SHURANGAMA SUTRA

· Sutra of the Foremost Shurangama at the Great Buddha's Summit Concerning the Tathgata's Secret Cause of Cultivation, His Certification to the Complete Meaning and all Bodhisattvas' Myriad Practices.
· Translated during the T'ang Dynasty by Shramana Paramiti from Central India.
· Reviewed by Shramana Meghashikara from Udyana.
· Certified By Shramana Huai Ti from Nan Lo Monastery on Lo Fu Mountain.
· Edited by Bodhisattva-precepts Disciple Fang Yung of Ching He, former Censor of State, and concurrently Attendent and Minister, and Court Regulator.
· Translated from Chinese by The Buddhist Text Translation Society, USA

VOLUME 1
Thus I have heard.
At one time the Buddha dwelt in Shravasti in the sublime abode of the Jeta Grove with a gathering of Great Bhikshus, twelve hundred fifty in all.
All were Great Arhats without outflows, sons of the Buddha, dwellers and maintainers. They had fully transcended all existence, and were able to travel everywhere, and to accomplish the awesome deportment.
They followed the Buddha in turning the wheel and were wonderfully worthy of the bequest. Stern and pure in the Vinaya, they were great exemplars in the three realms. Their limitless response-bodies took living beings across and liberated them, pulling out and rescuing those of the future so they could transcend all the bonds of dust.
The names of the leaders were: the greatly wise Shariputra, Mahamaudgalyayana, Mahakaushthila, Purnamaitreyaniputra, Subhuti, Upanishad, and others.
Moreover limitless pratyekas who were beyond study and those with initial resolve came to where the Buddha was to join the Bhikshus' Pravarana at the close of the summer retreat.
Bodhisattvas from the ten directions who desired counsel in order to resolve the doubts in their minds were respectful and obedient to the Awesome but Compassionate One as they prepared to seek the secret meaning.
Then the Tathagata arranged his seat, sat quietly and peacefully, and for the sake of everyone in the assembly proclaimed the profound and mysterious. The pure assembly at the banquet of Dharma obtained what they had never obtained before.
The Immortal's Kalavinka-sound pervaded the ten directions and Bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges gathered at the Bodhimanda with Manjushri as their leader.
Then King Prasenajit, for the sake of his father, the late king, arranged on the day of mourning a vegetarian feast and invited the Buddha to the side rooms of the palace. He welcomed the Tathagata in person with a vast array of superb delicacies of unsurpassed wonderful flavors and himself invited the great Bodhisattvas.
In the city were also elders and laypeople who were also prepared to feed the Sangha at the same time, and they stood waiting for the Buddha to come and receive offerings.
The Buddha commanded Manjushri to assign the Bodhisattvas and Arhats to receive offerings from the various vegetarian hosts.
Only Ananda, who, having accepted a special invitation earlier, had travelled far and had not yet returned; was late for the apportioning of the Sangha. No senior-seated or Acharya was with him, so he was returning alone on the road.
On that day he had received no offerings, and so at the appropriate time Ananda took up his begging bowl and, as he travelled through the city, begged in successive order.
As the first began to beg, he thought to himself that down to the very last Danapati who would be his vegetarian host he would not question whether they were clean or unclean; whether they were Ksatriyas of honorable name or Chandalas. While practicing equality and compassion he would not merely select the lowly but was determined to perfect all living beings' limitless merit and virtue.
Ananda already knew that the Tathagata, the World Honored One, had admonished Subhuti and Great Kashyapa for being Arhats whose hearts were not fair and equal, and he regarded with respect the Tathagata's instructions in impartiality, to save everyone from doubt and slander.
Having crossed the city moat, he walked slowly through the outer gates, his manner stern and proper as he honored with propriety the method of obtaining food.
At that time, because Ananda was begging in sequential order, he passed by a house of prostitution and was waylaid by a powerful artifice. By means of a mantra of the Kapila religion, formerly of the Brahma Heaven, the daughter of Matangi drew him onto an impure mat.
With her licentious body she stroked and rubbed him until he was on the verge of destroying the precept substance.
The Tathagata, knowing Ananda was being taken advantage of by the indecent artifice, finished the meal and immediately returned. The king, great officials, elders, and laypeople followed along after the Buddha, desiring to hear the essentials of Dharma.
Then The World Honored One emitted a hundred rays of jeweled and fearless light from his crown. Within the light appeared a thousand-petalled precious lotus, upon which was seated a transformation-body Buddha in full lotus posture, proclaiming a spiritual mantra.
He commanded Manjushri to take the mantra and go provide protection, and, when the evil mantra was extinguished, to lend support, and to encourage Ananda and Matangi's daughter to return to where the Buddha was.
Ananda saw the Buddha, bowed, and wept sorrowfully, regretting that from time without beginning he had been preoccupied with erudition and had not yet perfected his strength in the Way. He respectfully and repeatedly requested an explanation of the very first expedients of the wonderful Shamatha, Samapatti, and Dhyana, by means of which the Tathagatas of the ten directions had realized Bodhi.
At that time Bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, Great Arhats, Pratyekas, and others from the ten directions, were also present. Pleased at the opportunity to listen, they withdrew silently to their seats to receive the sagely instruction.
In the midst of the great assembly, the World Honored One then extended his golden arm, rubbed Ananda's crown, and said to Ananda and the great assembly, "There is a Samadhi called the King of the Foremost Shurangama at the Great Buddha's Summit Replete with the Myriad Practices; it is a path wonderfully adorned and the single door through which the Tathagatas of the ten directions gained transcendence. You should now listen attentively." Ananda bowed down to receive the compassionate instruction humbly.
The Buddha said to Ananda, "You and I are of the same family and share the affection of a natural relationship. At the time of your initial resolve, what were the outstanding characteristics which you saw in my Dharma that caused you to suddenly cast aside the deep kindness and love found in the world?"
Ananda said to the Buddha, "I saw the Tathagata's thirty-two characteristics, which were so supremely wonderful, so incomparable, that his entire body had a shimmering transparence just like that of crystal."
"I often thought to myself that these characteristics could not be born of desire and love. Why? The vapors of desire are coarse and murky. From foul and putrid intercourse comes a turbid mixture of pus and blood which cannot give off such a magnificent, pure and brilliant concentration of purple-golden light. And so I thirstily gazed upward, followed the Buddha, and let the hair fall from my head."
The Buddha said, "Very good, Ananda, you should all know that all living beings are continually born and continually die, simply because they do not know the everlasting true mind, the bright substance of the pure nature. Instead they engage in false thinking. It has been so since time without beginning. Their thoughts are not true, and so the wheel keeps turning."
"Now you wish to investigate the unsurpassed Bodha and actually discover your nature. You should answer my questions with a straightforward mind, because that is exactly the way the Tathagatas of the ten directions escaped birth and death. Their minds were all straight-forward, and since their minds and words were consistently that way, from the beginning, through the intermediate stages to the end, they were never in the least evasive.
Ananda, I now ask you: at the time of your initial resolve, which arose in response to the Tathagata's thirty-two characteristics, what was it that saw those characteristics and who delighted in them?"
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, this is the way I experienced the delight; I used my mind and eyes, because my eyes saw the Tathagata's outstanding characteristics, my mind gave rise to delight. That is why I became resolved and wished to remove myself from birth and death."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "It is as you say, that experience of delight actually occurs because of your mind and eyes. If you do not know where your mind and eyes are, you will not be able to conquer the wearisome dust.
"For example, when a King's country is invaded by thieves and he sends out his troops to suppress and banish them. The troops must know where the thieves are.
"It is the fault of your mind and eyes that you flow and turn. I am asking you specifically about your mind and eyes: Where are they now?"
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, all the ten kinds of living beings in the world alike maintain that the conscious mind dwells within the body; and as I regard the Tathagata's blue lotus-flower eyes, they too are on the Buddha's face.
I now observe that these prominent organs, four kinds of defiling objects, are on my face, and so, too, my conscious mind actually is within my body."
The Buddha said to Ananda, " You are now sitting in the Tathagata's lecture hall looking at the Jeta Grove. Where is it at present?"
"World Honored One, this great many-storied pure lecture hall is in the Garden of the Benefactor of the Solitary. At present the Jeta Grove is in fact outside the hall."
"Ananda, as you are now in the hall, what do you see first?"
"World Honored One, here in the hall I first see the Tathagata, next I see the great assembly, and from there, as I gaze outward, I see the grove and garden."
"Ananda, why it is you are able to see the grove and the garden as you look at them?"
"World Honored One, since the doors and windows of this great lecture hall have been thrown open wide, I can be in the hall and see into the distance."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "It is as you say, when one is in the lecture hall and the doors and windows are open wide, one can see far into the garden and grove. Could there be someone in the hall who does not see the Tathagata and yet sees outside the hall?"
Ananda answered: "World Honored One, to be in the hall and not see the Tathagata, and yet see the grove and fountains is impossible."
"Ananda, you are like that too."
"Your mind is capable of understanding everything thoroughly. Now if your present mind, which thoroughly understands everything, were in your body, then you should be aware first of what is inside your body. Can there be living beings who first see inside their bodies before they observe things outside?"
Even if you cannot see your heart, liver, spleen, and stomach, still, the growing of your nails and hair. The twist of your sinews, and the throb of your pulse should be clearly understood. Why don't you perceive these things? If you cannot perceive what is inside at all, how can you perceive what is outside?
"Therefore you should know that you state the impossible when you say that the aware and knowing mind is in the body."
Ananda bowed his head and said to the Buddha, "Upon hearing such a Dharma-sound as the Tathagata has proclaimed. I realize that my mind is actually outside my body.
"Why? For example, a lamp alight in a room will certainly illumine the inside of the room first, and only then will it pour through the doorway to reach the recesses of the hall. For all living beings, who do not see within their bodies but only see outside them, it is as if the lighted lamp were placed outside the room, so that it cannot illumine the room."
"This principle is certainly clear; it is absolutely beyond all doubt and exactly the Buddha's entire meaning, and so it isn't wrong is it?"
The Buddha said to Ananda, "All these Bhikshus have just followed me to the city of Shravasti to beg in sequence for food rolled into balls, and they have returned to the Jeta Grove. I have already finished eating, but consider the Bhikshus: when one person eats, does everyone get full?"
Ananda answered, "No, World Honored One, Why? These Bhikshus are Arhats, but their individual lives differ. How could one person cause everyone to be full?"
The Buddha told Ananda, "If your mind which understands, knows, sees and is aware were actually outside your body, your body and mind would be mutually exclusive and would have no relationship to one another. The body would be unaware of what the mind perceives, and the mind would not perceive the awareness within the body.
"Now as I show you my tula-cotton hand, does your mind distinguish it when your eyes see it?"
Ananda answered, "So, it is, World Honored One." The Buddha told Ananda, "If there is a common perception, how then can the mind be outside?"
"Therefore you should know you state the impossible when you say that the mind which knows, understands, and is aware is outside the body."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, it is as the Buddha has said, since I cannot see inside, my mind does not reside in the body. Since my body and mind have a common awareness, they are not separate and so my mind does not dwell outside my body. As I now consider it, I know it is in a certain place.
The Buddha said: "Now where is it?"
Ananda said, "Since the mind which knows and understands does not perceive what is inside but can see outside, upon reflection I believe it is concealed in the organ of vision."
"For example, when someone places crystal bowls over his eyes, the bowls cover his eyes but do not obstruct his vision. The organ of vision is thus able to see, and discriminations are made accordingly.
"And so my mind which knows, understands, and is aware does not see within because it resides in the organ; it can gaze outside clearly, without obstruction for the same reason: it is concealed in the organ."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "Assuming that it is concealed in the organ, as you assert in your analogy of the crystals: when someone covers his eyes with the crystals and looks at the mountains and rivers, does he see the crystals as well?"
"Yes, World Honored One, when that person covers his eyes with the crystals, he does in fact see the crystals."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "If your mind is analogous to the eyes covered with crystals, then when you see the mountains and rivers, why don't you see your eyes?"
"If you could see your eyes, your eyes would be part of the external environment. If you cannot see them, why did you say that the mind which understands, knows, and is aware is concealed in the organ of vision as eyes are covered by crystals?"
Therefore you should know that you state the impossible when you say that the mind which knows, understands, and is aware is concealed in the organ of vision in the way that the eyes are covered by crystals.
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, I now offer this reconsideration: viscera and bowels lie inside the bodies of living beings, while the apertures are outside. There is darkness at the bowels and light at the apertures."
Now, as I face the Buddha and open my eyes, I see light: that is to see outside. When I close my eyes and see darkness, that is to see within. How does that principle sound?"
The Buddha said to Ananda, "When you close your eyes and see darkness, does the darkness you experience lie before your eyes? If it does lie before your eyes, then the darkness is in front of your eyes. How can that be said to be 'within'?"
"If it is within, then when you are in a dark room without the light of sun, moon, or lamps. The darkness in the room would constitute your 'warmers' and viscera. If it is not before you, how can it be seen?
"But suppose there is an inward seeing that is distinct from seeing outside. In that case, when you close your eyes and see darkness, you are seeing inside the body. Therefore, when you open your eyes and see light, why can't you see your own face?
"If you cannot see your face, then there can be no seeing within. If you can see your face, then your mind which knows and understands and your organ of vision as well must be suspended in space. How could they be inside?
"If they are in space, then they are not part of your body. Otherwise the Tathagata who now sees your face should be part of the your body as well.
"In that case, when your eyes perceive something, your body would remain unaware of it. If you press the point and say that the body and eyes each have 'an' awareness, then you should have two perceptions, and your one body should eventually become two Buddhas.
"Therefore you should know that you state the impossible when you say that to see darkness is to see within."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "I have heard the Buddha instruct the four assemblies that because the mind arises, every kind of Dharma arises, and that because Dharmas arise, every kind of mind arises.
As I now consider it, the substance of that very consideration is truly the nature of the mind. Wherever it comes together with things, the mind exists in response. It does not exit in the three locations of inside, outside and in between."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "Now you say that because Dharmas arise, every kind of mind arises. Wherever it comes together with things, the mind exists in response. But if it has no substance, the mind cannot come together with anything. If, having no substance, it can yet come together with things, that would constitute a nineteenth realm brought about by a union with the seventh defiling object, and there is no such principle.
"If it does have substance, when you pinch your body with your hand, does your mind which perceives it come out from the inside or in from the outside? If it comes out from the inside, then, once again, it should see within your body. If it comes in from outside, it should see your face first."
Ananda said, "Seeing is done with the eyes. The mind's perception is not that of the eyes. To say it sees doesn't make sense."
The Buddha said, "Supposing that the eyes can see: then when you are in a room, the doors should be able to see. Also, when someone has died but his eyes are still intact, his eyes should see things. How can it be death if one can still see?
"Furthermore, Ananda, if your mind which is aware, understands, and knows in fact has substance, then is it a single substance or many substance? Does its substance perceive the body as it now resides in it or does it not perceive it?
"Supposing that it is a single substance, then when you pinch one limb with your hand, the four limbs would be aware of it. If they all were aware of it, the pinch could not be at any one place. If the pinch is located in one place, then the single substance you propose is not possible.
"Supposing that it has many substance: then you would be many people. Which substance are you?
"Supposing it is a pervasive substance: the case is the same as before in the instance of pinching. But supposing it is not pervasive; then when you touch your head and touch your foot, the foot would not perceive it if the head does. But that is not how you are.
"Therefore you should know that you state the impossible when you say that wherever it comes together with things, the mind exists in response."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, I also have heard the Buddha discuss true appearance with Manjushri and the other disciples of the Dharma King. The World Honored One also said, 'the mind is not inside and it is not outside.'
"As I now consider it, if it were within, it would see things it does not see; if it were outside, there would be no common perception. Since it cannot see inside, it cannot be inside; and since the body and mind have common perception, it does not make sense to say it is outside. Therefore, since there is a common perception and since there is no seeing within, it must be in the middle."
The Buddha said, "You say it is in the middle. That 'middle' must not be haphazard or without a fixed location. Where is this 'middle' that you propose? Is it in an external place, or is it in the body?
"If it is in the body, it cannot be on the surface of the body since that is not in the middle. But to be in the middle is no different than being inside. If it is in an external place, is there some evidence of it, or is there no evidence? If there is no evidence of it, that is the same as if it does not exist. If there is evidence of it, then it has no fixed location.
"Why? Suppose that someone were to indicate the middle by a marker. When regarded from the east, it would be to the west, and when regarded from the south, it would be the north. The marker is unclear, and the mind would be equally chaotic."
Ananda said, "The middle I speak of is neither of those. As the World Honored One has said, the eyes and forms are the conditions which create the eye-consciousness. The eyes make discriminations; forms have no perception, but consciousness is created between them: that is where my mind is."
The Buddha said, "If your mind is between the eye and an object, does the mind's substance combine with the two or does it not?
"If it does combine with the two, then objects and the mind-substance will form a chaotic mixture. Since objects have no perception, the two stand in opposition. Which is the middle?
"If it does not combine with the two, it will then be nether perceiver nor perceived and will have no substance or nature. Where is the characteristic of 'middle'?
"Therefore you should know that for the mind to be in the middle is impossible."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, when I have seen the Buddha turn the Dharma wheel in the past with Great Maudgalyayana, Subhuti, Purna, and Shariputra , four of the great disciples, he often said that the nature of the mind which perceives, makes discriminations, and is aware is located neither within nor outside nor in the middle; it is not located anywhere at all. That very non-attachment to anything is what is called the mind. Therefore, is my non-attachment my mind?"
The Buddha said to Ananda, "You say that the nature of the mind which perceives, makes discriminations, and is aware is not located anywhere at all. The entirety of things existing in the world consists of space, the waters, the land, the creatures that fly and walk, and all external objects. Does your non-attachment also exist?"
If it does not exist, it is the same as hairs on a tortoise or horns on a rabbit. How can you speak of non-attachment?
If non-attachment exists, it cannot be said to be non-existent. To be non-existent is to be without characteristics. To be existent is to have characteristics. Whatever has characteristics has a location; how then can be said to be unattached?
"Therefore you should know, to call the aware, knowing mind to be non-attachment to anything is impossible.
Then Ananda arose from his seat in the midst of the Great Assembly, uncovered his right shoulder, placed his right knee on the ground, respectfully put his palms together, and said to the Buddha:
"I am the Tathagata's youngest cousin. I have received the Buddha's compassionate love and have left the home-life, but I have been dependent on his affection, and as a consequence have pursued erudition and am not yet without outflows.
I could not overcome the Kapila mantra. I was spun around by it and sank in the house of prostitution, all because I did not know the location of the realm of reality.
I only hope that the World Honored One, out of great kindness and pity, will instruct us in the path of Shamatha to guide the Icchantikas and overthrow the Mlecchas.
After he had finished speaking, he placed his five limbs on the ground along with the entire great assembly. Then they stood on tip-toe waiting attentively and thirstily to respectfully hear the instructions.
Then the World Honored One radiated forth from his face various kinds of light, dazzling light as brilliant as hundreds of thousands of suns.
The six kinds of quaking pervaded the Buddharealms, and thus lands as many as fine motes of dust throughout the ten directions appeared simultaneously.
The Buddha's awesome spirit caused all the realms to unite into a single realm.
And in these realms all the great Bodhisattvas, each remaining in his own country, put their palms together and listened.
The Buddha said to Ananda, "All living beings, from beginningless time onward and in all kinds of upsidedown ways, have created seeds of karma which naturally run their course, like the Aksha cluster.
"The reason those who cultivate cannot accomplish unsurpassed Bodhi, but instead reach the level of a Sound-hearer or of One-enlightened-to-conditions, or become accomplished in outside ways as Heaven-dwellers or as Demon-kings or as members of the retinue of demons is that they do not know the two fundamental roots and are mistaken and confused in their cultivation. They are like one who cooks sand in the hope of creating savory delicacies. They may pass through as many aeons as there are motes of dust, but in the end they will not obtain what they want.
"What are the two? Ananda, the first is the root of beginningless birth and death, which is the mind that seizes upon conditions and that you and all living beings now make use of, taking it to be the self-nature.
"The second is the primal pure substance of the beginningless Bodhi Nirvana. It is the primal bright essence of consciousness that can bring forth all conditions. Because of conditions, you consider it to be lost.
"Living beings lose sight if the original brightness: therefore, though they use it to the end of their days, they are unaware of it, and without intending to they enter the various destinies.
"Ananda, now you wish to know about the path of Shamatha with the hope of getting out of birth and death, again I ask you…"
Then the Tathagata raised his golden arm and bent his five wheeled fingers as he asked Ananda, "Do you see?"
Ananda said, "I see."
The Buddha said, "What do you see?"
Ananda said, "I see the Tathagata raise his arm and bend his fingers into a fist of light which dazzles my mind and my eyes."
The Buddha said, "What do you see it with?"
Ananda said, "The members of the great assembly and I each see it with our eyes."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "You have answered me by saying that the Tathagata bends his fingers into a fist of light which dazzles your mind and eyes. Your eyes are able to see, but what is the mind that is dazzled by my fist?"
Ananda said, "The Tathagata is asking where the mind is located. Now that I use my mind to search for it thoroughly, I propose that precisely what is able to investigate is my mind."
The Buddha said, "Hey! Ananda, that is not your mind."
Startled, Ananda leapt from his seat, stood and put his palms together, and said to the Buddha, "If it's not my mind, what is it?"
The Buddha said to Ananda, "It is your perception of false appearances based on external objects which deludes your true nature and has caused you from beginningless time to your present life to recognize a thief as your son, to lose your eternal source, and to undergo the wheel's turning."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, I am the Buddha's favorite cousin. It is because my mind loved the Buddha that I was led to leave the home-life. It is my mind that not only makes offerings to the Tathagata, but also, in passing through lands as many as the grains of sand in the Ganges River to serve all Buddhas and good, wise advisors, and in martialing great courage to practice every difficult aspect of the Dharma, I always use this mind. Even if I am slandering the Dharma and eternally withdrawing my good roots, it would also be because of this mind. If this is not my mind, then I have no mind, and I am the same as a clod of earth or a piece of wood, because there is nothing that is apart from this awareness and knowing.
"Why does the Tathagata say this is not my mind? I am startled and frightened and not one member of the great assembly is without doubt. I only hope that the World Honored One will regard us with great compassion and instruct those who have not yet awakened."
Then the World Honored One gave instruction to Ananda and the great assembly, wishing to cause their minds to enter the State of Patience with the Non-production of Dharmas.
From the Lion's seat he rubbed Ananda's crown and said to him, "The Tathagata has often said that all Dharmas that arise are only manifestations of the mind. All causes and effects, the worlds as many as fine motes of dust, come into being because of the mind.
"Ananda, when all the things in the world, including blades of grass and strands of silk thread, are examined at their fundamental source, each is seen to have substance and a nature, even empty space has a name and an appearance.
"How much the less could the clear, wonderful, pure bright mind, the essence of all thought, itself be without substance?
"If you insists that the nature which knows and observes and is aware of distinctions is the mind, then apart from all forms, smells, tastes, and touches-apart from the workings of all the defiling objects-that mind should have its own complete nature.
"And yet now, as you listen to my Dharma, it is because of sound that you are able to make distinctions.
Even if you could extinguish all seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, and maintain an inner composure, the shadows of your discrimination of Dharmas would remain.
"I do not insist that you grant that it is not the mind. But examine your mind in minute detail to see whether there is a discrimination nature apart from the objects of sense. That would truly be your mind.
"If this discrimination nature has no substance apart from objects, then it is shadows of discriminations of objects of mind.
"The objects are not permanent, and when they pass out of existence, such a mind would be like hair on a tortoise or horns on a rabbit. In that case your Dharma-body would be extinguished along with it. Then who cultivates and attains Patience with the Non-production of Dharmas?"
At that point Ananda and everyone in the great assembly was speechless and at a total loss.
The Buddha said to Ananda, "There are cultivators in the world who, although they realize the nine successive stages of Samadhi, do not achieve the extinction of outflows or become Arhats, all because they are attached to birth-and-death false thinking and mistake it for what is truly real. That is why now, although you are greatly learned, you have not realized the accomplishment of sagehood."
When Ananda heard that, he again wept sorrowfully, placed his five limbs on the ground, knelt on both knees, put his palms together, and said to the Buddha, "Since I followed the Buddha and left home, what I have done is to rely on the Buddha's awesome spirit. I have often thought, 'there is no reason for me to toil at cultivation' expecting that the Tathagata would bestow Samadhi upon me. I never realized that he could not stand in for me in body and mind. Thus, I lost my original mind and although my body has left the home-life, my mind has not entered the Way. I am like the poor son who renounced his father and roamed around.
"Therefore, today I realize that although I am greatly learned, if I do not cultivate, it is the same as if I had not learned anything; just as someone who only speaks of food will never get full."
"World Honored One, now we all are bound by two obstructions and as a consequence do not perceive the still, permanent nature of the mind. I only hope the Tathagata will take pity on us poor and destitute ones and disclose the wonderful bright mind, and open my Way-eye."
Then from the character wan "myriad" on his chest, the Tathagata poured forth precious light. Radiant with hundreds of thousands of colors, the brilliant light simultaneously pervaded everywhere throughout the ten directions to Buddha-realms as many as fine motes of dust, anointing the crowns of every Tathagata in all the jeweled Buddhalands of the ten directions. Then it swept back to Ananda and all in the great assembly.
And said to Ananda, "I will now erect the great Dharma banner for you, to cause all living beings in the ten directions to obtain the wondrous subtle secret, the pure nature, the bright mind, and to attain the pure eye."

VOLUME 2
"Ananda, you have told me that you saw my fist of bright light. How did it take the form of a fist? How did the fist become bright? By what means could you see it?"
Ananda replied, "The body of the Buddha is born of purity and cleanness, and, therefore, it assumes the color of Jambu River gold with deep red hues. Hence, it shone as brilliant and dazzling as a precious mountain. It was actually my eyes that saw the Buddha bending his five-wheeled fingers to form a fist which was shown to all of us."
The Buddha told Ananda, "Today the Tathagata will tell you truly. That all those with wisdom are able to achieve enlightenment through the use of examples.
"Ananda, take for example, my fist: if I didn't have a hand, I couldn't make a fist. If you didn't have eyes, you couldn't see. If you apply the example of my fist to the case of your eyes, is the idea the same?"
Ananda said, "Yes, World Honored One. Since I can't see without my eyes, if one applies the example of the Buddha's fist to the case of my eyes, the idea is the same."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "You say it is the same, but that is not right. Why? If a person has no hand, his fist is gone forever. But one who is without eyes is not entirely devoid of sight.
"For what reason? Try consulting a blind man on the street: 'What do you see?'
"Any blind man will certainly answer, 'Now I see only black in front of my eyes. Nothing else meets my gaze.'
"The meaning is apparent: if he sees blackness in front of him, how could his seeing be considered 'lost'?"
Anada said, "The only thing blind people see in front of their eyes is blackness. How can that be seeing?"
The Buddha said to Ananda, "Is there any difference between the blackness seen by blind people, who do not have the use of their eyes, and the blackness seen by someone who has the use of his eyes when he is in a dark room?"
"So it is, World Honored One. Between the two kinds of blackness, that seen by the person in a dark room and that seen by the blind, there is no difference."
"Ananda, if the person without the use of his eyes who sees only blackness were suddenly to regain his sight and see all kinds of forms, and you say it is his eyes which sees, then when the person in a dark room who only sees all kinds of forms because a lamp is lit, you should say it is the lamp which sees.
"If it is a case of the lamp seeing, it would be a lamp endowed with sight-which couldn't be called a lamp. And if the lamp were to do the seeing, how would you be involved?
"Therefore you should know that while the lamp can reveal the forms, it is the eyes, not the lamp, that do the seeing. And while the eyes can reveal the forms, the seeing-nature comes from the mind, not the eyes."
Although Ananda and everyone in the great assembly had heard what was said, their minds had not yet understood, and so they remained silent. Hoping to hear more of the gentle sounds of the minds, and stood waiting for the Tathagata's compassionate instruction.
Then the World Honored One extended his tula-cotton webbed bright hand, opened his five-wheeled fingers, and told Ananda and the great assembly, "When I first accomplished the way I went to the Deer Park, and for the sake of Ajnatakaundinya and all five of the Bhikshus, as well as for you of the four-fold assembly, I said, 'It is because living beings are impeded by guest-dust and affliction that they do not realize Bodhi or become Arhats.' At that time, what caused you who have now realized the holy fruit to become enlightened?"
Then Ajnatakaundinya arose and said to the Buddha, "Of the elders now present in the great assembly, only I received the name 'Understanding' because I was enlightened to the meaning of the word 'guest-dust' and realized the fruition.
"World Honored One, it is like a traveller who stops as a guest at a roadside inn, perhaps for the night or perhaps for a meal. When he has finished lodging there or when the meal is finished, he packs his baggage and sets out again. He does not remain there at leisure. The host himself, however, does not go far away.
"Considering it this way, the one who does not remain is called the guest, and the one who does remain is called the host. The word 'guest' then, means 'one who does not remain.'
"Again, when the sky clears up, the morning sun rises with all resplendence, and its golden rays stream into a house through a crevice to reveal particles of dust in the air. The dust dances in the rays of light, but the empty space is motionless.
"Considering it this way, what is clear and still is called space, and what moves is called dust. The word 'dust' then, means 'that which moves.'"
The Buddha said, "So it is."
Then in the midst of the great assembly, The Thus Come One bent his five-wheeled fingers. After bending them, he opened them again. After he opened them, he bent them again, and he asked Ananda, "What do you see now?"
Ananda said, "I see The Thus Come One's hundred-jeweled wheeled palms opening and closing in the midst of the assembly."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "You see my hand open and close in the assembly. Is it my hand that opens and closes, or is it your seeing that opens and closes?"
Ananda said, "The World Honored One's jeweled hand opened and closed in the assembly. I saw The Thus Come One's hand itself open and close; it was not my seeing-nature that opened and closed."
The Buddha said, "What moves and what is still?"
Ananda said, "The Buddha's hand does not remain at rest. And since my seeing-nature is beyond even stillness, how could it not be at rest?"
The Buddha said, "So it is."
Then from his wheeled palm The Thus Come One sent a precious ray of light flying to Ananda's right. Ananda immediately turned his head and glanced to the right. He then sent another ray of light to Ananda's left. Ananda again turned his head and glanced to the left. The Buddha said to Ananda, "Why did your head move just now?"
Ananda said, "I saw the Thus Come One emit a wonderful precious light which came by my left and right, and so I looked to the left and right, my head moved of itself."
"Ananda, when you glanced at the Buddha's light and moved your seeing that moved?"
"World Honored One, my head moved of itself. Since my seeing-nature is beyond even cessation, how could it move?"
The Buddha said, "So it is."
Then the Thus Come One told everyone in the great assembly, "Suppose other living beings called what moves 'the dust' and what does not dwell 'the guest'?
"You noticed that is was Ananda's head that moved; the seeing did not move. You also noticed that is was my hand which opened and closed; the seeing did not stretch or bend.
"Why do you continue to take something moving like your body and its environment to be in substantial existence, so that from the beginning to the end, your every thought is subject to production and extinction?
"You have lost your true nature and conduct yourselves in upside-down ways. Having lost your true nature and mind, you recognize objects as yourself, and it is you who cling to the flowing and turning of the revolving wheel."
When Ananda and the great assembly heard the Buddha's instructions, they become peaceful and composed both in body and mind. They recollected that since time without beginning, they had strayed from their fundamental true mind by mistaking the shadows of their causally conditioned differentiating minds as something real and substantial. Now on this day they had awakened to such illusions and misconceptions. Like a lost infant who rejoins its beloved mother after a long separation, they put their palms together to make obeisance to the Buddha.
They wished to hear such words from Thus Come One as to enlighten them to the dual nature of body and mind-what is false and what is real, what is empty and what is substantial, what is subject to production and extinction and what transcends production and extinction.
Then King Prasenajit rose and said to the Buddha, "In the past, when I had not yet received the teachings of the Buddha, I met Katyayana and Vairatiputra, both of whom said that this body is annihilated after death, and that this is Nirvana. Now, although I have met the Buddha, I still have doubts about their words. How much I wish to be enlightened to the ways and means to perceive and realize the true mind, thereby proving that it transcends production and extinction! All those who have outflows also wish to be instructed on this subject."
The Buddha said to the great King, "Now I ask you, as it is now is your physical body like Vajra, indestructible and living forever? Or does it change and go bad?"
"World Honored One, this body of mine will keep changing until it eventually becomes extinct."
The Buddha said, "Great King, you have not yet become extinct. How do you know you will become extinct?"
"World Honored One, although my impermanent, changing, and decaying body has not yet become extinct, I observe it now, and every passing thought fades away. Each new one fails to remain, but gradually perishes like fire turning to ashes. This perishing without cease convinces me that this body will eventually become completely extinct."
The Buddha said, "So it is."
"Great King, at your present age you are already old and declining. How do your appearance and complexion compare to when you were a youth?"
"World Honored One, in the past when I was young my skin was moist and shining. When I reached the prime of life, my blood and breath were full. But now in my declining years, as I race into old age, my form is withered and wizened and my spirit dull. My hair is white and my face is in wrinkles and I haven't much time remaining. How can I be compared to how I was when I was full of life?"
The Buddha said, "Great King, your appearance should not decline so suddenly."
The King said, "World Honored One, the changes has been a hidden transformation of which I honestly have not been aware. I have come to this gradually through the passing of winters and summers.
"How did it happen? In my twenties, I was still young, but my features had aged since the time I was ten. My thirties were a further decline from my twenties, and now at sixty-two I look back on my fifties as hale and hearty.
"World Honored One, I am contemplating these hidden transformations. Although the changes wrought by this process of dying are evident through the decades, I might consider them further in finer detail: these changes do not occur just in periods of twelve years; there are actually changes year by year. Not only are there yearly changes, there are also monthly transformations. Nor does it stop at monthly transformations; there are also differences day by day. Examining them closely, I find that Kshana by Kshana, thought after thought, they never stop."
"And so I know my body will keep changing until it is extinct."
The Buddha told the great King, "By watching the ceaseless changes of these transformations, you awaken and know of your extinction, but do you also know that at the time of extinction there is something in your body which does not become extinct?"
King Prasenajit put his palms together and exclaimed, "I really do not know."
The Buddha said, "I will now show you the nature which is not produced and not extinguished."
"Great King, how old were you when you saw the waters of the Ganges?"
The King said, "When I was three years old my compassionate mother led me to visit the Goddess Jiva. We passed a river, and at the time I knew it was the waters of the Ganges."
The Buddha said, "Great King, you have said that when you were twenty you had deteriorated from when you were ten. Day by day, month by month, year by year until you have reached sixty, in thought after thought there has been change. Yet when you saw the Ganges River at the age of three, how was it different from when you were thirteen?"
The king said, "It was no difference from when I was three, and even now when I am sixty-two it is still no difference."
The Buddha said, "Now you are mournful that your hair is white and your face is wrinkled. In the same way that your face is definitely more wrinkled than it was in your youth, has the seeing with which you look at the Ganges aged, so that it is old now but was young when you looked at the river as a child in the past?"
The King said, "No, World Honored One."
The Buddha said, "Great King, you face is in wrinkles, but the essential nature of your seeing has not yet wrinkled. What wrinkles are subject to change. What does not wrinkle does not change."
"What changes will become extinct, but what does not change is fundamentally free of production and extinction. How can it be subject to your birth and death? Furthermore, why brings up what Maskari Goshaliputra and the others say: that after the death of this body there is total extinction?"
The King heard these words, believed them, and realized that when the life of this body is finished, there will be rebirth. He and the entire great assembly were greatly delighted at having obtained what they had never had before.
Ananda then arose from his seat, made obeisance to the Buddha, put his palms together, knelt on both knees, and said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, if this seeing and hearing are indeed neither produced nor extinguished, why did the World Honored One refer to us as people who have lost their true natures and who go about things in an upside-down way? I hope the World Honored One will give rise to great compassion and wash my dust and defilement away."
Then the Thus Come One let his golden arm fall so that his wheeled fingers pointed downward, and, showing Ananda, he said, " you see my Mudra-hand: is it right side up or upside down?"
Ananda said, "Living beings in the world take it to be upside down. I do not know what is right side up and what is upside down."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "If people of the world take this as down, what do people of the world take to be right-side up?"
Ananda said, "They call it right-side up when the Thus Come One raises his arm, with the fingers of his tula-cotton hand pointing upward in the air."
The Buddha then held up his hand and said: "Worldly people are doubly deluded when they discriminate between an upright and inverted hand.
"In the same way they will differentiate between your body and the Thus Come One's pure Dharma body and will say that the Thus Come One's body is one of right and universal knowledge, while your body is upside down.
"But examine your bodies and the Buddha's closely for this upside-downness: what exactly does the term 'upside down' refer to?"
Thereupon Ananda and the entire great assembly were dazed, and they stared unblinking at the Buddha. They did not know in what way their bodies and minds were upside down.
The Buddha's compassion arose and he took pity on Ananda and on all in the great assembly and he spoke to the great assembly in a voice that swept over them like the ocean-tide.
"All of you good people, I have often said that form and mind and all conditions, as well as Dharmas pertaining to the mind-all the conditioned Dharmas-are manifestations of the mind only. Your bodies and your minds all appear within the wonder of the bright, true, essential, wonderful mind."
"Why do I say that you have lost track of what is fundamentally wonderful in you, the perfect, wonderful bright mind, and that in the midst of your bright and enlightened nature, you mistake the false for the real because of ignorance and delusion?
"Mental dimness turns into dull emptiness. This emptiness, in the dimness, unites with darkness to become form.
"Stimulated by false thinking, the form takes the shape of a body.
"As causal conditions come together there are perpetual internal disturbances which tend to gallop outside. Such inner disturbances are often mistaken for the nature of mind.
"The primary misconception about the mind and body is the false view that the mind dwells in the physical body.
"You do not know that the physical body, as well as the mountains, the rivers, empty space, and the great earth are all within the wonderful bright true mind.
"It is like ignoring hundreds if thousands of clear pure seas and taking notice of only a single bubble, seeing it as the entire ocean, as the whole expanse of great and small seas.
"You people are doubly deluded among the deluded. Such inversion does not differ from that caused by my lowered hand. The Thus Come One says you are most pitiable."
Having received the Buddha's compassionate rescue and profound instruction, Ananda's tears fell, and he folded his hands and said to the Buddha, "I have heard these wonderful sounds of the Buddha and have realized that the wonderful bright mind is fundamentally perfect; it is the permanently dwelling mind-ground.
"But now in awakening to the Dharma-sounds that the Buddha is speaking, it is my conditioned mind which I use to contemplate them reverently. Having just obtained the mind, I do not acknowledge that it is the fundamental mind-ground.
"I pray that the Buddha will take pity on me and proclaim the perfect sound to pull out my doubts by the roots and enable me to return to the unsurpassed way."
The Buddha told Ananda, "You still listen to the Dharma with the conditioned mind, and so the Dharma becomes conditioned as well, and you do not obtain the Dharma-nature. It is like when someone points his finger at the moon to show it to someone else. Guided by the finger, that person should see the moon. If he looks at the finger instead and mistakes it for the moon, he loses not only the moon but the finger also. Why? It is because he mistakes the pointing finger for the bright moon.
"Not only does he lose the finger, but he also fails to recognize light and darkness. Why? He mistakes the substance of the finger for the bright nature of the moon, and so he does not understand the two natures of light and darkness. The same is true of you.
"If you take what distinguishes the sound of my speaking Dharma to be your mind, then that mind itself, apart from the sound which is distinguished, should have a nature which makes distinctions. It is like the guest who lodges overnight at an inn; he stops temporarily and then goes on. He does not dwell there permanently, whereas the innkeeper does not go anywhere: he is the host of the inn.
"Likewise, if it is truly your mind, it does not go anywhere. However, in the absence of sound it has no discriminating nature of its own. Can you tell the reason why?
"This, then, applies not only to the distinguished of sound; in distinguishing my appearance, there is no distinction-making nature apart from the mark of form.
"Thus even when the making of distinctions is totally absent, when there is no form and no emptiness-the obscurity which Goshali and the others take to be the 'Profound Truth'-in the absence of causal conditions, the distinction-making nature ceases to exist.
"How can we say that the nature of your mind plays the part of host since everything perceived by it returns to something else?"
Ananda said, "If every state of our mind returns to something else as its cause, when why does the wonderful bright original mind mentioned by the Buddha return nowhere? I hold out the hope that the Buddha will shower us with such compassion as to enlighten us on this point."
The Buddha said to Ananda, "As you now see me, the essence of your seeing is fundamentally bright. If the profound bright original mind is compared to the moon, the essence of your seeing is the second moon rather than its reflection.
"You should listen attentively, for I am now going to show you the place of no returning.
"Ananda, this great lecture hall is open to the east. It is flooded with light when the sun rises in the sky. It is dark at midnight during a new moon or when obscured by clouds or fog. Looking out through open doors and windows your vision is unimpeded; facing walls or houses your vision is hindered. Your vision is causally conditioned in such places where there are forms of distinctive features; in dull void, you can see only emptiness. You vision will be distorted when the objects of seeing are shrouded in dust and vapor; you will perceive clear when the air is fresh.
"Ananda, observe all these transitory characteristics as I now return each to its place of origin. What are the basic origins? Ananda, among all these transitions, the light returns to the sun. Why? Without the sun there is no light; therefore the reason for 'light' belongs with the sun, and so it can be returned to the sun.
" 'Darkness' returns to the new moon. 'Penetration' returns to the doors and windows,while 'obstruction' returns to the walls and eaves. 'Conditions' return to distinctions. 'Emptiness' returns to dull emptiness. 'Darkness and distortion' return to the mist and haze. 'Bright purity' returns to freshness, and nothing that exists in this world goes beyond these kinds."
"To which of the eight states of perception will the essence of your seeing return? Why do I ask? The answer lies in the fact that if it is returned to brightness, you will not see darkness when there is no light. Although such states of perception as light, darkness, and the like differ from one another, your seeing remains unchanged.
"That which can be returned to other sources is clearly not you; that which can be returned nowhere is none other than you.
"Therefore I know that your mind is fundamentally wonderful, bright, and pure. You yourself are confused and deluded. You miss what is fundamental, and you are caught in the turning wheel of the six paths, tossing and floating on the stormy sea of birth and death all the time. No wonder the Thus Come One says that you are the most pitiable of creatures."
Ananda said, "I recognize that the seeing-nature does not return to anything, but how can I come to know that it is my true nature?"
The Buddha told Ananda, "Now I have a question for you. At this point you have not yet attained the purity of no-outflows. Blessed by the Buddha's spiritual strength, you are able to see into the first Dhyana heavens without any obstruction, just as Aniruddha looks at Jambudvipa with such clarity as he might an Amala fruit in the palm of his hand.
"Bodhisattvas can see hundreds of thousands of realms. The Thus Come Ones of the ten directions see everything throughout the pure lands as numbers as fine motes of dust. Living beings' sight does not extend a fraction of an inch.
"Ananda, as you and I now look at the palace where the Four Heavenly Kings reside, and inspect all that moves in the water, on dry land, and in the air, some are dark and some are bright, varying in shape and appearance, yet all are nothing but dust before us-distinctions and obstructions.
"Among them you should distinguish which is self and which is other. I ask you now to select from within your seeing which is the substance of the self and which is the appearance of things.
"Ananda, if you take a good look at everything everywhere within the range of your vision extending from the palaces of the sun and moon to the seven gold mountain ranges, all that you see is not you. But things of different features and lights. At closer range you will gradually see clouds floating, birds flying, mind blowing, dust rising, trees, plants, rivers, mountains, grasses, animals, people, all of which are not you but things.
"Ananda, all things, near and far, have the nature of things. Although each is distinctly different, they are seen with the same pure essence of seeing. Thus all the categories of things have their individual distinctions, but the seeing-nature has no differences. This essential wonderful brightness is most certainly your seeing-nature.
"If seeing were a thing, then you should also be able to see my seeing.
"If you say you see my seeing, when we both look at the same thing, then when I am not seeing, why don't you see my not-seeing?
"If you do see my not-seeing, it is clearly not the thing that I am not seeing. If you do not see my not-seeing, then it is clearly not a thing, and how can you say it is not you?
"What is more, if your seeing is a thing, things should also see you when you see things. With substance and nature mixed up together, you and I and everyone in the world are no longer in order.
"Ananda, if, when you see, it is you and not I who see, then the seeing-nature pervades everywhere. Therefore whose is it if it is not yours?
"Why do you have doubts about your own true nature and come to me seeking verification, thinking your nature is not true?"
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, given that this seeing-nature is certainly mine and nothing else, when the Thus Come One and I regard the palace of the Four Heavenly Kings with its supreme store of jewels and stay at the palace of the sun and moon, this seeing completely pervades the lands of the Saha world. Upon returning to the sublime abode, I only see the monastic grounds and in the pure central hall I only see the eaves and corridors.
"World Honored One, that is how the seeing is. At first its substance pervaded everywhere throughout the one realm, but now in the midst of this room it fills one room only. Does the seeing shrink from great to small, or do the walls and eaves press in and cut it off? Now I do not know where the meaning in this lies and hope the Buddha will let fall his vast compassion and proclaim it for me thoroughly."
The Buddha told Ananda, "All the aspects of everything in the world, such as big and small, inside and outside, are classed as the dust before you. You should not say the seeing stretches and shrinks.
"Consider the example of a square container in which a square of emptiness is seen. I ask you further: is the square emptiness that is seen in the square container a fixed square shape, or is it not fixed as a square shape?
"If it is a fixed square shape, when it is switched to a round container the emptiness would not be round. If it is not a fixed shape, then when it is in the square container it should not be a square-shaped emptiness.
"You say do not know where the meaning lies. The nature of the meaning is thus; how can you speak of its location?"
"Ananda, if you now wished there to be neither squareness nor roundness, you would only need to take the container away. The substance of emptiness has no shape, and so you should not say that you would also have to take the shape away from the emptiness.
"If, as you ask, your seeing shrinks and becomes small when you enter a room, then when you look up at the sun is your seeing pulled out until it reaches the sun's surface? If you build walls and eaves, which can press in and cut off your seeing why then is there no evidence of a joining when you drill a small hole? There fore, that idea is incorrect.
"From beginningless time until now, all living beings have mistaken themselves for things and, lost the original mind, are turned around by things. That is why they contemplate bigness and smallness in the midst of all this.
"If you can turn things around, then you are the same as the Thus Come One.
"With body and mind perfect and bright, you are an unmoving place of the way.
"The tip of a single fine hair can completely contain the lands of the ten directions."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, if this seeing essence is indeed my wonderful nature, my wonderful nature is now is front of me. If the seeing is truly me, what, then, are my present body and mind? Yet it is my body and mind, which make distinctions whereas the seeing does not make distinctions and does not discern my body.
"If it is really my mind which causes me to see now, when the seeing-nature is actually me, and the body is not me.
"How is this different from the question the Thus Come One asked about things being able to see me? I only hope the Buddha will let fall his great compassion and explain for those who have not yet awakened."
The Buddha told Ananda, "What you have now said-that the seeing is in front of you-is actually not the case."
"If it were actually in front of you, it would be something you would actually see, and then the seeing-essence would have a location. It wouldn't be that there is no evidence of it.
"Now as you sit in the Jeta Grove you look about everywhere at the grove, the ponds, the halls, as far as the sun and moon, with the Ganges River before you. Now, before my lion's seat, point out these various appearance: what is dark is the groves, what is bright is the sun, what is obstructing is the walls, what is clear is emptiness, and so on from the grasses and trees to the finest particle of hair. Their sizes vary, and since they all have appearances, none cannot be located.
"If it is certain that your seeing is in front of you, then with your hand you should with certainly point out what the seeing is. Ananda, if emptiness is the seeing, then how can it remain empty since it has already become your seeing? If a thing is the seeing, how can it be external to you as an object, since it has already become your seeing?
"You can cut through and peel away the myriad appearances to the finest degree in order to distinguish and bring forth the essential brightness and pure wonder of the source of seeing, pointing it out and showing it to me from among all these things, so that it is perfectly clear beyond any doubt."
Ananda said. " From where I am now in this many-storied lecture hall. As far as the distant Ganges River and the sun and moon overhead, all that I might raise my hand to point to, all that I indulge my eyes in seeing, are all things; they are not the seeing. World Honored One, it is as the Buddha has said. Not merely myself, who am a Shravaka of the first stage who still has outflows, but even Bodhisattvas cannot break open and reveal, among the myriad appearance which are before them, an essence of seeing which has a special self-nature apart from all things."
The Buddha said, "So it is, so it is."
The Buddha said further to Ananda, "It is as you have said. There is no seeing-essence to be found existing separately among all the things. Therefore, all the things you point to are things, and none is the seeing.
"Now I will tell you: you and the Thus Come One sit in the Jeta Grove and look again at the groves and gardens, as far as the sun and moon, and at all the various different appearances, and it is certain that the seeing-essence is not among whatever you point to. You can go ahead and reveal what, among these things, is not your seeing."
Ananda said, "I see clearly all over this Jeta Grove, and I do not know what in the midst of it is not my seeing.
"Why? If trees are not the seeing, why do I see trees? If trees are the seeing, then what becomes of trees? The same is true of everything up to and including emptiness: if emptiness is not the seeing, why do I see emptiness? If emptiness is the seeing, then what become of emptiness?
"As I consider it again and reveal the subtlest aspects of the myriad appearances, none is not my seeing."
The Buddha said, "So it is, so it is."
Then all in the great assembly who had not reached the stage beyond study were stunned upon hearing these words of the Buddha, and could not perceive where the meaning began or ended. They were agitated and taken aback at the same time, having lost what they had adhered to.
The Thus Come One, knowing they were anxious and uneasy in spirit, let pity rise in his heart as he consoled Ananda and everyone in the great assembly. "Good people, what the Unsurpassed Dharma King says is true and real. He speaks things as they are. He does not deceive. He does not lie. He is not Maskari Goshaliputra with his four kinds of non-dying-deceptive and confusing theories. You should consider this attentively. It is no disgrace to pity or to implore."
Then Manjushri, son of the Dharma king, took pity on the four assemblies, rose from his seat in the midst of the great assembly, bowed at the Buddha's feet, placed his palms together respectfully, and said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, the great assembly has not awakened to the Principle of the Thus Come One's two-fold disclosure of the essence of seeing as being both form and emptiness and as being neither of them.
"World Honored One, if the causal form, emptiness and other phenomena mentioned above were the seeing, there should be an indication of its distance; and if they were not the seeing, there should be nothing visible to be seen. Now we do not know what is meant, and this is why we were alarmed and concerned.
It is not that our good roots from former lives are deficient. We only hope the Thus Come One will have the great compassion to reveal exactly what all the things are and what the seeing-essence is. Is it that there is no question of 'is' or 'is not' in all of this?"
The Buddha told Manjushri and the great assembly, "To the Thus Come Ones and the great Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, who dwell in this Samadhi, seeing and the conditions of seeing, as well as the characteristics of thought, are like flowers in space-fundamentally non-existent.
"This seeing and its conditions are originally the wonderful pure bright substance of Bodhi. How can speak of 'is' and 'is not'?
"Manjushri, I now ask you: take yourself as an example, Manjushri. Is there still another Manjushri? Is there a Manjushri who is and a Manjushri who is not?"
"So it is, World Honored One: I am truly Manjushri. There is no Manjushri who 'is.' Why? If there were still another Manjushri who 'is' Manjushri, there would be two Manjushris. But it is not that now I am not Manjushri. In fact, neither of the two characteristics 'is' and 'is not' exist."
The Buddha said, "This is not only the case with the seeing, the basic substance of wonderful Bodhi, but also with emptiness and mundane objects.
"They are basically the projections or manifestations of the wonderful brightness of unsurpassed Bodhi, the pure, perfect, true mind. They are falsely taken to be form and emptiness, as well as hearing and seeing.
"Just as with the second moon: which one 'is' the moon and which 'is not' the moon? Manjushri, there is only one true moon, and within it there is not a moon that 'is' or a moon that 'is not.'
"Therefore, now as you contemplate the seeing and the mundane things together, all the things you disclose are called false thoughts. You cannot transcend 'is' and 'is not' form within them.
"With the true essence, the wonderful enlightened bright nature, you can get beyond trying to point out or not point out."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, it is truly as the Dharma King has said: the condition of enlightenment pervades the ten directions, clear everlasting and by nature neither produced nor extinguished. How does it differ, then, from the first Brahma Kapila's teaching of the profound truth or from the teaching of the ascetics who throw ashes on themselves of from the other sects outside the way that say there is a true self which pervades the ten directions?
"Also, in the past, the World Honored One gave a lecture on Mount Lanka explaining the principle thoroughly for the sake of great wisdom Bodhisattva and others: 'Those sects outside the way always speak of spontaneity. I speak of causes and conditions which is an entirely different principle.'
"Now as I contemplate the nature of enlightenment as spontaneous, as neither produced nor extinguished, and as apart from all empty falseness and inversion, it seems to have nothing to do with your causes and conditions or the spontaneity advocated by others. Would you please enlighten us on this point lest we should fall into deviant paths, thus enabling us to obtain the true mind, the bright nature of wonderful enlightenment?"
The Buddha told Ananda, "Now I have instructed you with such expedients in order to tell you the truth, yet you do not awaken to it but mistake it for spontaneity.
"Ananda, if it definitely were spontaneous, you should be able to distinguish the substance of the spontaneity.
"Now you look into the wonderful bright seeing. What is its self? Does the seeing take bright light as its self? Does it take darkness as its self? Does it take emptiness as its self? Does it take solid objects as its self?
"Ananda, if its self consists in light, you should not see darkness. Moreover, if it takes emptiness as the substance of its self, you should not see solid objects. Continuing in the same way, if it takes all dark appearances as its self, then when it is light, the seeing-nature is cut off and extinguished, and how can you see light?"
Ananda said, "I am certain that the nature of this wonderful seeing is not spontaneous. Now I discern that it is produced from causes and conditions. But I do not yet have it clear in my mind. I now ask the Thus Come One how this idea is consonant with the nature of causes and conditions."
The Buddha said, "You say it is causes and conditions. I ask you again: because you are now seeing, the seeing-nature manifests. Is it because of light that the seeing exists? Is it because of darkness that the seeing exists? Is it because of emptiness that the seeing exists? Is it because of solid objects that the seeing exists?
"Ananda, if light brings it into existence , you should not see darkness and if it exists because of darkness, you should not see light: it is the same with emptiness and solid objects.
"Moreover, Ananda, does the seeing derive from the condition of light? Does the seeing derive from the condition of darkness? Does the seeing derive from the condition of emptiness? Does the seeing derive from the condition from the condition of solid objects?
"Ananda, if it exists because of the condition of emptiness, you should not see solid objects. If it exists because of the condition of solid objects, you should not see emptiness: it is the same with light and darkness.
"Thus you should know that the essential, enlightened wonderful brightness is due to neither causes nor conditions and it does not arise spontaneously.
"It is not that which is not spontaneous. It is not that it is not; nor is it that it is not not. It is not that which 'is' or 'is not.'
"All Dharma is that which is apart from all characteristics.
"Now in the midst of them, how can you use your mind to make distinctions that are based on worldly sophistries, terms, and characteristics? That is like grasping at empty space with your hand: you only succeed in tiring yourself out. How could empty space possibly yield to your grasp?"
Ananda said to the Buddha, "If the nature of the wonderful enlightenment has neither causes nor conditions, then why does the World Honored One always tell the Bhikshus that the nature of seeing derives from the four conditions of emptiness, brightness, the mind, and the eyes? What does that mean?"
The Buddha said, "Ananda, what I have said about all the worldly causes and conditions has nothing to do with the primary meaning.
"Ananda, I ask you again: people in the world say, 'I can see.' What is meant by seeing? What is not seeing?"
Ananda said, "Due to the light of the sun, the moon, and lamps, people in the world can see all kinds of appearances: that is called seeing. If it were not for these kinds of light, they would not be able to see."
"Ananda, if it is called 'not seeing' when there is no light, you should not see darkness. If in fact you do see darkness, which is none other than the lack of light, how can you say there is an absence of seeing?
"Ananda, if, when it is dark, you call it 'not seeing' because you do not see light, then since it is now light and you do not see the characteristics of darkness, it should also be called 'not seeing.' Thus, the two characteristics would both be called 'not seeing.'"
"Although these two characteristics replace one another, your seeing-nature does not lapse for an instant. Thus you can know that there is seeing in both cases. Now, then, can you say there is no seeing?
"Therefore, Ananda, you should know that when you see light, the seeing is not the light. When you see darkness, the seeing is not the darkness. When you see emptiness, the seeing is not the emptiness. When you see solid objects, the seeing is not the solid objects.
"Having realized these four meanings, you should also know that when you see your seeing, the seeing is not the seeing to be seen. Since the former seeing is beyond the latter, the latter cannot reach it. Such being the case, how can you say that your absolute intuitive perception has something to do with causes and conditions or spontaneity or that it has something to do with mixing and uniting?
"You narrow-minded sound hearers are so inferior and ignorant that you are unable to penetrate through to the purity of the characteristics of reality. Now I will teach you. You should consider it well, and do not become weary or negligent on the wonderful road to Bodhi."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, it is still not clear in my mind what the Buddha, the World Honored One, has explained for me and for others like me about causes and conditions, spontaneity, the characteristics of mixing and uniting, and the absence of mixing and uniting. And now to hear further that to see seeing is not seeing adds yet another layer of confusion.
"Humbly, I hope that with your vast compassion you will bestow upon us the great wisdom-eye so as to show us the bright pure enlightened mind." After saying this he wept, made obeisance, and waited to receive the holy instruction.
Then the World Honored One, out of pity for Ananda and the great assembly, began to explain extensively the wonderful path of cultivation of all Samadhis of the great Dharani.
And said to Ananda, "Although you have a strong memory, it only benefits your wide learning. But your mind has not yet understood the subtle secret contemplation and illumination of Shamatha. Listen attentively now as I explain it for you in detail.
"And cause all those of the future who have outflows to obtain the fruition of Bodhi.
"Ananda, all living beings turn on the wheel in this world because of two upside-down discriminating false views. Wherever these views arise, there is revolution through the cycle of appropriate Karma.
"What are the two views? The first consists of the false view based on living beings' individual Karma. The second consists of the false view based on living beings' collective share.
"What is meant by false views based on individual Karma? Ananda, it is like a man in the world who has red cataracts on his eyes so that at night he alone sees around the lamp a circular reflection composed of layers of five colors.
"What do you think? Is the circle of light that appears around the lamp at night the lamp's colors, or is it the seeing's colors?
"Ananda, if it is the lamp's colors, why is it that someone without the disease does not see the same thing, and only the one who is diseased sees the circular reflection? If it is the seeing's colors, then the seeing has already become colored; what, then, is the circular reflection the diseased man sees to be called?
"Moreover, Ananda, if the circular reflection is in itself a thing apart from the lamp, then it would be seen around the folding screen, the curtain, the table, and the mats. If it has nothing to do with the seeing, it should not be seen by the eyes. Why is it that the man with cataracts sees the circular reflections with his eyes?"
"Therefore, you should know that in fact the colors come from the lamp, and the diseased seeing brings about the reflection. Both the circular reflection and the faulty seeing are the result of the cataract. But that which sees the diseased film is not sick. Thus you should not say that it is the lamp or the seeing or that it is neither the lamp nor the seeing.
"It is like a second moon often seen when one presses on one's eye while looking up into the sky. It is neither substantial nor a reflection because it is an illusory vision caused by the pressure exerted on one's eye. Hence, a wise person should not say that the second moon is a form or not a form. Not is it correct to say that the illusory second moon is apart from the seeing or not apart from the seeing.
"It is the same with the illusion created by the diseased eyes. You cannot say it is from the lamp or from the seeing: even less can it be said not to be from the lamp or the seeing.
"What is meant by the false view of the collective share? Ananda, in Jambudvipa, besides the waters of the great seas, there is level land that forms some three thousand continents. East and west, throughout the entire expanse of the great continent, there are twenty-three hundred large countries. In the other, smaller continents in the seas there may be two or three hundred countries, or perhaps one or two, or perhaps thirty, forty, or fifty.
"Ananda, suppose that among them there is one small continent where there are only two countries. The people of just one of the countries together experience evil conditions. On that small continent, all the people of that country see all kinds of inauspicious things: perhaps they see two suns, perhaps they see two moons with circles, or a dark haze, or girdle-ornaments around them; or comets, shooting stars, 'ears' on the sun or moon, rainbows, secondary rainbows, and various other evil signs.
"Only the people in that country see them. The living beings in the other country from the first do not see or hear anything unusual.
"Ananda, I will now go back and forth comparing these two matters for you, to make both of them clear.
"Ananda, in the case of the living being's false view of individual Karma by which he sees the appearance of a circular reflection around the lamp, the appearance seems to be a state, but in the end, what is seen comes into being because of the cataracts on the eyes.
"The cataracts are the result of the weariness of the seeing rather than the products of form. However, the essence of seeing which perceives the cataracts is free from all diseases and defects. For example, you now see your eyes to look at the mountains, the rivers, the countries, and all the living beings: and they are all brought about by the disease of your seeing contracted since time without beginning.
"Seeing and the conditions of seeing seem to manifest what is before you. Originally my enlightenment is bright. The seeing and conditions arise from the cataracts. Realize that the seeing arises from the cataracts: the enlightened condition of the basically enlightened bright mind has no cataracts.
"That which is aware of the faulty awareness is not diseased. It is the true perception of seeing. How can you continue to speak of feeling, hearing, knowing, and seeing?
"Therefore, you now see me and yourself and the world and all the ten kinds of living beings because of a disease in the seeing. What is aware of the disease is not diseased.
"The true essential seeing by nature has no disease. Therefore it is not called seeing.
"Ananda, let us compare the false views of those living beings' collective share with the false views of the individual Karma of one person.
"The individual man with the diseased eyes is the same as the people of that one country. He sees circular reflection erroneously brought about by a disease of the seeing. The beings with a collective share see inauspicious things. In the midst of their Karma of identical views arise pestilence and evils.
"Both are produced from a beginningless falsity in the seeing. It is the same in the three thousand continents of Jambudvipa, throughout the four great seas and in the Saha world and throughout the ten directions. All countries that have outflows and all living beings are the enlightened bright wonderful mind without outflows. Because of the false, diseased conditions that are seen, heard, felt, and known, they mix and unite in false birth, mix and unite in false death.
"If you can leave far behind all conditions which mix and unite and those which do not mix and unite, then you can also extinguish and cast out the causes of birth and death, and obtain perfect Bodhi, the nature which is neither produced nor extinguished. It is the pure clear basic mind, the everlasting fundamental enlightenment.
"Ananda, although you have already realized that the wonderfully bright basic enlightenment does not by nature come from causes and conditions and is not by nature spontaneous, you have not yet understood that the enlightened source is produced neither from mixing and uniting nor from a lack of mixing and uniting.
"Ananda, now I will once again make use of the mundane objects before you to question you. You now hold that false thoughts mix and unite with the causes and conditions of everything in the world, and you wonder whether certification to Bodhi might arise from mixing and uniting.
Accordingly, right now, does the wonderful pure seeing-essence mix with light, does it mix with darkness, does it mix with penetration or does it mix with obstructions? If it mixed with light, look further at the light: what place there in the light before you are combined with the seeing? If you can distinguish the characteristic of seeing, what does it look like in combination?
"If it is not the seeing, how can you see the light? If it is the seeing, how can the seeing see itself?
"If it is certain that the seeing is complete, what room will there be for it to mix with the light? If the light is complete, it cannot unite and mix with the seeing.
"If seeing is different from light, then both the nature and the light lose their identity when they combine. Since the combination results in the loss of the light and the nature, it is meaningless to say it mixes with light. The same principle applies to its mixing with darkness, with penetration, or with all forms of obstruction.
"Moreover, Ananda, as you are right now, once again, does the wonderful pure seeing-essence unite with light, does it unite with darkness, does it unite with penetration, or does it unite with obstructions?
"If it unites with light, then when darkness comes the characteristic of light is extinguished, how will you be able to see darkness, since the seeing does not unite with darkness? If you do see darkness and yet at that time there is no union. With darkness, but rather a union with light, then you would not have seen light. Since you would not have seen light, why is it that, when there is union with light, you are able to know clearly that it is light and not darkness?
"The same is true of its union with darkness, with penetration, or with any kind of obstruction."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, as I consider it, the source of this wonderful enlightenment does not mix or unite with any conditioned mundane object or with the mind's speculation. Is that the case?"
The Buddha said, "Now you say further that the enlightened nature is neither mixed nor united. So now I ask you further: as to this wonderful seeing-essence's neither mixing nor uniting, does it not mix with light? Does it not mix with darkness? Does it not mix with penetration? Does it not mix with obstructions?
"If it does not mix with light, then between seeing and light there must be a boundary.
"Examine it further: what place is light? What place is seeing? Where are the boundaries of the seeing and the light?
"Ananda, if there is no seeing within the boundaries of light, then there is no contact between them, and clearly one would not know where the characteristic of light is. Then how could its boundaries be realized?
"As to its not mixing with darkness, with penetration, or with any kind of obstruction, the principle is the same.
"Moreover, as to the wonderful seeing-essence's neither mixing nor uniting, does it not unite with light? Does it not unite with darkness? Does it not unite with penetration? Does it not unite with obstructions?
"If it does not unite with light, then the seeing and the light are at odds with each other by nature, as are the ear and the light, which do not come in contact.
"Since the seeing does not know where the characteristic of light is, how can it determine clearly whether there is union?"
"As to its not uniting with darkness, with penetrations, or with any kind of obstruction, the principle is the same."

VOLUME 3
"Ananda, you have not yet understood that all the defiling objects that appear, all the illusory, ephemeral characteristics, spring up in the very spot where they also come to an end. They are what is called 'illusory falseness.' But their nature is in truth the bright substance of wonderful enlightenment.
"Thus it is throughout, up to the five Skandhas and the six entrances, to the twelve places and the eighteen realms; the union and mixture of various causes and conditions account for their illusory and false existence, and the separation and dispersion of the causes and conditions result in their illusory and false extinction.
"Who would have thought that production, extinction, coming, and going are fundamentally the everlasting, wonderful light of the treasury of the Thus Come One, the unmoving, all-pervading perfection, the wonderful nature of True Suchness! If within the true and permanent nature one seeks coming and going, confusion and enlightenment, or birth and death, there is nothing that can be obtained.
"Ananda, why do I say that the five Skandhas are basically the wonderful nature of True Suchness, the treasury of the Thus Come One?
"Ananda, consider this example: when a person who has pure clear eyes looks at clear, bright emptiness, he sees nothing but clear emptiness, and he is quite certain that nothing exists within it.
"If, for no apparent reason, the person does not move his eyes, the staring will cause fatigue, and then of his own accord, he will see strange flowers in space and other unreal appearances that are wild and disordered.
"You should know it is the same with the Skandha of form.
"Ananda, the strange flowers come neither from emptiness nor from the eyes.
"The reason for this, Ananda, is that if the flowers were to come from emptiness, they would return to emptiness. If there is a coming out and a going in, the space would not be empty. Then it could not contain the appearance of the arisal and extinction of the flowers, just as Ananda's body cannot contain another Ananda.
"If the flowers were to come from the eyes, they would return to the eyes.
"If the nature of the flowers were to come from the eyes, it would be endowed with the faculty of seeing. If it could see, then when it left the eyes it would become flowers in space, and when it returned it should see the eyes. If it did not see, then when it left the eyes it would obscure emptiness, and it returned, it would obscure the eyes.
"Moreover, when you see the flowers, your eyes should not be obscured. So why is it that the eyes are said to be 'pure and bright' when they see clear emptiness?
"Therefore, you should know that the Skandha of from is empty and false, because it neither depends on causes and conditions for existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider the example of a person whose hands and feet are relaxed and at ease and whose entire body is in balance and harmony. He is unaware of his life-processes, because there is nothing agreeable or disagreeable in his nature. However, for some unknown reason, the person rubs his two hands together in emptiness, and sensations of roughness, smoothness, cold, and warmth seem to arise from nowhere between his palms.
"You should know that it is the same with the Skandha of feeling.
"Ananda, all this illusory contact does not come from emptiness, nor does it come from the hand.
"The reason for this, Ananda, is that if it came from emptiness, then since it could make contact with the palms, why wouldn't it make contact with the body? It should not be that emptiness chooses what it comes in contact with.
"If it came from the palms, it could be readily felt without waiting for the two palms to be joined.
"What is more, if it were to come from the palms, then the palms would know when they were joined. When they separated, the contact would return into the arms, the wrists, the bones, and the marrow, and you also should be aware of the course of its entry.
"It should also be perceived by the mind because it would behave like something coming in and going out of the body. In that case, what need would there be to put the two palms together to experience what is called 'contact?'
"Therefore, you should know that the Skandha of feeling is empty and false, because it neither depends on causes and conditions for existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider the example of a person whose mouth waters at the mention of sour plums, or the soles of whose feet tingle when he thinks about walking along a precipice.
"You should know that it is the same with the Skandha of thinking.
"Ananda, you should know that the watering of the mouth caused by the mention of the plums does not come from the plums, nor does it come from the mouth.
"The reason for this, Ananda, is that if it were produced from the plums, the plums should speak for themselves, why wait for someone to mention them? If it came from the mouth, the mouth itself should hear, and what need would there be to wait for the ear? If the ear alone heard, then why doesn't the water come out of the ear?
"Thinking about walking along a precipice is explained in the same way.
"Therefore, you should know that the Skandha of thinking is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence, nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a swift rapids whose waves follow upon one another in orderly succession, the ones behind never overtaking the ones in front.
"You should know that it is the same with the Skandha of activity.
"Ananda, thus the nature of the flow does not arise because of emptiness, nor does it come into existence because of the water. It is not the nature of water, and yet it is not separate from either emptiness or water.
"The reason for this, Ananda, is that if it arose because of emptiness, then the inexhaustible emptiness throughout the ten directions would become an inexhaustible flow, and all the worlds would inevitably be drowned.
"If the swift rapids existed because of water, then their nature would differ from that of water and the location and characteristics of its existence would be apparent.
"If their nature were simply that of water, then when they become still and clear they would no longer be made up of water.
"Suppose it were to separate from emptiness and water: there isn't anything outside of emptiness, and outside of water there isn't any flow.
"Therefore, you should know that the Skandha of activity is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions of existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a man who picks up a Kalavinka pitcher and stops up its two holes. He lifts up the pitcher filled with emptiness and, walking some thousand Li (about one third of a mile) away, presents it to another country. You should know that the Skandha of consciousness is the same way.
"Thus, Ananda, the space does not come from one place, nor does it go to another.
"The reason for this, Ananda, is that if it were to come from another place, then when the stored-up emptiness in the pitcher went elsewhere there would be less emptiness in the place where the pitcher was originally.
"If it were to enter this region: when the holes were unplugged and the pitcher was turned over, one would see emptiness come out.
"Therefore, you should know that the Skandha of consciousness is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Moreover, Ananda, why do I say that the six entrances have their origin in the wonderful nature of True Suchness, the treasury of the Thus Come One?
"Ananda, although the eye's staring causes fatigue, the eye and the fatigue originate in Bodhi. Staring gives rise to the characteristics of fatigue.
"Because a sense of seeing is stimulated in the midst of the two false, defiling objects of light and dark, defiling appearances are taken in; this is called the nature of seeing. Apart from the two defiling objects of light and dark, this seeing is ultimately without substance.
"Thus, Ananda, you should know that seeing does not come from light or dark, nor does it come forth from the sense organ, nor is it produced from emptiness.
"Why? If it came from light, then it would be extinguished when it is dark, and you would not see darkness. If it came from darkness, then it would be extinguished when it is light, and you would not see light.
"Suppose it came from the sense-organ, which is obviously devoid of light and dark: a nature of seeing such as this would have no self-nature.
"Suppose it came forth from emptiness. When it looks in front of you, it sees the shapes of the defiling dust; turning around, it would see your sense organ. Moreover, if it were emptiness itself which sees, what connection would that have with your entrance?
"Therefore, you should know that the eye entrance is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a person who suddenly stops up his ears with two fingers. Because the sense-organ of hearing has become fatigued, a sound is heard in his head. However, both the ears and the fatigue originate in Bodhi. Monotony will produce the characteristics of fatigue.
"Because a sense of hearing is stimulated in the midst of the two false, defiling objects of movement and stillness, defiling appearances are taken in; this is called the nature of hearing. Apart from the two defiling objects of movement and stillness, this hearing is ultimately without substance.
"Thus, Ananda, you should know that hearing does not come from movement and stillness; nor does it come from the sense organ, nor is it produced from emptiness.
"Why? If it came from stillness, it would be extinguished when there is movement, and you would not hear movement. If it came from movement, then it would be extinguished when there is stillness, and you would not be aware of the stillness.
"Suppose it came from the sense-organ, which is obviously devoid of movement and stillness: a nature of hearing such as this would have no self-nature.
"Suppose it came from emptiness: emptiness would then become hearing and would no longer be emptiness. Moreover, if it were emptiness itself which hears, what connection would it have with your entrance?
"Therefore, you should know that the ear-entrance is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence, nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a person who inhales deeply through his nose. After he has inhaled for a long time it becomes fatigued, and then there is a sensation of cold in the nose. Because of that sensation, there are the distinctions of penetration and obstruction, of emptiness and actuality, and so forth, including all fragrant and stinking vapors. However, both the nose and the fatigue originate in Bodhi. Over-exertion will produce the characteristic of fatigue.
"Because a sense of smelling is stimulated in the midst of the two false, defiling objects of penetration and obstruction, defiling appearances are taken in; this is called the nature of smelling. Apart from the two defiling objects of penetration and obstruction, this smelling is ultimately without substance.
"You should know that smelling does not come from penetration and obstruction, nor does it come forth from the sense organ, nor is it produced from emptiness.
"Why? If it came from penetration, the smelling would be extinguished when there is obstruction, and then how could it experience obstruction? If it existed because of obstruction, then where there is penetration there would be no smelling; in that case, how would the awareness of fragrance, stench, and other such sensations come into being?
"Suppose it came from the sense organ, which is obviously devoid of penetration and obstruction. A nature of smelling such as this would have no self-nature.
"Suppose it came from emptiness: smelling itself would turn around and smell your own nose. Moreover, if it were emptiness itself which smelled, what connection would it have with your entrance?
"Therefore, you should know that the nose-entrance is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a person who licks his lips with his tongue. His excessive licking causes fatigue. If the person is sick, there will be a bitter flavor; a person who is not sick will have a subtle sweet sensation. Sweetness and bitterness demonstrate the tongue's sense of taste. When the organ is inactive, a sense of tastelessness prevails. However, both the tongue and the fatigue originate in Bodhi. Stress produces the characteristic of fatigue.
"Because the two defiling objects of sweetness and bitterness, as well as tastelessness, stimulate a recognition of taste which in turn draws in these defiling sensations, it becomes what is known as a sense of taste. Apart from the two defiling objects of sweetness and bitterness and apart from tastelessness, the sense of taste is originally without a substance.
"Thus, Ananda, you should know that the perception of sweetness, bitterness, and tastelessness does not come from sweetness or bitterness, nor does it exist because of tastelessness, nor does it arise from the sense organ, nor is it produced from emptiness.
"For what reason? If it came from sweetness and bitterness, it would cease to exist when tastelessness was experienced, so how could it recognize tastelessness? If it arose from tastelessness, it would vanish when the flavor of sweetness was tasted, so how could it perceive the two flavors, sweet and bitter?
"Suppose it came from the tongue which is obviously devoid of the defiling objects of sweetness and bitterness and of tastelessness. An essence of tasting such as this would have no self-nature.
"Suppose it came from emptiness: the sense of taste would be experienced by emptiness instead of by the mouth. Suppose, moreover, that it was emptiness itself which tasted; what connection would that have with you entrance?
"Therefore, you should know that the tongue entrance is empty and false since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence nor it is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a person who touches his warm hand with his cold hand. If the cold is in excess of the warmth, the warm hand will become cold; if the warmth is in excess of the cold, his cold hand will become warm. So the sensation of warmth and cold is felt through the contact and separation of the two hands. Fatiguing contact results in the interpenetration of warmth and cold. However, both body and the fatigue originate in Bodhi. Protraction produces the characteristic of fatigue.
"Because a physical sensation is stimulated in the midst of the two defiling objects of separation and union, defiling appearances are taken in; this is called the awareness of sensation. Apart from the two sets of defiling objects of separation and union, and pleasantness and unpleasantness, the awareness of sensation is originally without a substance.
"Thus, Ananda, you should know that this sensation does not come from separation and union, nor does it exist because of pleasantness and unpleasantness, nor does it arise from the sense organ, nor is it produced from emptiness.
"For what reason? If it arose when there was union, it would disappear when there was separation, so how could it sense the separation? The two characteristics of pleasantness and unpleasantness are the same way.
"Suppose it came from the sense organ, which is obviously devoid of the four characteristics of union, separation, pleasantness, and unpleasantness; and awareness of physical sensation such as this would have no self-nature.
"Suppose it came from emptiness; the awareness of sensations would be experienced by emptiness itself, what connection would that have with your entrance?
"Therefore you should know that the body-entrance is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence, nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Ananda, consider, for example, a person who becomes so fatigued that he goes to sleep. Having slept soundly, he awakens and tries to recollect what he experienced while asleep. He recalls some things and forgets others. Thus, his upsidedownness goes through production, dwelling, change, and extinction, which are taken in and returned to a center habitually, each following the next without ever being overtaken. This is known as the mind organ or intellect. The mind and the fatigue are both Bodhi. Persistence produces the characteristic of fatigue.
"The two defiling objects of production and extinction stimulate a sense of knowing which in turn grasps these inner sense data, reversing the flow of seeing and hearing before the flow reaches the ground it is known as the faculty of intellect.
"Apart from the two sets of defiling objects of waking and sleeping and of production and extinction, the faculty of intellect is originally without substance.
"Thus, Ananda, you should know that the faculty of intellect does not come from waking, sleeping, production, or extinction, nor does it arise from the sense organ, nor is it produced from emptiness.
"For what reason? If it came from waking, it would disappear at the time of sleeping, so how could it experience sleep? If it came from production, it would cease to exist at the time of extinction, so how could it undergo extinction? If it came from extinction it would disappear at the time of production, so how could it know about production?
"Suppose it came from the sense-organ; waking and sleeping cause only a physical opening and closing respectively. Apart from these two movements, the faculty of intellect is as unsubstantial as flowers in space, because it is fundamentally without a self-nature.
"Suppose it came from emptiness; the sense of intellect would be experienced by emptiness instead of by the mind. Then what connection would that have with your entrance?
"Therefore, you should know that the mind entrance is empty and false, since it neither depends upon causes and conditions for existence nor is spontaneous in nature.
"Moreover, Ananda, why do I say that the twelve places are basically the wonderful nature of True Suchness, the treasury of the Thus Come One?
"Ananda, look again at the trees in the Jeta Grove and the fountains and pools.
"What do you think? Do these things come into being because the forms are produced and thus the eyes see, or because the eyes produce the characteristics of form?
"Ananda, if the organ of sight were to produce the characteristics of form, then the nature of form would be obliterated when you see emptiness, which is not from. Once it was obliterated, everything that is manifest would disappear. Since the characteristics of form would then be absent, who would be able to understand the nature of emptiness? The same is true of emptiness.
"If, moreover, the defiling objects of form were to produce the eye's seeing, then seeing would perish upon looking at emptiness, which is not form, and once it perished, everything would disappear. Then who would be able to understand emptiness and form?
"Therefore, you should know that neither seeing nor form nor emptiness has a location, and thus the two places of form and seeing are empty and false. Their origin is not in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Ananda, listen again to the drum being beaten in the Jeta Grove when the food is ready. The assembly gathers as the bell is struck. The sounds of the bell and the drum follow one another in succession.
"What do you think? Do these things come into existence because the sound comes of the region of the ear, or because the ear goes to the place of the sound?
"Again, Ananda, suppose that the sound comes to the region of the ear. Similarly, when I go to beg for food in the city of Shravasti, I am no longer in the Jeta Grove. If the sound definitely goes to the region of Ananda's ear, then neither Maudgalyayana nor Kashyapa would hear it, and even less the twelve hundred and fifty Shramanas who, upon hearing the sound of the bell, come to the dining hall at the same time.
"Again, suppose that the ear goes to the region of the sound. Similarly, when I return to the Jeta Grove, I am no longer in the city of Shravasti. When you hear the sound of the drum, your ear will already have gone to the place where the drum is being beaten. Thus, when the bell peals, you will not hear the sound-even the less that of the elephants, horses, cows, sheep, and all the other various sounds around you.
"If there is no coming or going, there will be no hearing, either.
"Therefore, you should know that neither hearing nor sound has a location, and thus the two places of hearing and sound are empty and false. Their origin is not in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Moreover, Ananda, you smell the Chandana in this censer. When one particle of this incense is lit, it can be smelled simultaneously through forty Li around the city of Shravasti.
"What do you think? Is this fragrance produced from the Chandana wood? Is it produced in your nose, or does it arise within emptiness?
"Again, Ananda, suppose this fragrance is produced from your nose. What is said to be produced from the nose should come forth from the nose. Your nose is not Chandana, so how can the nose have the fragrance of Chandana? When you say you smell fragrance, it should enter your nose. For the nose to emit fragrance is not the meaning of smelling.
"Suppose it is produced from within emptiness. The nature of emptiness is everlasting and unchanging, and so the fragrance should be eternally present. What need should there be to rely on burning the dry wood in the censer?
"Suppose it is produced from the wood. Now, the nature of this incense is such that it gives off smoke when it is burned. If the nose smells it, it should be filled with smoke. The smoke rises into the air, and before it has reached the distance, how is it that the fragrance is already being smelled at a distance of forty Li?
"Therefore, you should know that neither the fragrance, nor the nose's smelling has a location, and so the two places of smelling and fragrance are empty and false. Their origin is not in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Ananda, twice every day you take up your bowl along with the rest of the assembly, and among what you receive may be things of supreme flavor, such as curds, buttermilk, and clarified butter.
"What do you think? Are these flavors produced from emptiness, do they forth from the tongue, or are they produced from the food?
"Again, Ananda, suppose that the flavors came form your tongue; now there is only one tongue in your mouth. When that tongue had already become the flavor of curds, then it would not change if it encountered some dark rock- candy.
"Suppose it did not change: that would not be what is called knowing tastes. Suppose it did change: the tongue is not many substances, and how could one tongue know so many tastes?
"Suppose it were produced from the food. The food does not have consciousness; how could it know tastes? Moreover, if the food itself were to recognize them, that would be the same as someone else eating. Then what connection would that have with what is called your recognition of tastes?
"Suppose it were produced in emptiness. When you eat emptiness, what flavor does it have? Suppose that emptiness had the flavor of salt. Then, since your tongue was salty, your face would also be salty, and likewise everyone in the world would be like fish in the sea. Since you would be constantly influenced by salt, you would never know tastelessness. If you did not recognize tastelessness, you would not be aware of the saltiness, either. You would not know anything at all. How could that be what is called taste?
"Therefore, you should know that neither flavors nor the tongue's tasting has a location; and, so the two places of tasting and flavor are empty and false. Their origin is not in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Ananda, early every morning you rub your head with your hand.
"What do you think? When there is a sensation of the rubbing, where does the ability to make contact lie? Is the ability to make contact lie? Is the ability in the hands or is it in the head?
"If it were in the hands, then the head would have no knowledge of it, and how could that be what is called touch? If it were in the head, then the hands would be useless, and how could that be what is called touch?
"If each had it, then you, Ananda, would have two bodies.
"If there were only one touch in the head and the hand, then the hand and the head would be of one substance. If they were one substance, then no touch would be possible.
"If they were two substances, to which would the touch belong? The one which was capable of touching would not be the one that was touched. The one that was touched would not be that the touch came into being between you and emptiness.
"Therefore, you should know that neither the sensation of touch nor the body has a location. And so the two places of the body and touch are empty and false. Their origin is not in causes and conditions, nor no their natures arise spontaneously.
"Ananda, your mind is always conditioned by three qualities-good, bad, and indeterminate-which produce patterns of Dharmas.
"Are these Dharmas produced by the mind, or do they have a special place apart from the mind?
"Ananda, if they were the mind, the Dharmas would not be its defiling objects. Since they would not be conditions of the mind, how could you say that they had a location?
"Suppose they were to have a special place apart from the mind: then would the Dharmas themselves be able to know?
"If they were to have a sense of knowing, they would be called a mind. If they were something other that you, they would be someone else's mind, since they are not defiling objects. If they were the same as you, they would be your own mind. But, how could your mind stand apart form you?
"Suppose they were to have no sense of knowing ; yet these defiling objects are not forms, sounds, smells, or tastes; they are neither coldness nor warmth, nor the characteristic of emptiness. Where would they be located?
"We have established that they are represented in neither form nor emptiness; nor is it likely that they exist somewhere in the human realm beyond emptiness, for if they did, the mind could not be aware of them. Whence, then, would they arise?
"Therefore, you should know that neither Dharmas nor the mind has a location. And, so the two places of mind and Dharmas are empty and false. Their origin is not in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Moreover, Ananda, why do I say that the eighteen realms are basically the wonderful nature of True Suchness, the treasury of the Thus Come One?
"Ananda, as you understand it, the eyes and form create the conditions that produce the eye-consciousness.
"Is the consciousness produced because of the eyes, such that the eyes are its realm? Or is it produced because of form, such that form is its realm?
"Ananda, if it were produced because of the eyes, then in the absence of emptiness and form it would not be able to make distinctions; and, so even if you had a consciousness, what use would it be?
"Moreover, your seeing is neither green, yellow, red, nor white. There is virtually nothing in which it is represented, therefore, what is the realm established from?
"Suppose it were produced because of form. In emptiness, when there was no form, you consciousness would be extinguished. Then, why is it that the consciousness knows the nature of emptiness?
"Suppose a form changes. You are also conscious of the changing appearance; but your eye-consciousness does not change. Where is the boundary established?
"If the eye-consciousness were to change when form changed, then there would be no appearance of a realm. If it were not to change, it would be constant, and given that it was produced from form, it should have no conscious knowledge of where there was emptiness.
"Suppose the eye-consciousness arose both from the eyes and from form. If they were united, there would still be a point of separation. If they were separate, there would still be a point of contact. Hence, the substance and nature would be chaotic and disorderly; how could a realm be set up?
"Therefore, you should that as to the eyes and form being the conditions that produce the realm of eye-consciousness, none of the three places exists. Thus, the eyes, form, and the form-realm-these three-do not have their origin in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Moreover, Ananda, as you understand it, the ear and sound create the conditions that produce the ear-consciousness.
"Is this consciousness produced because of the ear such that the ear is its realm, or is it produced because of sound, such that sound is its realm?
"Ananda, suppose the ear-consciousness were produced because of the ear. The organ of hearing would have no awareness in the absence of both movement and stillness. Thus, nothing would be known by it. Since the organ would lack awareness, what would characterize the consciousness?
"You may hold that the ears hear, but when there is no movement and stillness, hearing cannot occur. How, then, could the ears, which are but physical forms, unite with external objects to be called the realm of consciousness? Once again, therefore, how would the realm of consciousness be established?
"Suppose it was produced from sound. If the consciousness existed because of sound, then it would have no connection with hearing. Without hearing, then the characteristic of sound would have no location.
"Suppose consciousness existed because of sound. Given that sound exists because of hearing, which causes the characteristic of sound to manifest, then you should also hear the hearing-consciousness.
"If the hearing-consciousness is not heard, there is no realm. If it is heard, then it is the same as sound. If the consciousness itself is heard, who is it that perceives and hears the consciousness? If there is no perceiver, then in the end you would be like grass or wood.
"Nor is it likely that the sound and hearing mix together to form a realm in between. Since a realm in between could not be established, how could the internal and external characteristics be delineated?
"Therefore, you should know that as to the ear and sound creating the conditions which produce the realm of the ear-consciousness, none of the three places exists. Thus, the ear, sound, and sound-consciousness-these three -do not have their origin in causes and conditions, nor do their natures arise spontaneously.
"Moreover, Ananda, as you understand it, the nose and smells create the conditions that produce the nose-consciousness.
"Is this consciousness produced because of the nose, such that the nose is its realm? Or, is it produced because of smells, such that smells are its realm?
"Suppose, Ananda, that the nose-consciousness were produced because of the nose, then in your mind, what do you take to be the nose? Do you hold that it takes the form of two fleshy claws, or do you hold it is an inherent ability of the nature, which perceives smells as a result of movement?
"Suppose you hold that it is fleshy claws which form an integral part of your body. Since the body's perception is touch, the sense organ of smelling would be named "body" instead of "nose," and the objects of smelling would be objects of touch. Since it would not even have the name "nose," how could a realm be established for it?
"Suppose you held that the nose was the perceiver of smells. Then, in your mind, what is it that perceives? Suppose it were the flesh that perceived. Basically, what the flesh perceives is objects of touch, which have nothing to do with the nose.
"Suppose it were emptiness that perceived. Then emptiness would itself be the perceiver, and the flesh would have no awareness. Thus, empty space would be you, and since your body would be without perception, Ananda would not exist.
"If it is the smell that perceives perception itself would lie with the smell. What would that have to do with you?
"If it is certain that vapors of fragrance and stench are produced from your nose, then the two flowing vapors of fragrance and stench would not arise from the wood of Airavana or Chandana. Given that the smell does not come from these two things, when you smell your own nose, is it fragrant, or does it stink? What stinks does not give off fragrance; what is fragrant does not stink.
"Suppose you say you can smell both the fragrance and the stench; then you, one person, would have two noses, and I would now be addressing questions to two Anandas. Which one is you?
"Suppose there is one nose; then fragrance and stench would not be two. Since stench would be fragrance and fragrance would become stench, there would not be two natures, thus what would make up the realm?
"If the nose-consciousness were produced because of smells, it follows that it is in existence just because of smells. Just as the eyes can see but are unable to see the