The Illusory Nature of the Body Faculty and Tangible Objects as Taught in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

Original text:阿难。汝常晨朝以手摩头。于意云何。此摩所知。谁为能触。能为在手。为复在头。若在于手。头则无知。云何成触。若在于头。手则无用。云何名触。

Explanation: Ānanda, you often rub your head with your hand in the morning. What do you think? Regarding the knowing produced by this rubbing, who is the knowing that touches? Is it the hand that has the tactile knowing, or the head that has the tactile knowing? If the hand has the tactile knowing, then the head cannot know the touch—how could this be called the hand touching the head? If the head has the tactile knowing, then the hand is useless and does not know the touch—how could this be called the hand touching the head?

Original text:若各各有。则汝阿难。应有二身。若头与手一触所生。则手与头。当为一体。若一体者。触则无成。若二体者。触谁为在。在能非所。在所非能。不应虚空。与汝成触。是故当知。觉触与身。俱无处所。即身与触。二俱虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: If both the hand and the head have the tactile knowing, then you, Ānanda, would have two bodies capable of tactile knowing. If the perception of the head and the hand arises from a single touch, then the hand and the head would be one body. If they are one body, then touch cannot be established, because a thing cannot touch itself. For example, the nose cannot touch the nose, the neck cannot touch the neck, A cannot touch A itself, and B cannot touch B itself; only when A and B touch each other can touch be established.

If the head and the hand are two bodies, then which one is the toucher? The toucher has knowing, while the touched has no knowing. If the hand is the toucher, then the head is the touched; the touched has no knowing, so the head would have no knowing—yet the head has knowing just like the hand. If the head is the toucher, then the hand is the touched; the hand would have no knowing—yet the hand has knowing at the same time as the head. It should not be that the head and hand touch empty space, for empty space is the touched and has no knowing, while the head and hand are the touchers and both have knowing—this principle does not hold. Therefore it is said that the touched object of touch as perceived and the body both have no location; the body and the object of touch are both false and illusory. They are fundamentally not of the nature of causes and conditions, nor of the nature of spontaneity; both are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.