At that time Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, in the midst of the assembly, rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, knelt on his right knee, joined his palms respectfully, and addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One of great awesome virtue, you have skillfully expounded for sentient beings the Tathāgata’s supreme truth of ultimate meaning. The World-Honored One has always praised me as foremost among those who expound the Dharma.”
“Now, hearing the Tathāgata’s subtle and wondrous Dharma sound, I am like a deaf person listening to mosquitoes from more than a hundred paces away: what was originally unseen, much less can be heard. Although the Buddha has clearly proclaimed it and enabled me to dispel my delusions, I still do not fully understand how this principle is ultimately free from doubt. World-Honored One, although those such as Ānanda have awakened, their residual outflows have not yet been eliminated.”
“Though those among us in this assembly who have attained freedom from outflows have exhausted all outflows, upon hearing the Dharma sound spoken by the Tathāgata, we still harbor lingering doubts and regrets.”
“World-Honored One, if all the sense faculties and their objects, aggregates, sense bases, and realms in the world are all the Tathāgata-garbha, pure and originally such, how do mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise, together with all conditioned appearances, which flow and change in succession, ending only to begin again? Moreover, the Tathāgata has said that the natures of earth, water, fire, and wind are perfectly interfused, pervading the dharma realm, tranquil and ever abiding. World-Honored One, if the nature of earth pervades everywhere, how can it contain water? If the nature of water pervades everywhere, fire cannot arise.”
“Moreover, how can it be understood that the natures of water and fire both pervade empty space without overpowering or extinguishing one another? World-Honored One, the nature of earth obstructs, while the nature of space is open and unobstructed. How can both pervade the dharma realm? I do not understand where this principle leads. I only pray that the Tathāgata will pour forth great compassion, dispelling the clouds of delusion for me and for the whole assembly.” Having spoken thus, he prostrated himself fully on the ground, reverently thirsting for the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed compassionate instruction.
At that time the World-Honored One said to Pūrṇa and to the arhats beyond training in the assembly, who had exhausted their outflows: “Today the Tathāgata will proclaim for this assembly the true nature of the supreme meaning within the supreme meaning, so that the fixed-nature śrāvakas in this assembly, and all arhats who have not yet attained the twofold emptiness but are turning toward the higher vehicle, may all attain the ground of the One Vehicle’s quiescence—the true araṇya, the proper place for cultivation. Listen carefully now, and I shall explain it to you.” Pūrṇa and the others respectfully received the Buddha’s Dharma sound and listened in silence.
The Buddha said: “Pūrṇa, as you have said, if it is pure and originally such, how do mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise? Have you not often heard the Tathāgata declare that inherent awakening is wondrous luminosity, and original awakening is luminous and wondrous?” Pūrṇa replied: “Yes, World-Honored One. I have often heard the Buddha proclaim this principle.”
The Buddha said: “When you call awakening luminous, do you mean that inherent luminosity is called awakening? Or that awakening which is not luminous is called luminous awakening?” Pūrṇa replied: “If that which is not luminous is called awakening, then there is nothing that is luminous.” The Buddha said: “If there is nothing luminous, then there is no luminous awakening. What has an object is not awakening; what has no object is not luminosity. Moreover, ignorance is not the tranquil, luminous nature of awakening. Inherent awakening must be luminous, yet one falsely makes it into luminous awakening.”
“Awakening is not an object of illumination; because of illumination, an object is established. Once the object is falsely established, your false subjective capacity arises. Within what is neither the same nor different, difference blazes forth; in contrast to that difference, sameness is established through difference. Sameness and difference become manifest, and thus what is neither the same nor different is further established. Such confusion gives rise to toil through mutual dependence. When this toil persists, it produces dust; the dust becomes mutually turbid, and thus brings forth the afflictions of worldly toil. Movement becomes the world; stillness becomes empty space. Empty space is sameness; the world is difference. That which is neither the same nor different is truly conditioned dharma.”
“When awakened luminosity and the obscurity of emptiness mutually oppose each other, they become motion; thus there is the wheel of wind that sustains the world. Because emptiness gives rise to motion, solid luminosity establishes obstruction. As for gold and treasure, luminous awakening establishes solidity; thus there is the wheel of metal that maintains the lands. When solid awakening forms treasure and moving luminosity produces wind, wind and metal rub against one another, and thus fire arises as the nature of transformation. Treasure-luminosity produces moisture, and the fire’s light steams upward; thus there is the wheel of water containing the ten directions.”
“Fire rises and water descends; their interaction produces solidity. Moisture becomes great seas, and dryness becomes continents and islands. For this reason, fire often arises within the great seas, while rivers constantly flow upon continents and islands. Where water’s force is weaker than fire’s, it congeals into high mountains; therefore, when mountain rocks are struck, they emit sparks, and when melted, they become water. Where earth’s force is weaker than water’s, it draws forth grasses and trees; therefore, forests and groves become earth when burned, and produce water when twisted. Deluded interactions arise from one another and serve successively as seeds. Through these causes and conditions, worlds continue.”
“Furthermore, Pūrṇa, this false luminosity is not something else: the fault lies in making awakening luminous. Once the false object is established, the illuminating principle cannot go beyond it. For this reason, hearing does not go beyond sound, and seeing does not go beyond form. Form, smell, taste, and touch complete the six false objects, and thus seeing, awareness, hearing, and knowing become divided. Those sharing the same karma become entangled; union and separation bring about transformation. When seeing is clarified, forms arise; when brightness is seen, thoughts form. Differing views produce aversion, while like thoughts produce love.”
“Flowing love becomes a seed, and receptive thought becomes a womb. Sexual union produces development and draws beings of like karma together; therefore, through causes and conditions, kalala, arbuda, and the like come into being. Womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and transformation-born beings arise according to what is appropriate: egg-born beings arise solely from thought; womb-born beings arise through emotion; moisture-born beings are affected by union; transformation-born beings respond to separation. Emotion, thought, union, and separation transform one another, and beings undergo karma according to whether they fly or sink. Through these causes and conditions, sentient beings continue.”
“Pūrṇa, when thought and love bind together, and love cannot be separated, then in all worlds parents, children, and descendants are born from one another without end. Such continuity has desire and greed as its root. When greed and love nourish one another, and greed cannot cease, then throughout all worlds, egg-born, transformation-born, moisture-born, and womb-born beings devour one another according to the strength of their power. Such continuity has the greed to kill as its root.”
“Because people eat sheep, sheep die and become people, and people die and become sheep. Thus, throughout the ten classes of beings, they die and are born, again and again, mutually devouring one another. Evil karma arises with them and continues to the end of future time. Such continuity has the greed to steal as its root. You owe me a life; I repay you a debt. Through these causes and conditions, we remain in birth and death for hundreds of thousands of kalpas. You love my mind; I cherish your form. Through these causes and conditions, we remain bound for hundreds of thousands of kalpas. Killing, stealing, and sexual desire alone are the fundamental roots. Through these causes and conditions, karmic results continue.”
“Pūrṇa, these three kinds of inverted continuity all arise from making awakening luminous—the knowing nature made aware. Because awareness gives rise to appearances, mountains, rivers, the great earth, and all conditioned appearances arise from false seeing and flow and change in succession. Because of this falsity, they end only to begin again.”
Pūrṇa said: “If this wondrous awakening, originally wondrous and luminously awakened, neither increases nor decreases in comparison with the mind of the Tathāgata, how do mountains, rivers, the great earth, and all conditioned appearances suddenly arise without cause? Now that the Tathāgata has attained wondrous, empty, luminous awakening, when will the conditioned habitual outflows of mountains, rivers, and the great earth arise again?”
The Buddha told Pūrṇa: “It is like a person who has lost his way in a village and mistakes south for north. Does this confusion arise because of confusion, or does it arise from awakening?” Pūrṇa replied: “Such a confused person is not confused because of confusion, nor is he confused because of awakening.”
“Why is this so? Delusion originally has no root, so how could it arise from delusion? Awakening does not produce delusion, so how could it arise from awakening?” The Buddha said: “While that person is lost, someone who understands suddenly points out the way and enables him to awaken. Pūrṇa, what do you think? If this person, having once been lost in that village, is lost there again, would that be possible?” “No, World-Honored One.” “Pūrṇa, the Tathāgatas of the ten directions are likewise. This delusion has no basis; its nature is ultimately empty. Originally there was no delusion, though there seemed to be awareness of delusion. When awareness of delusion arises, delusion ceases; awakening does not give rise to delusion.”
“It is also like a person with an eye disease who sees flowers in empty space. When the diseased condition is cured, the flowers vanish from space. Suppose a foolish person were to wait in the empty place where those flowers vanished for them to arise again. Would you consider this person foolish or wise?” Pūrṇa replied: “There originally are no flowers in empty space; their arising and vanishing are falsely seen. To see flowers vanish from empty space is already inverted; to demand that they appear again is truly madness and stupidity.”
“How could one further ask whether such a mad person is foolish or wise?” The Buddha said: “As you understand it, why do you ask when mountains, rivers, the great earth, and all conditioned appearances will again arise from the wondrous awakened luminous emptiness of the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas? It is like gold ore mixed with pure gold: once the gold is refined to purity, it will not again become mixed. Or like wood reduced to ashes: it cannot become wood again. The bodhi and nirvāṇa of the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, are likewise.”
“Pūrṇa, you also asked why the natures of earth, water, fire, and wind, being perfectly interfused and pervading the dharma realm, do not overpower and extinguish one another. You also questioned how empty space and all the lands can both pervade the dharma realm without being incompatible or unable to contain one another. Pūrṇa, it is like empty space: its essence is not the various appearances, yet it does not prevent those appearances from manifesting.”
“Why is this so? Pūrṇa, in the great empty space, sunlight makes it bright; gathered clouds make it dark; wind makes it move; clear weather makes it pure; condensed vapors make it turbid; accumulated dust becomes haze; and settled water becomes a reflection. What do you think? Do these various conditioned appearances arise from those causes, or do they arise from space? If they arise from those causes, then, Pūrṇa, when sunlight shines, since the brightness comes from the sun, the worlds in the ten directions should all take on the sun’s color. Why then is a round sun still seen in the sky? If the brightness came from space, space itself should shine. Why then does it not emit radiance in the middle of the night when clouds and mist prevail? You should know that this brightness is neither from the sun nor from space, yet it is not separate from space and the sun.”
“True, wondrous, awakened luminosity is likewise. If you make emptiness luminous, emptiness appears. If earth, water, fire, and wind are each made luminous, each appears. If all are made luminous together, all appear together. How can they all appear together? Pūrṇa, it is like the reflection of the sun in a single body of water. Two people observe the sun in the water and walk separately, one east and one west; each sees a sun following him. One goes east and one west, with no fixed direction. One should not ask, ‘If this sun is one, how can it go separately?’ Nor should one ask, ‘If each person has a sun, how can one sun appear?’ Such questions are endlessly false and have no basis.”
“The contemplation of appearances is originally false and cannot be pointed out or described. It is like hoping for flowers in empty space to bear the fruit of emptiness. How then can one question how appearances overpower or extinguish one another? The contemplation of nature is originally true; it is solely wondrous awakened luminosity. The mind of wondrous awakened luminosity is not originally water or fire. How then can one further ask how they fail to contain one another?”
“Pūrṇa, you see form and emptiness as mutually inclining toward and contending with one another within the Tathāgata-garbha. Yet the Tathāgata-garbha accords with becoming form and emptiness, pervading the dharma realm. Therefore, within it, wind moves, space clears, the sun shines, and clouds darken. Sentient beings, deluded and confused, turn away from awakening and unite with dust; thus worldly toil arises and the appearances of the world come into being. I unite the Tathāgata-garbha with wondrous luminosity that neither ceases nor arises, and the Tathāgata-garbha is solely wondrous awakened luminosity, perfectly illuminating the dharma realm.”
“Therefore, within it, one is limitless and limitless is one; the great appears within the small, and the small appears within the great. Without moving from the bodhimaṇḍa, one pervades the dharma realms of the ten directions; one’s body contains the boundless empty space of the ten directions. At the tip of a single hair, one manifests jeweled king-lands; seated within a mote of dust, one turns the great Dharma wheel. By extinguishing dust and uniting with awakening, one brings forth the wondrous awakened luminous nature of suchness.”
“Yet the Tathāgata-garbha, the originally wondrous perfect mind, is neither mind nor emptiness, neither earth nor water, neither wind nor fire; neither eye nor ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; neither form nor sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; neither the realm of eye-consciousness nor, thus, any of the realms up to and including the realm of mind-consciousness.”
“It is neither ignorance nor the ending of ignorance; neither aging and death nor the ending of aging and death; neither suffering, origination, cessation, nor the path; neither wisdom nor attainment. It is neither dāna, śīla, vīrya, kṣānti, dhyāna, prajñā, nor pāramitā; nor, thus, is it the Tathāgata, the Arhat, samyak-saṃbuddha, or great nirvāṇa; neither permanence, bliss, self, nor purity.”
“Because it is all of these negations—worldly and supramundane—the Tathāgata-garbha is the original source of the wondrous luminous mind. It is mind, it is emptiness, it is earth, water, wind, and fire; it is eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; it is form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma; it is the realm of eye-consciousness and, thus, all the way up to and including the realm of mind-consciousness.”
That is, ignorance is itself enlightenment, and enlightenment exhausts ignorance; and so on, even to old age and death being themselves old age and death exhausted; suffering, origination, cessation, and the Path being themselves so; wisdom and attainment being themselves so; dāna, śīla, vīrya, kṣānti, dhyāna, prajñā, and pāramitā being themselves so. And so on, even to the Tathāgata, the Arhat, perfect and complete enlightenment, great nirvāṇa, permanence, bliss, self, and purity being themselves so.
Because all these are identical, they encompass both the mundane and the supramundane; this is the wondrous, primordial, luminous mind of the Tathāgata-garbha. To depart from identity is to depart from nonidentity; identity itself is nonidentity, and nonidentity itself is identity.
How can sentient beings of the three realms of worldly existence, together with the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas of the supramundane path, use the mind of what they know to measure the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed bodhi, or use worldly language to enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision? It is like a zither, a lute, a harp, or a pipa: although each has exquisite tones, without skillful fingers it can never give them forth. You and all sentient beings are likewise. The precious awakened true mind is complete and perfect in each and every one of you. When I press my finger, the ocean-seal emits light; when you merely stir your minds, the toil of the dusts first arises. This is because you do not diligently seek the unsurpassed path of awakening, but cherish the Lesser Vehicle and are content with a small attainment.
Pūrṇa said, “The precious awakening, perfect luminosity, true wondrous purity of mind possessed by the Tathāgata and by me are equally complete, without duality. Yet I have long been in saṃsāra because I encountered beginningless deluded thoughts in the past. Now, though I have attained the holy vehicle, I have not yet reached ultimate realization. The World-Honored One has completely extinguished all delusions and alone abides in wondrous, true permanence.”
“I venture to ask the Tathāgata: Why do all sentient beings have delusion, thereby obscuring their own wondrous luminosity and undergoing this drowning in saṃsāra?” The Buddha told Pūrṇa, “Though you have dispelled your doubts, your remaining delusions are not exhausted. I shall now ask you again about matters presently before us in the world. Have you not heard of Yajñadatta in Śrāvastī? One morning, he looked at his face in a mirror. Delighting in the head in the mirror, whose eyebrows and eyes he could see, he angrily reproached his own head because he could not see its face and features. Thinking it was a goblin, he ran about madly for no reason. What do you think? Why did this man run about madly for no reason?” Pūrṇa said, “The man’s mind was mad; there was no other reason.”
The Buddha said, “Wondrous awakening is perfectly luminous, and fundamental perfect luminosity is wondrous. Once it is called delusion, how can it have a cause? If it has a cause, how can it be called delusion? Deluded thoughts generate one another as causes in continual succession; delusion accumulates upon delusion through dust-filled kalpas. Even though the Buddha reveals this, they still cannot return. Such a cause of delusion exists because of delusion itself. Once one recognizes that delusion has no cause, delusion has nothing on which to depend.”
“When even arising does not exist, what could there be to cease? One who attains bodhi is like a person, once awake, speaking of matters in a dream. Even if the mind is exceptionally lucid, by what causes and conditions could it retrieve things from the dream? How much less could there be anything where there is no cause and fundamentally nothing exists. Like Yajñadatta in that city, could he possibly have had some cause or condition for being frightened of his head and running away? When his madness suddenly ceased, his head was not obtained from outside.”
“Even if his madness had not ceased, what would he have lost? Pūrṇa, such is the nature of delusion; where could its cause be? You need only refrain from following discrimination. When the three continuities of the world, karmic fruition, and sentient beings cease because their three conditions are cut off, their three causes do not arise. Then the Yajñadatta within your own mind will have his madness naturally cease. When it ceases, that is bodhi.”
“The supreme, pure, luminous mind pervades the dharma realm from the beginning. It is not obtained from anyone else. Why, then, rely on arduous toil and painstaking cultivation and realization? It is like someone who ties a wish-fulfilling jewel inside his own garment but does not know it. Wandering impoverished and exposed in another land, he runs about begging for food. Though he is truly poor, the jewel has never been lost. Suddenly, a wise person points out the jewel to him; whatever he wishes is fulfilled, and he becomes greatly wealthy. Only then does he realize that the spiritual jewel was not obtained from outside.”
At that time, Ānanda, amid the great assembly, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, rose, and addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, you have just explained that when the three conditions of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct are cut off, the three causes do not arise; the madness of Dattā in one’s mind naturally ceases, and when it ceases, that is bodhi, which is not obtained from another. Thus causes and conditions are plainly evident. Why does the Tathāgata suddenly reject causes and conditions? Through causes and conditions, my mind attained awakening.”
“World-Honored One, is this principle applicable only to younger śrāvakas still in training such as ourselves? In this assembly, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Śāriputra, Subhūti, and others heard the Buddha teach causes and conditions from the elder brahmins; they aroused the resolve, awakened, and attained the undefiled state. If you now say that bodhi does not arise from causes and conditions, then the naturalism taught by Kośalī and others in Rājagṛha would become the highest truth. I beg you, in your great compassion, to dispel our bewilderment!”
The Buddha told Ānanda, “Take the case of Yajñadatta in the city. If the causes and conditions of his madness were eliminated, his state of not being mad would naturally emerge. Thus, causes and conditions and naturalism reach their logical end here.”
“Ānanda, Yajñadatta’s head was originally natural; it was naturally so in itself. If what is natural were not itself, then why would causes and conditions make him fear his head and run about madly? If the head is naturally present and madness arises because of causes and conditions, why would the head not naturally be lost because of causes and conditions? His original head was not lost, yet his mad fear arose falsely. Since it had undergone no change at all, what need was there for causes and conditions? If original madness were natural, then fearful madness would have been there from the start. Before he became mad, where was the madness concealed? If not being mad were natural, then the head was originally without delusion; why did he run about madly? If one awakens to the original head and recognizes the mad running, then causes and conditions and naturalism are both mere idle speculation. Therefore I say: when the three conditions are cut off, that itself is the bodhi mind.”
“When the bodhi mind arises, the mind of arising and ceasing is extinguished. Yet this is merely arising and ceasing. When both cessation and arising are exhausted, this is the path of effortless functioning. If there is a natural state, then one would say that the natural mind arises and the mind of arising and ceasing is extinguished; but this too is arising and ceasing. That which has neither arising nor ceasing is called natural. Just as the various phenomena of the world combine to form one entity, this is called the nature of combination; that which is not combined is called original nature. Original nature is not natural, and combination is not combination. Leave behind both combination and naturalness; regard both separation and combination as false. Only this can be called the dharma free from idle speculation.”
“Bodhi and nirvāṇa are still far distant for you, not something attained through your diligent cultivation and realization over kalpas. Though you can memorize and retain the pure and wondrous principles of the twelve divisions of the teachings of the Tathāgatas of the ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, they merely add to idle speculation. Though you speak clearly and decisively of causes and conditions and naturalism, and people call you foremost in learning, the habitual influence of your vast learning over accumulated kalpas could not save you from the ordeal of Mātaṅgī. There was no need to wait for my Buddha’s crown-uṣṇīṣa mantra: Mātaṅgī’s fire of sexual desire immediately ceased; she attained the state of an anāgāmin and, in my Dharma, became a vigorous grove of practice. The river of her attachment dried up, and this enabled your liberation.”
“Therefore, Ānanda, though over kalpas you memorize and retain the Tathāgata’s secret, wondrous, and majestic teachings, this is not as good as cultivating undefiled karma for a single day and distancing yourself from the two sufferings of worldly hatred and love. Mātaṅgī was formerly a prostitute, but through the power of the spiritual mantra her craving and desire were dissolved; she is now called Bhikṣuṇī Prakṛti in the Dharma. Together with Yaśodharā, Rāhula’s mother, she awakened to her past causes and understood that through lives upon lives, greed and attachment are suffering. Through the undefiled goodness cultivated in a single thought, some are freed from their bonds and some receive a prophecy of Buddhahood. How can you deceive yourself and still remain attached to seeing and hearing?”
When Ānanda and the entire assembly heard the Buddha’s instruction, their doubts dissolved. Their minds awakened to the true reality, their bodies and minds became light and at ease, and they attained what they had never known before. Again they wept with sorrowful gratitude, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, knelt on both knees with palms joined, and addressed the Buddha: “Unsurpassed, greatly compassionate King of Pure Treasure, you have skillfully opened our minds! Through such various causes and conditions and skillful means, you encourage and guide those sunk in darkness out of the sea of suffering.”
“World-Honored One, although I have now received such Dharma sounds and know that the wondrously awakened, luminous mind of the Tathāgata-garbha pervades the dharma realms of the ten directions and contains and nurtures the pure, precious, wondrously adorned Buddha lands of the Tathāgatas in the ten directions, the Tathāgata has again reproached me that extensive learning is ineffective and inferior to cultivation. I am now like a traveler lodging abroad who suddenly receives a magnificent house from a heavenly king. Though he has acquired a great dwelling, he must still enter through its door.”
“May the Tathāgata, without abandoning great compassion, show those in this assembly who remain shrouded in darkness the path by which they may relinquish the Lesser Vehicle and fully attain the Tathāgata’s nirvāṇa without remainder—the fundamental path for arousing the resolve. By what means may those still in training gather in and subdue their former grasping on conditions, attain dhāraṇī, and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision?” Having said this, he prostrated himself with all five limbs on the ground. The entire assembly waited with one mind for the Buddha’s compassionate instruction.
At that time, the World-Honored One, pitying the pratyekabuddhas and śrāvakas in the assembly who were not yet at ease in the bodhi mind, and also wishing to reveal, for sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa who arouse the bodhisattva resolve, the wondrous path of cultivation of the unsurpassed vehicle, declared to Ānanda and the entire assembly: “If you have decisively aroused the bodhi mind and do not grow weary of the Tathāgata Buddha’s wondrous samādhi, you should first clearly understand the two decisive principles for initially arousing awakening. What are these two decisive principles for the initial resolve?”
“Ānanda, the first principle is this: if you wish to relinquish the śrāvaka vehicle, cultivate the bodhisattva vehicle, and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision, you must carefully examine whether the mind that arouses the resolve at the causal stage and the awakening at the stage of fruition are the same or different. Ānanda, if at the causal stage you take a mind of arising and ceasing as the fundamental cause of practice and seek the Buddha vehicle’s unborn and undying state, this cannot be. For this reason, you should observe clearly that all fabricated dharmas in the material world are subject to change and destruction. Ānanda, look upon the world: among fabricated dharmas, which does not decay? Yet one never hears that empty space decays and is destroyed. Why? Because space is not fabricated; therefore, from beginning to end, it does not perish.”
“Within your body, solidity is earth, moisture is water, warmth is fire, and movement is wind. Through these four bindings, your still, perfect, wondrously awakened luminous mind is divided into seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing. From beginning to end, there are five layers of turbidity. What are these turbidities? Ānanda, it is like clear water, which is naturally clean and pure. Earth, dust, ashes, and sand, by their very nature, obstruct and remain. These two substances are inherently of different natures and do not accord with one another. If someone takes earth and dust and casts them into pure water, the soil loses its obstructive stability and the water loses its purity; its appearance becomes turbid, and this is called turbidity. Your five layers of turbidity are likewise.”
“Ānanda, you see that empty space pervades the dharma realms of the ten directions. Space and seeing are not differentiated: where there is space there is no substance, and where there is seeing there is no awareness. Interwoven, they falsely form the first layer, called the turbidity of the kalpa. Your body now takes the four elements as its substance; seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing are obstructed and made to remain confined, while water, fire, wind, and earth whirl about and cause knowing and awareness to interweave falsely. This is the second layer, called the turbidity of views.”
“Further, in your mind, recollection, cognition, and learning give rise to knowledge and views, while the six sense objects appear within its scope. Apart from the sense objects there are no appearances; apart from awareness there is no nature. Interwoven, they falsely form the third layer, called the turbidity of afflictions. Again, from morning to evening, arising and ceasing never stop. Your knowledge and views ever seek to remain in the world, while karmic forces ever move you from land to land. Interwoven, they falsely form the fourth layer, called the turbidity of sentient beings. Your seeing and hearing originally have no distinct nature, but the various sense objects separate and obstruct them, giving rise to distinctions without any real form. Within their nature they know one another, yet in function they oppose one another. The standard of sameness and difference is lost; interwoven, they falsely form the fifth layer, called the turbidity of life.”
“Ānanda, if you now wish your seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing to accord from afar with the Tathāgata’s permanence, bliss, self, and purity, you must first choose the root of birth and death and rely on the perfect, still nature that neither arises nor ceases. With this stillness, turn back the false arising and ceasing, subdue it, and return to the original awakening. Take the unborn and undying nature of original luminous awakening as the mind at the causal stage; only then can you perfectly fulfill cultivation and realization at the stage of fruition. It is like clarifying turbid water: place it in a clean vessel and let it stand still and undisturbed. The sand and soil settle naturally, and clear water appears before you. This is called the initial subduing of adventitious defilements and afflictions. When the mud is removed and only pure water remains, this is called the permanent cutting off of fundamental ignorance. When the luminous characteristics are utterly pure, all manifestations are no longer afflictions; all accord with the pure, wondrous virtues of nirvāṇa.”
“The second principle is this: if you are determined to arouse the bodhi mind, to give rise to great courage in the bodhisattva vehicle, and decisively to abandon all conditioned characteristics, you must carefully investigate the root of afflictions: since beginningless time, who creates the karma that gives rise to and moistens rebirth, and who receives it? Ānanda, if in cultivating bodhi you do not carefully examine the root of afflictions, you cannot know where the false inversion of sense faculties and sense objects lies. If you do not even know where it lies, how can you subdue it and attain the Tathāgata’s stage? Ānanda, look at those in the world who untie knots. If they do not see the knots, how can they know how to untie them? Nor has anyone heard that space can be torn apart by you. Why? Space has no form or characteristics; therefore, there is neither binding nor release.”
Thus your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind before you now—the six—serve as thieves’ accomplices, robbing your household treasure themselves. From beginningless time, because sentient beings are bound by birth, they have been unable to transcend the material world.
Ānanda, what is meant by the world of sentient beings? “World” means change and flow; “realm” means directions and locations. You should now know that east, west, south, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest, above, and below are realms. Past, future, and present are worlds. There are ten directions and three divisions of time. All sentient beings are woven together through delusion; within the body there is mutual alternation and transformation, and the worlds interpenetrate one another.
Although the nature of these realms may extend in ten directions, their locations can be clearly determined. In the mundane world, however, only east, west, south, and north are counted; above and below have no fixed location, and the center has no fixed direction. The four directions are necessarily clear. Interwoven with the three divisions of time, three times four and four times three revolve into twelve. The threefold flow and transformation are repeated: ten, a hundred, a thousand. In sum, from beginning to end, each of the six sense faculties has twelve hundred merits and functions.
Ānanda, you must further determine among them which are superior and which inferior. With the eyes, when one sees, the rear is dark and the front is bright. The front is fully bright, the rear wholly dark; to either side one sees two-thirds. Considered as a whole, their function is incomplete: three parts are counted as merit, while one part has no merit. You should know that the eye faculty has only eight hundred merits.
With the ears, one hears all around without omission in the ten directions. Whether sounds are moving, near, or far, there are no boundaries. You should know that the ear faculty is complete, with twelve hundred merits. With the nose, one smells through inhalation and exhalation: there is outgoing and incoming, but the interval between them is lacking. Examining the nose faculty, one part out of three is missing. You should know that the nose has only eight hundred merits.
With the tongue, one proclaims all worldly and supramundane wisdom. Speech has directional distinctions, but principle is inexhaustible. You should know that the tongue faculty is complete, with twelve hundred merits. With the body, one senses contact and recognizes agreeable and disagreeable sensations. When there is contact, one can feel; in separation, one does not know. Separation is onefold, while contact is twofold. Examining the body faculty, one part out of three is missing. You should know that the body has only eight hundred merits. With the mind faculty, one silently contains all worldly and supramundane dharmas throughout the ten directions and three divisions of time. It embraces both sages and ordinary beings without exception, reaching to their furthest limits. You should know that the mind faculty is complete, with twelve hundred merits.
Ānanda, if you now wish to reverse the current of birth and death, return to the source of the flow, and arrive at the unborn and unceasing, you must examine these six faculties of reception and use: which are complete and which deficient? Which are deep and which shallow? Which is perfectly penetrating, and which is incomplete? If, in this, you awaken to the perfectly penetrating faculty and reverse that beginningless current of karmic delusion woven together, you may follow the perfectly penetrating faculty. Compared with an incomplete faculty, the difference is as that between a day and an eon.
I have now fully explained the original merits and functions of the six serene and perfectly luminous faculties; their number is thus. Choose carefully whichever one can provide entry for you, and I shall elucidate it, enabling you to advance. The Tathāgatas of the ten directions, cultivating each of the eighteen realms one by one, all attain complete unsurpassed bodhi. Among them there is no superiority or inferiority. But your capacities are inferior, and you have not yet been able to develop within them the wisdom of complete freedom and mastery. Therefore I proclaim this teaching so that you may enter deeply through a single gate. Once one faculty is free of delusion, the other six faculties will simultaneously become pure.
Ānanda said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, how can reversing the current and entering deeply through a single gate cause the six sense faculties to become pure all at once?” The Buddha told Ānanda, “You have now attained the fruition of a srotāpanna and have extinguished the afflictions of the world of sentient beings in the three realms that are eliminated by seeing. Yet you still do not know the beginningless, empty habitual tendencies accumulated within the faculties over many lives. Those habits must be eliminated through cultivation. How much more so the divisions and categories of arising, abiding, change, and cessation within them?”
“Now observe your six sense faculties before you: are they one or six? Ānanda, if you say they are one, why can the ear not see, the eye not hear, the head not walk, and the feet not speak? But if these six faculties are definitively six, then as I now expound this subtle Dharma gate to you in this assembly, which of your six faculties receives it?” Ānanda said, “I hear with my ears.”
The Buddha said, “Your ears hear by themselves; what does this have to do with your body and mouth? Yet your mouth comes to ask about the meaning, and your body rises respectfully to receive the teaching. Therefore you should know that they are not ultimately one, nor ultimately six; fundamentally, your faculties are neither one nor six. Ānanda, you should know that these faculties are neither one nor six. Since beginningless time, through inverted transmigration, the meaning of one and six has arisen within perfect serenity. Although you, a srotāpanna, have attained the cessation of the six, you have not yet eliminated the one.”
It is like the great empty space, which is combined with many vessels. Because the shapes of the vessels differ, it is called different spaces. Remove the vessels and observe space, and one calls space one. How could that great empty space become for you the same or different? How much less could it be called one or not one? Your understanding of the six faculties of reception and use is likewise so.
Through the contrasting dual appearances of brightness and darkness, within the wondrous perfect clarity, one adheres to the serene nature and gives rise to seeing. The essence of seeing reflects forms, and forms congeal to become the faculty. The faculty’s source is called the pure four great elements and is named the physical eye, like a cluster of grapes. The four defiled elements of the superficial faculty stream outward and chase after forms. Through the mutual impact of the dual appearances of movement and stillness, within the wondrous perfect clarity, one adheres to the serene nature and gives rise to hearing. The essence of hearing reflects sounds, and sounds curl together to become the faculty.
The faculty’s source is called the pure four great elements and is named the physical ear, like newly curled leaves. The four defiled elements of the superficial faculty stream outward and chase after sounds. Through the mutually arising dual appearances of openness and obstruction, within the wondrous perfect clarity, one adheres to the serene nature and gives rise to smelling. The essence of smelling reflects fragrances, and fragrances are drawn in to become the faculty. The faculty’s source is called the pure four great elements and is named the physical nose, like two drooping claws. The four defiled elements of the superficial faculty stream outward and chase after fragrances.
Through the intermingling dual appearances of blandness and flavor, within the wondrous perfect clarity, one adheres to the serene nature and gives rise to tasting. The essence of taste reflects flavors, and flavors become entwined to form the faculty. The faculty’s source is called the pure four great elements and is named the physical tongue, like a newly crescent moon. The four defiled elements of the superficial faculty stream outward and chase after flavors. Through the mutual friction of the dual appearances of separation and contact, within the wondrous perfect clarity, one adheres to the serene nature and gives rise to tactile awareness. The essence of awareness reflects tactile objects, and tactile objects join together to form the faculty.
The faculty’s source is called the pure four great elements and is named the physical body, like the sides of a waist drum. The four defiled elements of the superficial faculty stream outward and chase after tactile objects. Through the successive dual appearances of arising and ceasing, within the wondrous perfect clarity, one adheres to the serene nature and gives rise to knowing. The essence of knowing reflects dharmas, and dharmas are taken in to form the faculty. The faculty’s source is called the pure four great elements and is named the physical mind, like seeing within a dark room. The four defiled elements of the superficial faculty stream outward and chase after dharmas.
Ānanda, these six faculties arise because of that awareness which seeks illumination. With the awareness of illumination, one loses that essential clarity and adheres to delusion, giving rise to light.
Therefore, when you are apart from darkness and brightness, there is no substance of seeing; apart from movement and stillness, there is originally no substance of hearing; without openness and obstruction, the nature of smelling does not arise; apart from flavor and blandness, tasting has no source; without separation and contact, tactile awareness is originally absent; without cessation and arising, where can knowing abide? You need only not follow the twelve conditioned appearances of movement and stillness, contact and separation, blandness and flavor, openness and obstruction, arising and ceasing, brightness and darkness. Withdraw one faculty from its adhesions, let it turn inward and become quiescent; when that quiescence returns to the original truth, its fundamental luminosity will shine forth.
When the luminous nature shines forth, the remaining five adhesions will likewise be removed and completely liberated. Awareness and perception will no longer arise from objects before you; the light will not follow the faculties but will manifest through them. Thus the six faculties may function interchangeably.
Ānanda, do you not know that in this assembly Aniruddha sees though he has no eyes; the nāga Upananda hears though he has no body; the goddess of the Ganges smells fragrances without a nose; and Gavāṃpati knows flavors with an unusual tongue? The deity Śūnyatā has no body yet feels contact; reflected in the light of the Tathāgata, it is temporarily made manifest. Since it has the nature of wind, its body is originally nonexistent. Among śrāvakas who have attained the cessation samādhi, Mahākāśyapa in this assembly has long extinguished the mind faculty, yet he knows with perfect clarity and luminosity, without relying on mental thoughts.
Ānanda, when your faculties have all been completely freed, an inner radiance will shine forth. The superficial faculties, the material world, and all conditioned appearances of change will melt away like ice in boiling water and, in a single thought, become unsurpassed knowing and awakening. Ānanda, consider a person in the world who gathers seeing in the eyes. If that person quickly closes the eyes, darkness appears before them, and the six faculties become obscure, so that head and feet seem alike. Yet if the person uses a hand to feel around the outside of the body, though unable to see, they can still distinguish head from feet. This knowing is the same. Seeing depends on brightness, and darkness becomes non-seeing. But if luminosity manifests of itself, all appearances of darkness can never obscure it. Once faculties and objects have melted away, how could awakened luminosity fail to become perfectly wondrous?
Ānanda said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, as the Buddha has said, the mind of awakening at the causal ground, if it seeks permanence, must correspond in name with the fruition ground. World-Honored One, at the fruition ground, bodhi, nirvāṇa, suchness, Buddha-nature, the amala consciousness, the empty Tathāgata-garbha, and great perfect mirror wisdom are seven names. Though their designations differ, they are pure and complete, their essential nature firm and solid, permanently abiding and indestructible like the vajra king.”
“But if seeing and hearing, when separated from brightness and darkness, movement and stillness, openness and obstruction, ultimately have no substance, they are like the thinking mind, which has nothing at all apart from objects before it. How can one take this ultimate cessation and extinction as the cause of practice, hoping to attain the Tathāgata’s seven permanent fruits? World-Honored One, if separated from brightness and darkness, seeing is ultimately empty. If there are no objects before it, the nature of thought itself ceases.”
“Whether advancing or retreating, in repeated and subtle inquiry, there is fundamentally no mind of self or objects of that mind. Upon what, then, can one establish a cause in seeking unsurpassed awakening? The Tathāgata previously spoke of serene, essential, perfect permanence. If this contradicts the true teaching, it will ultimately become mere empty talk. How, then, can the Tathāgata be one who speaks truth? I pray that you will extend great compassion and dispel my ignorance and stinginess.”
The Buddha told Ānanda, “You have studied widely but have not exhausted all your outflows. In your mind, you merely know the causes of inversion; when true inversion appears before you, you are in fact unable to recognize it. I fear that your sincere mind still has not been convinced. I shall now use ordinary worldly matters to dispel your doubts.”
The Tathāgata then instructed Rāhula to strike a bell once and asked Ānanda, “Do you hear now?” Ānanda and the great assembly all said, “We hear.” When the bell ceased and there was no sound, the Buddha again asked, “Do you hear now?” Ānanda and the great assembly all said, “We do not hear.” Rāhula then struck the bell once more, and the Buddha again asked, “Do you hear now?” Ānanda and the great assembly again said, “We all hear.” The Buddha asked Ānanda, “How is it that you hear? How is it that you do not hear?” Ānanda and the great assembly all replied to the Buddha, “When the bell is struck, we hear it. When, after being struck for some time, its sound fades away and both sound and echo cease, this is called not hearing.”
The Tathāgata again instructed Rāhula to strike the bell and asked Ānanda, “Is there sound now?” Ānanda and the great assembly all said, “There is sound.” After a short while, the sound faded away. The Buddha again asked, “Is there sound now?” Ānanda and the great assembly replied, “There is no sound.” After a while, Rāhula came again and struck the bell. The Buddha again asked, “Is there sound now?” Ānanda and the great assembly all said, “There is sound.” The Buddha asked Ānanda, “How is there sound? How is there no sound?” Ānanda and the great assembly all replied to the Buddha, “When the bell is struck, it is called sound. When, after being struck for some time, its sound fades away and both sound and echo cease, it is called no sound.”
The Buddha said to Ānanda and the great assembly, “Why do you now speak so confusedly and contradict yourselves?” Ānanda and the assembly simultaneously asked the Buddha, “Why are we called confused?” The Buddha said, “When I ask whether you hear, you say that you hear; when I ask whether there is sound, you say that there is sound. Your answers concerning hearing and sound are inconsistent. How can this not be called confused speech? Ānanda, when the sound fades and there is no echo, you say that there is no hearing.”
“If there truly were no hearing, the hearing nature would already have ceased, like a withered tree. When the bell is struck again, how would you know it? Knowing that there is sound or no sound belongs to the object of sound, which may be absent or present. How could the hearing nature itself become existent or nonexistent for you? If hearing were truly absent, who would know that it was absent? Therefore, Ānanda, within hearing, sound itself arises and ceases. It is not that the arising and ceasing of sound causes your hearing nature to become existent or nonexistent. You are still inverted, mistaking sound for hearing. Why be surprised, then, that in your delusion you take what is permanent to be annihilated? You should never say that hearing has no nature apart from movement and stillness, obstruction and openness.”
It is like a person sleeping heavily, sound asleep upon his bed and pillow. While he sleeps, someone in his household pounds cloth and husks rice. In his dream, hearing the sounds of pounding and husking, he mistakes them for something else: perhaps the beating of drums or the striking of bells. While dreaming, he even wonders why the bell makes the sound of wood or stone. Then he suddenly awakens and immediately recognizes the sound of rice being husked. He tells his family, “Just now, while I was dreaming, I mistook this sound of husking for the beating of drums.”
Ānanda, while this person was dreaming, did he remember stillness and movement, opening and closing, penetration and obstruction? Although his body was asleep, his faculty of hearing was not obscured. Even if your physical form were to perish and the light of life to fade away, how could this nature perish along with you? From beginningless time, all sentient beings have followed forms and sounds, pursuing their thoughts and drifting in the cycle of birth and death. They have never awakened to the pure, wondrous, and constant nature. Not following what is constant, they pursue arising and ceasing; thus, life after life, they drift amid mixed defilements.
If you cast aside arising and ceasing and abide in true permanence, the constant light will appear before you, and the sense faculties, their objects, consciousness, and mind will immediately fall away. Thought-appearances are dust, and discriminating consciousness is defilement. When both are far removed, your dharma eye will immediately become clear. How, then, could you fail to attain unsurpassed knowledge and awakening?
