[Ānanda said: “Although I recognize that this seeing-nature does not return anywhere, how may I know that it is my true nature?”]

[The Buddha said to Ānanda: “I will now ask you: although you have not yet attained undefiled purity, sustained by the Buddha’s spiritual power, your sight reaches as far as the First Dhyāna without obstruction. Aniruddha, however, sees Jambudvīpa as one sees an āmalaka fruit in the palm of one’s hand.”]

[The bodhisattvas see hundreds of thousands of worlds; the Tathāgatas of the ten directions behold to their utmost limit pure lands as numerous as motes of dust—there is nothing they do not see. Sentient beings’ penetrating vision extends no farther than a fraction of an inch.]

[Ānanda, now you and I shall look upon the palaces where the Four Heavenly Kings reside. Surveying all that moves through water, on land, and in the air, although there are light and darkness and forms of every kind, all are merely objects before you, giving rise to discriminations and hindrances.]

[You should now distinguish the self from what is other. I shall have you select, within what is seen, which is your own substance and which are material forms.]

[Ānanda, extending your seeing to its farthest source, from the palaces of the sun and moon—these are objects, not you. Down to the Seven Golden Mountains, look closely all around: though they shine with various lights, they too are objects, not you. Looking gradually nearer, clouds drift, birds fly, wind stirs, dust rises, and trees, mountains, rivers, grasses, plants, people, and animals are all objects, not you.]

[Ānanda, all these near and distant things, all things that possess material nature, though they differ in many ways, are alike perceived by your pure seeing-essence. The various kinds of things differ from one another, but the seeing-nature itself does not differ. This subtle, wondrous luminosity is truly your seeing-nature.]

[If seeing were an object, then you too could see my seeing.]

[If you could see it as the same seeing, that would be called seeing my seeing. When I do not see, why can you not see the place where I do not see?]

[If you see my non-seeing, that naturally would not be the appearance of non-seeing. If you cannot see the place where I do not see, it naturally is not an object. How, then, could it not be you?]

[Moreover, when you now see an object, you see the object, and the object also sees you. Then substance and nature become confused, and neither you nor I nor the whole world could be established.]

[Ānanda, when you see, it is you who see, not I. Since the seeing-nature pervades everywhere, if it is not you, who is it?]

[How can you yourself doubt your own true nature? If your nature were not truly yours, you would be taking me as the basis from which to seek reality.]