The Falsity of the Body Faculty and Tactile 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 knowing of touch, or the head? If the knowing of touch is in the hand, then the head would have no knowing, so how could it be called the hand touching the head? If the head has the knowing of touch, then the hand would be useless and would not know the touch—how then could it 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 knowing of touch, then you, Ānanda, would have two bodies capable of touching and knowing. If the perception born of the head and hand comes from a single touch, then the head and hand would be one body. If they were one body, touch could not be established, because a self 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 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: 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 should be known 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, fundamentally not of the nature of dependent arising, nor of the nature of natural existence—they are all the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.