Subhūti in the Twenty-Five Holy Methods of Perfect Penetration, Volume Five of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

Original text:须菩提。即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我旷劫来。心得无碍。自忆受生如恒河沙。初在母胎。即知空寂。如是乃至十方成空。亦令众生证得空性。蒙如来发性觉真空。空性圆明。得阿罗汉。顿入如来宝明空海。同佛知见。印成无学。解脱性空。我为无上。佛问圆通。如我所证。诸相入非。非所非尽。旋法归无。斯为第一。

Explanation: Subhūti rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: Since beginningless kalpas, my mind has been unobstructed and has penetrated all dharmas; I can recall that my number of rebirths since beginningless kalpas is as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. When I first entered the mother's womb in this incarnation, I already knew that the world was empty and quiescent; and so on, to the point that I also knew that the worlds of the ten directions were all empty and quiescent, with not a single dharma existing. I also successively taught sentient beings to realize the emptiness of all dharmas.

Through the Tathāgata's teaching and blessing, I awakened to the true emptiness of the self-natured awakened essence. As my realization of this emptiness grew ever more perfect and luminous, I thereby became a great arhat, and instantly entered the Tathāgata's precious, luminous ocean of emptiness, my view in accord with the Buddha's knowledge and vision, and was certified by the Buddha as being at the fourth fruit, beyond training (aśaikṣa). In terms of the liberation-merit of the mind-ground and the degree of emptiness attained in the mind-nature, I am foremost among the Buddha's disciples. The Buddha asks about the dharma gate of perfect penetration: just as I realized it, all marks with form were transformed into non-existence and emptied out, and moreover both the mind that could empty them and the dharmas that were emptied were exhausted and emptied out; what originally existed as dharmas now, in reversal, no longer exists and is all emptied — I take this dharma gate as the foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration.

Since beginningless kalpas, Subhūti's mind has been unobstructed, with no obscurations in the mind-ground, and he was endowed with the six superknowledges, including recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti); therefore, while in the mother's womb, he already knew that no dharma is real. Of course, this knowing must have been the knowing of the manas; the manas had already realized emptiness since beginningless kalpas, so no matter the circumstances or identity, Subhūti knew emptiness. Then, after the mind consciousness arose in the mother's womb, because there were no obscurations, the mind consciousness also knew that all dharmas are empty. The manas knew first, and the mind consciousness knew afterward — only such knowing is true, ultimate, and perfect knowing. The emptiness that Subhūti realized encompasses both the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna, which is why Subhūti both realized the fourth fruit of arhatship and instantly awakened to the Tathāgata's precious, luminous ocean of emptiness, his view identical to the Buddha's. From this, one can see that Subhūti was at least an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, and had realized the path for more than two incalculable kalpas. In fact, according to the Buddhist sūtras, Subhūti was a Buddha who came again; the Buddha's ten great disciples were all Buddhas manifesting in arhat form, working together with the Buddha to deliver the sentient beings of the Sahā world.