The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Fascicle 3: The Unreality of the Nose Faculty and the Smell Object

Original text:阿难。汝又嗅此炉中栴檀。此香若复然于一铢。室罗筏城四十里内。同时闻气。于意云何。此香为复生栴檀木。生于汝鼻。为生于空。阿难。若复此香。生于汝鼻。称鼻所生。当从鼻出。鼻非栴檀。云何鼻中有栴檀气。称汝闻香。当于鼻入。鼻中出香。说闻非义。

Explanation: Ānanda, smell again the fragrance of the sandalwood in the incense burner. If one zhu of this sandalwood incense is lit, all sentient beings within forty li of Śrāvastī can smell it at the same time. What do you think? Does this fragrance arise from the sandalwood, arise from your nose, or arise from empty space? Ānanda, if this fragrance arises from your nose, and is called a fragrance produced by the nose, then the fragrance should come out from the nose. But the nose is not sandalwood—how could there be the scent of sandalwood in the nose? The reason it is said that you can smell the fragrance is that the fragrance should enter your nose and the nose smells it. If the fragrance were produced from within the nose, and one claimed that the nose smelled the fragrance, that would be incorrect.

Original text:若生于空。空性常恒。香应常在。何藉炉中。爇此枯木。若生于木。则此香质。因爇成烟。若鼻得闻。合蒙烟气。其烟腾空。未及遥远。四十里内。云何已闻。是故当知。香鼻与闻。俱无处所。即嗅与香。二处虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: If the fragrance arises from within empty space, since empty space is constantly present and never perishes, the fragrance should constantly arise and always be present—why then would one need to rely on an incense burner to light the sandalwood? If the fragrance arises from the sandalwood, then the essence of this sandalwood incense, because of being lit, turns into smoke. If your nose smelled it, it should have been smoked by the smoke. But after the smoke rises into the sky, it does not reach very far—how could it be smelled within forty li? Therefore you should know that the fragrance, the nose, and the faculty of smelling all have no location; the two bases—the faculty of smelling and the fragrance—are both false and illusory. They are fundamentally neither causes and conditions nor a self-existing nature, but rather the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.