The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Fascicle Three: The Falseness of the Consciousness Element

Original text:阿难。识性无源。因于六种。根尘妄出。汝今遍观。此会圣众。用目循历。其目周视。但如镜中。无别分析。汝识于中。次第标指。此是文殊。此富楼那。此目犍连。此须菩提。此舍利弗。此识了知。为生于见。为生于相。为生虚空。为无所因。突然而出。

Explanation: Ānanda, the nature of consciousness has no source; it arises falsely in dependence on the six kinds of faculties and sense objects. Now observe comprehensively the assembly of noble ones in this gathering: use your eyes to scan through them in sequence, letting your eyes look all around. It is just like images in a mirror, without any particular analysis. Your consciousness, in the midst of this, marks and points out one by one: this is Mañjuśrī, this is Pūrṇa, this is Maudgalyāyana, this is Subhūti, this is Śāriputra. This knowing awareness of your consciousness—does it arise from seeing, does it arise from the marks/appearances, does it arise from empty space, or does it, without any cause, suddenly emerge?

Original text:阿难。若汝识性。生于见中。如无明暗。及与色空。四种必无。元无汝见。见性尚无。从何发识。若汝识性。生于相中。不从见生。既不见明。亦不见暗。明暗不瞩。即无色空。彼相尚无。识从何发。

Explanation: If your consciousness-nature arises from within seeing, then if there were no light and darkness, and no form and space—if these four were all absent—there would originally be no seeing of yours. If the nature of seeing does not even exist, from where would consciousness arise? If your consciousness-nature arises from within the marks/appearances and is not born from seeing, then your consciousness could neither see light nor see darkness. If it cannot see light and darkness, then there is no form and space. If those marks/appearances do not even exist, from where would consciousness arise?

Original text:若生于空。非相非见。非见无辨。自不能知。明暗色空。非相灭缘。见闻觉知。无处安立。处此二非。空则同无。有非同物。纵发汝识。欲何分别。若无所因。突然而出。何不日中。别识明月。

Explanation: If your consciousness-nature arose from empty space, then it would have neither form/appearance nor the nature of seeing. Without the nature of seeing there would be no capacity for discernment, and naturally it could not know the causes and conditions of the arising and ceasing of light, darkness, form, and space; seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing could not be established. In this state of being neither of the two, emptiness is the same as nonexistence, and existence is not the same as an object. Even if your consciousness could arise, what would it discern? If consciousness-nature suddenly appeared without any cause, then why, under the midday sun, does it not separately recognize the bright moon?

Original text:汝更细详。微细详审。见托汝睛。相推前境。可状成有。不相成无。如是识缘。因何所出。识动见澄。非和非合。闻听觉知。亦复如是。不应识缘。无从自出。若此识心。本无所从。当知了别。见闻觉知。圆满湛然。性非从所。兼彼虚空。地水火风。均名七大。性真圆融。皆如来藏。本无生灭。

Explanation: Examine this again carefully, investigate it in fine detail: the nature of seeing exists only by relying on and being supported by your eyes, and the forms/appearances are the realms before you. What has shape can be called existent; what has no mark is nonexistent. But on account of what does this consciousness arise? The consciousness is moving, while the nature of seeing is clear and still; the two cannot merge or combine. The natures of hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching are also like this. It should not be that the consciousness arises by itself out of nowhere, without any condition or location. If this mind of consciousness originally has no place from which it arises, you should know that its capacity of discernment and its nature of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are perfectly complete and purely and serenely present; their nature does not arise from any place. Together with empty space and earth, water, fire, and wind, they are all called one of the seven great elements. Their nature is true and perfectly interfused; they are all the tathāgatagarbha, originally without arising or ceasing. Within the tathāgatagarbha, no dharma arises and no dharma ceases.

Original text:阿难。汝心粗浮。不悟见闻。发明了知。本如来藏。汝应观此。六处识心。为同为异。为空为有。为非同异。为非空有。汝元不知。如来藏中。性识明知。觉明真识。妙觉湛然。遍周法界。含吐十虚。宁有方所。循业发现。世间无知。惑为因缘。及自然性。皆是识心。分别计度。但有言说。都无实义。

Explanation: Ānanda, your mind is coarse and superficial; you have not yet awakened to the fact that the clarity and knowing-awareness of seeing and hearing are originally the tathāgatagarbha. You should observe this mind of consciousness at the six places of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas: is it the same as or different from the six places, or neither the same nor different? Is the mind of consciousness empty or existent, or neither empty nor existent? You fundamentally do not know that within the tathāgatagarbha, the nature of consciousness is the luminous knowing awareness, and the awakened luminosity is the true consciousness. The wondrous awakened nature is pure, serene, and tranquil, pervading the entire dharma realm, containing and emanating the ten-directional void—how could it have any direction or location? It manifests according to karma. Worldly people, lacking knowledge, confusedly take it as born from causes and conditions, or as existing naturally; all of this is the mind of consciousness engaging in false discrimination and calculation. Whatever words and statements there may be, none of them has any real meaning.