Perception Without Perception, That Is Nirvana

In the Shurangama Sutra, there is a passage: "To establish perception and cognition upon perception and cognition is the root of ignorance; to have perception and cognition without perception and cognition is nirvana itself."

"To establish perception and cognition upon perception and cognition is the root of ignorance" means that sentient beings all possess a mind of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and cognizing — they can see, hear, perceive, and cognize. However, if we mistake this knowing faculty as real, establishing the knowing faculty that perceives the six dust realms as true, as an eternal and indestructible self that can continue into future lives, then such a view is a wrong view and the root of ignorance. Consequently, one will revolve within the cycle of birth and death in the six paths, unable to attain liberation.

"To have perception and cognition without perception and cognition is nirvana itself." If, through contemplative practice, we come to realize that these faculties of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and cognizing are all illusory minds subject to birth, death, and change — impermanent, unable to exist forever, and not the true self — then we will no longer regard the faculties of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and cognizing as the self. Once such knowledge and view are firmly established, the view of self is severed, and in the future, the grasping to self will be abandoned, leading to the realization of the nirvana without residue. If, within the faculties of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and cognizing, one realizes the inherently pure mind devoid of these faculties, then one attains the inherently pure nirvana.

To explain this passage more precisely: "To have perception and cognition without perception and cognition" means that alongside the various perceptions and cognitions of the six consciousnesses, there exists an intrinsically aware original mind, the Tathagatagarbha, which operates continuously in the background without any perception or cognition. "Is nirvana itself" refers to this unborn and undying original mind, the Tathagatagarbha within the state of nirvana — the nirvana mind.