive “that which arises accordingly”?

Although the Blessed One distinguished the error in the theory that “wherever the mind combines, it immediately comes to exist there,” he also revealed the subtle wonder of the True Mind, which has no substance. Having no substance, it admits of no conjunction; mind and objects do not reach one another. Right here is liberation—utter freedom—which is originally unborn. How, then, can it be said, “When dharmas arise, all manner of minds arise”? “When mind arises, all manner of dharmas arise” does not differ from the purport of “the three realms are mind-only,” and therefore requires no further discussion. As for “When dharmas arise, all manner of minds arise,” mind is originally unborn; its illumination manifests through objects, and this in itself presents no fault.

Yet Ananda cited the Buddha’s teaching to prove that “wherever it combines, the mind immediately exists there.” That is the mind which follows one wave after another, not the mind which manifests objects while remaining quiescent and extinct. Thus, when one awakens to the substanceless mind, the manifestation of objects presents no obstruction; this is precisely dependent origination that is unborn.

A monk asked Patriarch Jiashan [Jiashan: the name of a mountain. Because the patriarch practiced on this mountain, he took its name as his epithet]: “What is it like when the sense objects are swept away and the Buddha is seen?”

Master Shan said: “Immediately brandish the sword! If you do not brandish the sword, the fisherman will remain in his nest!”

The monk took the question to Patriarch Shishuang [The patriarch’s name was Chuyuan, his courtesy name Chenming; he was a sixth-generation descendant of Master Linji Yixuan, patriarch of the Linji school. He resided on Mount Shishuang and initially studied Confucianism. At the age of twenty-one, he left home and later inherited the Dharma from Luoyang Zhao]: “What is it like when the sense objects are swept away and the Buddha is seen?”

Master Shuang replied: “He has no realm; where could you encounter him?”

The monk returned and repeated this exactly to Patriarch Jiashan.

Master Shan ascended the hall and said: “In presenting the methods of the gate [the Chan school], he does not equal this old monk. But in penetrating the principle and discoursing profoundly, this old monk remains a hundred paces behind Shishuang!”

Master Tiantong composed this verse:

Brandishing the great, pure sword, he cleanses the might of war;

Who was foremost in merit when the disorder was quelled?

One morning, the dust-laden air is cleared throughout the four seas;

His robe hanging loose, heaven and earth are naturally free of contrivance.

Master Danxia composed this verse:

One phrase accords with principle; jade rings clear,

Inside and outside gleam translucent, filling the cold eye.

Even in that realm free of outflows, one cannot abide;

Amid moonlit shadows and flowers, how difficult it is to see!

In this case of “sweeping away the sense objects and seeing the Buddha,” one does not even see oneself; how much more inverted it is to combine with sense objects and then seek the Buddha, to seek awakening! Nevertheless, a single moon appears upon all waters, and all the moons in the waters are gathered into the one moon. Why, then, worry that there is no “combining wherever conditions occur”?

VII. CLINGING TO THE VIEW THAT THE MIND IS IN THE MIDDLE

Sutra: Ananda addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, when the Buddha spoke of Ultimate Reality with Dharma Princes such as Manjushri, the World-Honored One also said, ‘The mind is neither inside nor outside.’ As I understand it, if the mind were inside the body, why would it not see the interior? If the mind were outside the body, why would the body and mind not be mutually aware? Since it does not know the interior, the mind cannot be inside. Since the body and mind are mutually aware, it is unreasonable to say that the mind is outside. Now, because the body and mind are mutually aware, yet the interior of the body is not seen, the mind must be in the middle!”

The Buddha told Ananda: “You say it is ‘in the middle.’ This middle must surely be neither confused nor without a location. Where do you now determine this middle to be: among external objects or within the body? If it is within the body but on one side, then it is not in the middle; if it is in the middle of the body, then it is already inside the body.

If this middle is among external objects, can it be indicated, or can it not be indicated? If it cannot be indicated, it is as though it does not exist. If it can be indicated, its location cannot be fixed.

Why is this so? Suppose someone were to set up a marker and designate one place as the middle. Seen from the east, the marker would be in the west; seen from the south, it would be in the north.

Since the designated middle is already confused, the mind would necessarily be disordered.”

Ananda addressed the Buddha: “The middle of which I speak is neither of those two. As the World-Honored One has said, the eye faculty conditions the form object, thereby giving rise to eye-consciousness. The eye faculty possesses discrimination, while the form object is insentient. Eye-consciousness arises between them, and the mind is located there.”

The Buddha said: “If your mind is between the faculty and its object, does the substance of that mind include both sides, or does it not include both sides? If it includes both sides, then objects and the substance of mind become intermingled. Objects are insentient, unlike the knowing substance of mind, and thus the two sides stand opposed to one another. What, then, constitutes the middle? Nor can it include both, for then it would be neither knowing nor unknowing. It would consequently have no essential nature; what, then, would constitute the characteristic of being in the middle?

“Therefore, you should know that your statement that the mind is in the middle is utterly without basis.”

Commentary: Only at this point does Ananda disclose his view that consciousness arises precisely in the middle. To say that the six consciousnesses discriminate between the faculties and their objects has a firmer basis than the theory that the mind is concealed within the eyes. Yet what is called the middle is neither inside nor outside.

It is merely because faculty and object meet that discriminating consciousness arises between them, and this is then regarded as the mind. In truth, he does not understand that the three—the faculties, their objects, and consciousness—are established in mutual dependence, like bundles of reeds leaning against one another, and are originally without self-nature. Now, if one fixes it and says that it is in the middle, then if this middle has a position, does it include both faculty and object, or does it not?

If it includes both, the faculty knows while the object is insentient; opposition is established, and the middle cannot be established. If it includes neither, it is neither knowing nor unknowing; having no intrinsic substance, the middle likewise cannot be established. Where, then, is this middle?

Thus, it is erroneous to say that the mind is in the middle.

If we discuss the True Mind, however, it both includes the two and does not include the two. Why is it said to include the two? Within the Tathagatagarbha, both the aspect of seeing and the aspect of appearances are originally complete.

As the sutra later says: “The nature of form is True Emptiness [Genuine Emptiness], and the nature of emptiness is True Form.” How, then, could there be confusion and disorder? Why is it said not to include the two? Because it is the solitary radiance of spiritual luminosity, transcending both faculties and objects; the faculties have no place to encounter it—how could it ever be without an essential nature?

If one can believe that this mind is neither knowing nor unknowing, originally without self-nature and also without any characteristic of being precisely in the middle, only then can one profoundly understand what the True Middle is.

After the king of a country in Eastern India had invited the Twenty-Seventh Patriarch, Prajnatara, to partake of a meal, he asked: “Everyone recites [reads and chants] sutras. Why is it that you alone, Master, do not recite them?”

The Patriarch replied: “This poor monk’s inhalation does not abide in the skandhas or dhatus; his exhalation does not become entangled with the various conditions. I am constantly reciting hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of scrolls of that sutra—not merely one or two!”

The king then bowed in homage.

Master Tiantong composed this verse:

“The cloud-ox sports beneath the boundless shining moon;

The wooden horse roams in spring, unfettered and free.

Beneath his brows, jade-cold, his two blue eyes—

Why must he hold up a cowhide [oxhide] before reading sutras?”

He further composed:

“Clearly, the mind transcends the emptiness of myriad kalpas;

The hero exerts his strength and breaks through the encirclement.

Heaven’s subtle essential word turns the numinous mechanism;

Hanshan has forgotten the road by which he came,

And Shide, side by side with him, returns hand in hand.”

This is the family style [tradition] of the Patriarchs: not establishing either of the two sides, not abiding in the Middle Way. The Great Way is empty, penetrating, subtle, and wondrous; the true lineage clings to nothing—this is the First Principle. Therefore, it is not a place that the six consciousnesses, faculties, or objects can reach. Like the two masters Hanshan and Shide, coming and going freely, at ease and unhurried, without the slightest thread of discriminating consciousness remaining in their hearts, they were fully capable of meeting the Twenty-Seventh Patriarch face to face.

VIII. CLINGING TO THE MIND AS UTTERLY UNATTACHED TO ANYTHING

Sutra: Ananda addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, previously I saw the Buddha, together with the four great disciples Mahamaudgalyayana, Subhuti, Purna, and Shariputra, turn the Dharma wheel. The Buddha often taught that the discerning, discriminating mind-nature is neither within, nor without, nor in the middle; that it is nowhere at all; and that being unattached to anything, it is provisionally called the mind. Now, since I am unattached, may this be called the mind?”

The Buddha said to Ananda: “You say, ‘The discerning, discriminating mind-nature is nowhere at all.’ Now, concerning the phenomena of the world—space and all creatures that dwell in water or on land, that fly or run—in other words, all the things to which you say there is no attachment: do they exist or not? If they do not exist, they are like a turtle’s hair or a rabbit’s horns; what, then, could be called unattached? Since there is something that is unattached, it cannot be called nonexistent. If it has no characteristics, then it is nonexistent; if it is not nonexistent, then it has characteristics. If it has characteristics, it has a location. How, then, can it be unattached?

“Therefore, you should know that your assertion that the knowing mind is unattached to anything whatsoever is entirely without reason.”

Commentary: The nonattachment cited by Ananda is not in itself wrong. But when the two words “anything whatsoever” are clearly understood, that “nonattachment” is seen to exist in relation to objects. If objects exist, then nonattachment exists; but if neither exists, this becomes annihilationism!

Whichever way one speaks, it is contradictory. If all phenomena are nonexistent, what remains to which one could be unattached? Yet if there is something that is unattached, phenomena cannot be said not to exist!

Only if there were no characteristic of nonattachment could one say that all phenomena do not exist. But if there is the fact of nonattachment, then there is already a characteristic. If there is a characteristic of nonattachment, then a mind is present there.

If that mind abides in the place of nonattachment, how can it be said to be “nowhere at all”? Since the mind already has a place in which it abides, how can it be said to be “unattached”? First, the subjective aspect is used to clarify the objective aspect, which therefore cannot be called nonexistent.

Next, the objective aspect is used to clarify the subjective aspect: since the characteristic exists, there must necessarily be that which possesses it. Thus, the meaning of nonattachment cannot be established.

Long ago, the Venerable Yanyang asked Patriarch Zhaozhou [A native of Caozhou, who studied and investigated at Guanyin Monastery in Zhaozhou. He succeeded Patriarch Nanquan in the Dharma. The Patriarch transmitted the Way through many koans]: “What is it like when not a single thing is brought along?”

Zhaozhou said: “Put it down.”

Yanyang said: “When not a single thing is brought along, what is there to put down?”

Zhaozhou said: “Then carry it away!”

Upon hearing this, the venerable attained great awakening.

Master Huanglong [Patriarch Pujue, the Chan master named Huinan, who dwelt on Mount Huanglong. He received the Dharma from Chan Master Ciming Yuan at Huanglong. Many accounts of the Patriarch have been handed down] composed this verse:

“Not a single thing is brought along,

Yet two shoulders cannot bear it.

As soon as he heard, he understood his error,

And joy beyond measure filled his heart.

Malice and cruelty were already forgotten;

Snakes and tigers became intimate friends.

Vast and open for thousands of years,

The cool breeze has never ceased to blow.”

Master Tiantong composed this verse:

“Unexpectedly, the subtle practice was first handed over;

Once he understood his native heart, he was ashamed to knock his head.

Breaking free, at his waist hung an axe with a rotten handle;

His ordinary bones washed pure, he roamed with immortals.”

In this verse, even nonattachment is absent; therefore, there is freedom and ease. For the most part, when one remains amid objects, one sees that there is nonattachment; apart from objects, there is no nonattachment. When nonattachment is seen within the Nature, that nonattachment is itself the Self-Nature. If even a single notion of nonattachment remains, everything is thereby ruined.

Section 2: Revealing the Nature of Seeing

I. SEEKING TO REACH THE PLACE OF TRUE REALITY

Sutra: At that time, Ananda, in the midst of the assembly, rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, placed his right knee on the ground, joined his palms respectfully, and addressed the Buddha: “I am the Tathagata’s youngest cousin. Because of the Buddha’s loving-kindness, although I have now left the household life, I still rely upon the Buddha’s affection. Therefore, though widely learned and greatly knowledgeable, I have not yet attained the unconditioned fruit and could not overcome the Matangi mantra.

I was turned about by it and sank into a house of prostitution. This was because I did not know the path leading to the True Boundary (the Buddha-nature of one’s own mind). I beseech the greatly compassionate World-Honored One to take pity on us and reveal the path of right samadhi, thereby enabling those who lack faith to cast off their wrong views as well.”

Having spoken thus, he prostrated his entire body upon the ground and, together with the whole assembly, earnestly longed to hear the Buddha’s teaching.

Commentary: Examining Ananda’s understanding at that time, it appears that he had not yet been able to subdue discriminating consciousness and reach the state of limpid, unmoving stillness, simply because he had not attained the unconditioned state [the exhaustion of afflictions]. At first, he regarded the consciously aware, knowing mind as a thing, and therefore said that it was “within,” “without,” or “at the faculty.” When he had come to know that it was not a thing, he still regarded it as consciousness, and therefore said that it “exists wherever there is conjunction” and that “consciousness arises in the intervening space.” When both knowing and consciousness had been extinguished,

he then believed in “nonattachment.” Yet once there is the notion of “nonattachment,” attachment has already arisen.

Being unattached to anything whatsoever merely cuts off the seventh consciousness; it has not yet reached the stage of stillness. Even if one reaches that stage of stillness, one is still sitting in the cave of the eighth consciousness, which non-Buddhist paths call the Primordial Principle [the first of the twenty-five principles established by the non-Buddhist Samkhya school. It is considered the obscure source of all phenomena; because it is not true or right, it is called the Primordial Principle, also known as the Primordial Nature].

If the path of cultivating samadhi is merely an expedient at the boundary where consciousness is transformed into wisdom, even sacred understanding absolutely does not permit a single thought to remain—how much less should one cling to ordinary feelings and allow oneself to be dragged along by them? Therefore, only when both ordinary feelings and notions of sagehood are exhausted does True Permanence become manifest; this alone is called the True Boundary.

Only by penetrating the True Boundary can one avoid being overturned by lustful sorcery. One not only personally realizes in full the place of quiescence [personally realized quiescence], but also helps all ordinary beings who lack sufficient faith to destroy their wrong views.

Master Duan Shizi, upon reading the Shurangama Sutra, composed this verse:

“In seven places he presented the mind, yet the mind was never found;

Bewildered, Ananda did not cast a glance.

If what appears could be presented, seeing would be without mind—

That would be precisely washing a clod of earth in mud.”

One may say that he is a person endowed with the complete eye.

II. EMITTING LIGHT TO REVEAL THE PERFECTLY FULL AND LUMINOUS NATURE OF SEEING

Sutra: At that time, the World-Honored One emitted various rays of light from his face, their radiance blazing like hundreds of thousands of suns. Throughout all the worlds of the Buddhas, the six kinds of trembling occurred. Lands as numerous as fine dust throughout the ten directions appeared simultaneously. By the Buddha’s awe-inspiring spiritual power, all those worlds were united into a single world. In this world, all the bodhisattvas then present remained peacefully in their respective lands, joined their palms, and listened to the Buddha’s teaching.

Commentary: The emission of light and the trembling of the earth were formerly regarded as inconceivable states, yet they can also be understood. When practitioners of the Way possess abundant and steadfast vital spirit, their eyes remain bright even in darkness, and there is nothing they cannot see. How much more so for the World-Honored One, whose attainment was perfected over many kalpas—how could his radiance not blaze brilliantly?

Those who perform rites and move the primal energy can summon clouds and bring down rain. How much more, then, could the boundless, immaculate Dharma Body of the World-Honored One not cause all the worlds of the Buddhas to tremble? When the World-Honored One raised the great banner of Dharma, there first had to be a manifestation.

The statement that he “caused all the worlds to unite into a single realm” already implicitly contains the meaning of gathering the deluded back into the True. Those of superior faculties—whose eyes, ears, and all other faculties are keen and luminous—and sharp wisdom, upon seeing such light and beholding such an event, would immediately realize the Original Mind and attain the Patient Acceptance of the Unborn.

Chan Master Yuanzhao [The Patriarch left home at the age of ten, thoroughly investigated the principles of the Vimalakirti Dharma, thereby clearly understanding Consciousness-Only; studied the Confucian texts; and specialized in the Vinaya Pitaka] ascended the teaching seat and said: “Look! The brilliant auspicious light illuminates the entire great trichiliocosm. The ten billion lands as numerous as fine dust, the ten billion great oceans, the ten billion Mounts Sumeru, the ten billion suns and moons, the ten billion sets of four continents beneath heaven, and even Buddha realms as numerous as fine dust—all appear simultaneously within this light.

Worthy ones! Do you see it? If you see it, then you yourselves are at this very moment bodily present within that auspicious light.

If you do not see it, do not say that the auspicious light does not shine. Investigate!”

Everyone possesses this light. Why did Patriarch Yuanzhao see it while others did not? It is simply the difference between awakening and non-awakening. The Dharma-nature is intrinsically all-pervasive; the dust of delusion cannot separate it. The wisdom that apprehends its objects is intrinsically perfect and complete; how could discriminating consciousness obstruct it? If one awakens to one’s own mind, one immediately knows that all of this is an affair within one’s own house.

III. THE TWO KINDS OF FUNDAMENTAL ROOTS

Sutra: The Buddha said to Ananda: “From beginningless time until the present, all living beings have been subject to every kind of inversion. Their karmic seeds naturally cluster together like a bunch of aksha fruits. Practitioners fail to attain unsurpassed bodhi and instead become shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, followers of non-Buddhist paths, devas, demon kings, or members of the demons’ retinues. This is entirely because they do not understand the two kinds of fundamental roots and cultivate mistakenly and confusedly. It is like cooking sand in the hope of making a delicious meal: even after kalpas as numerous as motes of dust, it can never be accomplished.

“What are these two kinds of fundamental roots? Ananda, the first is the beginningless fundamental root of birth and death. It is the mind that clings to conditions, which you and all living beings presently take to be your own nature. The second is the beginningless, originally pure essence of bodhi and nirvana. It is your fundamentally luminous True Mind, which can give rise to all conditions; yet you follow after the characteristics of those conditioned phenomena and forget it. Because living beings forget this intrinsically self-luminous nature, although they use it throughout every day, they remain unaware of it and needlessly fall into the six destinies.

Commentary: In all seven places where the mind was presented, each was declared not to be the mind because the mind that clings to conditions was being taken as one’s own nature.

Ananda also knew that this mind had not attained the unconditioned and could not subdue the Kapila mantra, but was instead turned by it. He said, “The reason is that I do not know the entrance into the True Reality.” Thus, he had already dimly glimpsed the pure essence of bodhi and nirvana (nirvana means quiescent extinction), and so he asked the Buddha to reveal it. The World-Honored One therefore analyzed the matter clearly and instructed him.

Previously, the Buddha had taught: You make use of various deluded thoughts, and because these thoughts are not true, you undergo cyclic existence. Here, he teaches the same point by saying: You take the mind that clings to conditions as your own nature; this has been the fundamental root of birth and death from beginningless time. Previously, the Buddha taught: You do not know the True Mind, which neither arises nor ceases, whose nature is undefiled and whose essence is intrinsically luminous.

Here, this is called bodhi and nirvana, whose essence is originally pure; it is the timeless fundamental root that neither arises nor ceases.

Turning within birth and death, the three—delusion, karma, and suffering—arise and cluster together like a bunch of aksha fruits. Not only are heavenly demons and followers of non-Buddhist paths certainly within samsara, but even shravakas and pratyekabuddhas who cultivate mistakenly and confusedly are all said to be inverted.

Why is this so? Because they take arising and cessation as the causal ground of cultivation. Yet the originally luminous primal awareness that gives rise to all conditions is intrinsically neither arising nor ceasing. It is only because one pursues the perceived objects that one forgets it.

As a later passage of the sutra says, “The intrinsically luminous nature, through its illumination, gives rise to perceived objects. Once the perceived objects are separately established, the illuminating nature is forgotten.” The essential meaning is the same as in this passage. This is precisely the reason deluded thoughts arise. Once one has fallen into deluded thought, one loses sight of the Original Nature. Forgetting this luminous source, one falls into the various destinies and fails to attain unsurpassed bodhi.

A guest who held the office of Minister once went to see Patriarch Changsha.

Patriarch Sha called, “Minister!”

The man responded, “Yes.”

Patriarch Sha said, “Is that not the Minister’s original life-root?”

The Minister said, “It cannot be abandoned. Yet now, just as we face one another, there appears to be a second master besides it.”

Patriarch Sha said, “Could I call the Minister the Most Honored One?”

He said, “If so, then throughout all the time when we are not facing one another, would it not be my master?”

Patriarch Sha said, “It is not merely so when we are or are not facing one another. From beginningless time until now, that has been your fundamental root of birth and death.”

He further recited:

“The student of the Way does not recognize the True,

Only because, since time immemorial, he has taken the conscious spirit as himself.

The root of birth and death from beginningless time—

The foolish person calls it the Original Person.”

(A student of the Way does not recognize the True,

Only because, since time immemorial, he has taken the conscious spirit as himself.

From beginningless kalpas, it has been the root of birth and death;

The foolish person calls it the Original Person.)

If this is so, how can the master from time immemorial be known?

The Manifestation Chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra says: “Disciples of the Buddha, there is no living being who is not originally endowed with the wisdom of the Tathagata. It is only because they cling to inverted deluded thoughts that they cannot realize it [clearly know it for themselves]. If they abandon deluded thoughts, then omniscient wisdom, natural wisdom, and unobstructed wisdom will spontaneously manifest before them.”

Tiantong versified:

“Heaven covers and earth supports, forming masses and shapes;

It pervades the Dharma-realm, yet has no boundary.

Split the finest particle, and it is not within;

It wholly swallows the profound mystery—

How could there be any distinction of after or before?

Buddhas and Patriarchs, arriving here, incur the karma of speech.”

Ask Nanquan, Old Master Wang [Chan Master Puyuan, a Dharma successor of Master Mazu, propagated the Way at Nanquan and often called himself Old Master Wang]:

“Everyone eats vegetables—only a single stalk.”

Since this is something everyone possesses, why can they not all realize bodhi together, but instead become shravakas or pratyekabuddhas?

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment says: “All sentient beings delusively perceive that there is transmigration. Weary of transmigration, they again delusively perceive that there is nirvana. Therefore, they do not enter the originally pure Enlightenment. It is not that Enlightenment obstructs those who enter; rather, there are only those who enter, while Enlightenment itself admits of no entering.”

Yet, apart from great and thorough awakening, it is impossible to know how to select and uphold the fundamental basis that is neither born nor extinguished.

IV. RELYING ON SEEING TO INQUIRE INTO THE MIND

Sutra: “Ananda, since you now wish to know the path of cultivating shamatha and aspire to escape birth and death, I shall question you again.” Thereupon, the Tathagata raised his golden-hued arm, bent his five fingers, and said to Ananda: “Do you see this?”

Ananda replied: “I see it.”

The Buddha said: “What do you see?”

Ananda replied: “I see the Tathagata raise his hand and bend his fingers into a radiant fist, dazzling my mind and eyes.”

The Buddha asked: “With what do you see?”

Ananda replied: “The assembly and I all see with our eyes.”

The Buddha said to Ananda: “You have now replied that the Tathagata bent his fingers into a radiant fist that dazzled your mind and eyes. Your eyes see it, but what do you take to be your mind in relation to my dazzling fist?”

Ananda said: “The Tathagata is now closely questioning me as to where the mind is, and I use my mind to think, examine, and search. It is precisely this faculty capable of knowing and thinking that I take to be my mind.”

The Buddha said: “Alas, Ananda! That is not your mind.”

Ananda, startled, rose from his seat, stood, joined his palms, and said: “If that is not my mind, what is it called?”

The Buddha said to Ananda: “That is the perception which constructs the false characteristics of the objects before you and deludes your True Nature. Since beginningless time until now, you have taken that thief for your son, thereby losing what is originally eternal in you and thus undergoing samsara.”

Commentary: This is the World-Honored One’s second instance of guiding him step by step. He asked, “Do you now see?” Ananda replied, “I see.” If, at this very point, he had suddenly awakened, he would have seen the originally luminous Essential Nature, which permits no discussion and awaits no contrivance. Bodhi and nirvana are originally complete in themselves; the moment discrimination arises, one falls into inferential comparison [comparison and discrimination], becomes bound to the dictates of the six consciousnesses, sinks deeply into conceptual knowledge, and strays very far from the True Nature.

Therefore, the Buddha rebuked him, saying, “That is not your mind.” If, at the moment of being rebuked, he had become utterly open and all sense of self had vanished, and if he had suddenly turned the light around, then, at that very instant, original enlightenment would have been freely present. Why, then, did he say, “Apart from this faculty of awareness and knowing, there is absolutely nothing”? This awareness and knowing discriminates in dependence upon the characteristics of the objects before it; when those objects disappear, it too is no more.

It is therefore called “the false perception that clings to characteristics.” Original enlightenment, however, does not depend upon objects and consequently arise and cease with them; hence it is called the True Nature. Yet there is only one True Nature. Because this awareness and knowing presently obscures original enlightenment, it is indeed the thief that robs original enlightenment.

If one takes this awareness and knowing to be one’s own mind, one is taking a thief for one’s son, abandoning that which is neither born nor extinguished and embracing that which arises and ceases. How, then, could there be any doubt about transmigration? Nevertheless, it is also impossible to leave this awareness and knowing behind and seek original enlightenment separately somewhere else.

Tiantong briefly raised the point: “If that which is capable of thinking is your mind, then you are taking a thief for your son!”

Master Xiushan said: “If that which is capable of thinking is not your mind, then you are taking a thief for your son!”

Tiantong put it forth: “Now examine whether it is the son or the thief: buy a hat that fits the head; eat the fish and discard the bones.”

Then, as for Tiantong, did he still make a distinction or not?

The Sixth Patriarch taught: “An ordinary being is itself Buddha; afflictions are themselves bodhi. A preceding thought deluded is an ordinary being; a subsequent thought awakened is Buddha. A preceding thought clinging to objects is affliction; a subsequent thought free from objects is bodhi.” This is also like saying that whether turned palm-down or palm-up, it is still the hand. [The Sixth Patriarch, Great Master Huineng, bore the family name Lu and was a native of Xinxing. Taking leave of his mother, he went directly to Dongshan at Huangmei. After attaining the Dharma, he returned to Faxing Monastery in Nanhai, where he opened the Dongshan Dharma gate. He later returned to Baolin Monastery. He passed away while seated, and his stupa stands at Caoxi, now Nanhua Monastery.]

Yongjia said: “The true nature of ignorance is itself Buddha-nature. This illusory, empty body is itself the Dharma-body.” Truly, he thoroughly penetrated the gate of nonduality.

Sutra: Ananda said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One, I am the Buddha’s beloved younger cousin, and because of my devotion to the Buddha, I left the household life. My mind has not merely made offerings to the Tathagata; throughout lands as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, it has also attended upon all Buddhas and spiritual benefactors. When I summon great courage to perform all difficult Dharma works, I always use this mind. Even if I were to slander the True Dharma and cause my roots of goodness to regress lifetime after lifetime, it would also be because of this mind.

“Now the Buddha has revealed that this is not the mind, so I have no mind and am like wood or stone. Apart from this awareness and knowing, ultimately nothing remains. Why does the Tathagata say that it is not the mind? I am truly frightened. Among this entire assembly, there is no one who is not doubtful and bewildered. I beseech the Buddha, out of compassion, to instruct those who have not yet awakened.”

Commentary: Ananda’s emotional consciousness and views had been exhausted, and only then did he say that he “had no mind” and was like wood or stone. This was precisely the point at which he should have accepted and shouldered the matter; how much mental effort that would have spared him! Why cling so tightly to a single faculty of awareness and knowing? Why would he not simply cast it away?

Long ago, when Master Dalang first went to consult Mazu,

Mazu asked: “What do you seek by coming here?”

He replied: “I seek the Buddha’s knowledge and vision.”

The Patriarch said: “Buddha has no knowledge and vision; knowledge and vision [seeing and knowing] are Mara. Where have you come from?”

He answered: “I have come from Nanyue.” [Chan Master Huairang of the Tang dynasty resided at Prajna Monastery on Mount Heng, and was therefore known as Nanyue. The Sixth Patriarch Huineng had two great disciples: Nanyue and Qingliang.]

The Patriarch said: “You have come from Nanyue, yet you do not know the essential import of Caoxi [a special epithet of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng]. Return there quickly; you should not go elsewhere.”

Master Lang returned to Patriarch Shitou and asked: “What is Buddha?”

Patriarch Shitou said: “You have no Buddha-nature.” [Chan Master Xiqian resided at Nansi Monastery on Mount Heng. East of the monastery was a rock shaped like a platform, upon which he built a hermitage; the people of that time therefore called him Venerable Shitou, ‘Stone Head.’]

Master Lang said: “What, then, of all the wriggling, flying, and leaping creatures?”

Patriarch Shitou said: “All the wriggling, flying, and leaping creatures possess Buddha-nature.”

He asked: “Why, then, does this Huilang not possess it?”

Patriarch Shitou said: “Because you refuse to accept it.”

Upon hearing this, Master Huilang entered through faith.

Thereafter, whenever a student of the Way came to him, he would say: “Go! Go! You have no Buddha-nature.”

Such, in general, was his way of responding to people and instructing them. How could it be that apart from awareness and knowing, nothing remains?

Sutra: At that time, the Blessed One instructed Ananda and the great assembly, wishing them to attain the Patience with the Non-Arising of Dharmas. From the lion’s seat, he stroked Ananda’s head and said: “The Tathagata has often said that all phenomena that arise are manifestations of mind alone. All causes and effects, worlds, and motes of dust derive their essential being from mind. Ananda, among all the worlds, every existing thing—even a blade of grass, a leaf, a strand of cord, or a knot—when traced to its origin, possesses an essential nature. Even empty space has a name and attributes; how much more must the luminous, pure, wondrous True Mind, the nature of every mind, possess its own essential being!

“If you insist on clinging to sensory discrimination and cognition as the Mind, then that mind, apart from the characteristics of such objects as form, fragrance, taste, touch, and dharmas, must possess a complete nature of its own. Yet now, when you respectfully listen to the sound of my Dharma, discrimination arises because of that sound. Even if you were to extinguish all seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, while inwardly maintaining a state of vacant and secluded stillness, that would still be merely discrimination of the reflected image of the dharma-object [One of the six objects—form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, and dharmas. All dharmas that are the objects of consciousness are collectively called dharma-objects].

“I do not tell you to insist that this is not mind, but you must examine your own mind with utmost care. If, apart from the objects before you, a discriminating nature remains, then that is indeed your True Mind. But if the discriminating nature has no essential being apart from the objects before you, then it is merely discrimination of the reflected images of those objects. The objects before you do not abide permanently; therefore, when they change and perish, the mind that depends upon them will likewise become as nonexistent as a turtle’s hair or a hare’s horn. Your Dharma-body would then also be annihilated. What would remain to realize the Patience with the Non-Arising of Dharmas?”

Commentary: The arising of all phenomena is exclusively the transformation and manifestation of mind, just as layer upon layer of reflected images appear solely within a mirror. The six objects are like forms, while discrimination—the consciousness-mind—is like their reflections. A reflection exists by relying upon a form, and mental consciousness exists by relying upon an object.

This, then, is discrimination of the reflected images of the objects before one [The six objects, the states appearing before the deluded mind]. Movement belongs to the objects before one, while stillness belongs to the dharma-object. Therefore, although inwardly maintaining vacant and secluded stillness contains no reflected images of the objects before one, there nevertheless remains the reflected image of vacant and secluded stillness.

This is still discrimination of the reflected image of the dharma-object.

That which clings is consciousness; it is not the permanently abiding True Mind of Fundamental Enlightenment. The permanently abiding True Mind is free from all discrimination, just as the great, perfectly luminous mirror [The Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom of the Consciousness-Only School] is free from both Movement—the six objects—and Stillness—consciousness. This Mind is originally undefiled and is therefore called Pure; though amid defilement, it is not defiled and is therefore called Wondrously Pure.

All causes and effects and worlds as numerous as motes of dust are established through it. It is also the fundamental nature from which the deluded mind produces the nine realms [The six destinies, shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas]. Therefore, it is called the Nature of every Mind.

If one sees this Mind, one becomes free from discrimination and abides in the Self-Nature. This Self-Nature does not become existent or nonexistent in accordance with discrimination. When form is freed from discriminating consciousness, just as an object is freed from its reflection, what remains is precisely the fundamental substance of the mirror.

The substance of the mirror does not arise or perish in accordance with the reflections of objects. To cling to discriminating awareness and cognition as the Self-Nature is to mistake a reflection for the mirror. This discriminating awareness exists in relation to objects but does not exist apart from them, just as a reflection in a mirror originally has no essential being of its own and ultimately perishes.

How, then, could it realize the Non-Arising? Therefore, one must know that the Mind possesses its own fundamental substance and is not subject to annihilation.

In the preceding passage, the Buddha reproved him, saying, “That is not your Mind,” because what Ananda acknowledged was only the false mind subject to annihilation, not the True Mind that has existed from the beginning. How could this mean that there truly is no mind?

Patriarch Xuansha [Chan Master Zongyi, named Shibei, lived on Mount Xuansha. In his youth, he worked as a fisherman. At the age of thirty, he suddenly aspired to leave the household life.

He went to study with Patriarch Furong, shaved his head, and received full ordination. He then sought out Chan Master Cun on Mount Xuefeng, with whom he became deeply accordant and awakened to the profound purport. At first he resided at Puying Cloister; later he moved to Xuansha], Master Shibei, ascended the Dharma hall and said: “There is now a teaching which maintains that vivid, radiant awareness is the cognitive nature of the numinous platform, capable of seeing and hearing and acting as the master within the field of the body composed of the five skandhas.

This is the great deceiver of spiritual friends—do you understand? I now ask you: If you recognize this vivid, radiant awareness as your Reality, then why, when you fall into deep sleep, is it no longer radiant and vivid? If it is absent during deep sleep, then why is there a time when it is radiant and vivid?

Do you understand? This is called mistaking a thief for one’s son. It is the root of birth and death, the habitual tendency conditioned into deluded thought.

Do you wish to know its origin? I shall tell you: This radiant, vivid awareness exists only because discrimination arises in response to the objects before you—form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, and dharmas—and then you falsely declare it to be radiant, vivid awareness. If there were no objects before you, this radiant, vivid awareness of yours would be as nonexistent as a turtle’s hair or a hare’s horn.

“Tell me, where is the Reality? If you now wish to escape the master of the field of the body composed of the five skandhas, you need only know how to take hold of your Secret Vajra Substance. The ancients told you: ‘It wholly accomplishes Perfect and Universal Enlightenment and pervades the Dharma Realm.’ I shall now explain a small part of this for you; those with wisdom can understand through analogy. Do you see the sun over Jambudvipa? In the places where worldly people live, their labor, commerce, sustaining of life, and every kind of mental activity are all established by relying upon sunlight. Yet does the substance of the sun contain all those mental activities? And is there any place it does not pervade?

“If you wish to know the Vajra Substance, you must regard it in the same way. Just as they presently are, the mountains, rivers, vast earth, lands throughout the ten directions, form and emptiness, light and darkness, and even your bodies and minds—there is nothing that is not completely revealed through your perfectly accomplished majestic radiance. Even gods, humans, sentient beings, karmic retribution, the sentient, and the insentient—there is nothing that does not depend entirely upon your majestic radiance.

Even the Buddhas’ attainment of the Way and fruition, their reception of beings, and their benefiting of living beings—there is nothing that does not depend entirely upon your majestic radiance. Within this Vajra Substance, are there ordinary beings and Buddhas? Are your mental activities present within it?

One cannot say that it does not exist; thus one can put it fully to use. Do you understand?”

Patriarch Xuansha illuminated the ground of mind through studying the Shurangama Sutra. Therefore, his responses to circumstances were keen and agile, secretly accordant with the sutra. Every statement in the passage above is identical in purport to the sutra. Even his words, “Everything depends upon the power of the majestic radiance,” correspond most wondrously with the sutra’s statement, “All phenomena that arise are manifestations of mind alone.”

Furthermore, Patriarch Zhu’an Gui [Patriarch Keguan, styled Zhu’an], a Dharma successor of Patriarch Foyan, and his paternal uncle, the layman Chiyi, were both fond of the Shurangama Sutra.

Patriarch Zhu’an Gui said: “If, apart from the objects before one, a discriminating nature remains, that is precisely the root of birth and death.”

The layman was startled and said: “Did the Buddha speak incorrectly?”

Patriarch Zhu’an said: “The Buddha, of course, did not speak incorrectly. But right now, where precisely is the mind with which you face me and ask this question?”

The layman then praised him, saying: “The Buddha said: to understand the Ultimate Emptiness is called the Lion’s Roar. You have acted, yet remain unattached.”

Master Zhu’an later ascended the Dharma hall and said: “When seeing involves a characteristic of seeing, that seeing is not True Seeing (Right View). Seeing that has departed from all characteristics of seeing—such seeing is transcendent (Liberation). [From the Surangama Sutra: ‘When seeing sees seeing, seeing is not seeing. Seeing is apart from seeing; seeing cannot reach it.’] ‘The falling flower, having intent, follows the flowing stream.

The flowing stream, without feeling, carries the falling flower.’ Whatever can be returned is naturally not you. But that which cannot be returned—if it is not you, then who is it? ‘I always lamented that when spring departed, there was nowhere to seek it, not knowing it had returned to emerge from the old place.’” He shouted once and said: “Thirty years from now, do not say that the Buddhas and Patriarchs taught people’s children falsely!”

According to Master Zhu’an’s realization, apart from the objective dusts there is no further Self-Nature of Discrimination to be found. One who can skillfully turn the Surangama may, through the genuine spirit of the passage “Seeing is apart from seeing; such seeing is transcendent,” participate in inquiry together with Master Xuansha.

V. CLEARLY SHOWING THAT THE NATURE OF SEEING IS NOT THE EYE

Sutra: At that time, Ananda and the entire assembly remained silent and bewildered.

The Buddha told Ananda: “All practitioners and students in the world who, though presently accomplishing the nine successive levels of samadhi, do not end the outflows [end the afflictions] and attain arhatship, fail because they cling to this deluded conception of birth and death and mistakenly regard it as true. Therefore, although you are now learned in many teachings, you have not attained the fruit of a sage.”

Commentary: The nine levels of samadhi are set forth later: the Four Dhyanas, the Four Formless Attainments, and so forth. Yet only the resulting states are discussed, not the methods of cultivation. Here, “practitioners of the nine successive levels of samadhi” means that they cultivate in sequence, proceeding from one level of dhyana to the next.

As the Great Prajnaparamita says: “Having departed from sensual desire and evil, unwholesome dharmas, with initial seeking and sustained examination, one experiences the joy and bliss born of seclusion and enters the First Dhyana. When seeking and examination have subsided, one abides in inward purity and joy. Without seeking or examination, one experiences the joy and bliss born of samadhi and enters the Second Dhyana.

Departing from joy, one abides in equanimity, fully endowed with mindfulness and right comprehension; the body experiences the pure bliss of which the sages say, ‘One who has equanimity and mindfulness abides in bliss,’ and one enters the Third Dhyana. With the cessation of pleasure and pain, and the prior disappearance of elation and sorrow, one is neither in pain nor in pleasure; with mindfulness purified by equanimity, one enters the Fourth Dhyana.

Transcending all perceptions of form, extinguishing perceptions of resistance, and not attending to any perceptions, one enters the infinity of space, the Samadhi of the Sphere of Infinite Space. Transcending all of infinite space, one enters the infinity of consciousness, the Samadhi of the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness. Transcending all of infinite consciousness, one enters the Samadhi of the Sphere of Nothingness.

Transcending the Samadhi of Nothingness, one enters the Samadhi of the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception. Transcending all of neither perception nor non-perception, one enters the Samadhi of the Cessation of Feeling and Perception.”

These are the nine successive samadhis. All are conditioned functions. Because one delights in conditioned wholesome fruits, it is said: “Deluded by the heavenly realms subject to outflows, one understands them to be the unconditioned.” Because of this deluded attachment, one cultivates by entering the subtle, arising-and-ceasing consciousness of deluded conception and is not yet able to see the Unborn True Nature.

One does not realize that the Quiescent Extinction (nirvana) manifest here and now is itself the True Unconditioned Dharma; therefore, one has not yet exhausted the outflows. Great arhats have realized the Samadhi of the Cessation of Feeling and Perception and are therefore called free of outflows. Why, then, is one who likewise realizes the Samadhi of the Cessation of Feeling and Perception among the nine successive levels of samadhi still called subject to outflows?

Because nirvana is realized through deluded conception; thus, even though the Samadhi of Complete Cessation is attained, it is still not genuine.

Master Huangbo said: “All sentient beings revolve ceaselessly through birth and death because the thinking mind, conditioned by objects, continually creates the mind of the six destinies, causing them to undergo every kind of suffering.

“The Vimalakirti Sutra says: Human beings are difficult to teach; their minds are like monkeys and apes. Therefore, many Dharma methods must be used to restrain this mind before it can be subdued. Because when the mind arises, all dharmas arise; when the mind ceases, all dharmas cease.

“Therefore, you should know that all dharmas are created by mind. Even the heavens, the human realm, the six destinies, the hells, and the asuras are all created by mind. Now, simply learn No-Mind: immediately sever all conditions; do not give rise to deluded thoughts and discriminations; have neither self nor other, neither greed nor anger, neither love nor hatred, neither superiority nor inferiority.

Merely cast off all these various deluded thoughts, and the Self-Nature, originally and always pure, remains. This is called the cultivation of bodhi, Dharma, and Buddhahood... [Such is genuine cultivation.] If you do not understand in this way, then even if you study widely, practice diligently through hardship, eat tree bark, and clothe yourself in grass, so long as you do not know your Own Mind, all of it is called deviant practice.

You will become celestial demons, followers of heterodox paths, and spirits of earth and water. What benefit could there be in cultivating like this?”

Master Zhigong taught: “The body itself is created by mind; why seek it among written words and meanings? At this very moment, simply clearly know your Own Mind and utterly cease conceptual thinking and deluded thoughts; then defilements and afflictions will naturally cease to arise.”

“The Vimalakirti Sutra says: ‘He placed only one bed there and lay down to rest from his illness’—this means that the mind does not arise. When a sick person lies down, all conditions cease and deluded thoughts vanish: this is bodhi.

“But if your mind remains hesitant and unsettled, then even if you study the Three Vehicles, the Four Fruits, and the Ten Bhumi, you are still only sitting within the distinction between ordinary beings and sages. All conditioned practices ultimately return to impermanence; their power will eventually be exhausted. It is like shooting an arrow into the sky: when its momentum is spent, it falls back down, and one once again descends into the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Cultivation of this kind fails to understand the Buddha’s intent. All that toil and weariness are in vain—is this not a grave error?”

Master Zhigong also said: “Before encountering an enlightened teacher who has appeared in the world, even taking the Dharma medicine of the Mahayana is in vain.”

Alas! Even the Dharma medicine of the Mahayana may be unable to help—how much less the nine successive levels of samadhi? Therefore, one should know that when cultivation is misguided, the fruit of a sage is difficult to attain.

Sutra: After hearing this, Ananda again wept sorrowfully. He prostrated himself with all five limbs upon the ground, knelt upright with palms joined, and said to the Buddha: “Ever since I followed the Buddha and resolved to leave the household life, I have relied upon the Buddha’s awe-inspiring spiritual power. I often thought to myself: ‘I need not trouble myself with cultivation; the Tathagata will bestow upon me the Dharma of Right Samadhi.’ I did not know that body and mind cannot take another’s place.

I lost my own Fundamental Mind; therefore, although my body has left the household life, my mind has not entered the Way. I am like an impoverished son who abandoned his father and fled. Only today do I understand: even if one is learned in many teachings, if one does not cultivate, one is no different from someone who has never heard them.

It is like a person who merely talks about food but in the end is never satisfied.

“World-Honored One, we are now bound by the two obstructions because we do not know the Quiescent and Eternal Nature of Mind. I ask only that the Tathagata take pity upon us who have reached the end of the road, reveal and awaken the Wondrous Luminous Mind, and open my eye of the Way.”

Commentary: The Lotus Sutra also contains the analogy of abandoning one’s father and fleeing. Having reached the end of the road in a distant land, one hopes to be shown the jewel sewn within one’s robe and gradually forms the wish to return home.

The two obstructions are the Afflictive Obstruction and the Cognitive Obstruction. The Afflictive Obstruction obstructs the mind: the mind is not liberated, but produces karma and undergoes its resulting retribution. The Cognitive Obstruction impedes the Luminous Nature (wisdom). When the Luminous Nature is bound, one does not understand the emptiness of dharmas.

Ananda clearly knew that he was bound by the two obstructions, and he also knew what is called the Quiescent and Eternal Nature of Mind. Why, then, had his eye of the Way not opened? Truly breaking through is exceedingly difficult.

A monk asked Master Yaoshan: “What is it like when a student intends to return to his native home?”

Master Shan said: “Your parents, their bodies swollen and covered in red sores, lie in a forest of thorns. Where will you return?”

The monk asked, “If so, does that mean I should not return?”

The Patriarch said, “You still ought to return. If you return, I shall show you fine medicinal provisions for the journey.”

The monk said, “Please tell me.”

Patriarch Shan said, “At the two daily Dharma assemblies, not a single grain of rice is bitten through.”

Later, a monk respectfully asked Patriarch Luopu, “What should a student do when he intends to return to his native land?”

Patriarch Pu said, “The house has fallen apart and its people are gone. Where would you return?”

The monk said, “If so, does that mean I should not return?”

Patriarch Pu said, “Before the courtyard, the lingering snow melts beneath the sun. Within the chamber, who tells one to sweep away the red dust?”

He then recited this verse:

“My heart is resolved to return to my old homeland;

I sail a boat across the Five Lakes.

I pull up the pole as moon and stars sink;

I stay the oar beneath the solitary sun.

I weigh anchor and leave the false shore;

I raise the sail and enter the Current of the Real.

Upon arrival, every person has vanished;

No longer need I be the fool within the house.”

Patriarch Danxia versified:

“The road to the peaceful homeland is not far;

Returning, delight flows on, its meaning boundless.

Letting go of both hands, one reaches home—where can it be found?

Moonlight’s reflection enfolds the precious crystal palace.”

(The road to the peaceful homeland is not far;

The delight of returning wanders on, thought without boundary.

Letting go of both hands, one reaches home—where can it be found?

The crystal treasure hall is enclosed in moonlight.)

The venerable elders have each revealed an expedient means for returning home. Truly, their Eye of the Way was open and clear, and they genuinely knew the eternally quiescent Mind-Nature.

Sutra: At that very moment, the Tathagata emitted precious light from the svastika mark ( ) upon his chest. That radiance blazed brilliantly in a hundred thousand colors and simultaneously illuminated all the Buddha-worlds throughout the ten directions, as numerous as motes of dust. The radiance poured over the crowns of all the Tathagatas throughout the precious lands of the ten directions, then turned back and shone upon Ananda and the entire assembly.

The Buddha told Ananda, “I shall now raise the great banner of Dharma for your sake, and shall also enable all beings throughout the ten directions to realize the wondrous, subtle, secret, luminous, and pure Mind-Nature, and to attain the Pure Eye.”

Commentary: Previously, light was emitted from the face, and the lands of the ten directions were simultaneously revealed, causing all worlds to merge into a single realm. This signified that the true and the false are nondual. In revealing the two kinds of fundamental root, the severing of delusion was placed first, because if deluded thinking does not cease, then even though one reaches the nine successive stages of samadhi, one still cannot attain the fruition of a sage.

That original countenance can be examined and seen as clearly as a reflection in a mirror. Now precious light was emitted from the svastika mark ( ) upon the chest, poured over the crowns of all the Tathagatas, and then returned to shine upon Ananda and the assembly. This signified that sages and ordinary beings are nondual.

It revealed that the objects before one may themselves be dark, yet how could Seeing be deficient? Even when the head itself sways, Seeing remains entirely unmoving. The hand itself opens and closes, yet Seeing is neither extended nor rolled up.

This points out the one upward path, with which every person is inherently endowed and through which the seal of transmission may be securely bestowed.

In former times, while Patriarch Yangshan was seated, a monk came and bowed. Patriarch Shan paid him no heed.

The monk then asked the Patriarch, “Do you know written characters?”

The Patriarch replied, “According to my ability.”

The monk then walked once around him to the right and said, “What character is this?”

Patriarch Shan drew the character for “ten,” a cross, on the ground in reply.

The monk then walked once around him to the left and asked, “What character is this?”

Patriarch Shan transformed the character for “ten,” the cross, into the character wan, the svastika.

The monk drew the form of a circle and then raised it with both hands, like the hands of an asura holding the sun and moon, and said, “What character is this?”

Patriarch Shan then drew a symbol in reply.

The monk assumed the majestic form of Rocana Buddha.

Patriarch Shan said, “Thus it is, thus it is. This is what all Buddhas protect and keep in mind. You are thus, and I too am thus. Guard and preserve it well yourself.”

The monk bowed in thanks, rose into the air, and disappeared.

At that time, a practitioner witnessed this.

Five days later, he respectfully asked Patriarch Yangshan about it.

The Patriarch asked, “Did you see it?”

The practitioner replied, “I saw that man go out through the door of the room, rise into the air, and disappear.”

The Patriarch said, “That was an arhat from the Western Land who came to test my Way.”

The practitioner said, “Although I saw all those kinds of samadhi, I do not clearly understand their principle.”

Patriarch Yangshan said, “Let me explain their meaning to you. These are eight kinds of samadhi: the Ocean of Awakening [the awakened nature is likened to an ocean] transforms into the Ocean of Meaning [the principles of the awakened nature are as vast as an ocean], while their essence is identical. This meaning has cause and effect; simultaneity and difference in time; general characteristics and particular characteristics—all inseparable from the Samadhi of the Concealed Body.”

If one understands Yangshan’s samadhi in which the Ocean of Awakening transforms into the Ocean of Meaning, then the precious light emitted from the svastika mark upon the Buddha’s chest is also a wondrous function within the inconceivable. It must certainly take the wondrous, secret, luminous, and pure Mind-Nature as its root.

Patriarch Guishan once asked Patriarch Yangshan, “How do you understand the wondrous, pure, luminous mind?”

Patriarch Yangshan replied, “Mountains, rivers, the great earth, the sun, moon, and stars.”

Patriarch Gui said, “You have attained only the phenomena.”

Patriarch Yang said, “What did the Venerable Master just ask about?”

Patriarch Gui said, “The wondrous, pure, luminous mind.”

Patriarch Yang said, “May that not be called the phenomena?”

Patriarch Gui said, “Thus it is, thus it is.”

It was only because Patriarch Yangshan understood the wondrous, pure, luminous mind and had attained the Pure Eye that his samadhi of clearly understanding written symbols—the Samadhi of Written Characters—far surpassed the ordinary.

Sutra: “Ananda, you previously answered me that you saw my dazzling fist. From where does the fist’s radiance arise? How does it become a fist? And with what do you see it?”

Commentary: This was the Blessed One’s third gradual inducement; one may say that his compassionate, grandmotherly concern was exceedingly earnest. He had previously asked, “With what do you see?” Ananda answered, “I see entirely with my eyes,” and was then rebuked by the Buddha for taking a thief to be his son. Here he was again asked, “With what do you see?” precisely because the Buddha wished Ananda to turn the light around and reflect within, so that he might suddenly perceive the luminous source of the nature of seeing, which does not depend upon the eyes. Regrettably, he still failed to awaken.

A monk once stood in attendance upon Patriarch Changsha.

The Patriarch used his staff to point to an arbitrary spot on the ground before him and asked, “Do you see it?”

The monk replied, “I see it.”

He asked this three times, and each of the three times the monk gave the same answer.

Patriarch Sha said, “You see it, and I also see it. Why, then, do you say that you do not understand?”

On another day, he planted his staff in the ground and asked Patriarch Changsheng, “Monastics see it, laypeople see it, men see it, and women see it. How do you see it?”

He replied, “Does the Venerable Master see Jiaoran’s locus of seeing?”

Patriarch Changsha said, “Those throughout the world who understand one another—thanks to this reply of Jiaoran’s—thereupon meet Xuansha face to face!”

Had Ananda himself known that this locus of seeing is beyond the reach of any seeing, how could the Blessed One have been compelled to labor over so many words?

Sutra: Ananda said, “The Buddha’s entire body is like Jambunada gold, radiant as a precious mountain. Because it is born of purity, it possesses light. Truly, I see with my eyes the Buddha’s five fingers curl into a fist and hold it forth for the assembly to behold; thus there is the appearance of a fist.”

The Buddha told Ananda, “Today the Tathagata shall truly instruct you. Those who possess wisdom must gain awakening through analogies. Ananda, take my fist as an example: if I had no hand, my fist could not be formed. If you had no eyes, your seeing could not be formed. Therefore, if your eye faculty is compared with my fist, are their meanings truly analogous?”

Ananda said to the Buddha, “Indeed, World-Honored One. If I had no eyes, my seeing could not come into being. Comparing my eye faculty with the Buddha’s fist, the principle is the same.”

The Buddha told Ananda, “You say they are the same, but that is incorrect. Why? A person without a hand has absolutely no fist. Yet a person without eyes is not entirely without sight. Why is this so? Go out into the street and ask a blind person, ‘What do you see?’ The blind person will surely reply, ‘At present, before my eyes I see only darkness and nothing else.’ Examining the matter in this way, it is the objects before him that are dark; how could the seeing itself have diminished in any way?”

Commentary: Why did the World-Honored One use a blind person as an example? Because Ananda tenaciously regarded the seeing of the eyes as true seeing. Thus, he did not depart from faculty and object, while consciousness arose between them.

A blind person has no eyes, so how does he also see utter darkness? From this it can be known that the seeing which awaits the eye faculty before it can occur is the discriminating seeing of objects before one, not the seeing of that which has been fundamentally pure from the beginning [the Original Mind]. Discrimination of objects before one belongs to the sixth consciousness; therefore, when the eyes remain, it remains, and when the eyes are lost, it is lost. It must therefore await the presence of the faculty before it can manifest.

The pure radiance of Mind does not await the faculty in order to exist, nor does it perish along with the faculty; therefore, it is neither arising nor ceasing. This is the non-arising and non-ceasing seeing of that which has been fundamentally pure from the beginning, with which everyone is inherently endowed. A blind person is not deprived of it merely because he has no eyes.

Ananda tenaciously held that only the eyes can see; this is the arising and ceasing faculty. The World-Honored One revealed the seeing that is never deficient; this is the “faculty” that neither arises nor ceases. Such an awakening may be said to have reached the ultimate.

Long ago, Chancellor Cui Gongqun paid a visit to Chan Master Patriarch Ruhui and asked, “Through what did the Master attain realization?”

Patriarch Hui replied, “Through the nature of seeing.”

At the time, Patriarch Ruhui was suffering from an eye ailment.

Gongqun teased him, saying, “You speak of the nature of seeing, but what about your eyes?”

Patriarch Hui said, “The nature of seeing is not the eyes. What does an ailment of the eyes matter?”

Gongqun then bowed his head and apologized.

Later, Patriarch Faren said, “Could that eye of the Chancellor possibly have seen the point of Patriarch Ruhui’s reply? What need was there to involve the meaning of the teachings?”

Sutra: Ananda said, “Before their eyes, blind people see only darkness. How can this be called seeing?”

The Buddha told Ananda, “The blind who have no eyes see only darkness. Compared with a sighted person in a dark room, are the two kinds of darkness different or not different?”

“They truly are not different, World-Honored One. Comparing the darkness of a sighted person in a dark room with that of blind people, there is indeed no difference.”

“Ananda, suppose a blind person without eyes sees complete darkness before him and then suddenly acquires clear eyes, so that he once again sees all the various forms among the objects before him. If you call this the eyes seeing, then when the person in the dark room, who sees complete darkness before him, suddenly obtains a bright lamp and consequently sees all the various forms among the objects before him, you should call this the lamp seeing. If the lamp itself could see, it could no longer be called a lamp. Moreover, if it were the lamp that saw, what would that have to do with you? Therefore, you should know that the lamp illuminates the forms, but it is the eyes, not the lamp, that see them. The eyes reveal the forms, but the nature of seeing is the Mind, not the eyes.”

Commentary: Here the World-Honored One analyzes the matter clearly; hence it is said that he “told him with certainty.” The lamp and the eyes are both conditions for seeing, but their substance is not that which is capable of seeing. That which is capable of seeing is the Mind. Earlier, the question “Does the door see?” already fully expressed this principle.

Here, the lamp is again used as an analogy for the eyes, and the eyes are compared with the Mind. The lamp cannot see; then could the eyes truly see? The seeing of the eyes is not the nature of seeing.

If the six faculties can function interchangeably, then the ears can also see; how could seeing belong exclusively to the eyes? Ananda’s statement, “I truly use my eyes to see,” clearly grasps the false and takes it to be the true. If one knows that the lamp can only reveal forms, while the capacity for seeing belongs to the eyes, one has already departed from the false object.

If one further knows that the eyes only reveal forms, while the nature of seeing belongs to the Mind, one also departs from the false subject. When both subject and object are relinquished, only the one Mind remains. The Mind transcends the eyes and therefore neither arises nor ceases.

When the non-arising and non-ceasing seeing beholds the Tathagata’s fist, there has never been a time when it did not see. Yet one cannot say that the eyes see.

Long ago, Chan Master Kumu [In the Tang dynasty, Chan masters who had attained understanding would sit motionless in quiet cultivation, and people called them the “dried-tree masters”], Patriarch Zuyuan [His courtesy name was Ziyuan and his title was Wuxue. He lived during the Song dynasty. At fourteen, he went to Jingshan to study with Master Fojian; at seventeen, he experienced an awakening.

After Master Fojian passed away, he traveled throughout the land. At thirty-six, he attained complete great awakening], studied under Master Dahui at the Yunmen hermitage. [The Chan Master Patriarch Fori, named Zonggao, lived during the Song dynasty. He succeeded Chan Master Yuanwu.

He passed away at the age of seventy-two and was imperially bestowed the title Dahui.] As evening approached, he saw a monk preparing a lamp and thereupon attained thorough awakening. He composed this verse:

“As soon as the lamp was prepared, the flame appeared;

The ignorance of countless kalpas was illuminated and shattered.

Returning home, I encountered the holy monk;

I nearly passed him face-to-face by mistake.

What is it not to pass him by mistake?

Fifteen years ago, I thought it extraordinary;

As of old, it is only this!”

(Dịch khởi đăng lại thị hỏa

Lịch kiếp Vô Minh chiếu phá

Quy đường chàng kiến Thánh tăng

Kỷ hồ đương diện tạ quá

Bất tạ quá, thị thậm ma

Thập ngũ niên tiền kỳ đặc

Y tiền chỉ thị giá cá).

Master Dahui then presented him with this verse:

“From a cliff ten thousand fathoms high, he lets his body go;

Rising again, as of old, he remains lucid and clear.

Eating when hungry and drinking when thirsty, entirely free of concern—

Why discuss whether the person of old is or is not the one of old?”

(Vạn nhận nhai đầu giải phóng thân

Khởi lai y cựu khước tinh tinh

Cơ xan khát ẩm hồn vô sự

Há luận tích nhơn phi tích nhơn).

Ah, what did preparing a lamp have to do with the practice of Chan, that it should bring about awakening? Thus we know why the World-Honored One said that the seeing belongs to the eyes and not to the lamp, while the nature of seeing is the Mind and not the eyes. Hence Master Zuyuan said that as soon as the lamp was prepared, the flame appeared. Just as one who sees horns beyond a wall knows with certainty that there is an ox, only such thorough realization can be called seeing the nature.

Sutra: Although Ananda had heard this teaching from the Buddha, he and the great assembly remained silent, yet their minds had not awakened. Still hoping that the Tathagata would compassionately instruct them, they joined their palms, stilled their minds, and waited for the Buddha mercifully to teach them.

At that time, the World-Honored One extended his radiant, cotton-soft hand, opened his five fingers, and said to Ananda and the great assembly, “When I first attained the Way in the Deer Park, I taught Ajnata Kaundinya and the other five bhiksus, together with the four assemblies, that all beings fail to attain bodhi or become arhats because they are deluded by the afflictions of transient defilements. At that time, through what did you awaken and attain the fruit of sagehood?”

Commentary: Although the World-Honored One clearly revealed the truth in his words, Ananda and the assembly had still not awakened, for the necessary conditions had not yet readily converged. Out of compassion, the World-Honored One was also concerned that his subtle words might not be easily understood. Yet among the bhiksus there were some who had already awakened and understood; thus, by using the understanding of those who had understood to guide others toward understanding, it would be easier for them to awaken and enter.

Therefore, he instructed each of the bhiksus to recount the causes and conditions of his awakening, so that Ananda might more readily comprehend. In the following section, the twenty-five sages recount how they realized Perfect Penetration, likewise employing this method. Here, one first recognizes delusion and only afterward realizes the True.

This does not mean that there are no differences in depth, but the expedient means of guidance is one and the same.

The statement, “The failure to attain bodhi is entirely due to being deluded by the afflictions of guest and dust,” refers precisely to the mutual transformation and interchange of the two fundamental kinds of birth and death; awakening to this is not easy.

A monk asked National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong, “What is Buddha?”

The Patriarch replied, “Mind itself is Buddha.”

The monk asked, “Does the mind have afflictions?”

The Patriarch said, “Afflictions are by nature inherently separate.” [Li: separation, liberation]

The monk said, “Should they not be eliminated?”

The Patriarch replied, “Eliminating afflictions is called the path of the Two Vehicles. When afflictions do not arise, that is called Great Nirvana.”

The monk asked, “What of sitting in meditation and contemplating purity?”

The Patriarch replied, “When there is neither defilement nor purity, why give rise to a mind that contemplates the mark of purity?”

The Sutra of Maitreya’s Ascent says: “Without undertaking the cultivation of meditative concentration, without vainly trying to eliminate afflictions, the Buddha predicts that this person will become a Buddha without doubt.”

Scholar Chen Xiuyu once asked Patriarch Wansong [Chan Master Wansong Xingxiu. He left home at Pure Land Monastery, traveled everywhere to study, and finally met Patriarch Xueyan at Daming Monastery, where he accorded with and awakened to the mind-seal. He then returned to Pure Land Monastery and established the Wansong Hermitage.], “Why does Bodhisattva Maitreya neither cultivate meditative concentration nor eradicate afflictions?”

Patriarch Wansong replied, “The True Mind is originally pure, so there is no cultivation of meditative concentration. Deluded thoughts are originally empty, so there is no eradication of afflictions.”

The scholar then brought this saying to Venerable Darun of Xiangshan and asked him about it. The Venerable replied, “The mind of Chan is originally concentrated, so it need not be cultivated anew. Afflictions are quiescent and extinguished, so they need not be eliminated again.”

The scholar then brought it to Hai Juchuan of the Bamboo Grove and asked him. Patriarch Juchuan replied, “Originally there is no meditative concentration and no affliction!”

The scholar said, “Only this is truly satisfying!”