Abandoning the Deluded Mind to Realize the True Mind

Why did the Buddha discuss the seven inquiries into the mind at the opening of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra? It was to break through the deluded and reveal the true. The deluded dharma refuted in the first fascicle is the mind of the six consciousnesses. Through seven rounds of inquiry into the mind with Ānanda, searching for the location of the deluded mind that loves and delights in the Buddha, the search goes back and forth yet nowhere can the deluded mind be found—there is no place where the manas resides. This demonstrates that the deluded mind is false and illusory, not truly existent, telling sentient beings not to take the deluded mind of the six consciousnesses as themselves and grasp onto it. Only by abandoning the deluded mind, realizing the true mind, and recognizing one's own household treasures can one break through delusion and awaken, dissolve the bonds of birth and death, and thereby attain great liberation.