Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume One: The World-Honored One Teaches the Distinction Between the Mind Consciousness and the Tathāgatagarbha

Original text: 尔时世尊。开示阿难。及诸大众。欲令心入无生法忍。于师子座。摩阿难顶。而告之言。如来常说。诸法所生。唯心所现。一切因果。世界微尘。因心成体。 

Explanation: The World-Honored One wished to enable Ānanda and the great assembly to enter the patience of non-arising dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) and to understand the unborn and unceasing true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. So, upon the lion seat, He stroked Ānanda's crown and told him: "As I, the Tathāgata, have always taught, all dharmas that arise are manifested by the mind alone. All causes and effects, the world down to the finest dust motes, acquire their substance because of the mind."

The meaning of "only" (唯) is sole, only, single, and unique. The World-Honored One's meaning is that all dharmas arising in the world are entirely produced by the tathāgatagarbha, and are not born from any other dharma. Other dharmas are merely contributing conditions for the arising of dharmas, not the direct generative cause. Without these contributing conditions, dharmas cannot arise; but even with the contributing conditions, without the tathāgatagarbha, dharmas still cannot arise. The World-Honored One further said that the world, down to dust motes—all causes and effects—can only accomplish their own nature because of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. It is the tathāgatagarbha that endows dharmas with their nature. Without the tathāgatagarbha, no dharmas can arise, and there would be no appearance or nature of dharmas at all.

For example, the aggregate of form (rūpa) of sentient beings is produced by the tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the four great elements. The nature and appearance of the aggregate of form are bestowed by the tathāgatagarbha, and its essence is the properties of the four great elements. The four aggregates of feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), formations (saṃskāra), and consciousness (vijñāna) are produced by the tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of consciousness. Only after they are produced do the functions and natures of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness exist. If the tathāgatagarbha did not produce feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, there would be no such aggregates nor their functional natures. The functional natures of these four aggregates are in essence the nature and appearance of the seeds of consciousness.

Original text: 阿难。若诸世界。一切所有。其中乃至。草叶缕结。诘其根元。咸有体性。纵令虚空。亦有名貌。何况清净。妙净明心。性一切心。而自无体。若汝执吝。分别觉观。所了知性。必为心者。此心即应。离诸一切。色香味触。诸尘事业。别有全性。如汝今者。承听我法。此则因声。而有分别。 

Explanation: "Ānanda, if all the dharmas existing in the various worlds—including even the finest blades of grass and the knotted strands of delicate grasses—are investigated at their root and origin, all possess their own nature. Even empty space has its name and appearance. How much more so the pure, wondrously pure, luminous true mind, the mind that is the nature of all dharmas—how could it lack its own substance? If you insist on clinging to the discriminating, discerning, cognizing nature that knows and understands, insisting it must be the true mind, then this mind should be able to depart from all objects—form, smell, taste, and touch—and from all activities upon sense objects, and still possess its own complete nature by itself. Just as you now listen attentively to my teaching of the Dharma, it is because of sounds that your mind discriminates. If there were no sound, your mind could not discriminate sound. This mind that discriminates sound is not the true mind."

Here the World-Honored One teaches the assembly to clearly distinguish between the mind consciousness and the tathāgatagarbha. It is the mind consciousness that discerns sense objects; only when sense objects such as sounds appear can the mind consciousness discern them. Without sense objects, there is no discernment by the mind consciousness. The tathāgatagarbha does not discern sense objects, yet even apart from sense objects it still possesses its own complete nature. The five universally present mental factors (sarvatraga) still operate normally when there are no sense objects at all; the mental activities of manaskāra (intention), sparśa (contact), vedanā (feeling), saṃjñā (perception), and cetanā (volition) are constantly and ceaselessly functioning.

Original text: 纵灭一切。见闻觉知，内守幽闲，犹为法尘。分别影事。我非敕汝，执为非心。但汝于心。微细揣摩。若离前尘。有分别性。即真汝心。若分别性。离尘无体。斯则前尘。分别影事。尘非常住。若变灭时。此心则同。龟毛兔角。则汝法身。同于断灭。其谁修证。无生法忍。 

Explanation: "Even if you extinguish all seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the six sense objects, and inwardly abide in tranquil quietude, holding to empty stillness without thinking, without conceptualizing, without discriminating, and without any thoughts, this is still the discriminating cognition of mental sense objects (dharma-āyatana), an illusory affair fabricated by the mind consciousness. I am not commanding you to regard this discriminating nature as not being mind. But you should carefully and subtly ponder and deliberate within your mind: if there is a discriminating nature even when apart from the sense objects before you, then this mind is truly your true mind. If this discriminating nature has no substance to be found once it departs from sense objects, then it is merely an illusory affair of the mind consciousness discriminating the sense objects before it. Sense objects do not abide forever; when they change and perish, this mind becomes like a turtle's hair or a rabbit's horns. Then your Dharmakāya would be tantamount to annihilation. Who then could cultivate and realize the patience of non-arising dharmas?"

The World-Honored One's meaning is that the Dharmakāya is not annihilated, and it is precisely the object upon which sentient beings cultivate and realize the patience of non-arising dharmas. If the Dharmakāya were annihilated, there would be no such object, and one could not cultivate and realize the patience of non-arising dharmas and attain the wisdom of non-arising. The mind consciousness, which exists dependent on sense objects, is subject to cessation: when sense objects perish, the mind consciousness perishes. Therefore, the mind that discerns sense objects is not the Dharmakāya.

The meaning of these several passages all shows that the World-Honored One was teaching the assembly how to distinguish between the mind consciousness and the Dharmakāya, the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Only by clearly distinguishing the arising-and-ceasing mind consciousness from the unborn-and-unceasing tathāgatagarbha can one avoid mistaken awakening and avoid mistaking a thief for one's own son. This includes the sentence: "But you should carefully and subtly ponder within your mind: if there is a discriminating nature even when apart from the sense objects before you, then this is truly your mind." This sentence also shows that the World-Honored One was teaching the assembly how to distinguish between the mind consciousness and the tathāgatagarbha, to avoid confusing the true and the deluded; it does not indicate that the World-Honored One was teaching the method for awakening to the true mind and recognizing it.

Some people deliberately extract this sentence and make an issue of it, in order to prove that their erroneous method of using the mind consciousness to awaken to the true mind and realize the fruit is correct. Here there is absolutely no indication that the World-Honored One was teaching the mind consciousness to awaken to the true mind and realize the fruit; rather, He was teaching how to distinguish the true mind from the deluded mind. Even if one can distinguish the true mind from the deluded mind, it does not mean one can thereby awaken to the true mind and realize the fruit, nor is it certain when one might awaken to the true mind and realize the fruit. However, in studying the Mahāyāna Śūraṅgama Sūtra, one should at the very least be able to understand the distinction between the true mind and the deluded mind. This is called correct knowledge and view (samyag-dṛṣṭi)—merely a matter of knowledge and view, still very, very far from awakening to the true mind. Do not again misunderstand such an enormous matter as the mind consciousness alone being able to awaken to the true mind and realize the fruit. That the mind consciousness alone can awaken to the true mind and realize the fruit cannot be found as evidence in any sūtra or teaching, nor in the treatises of truly enlightened great bodhisattvas. No true good spiritual teacher (kalyāṇamitra) would engage in such unreliable things as emotional speculation and intellectual conjecture.