The Shurangama Sutra, Volume Five: The Twenty-Five Sages' Perfect Penetration Dharma Methods — Shariputra

Original text:舍利弗即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我旷劫来。心见清净。如是受生如恒河沙。世出世间种种变化。一见则通。获无障碍。我于路中。逢迦叶波兄弟相逐。宣说因缘。悟心无际。从佛出家。见觉明圆。得大无畏。成阿罗汉。为佛长子。从佛口生。从法化生。佛问圆通。如我所证。心见发光。光极知见。斯为第一。

Explanation: Śāriputra rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: "Since beginningless kalpas, no matter what dharmas I have seen, my views and knowledge have always been pure, without defilement. Having taken rebirth in this way as many times as the sands of the Ganges, whenever I beheld the various transformations occurring in the worldly and world-transcending realms, upon seeing them I immediately understood their causes and conditions and penetrated their origins without any obstruction. In this present life, before I had gone forth, one day while walking along the road I came upon the three Kāśyapa brothers discussing together the dharma of causes and conditions taught by the Buddha, and as soon as I heard it I awakened to the fact that the mind is boundless. Thereupon I went forth under the World-Honored One; my views became increasingly perfect, wondrous, and luminous, and I came to fear nothing with regard to all dharmas, becoming an arhat of the fourth fruit. As the Buddha's eldest son, I was born from following the Buddha's teachings, transformed and born from the Buddha's Dharma. The Buddha now asks about the dharma gate of perfect penetration: as I have realized it, the mind's views emit a great light of wisdom, and this great light of wisdom leads my views to become ever more perfectly luminous. This is my foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration." Śāriputra is known as the foremost in wisdom among the Buddha's disciples, and everywhere his great wisdom is displayed: his views are pure and perfectly luminous, penetrating without obstruction; upon seeing a dharma he immediately knows its ultimate source, never falling into worldly marks and never tainted by worldly views. That he has taken rebirth carrying such pure great wisdom for already immeasurable kalpas shows that Śāriputra's realization far surpassed that of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva. According to records in the Buddhist sutras, Śāriputra and the other great disciples of the Buddha were all ancient Buddhas who came again, cooperating with Śākyamuni Buddha to spread the teaching and transform the sentient beings of the Sahā world with whom they had karmic affinity, together performing one grand drama.