Volume III of the Shurangama Sutra: The Eye Faculty as the Wondrous Tathāgatagarbha and True Suchness Nature

Ananda, why are the six entrances fundamentally the Tathagatagarbha's wondrous true suchness nature? Ananda, take the visual fatigue arising from the eye's fixed gaze. Both the eye and the fatigue are Bodhi. The phenomenon of visual fatigue arises from the two illusory dusts of light and darkness. The faculty of seeing, residing within, absorbs these dust phenomena, and this is called the seeing nature. This seeing, apart from those two dusts of light and darkness, ultimately has no substance.

Explanation: Furthermore, Ananda, why are the six entrances fundamentally the Tathagatagarbha's wondrous true suchness nature? Ananda, the activity, the fatigue, the functioning phenomena that appear when your eye gazes fixedly at objects – the eye is the eye faculty, the fatigue phenomenon is the aggregate of formations – both are the wondrous Bodhi manifesting and functioning as the phenomenon of contact-fatigue. The eye faculty, relying on the two illusory dust realms of light and darkness, contacts form-dust, and within this, the seeing nature of the eye arises. The seeing nature absorbs these dust realms, thereby manifesting the dust realms, and this is called the seeing nature. This seeing nature, separated from the two illusory dusts of light and darkness, fundamentally has no substance of seeing.

The Buddha, from the outset, explains how the six entrances are fundamentally the Tathagatagarbha's wondrous true suchness nature. The meaning is that the six entrances in their entirety are produced by the Tathagatagarbha; they are the functional attributes of the Tathagatagarbha. Therefore, within the six entrances, one can discover the functional role of the Tathagatagarbha and realize the Tathagatagarbha. The activity, the contact-fatigue phenomena of the eye faculty and the mental faculty, are the wondrous true suchness nature. The seeing nature that is produced is the wondrous true suchness nature. Moreover, the two conditions of light and darkness that produce the seeing nature are the wondrous true suchness nature. What sentient beings see, contact, and utilize is all the wondrous true suchness nature; there is not a single dharma that is not the wondrous true suchness nature. Realizing the Tathagatagarbha is actually not difficult; the Tathagatagarbha is everywhere, It does not hide. The key lies in the sentient beings' own karmic obstructions, whether the conditions for realizing the nature are fully mature, whether the bodhisattva nature is complete, whether precepts, concentration, and wisdom are fully developed. The difficulty lies precisely here.

原文：如是阿难。当知是见。非明暗来。非于根出。不于空生。何以故。若从明来。暗即随灭。应非见暗。若从暗来。明即随灭。应无见明。若从根生。必无明暗。如是见精。本无自性。若于空出。前瞩尘象。归当见根。又空自观。何关汝入。是故当知。眼入虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。