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

Original text:月光童子即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我忆往昔。恒河沙劫。有佛出世。名为水天。教诸菩萨。修习水观。入三摩地。观于身中。水性无夺。初从涕唾。如是穷尽。津液精血。大小便利。身中旋复。水性一同。见水身中。与世界外。浮幢王刹。诸香水海。等无差别。我于是时。初成此观。但见其水。未得无身。

Explanation: The Youth Moonlight arose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: I recall that, as many kalpas ago as there are sands in the Ganges, there was a Buddha in the world named Water Heaven (Śānta), who taught the bodhisattvas to cultivate the water contemplation and enter samādhi. I entered meditative concentration and contemplated within my own material body: the nature of water was limpid, with nothing gained and nothing lost. I began by contemplating the nasal mucus and saliva, and gradually extended this throughout the whole body, inside and out, without missing the slightest bit, all the way to the bodily fluids, essences, blood, urine, and feces, contemplating that the nature of water circulating within the body was all the same. I saw that the water element within my body, the water realm in the Jeweled Banner King's land floating beyond the world, and the water realms in all the fragrant oceans within the world were entirely alike, without any difference. At that time I had just accomplished this contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), having only cultivated to the point of seeing the great water within the body, but had not yet cultivated to the point of emptying the material body; there was still awareness of the body and attachment to it.

Original text:当为比丘。室中安禅。我有弟子。窥窗观室。惟见清水遍在屋中。了无所见。童稚无知。取一瓦砾投于水内。激水作声。顾盼而去。我出定后。顿觉心痛。如舍利弗遭违害鬼。我自思惟。今我已得阿罗汉道。久离病缘。云何今日忽生心痛。将无退失。

尔时。童子即来我前。说如上事。我则告言。汝更见水。可即开门。入此水中。除去瓦砾。童子奉教。后入定时。还复见水。瓦砾宛然。开门除出。我后出定。身质如初。逢无量佛。如是至于山海自在通王如来。方得亡身。与十方界。诸香水海。性合真空。无二无别。今于如来得童真名。预菩萨会。佛问圆通。我以水性。一味流通。得无生忍。圆满菩提。斯为第一。

Explanation: At that time I had left home as a bhikṣu and sat in meditation in a meditation chamber. One of my disciples peered through the window into the chamber, and he could only see the chamber filled with clear water; apart from that, he could see nothing. Since he was still a child and did not yet understand the states of meditation, he picked up a piece of broken tile and threw it into the water inside, making a splashing sound; he looked around, saw no one, and left. After I emerged from meditative concentration, I suddenly felt a pain in my chest, just like when Śāriputra encountered the harmful ghost. I pondered to myself: I have now attained the path-fruit of an arhat, my karmic obstructions have been eliminated, and it has been a long time since I was free from the conditions for illness—why do I now suddenly feel chest pain? Could my fruit of arhatship have regressed?

At that moment the youth came before me and told me about the incident of throwing the tile fragment. I told him: the next time you see the great water in the chamber, open the door, enter the room, step into the water, and take that tile fragment out. The youth agreed. Later, when I entered meditative concentration again, the youth once more saw the great water in the chamber, with the tile fragment still in its original place, so he opened the door and took the tile fragment out. After I emerged from concentration, I felt my body was light and at ease, the same as my original experience.

Afterwards I encountered immeasurable Buddhas, until I met the Tathāgata Mountain-Sea Unimpeded Penetrating King, and only then did I forget the material body and empty it. I realized that the nature of the material body and of all the fragrant oceans in the worlds of the ten directions was in accord with true emptiness (samyag-śūnyatā), not two and not different from true emptiness. Now, from the Tathāgata, I have received the name "Youth of True Purity" and participate in the assembly of bodhisattvas. The Buddha asks about the dharma gate of perfect penetration: it was because I contemplated the water nature flowing everywhere with a single flavor, without obstruction, that I attained the patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) and fulfilled the great path of bodhi. This is my foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration.