When the Mind-Ground Is Level, the World-Ground Is Level (The Perfect Penetration Dharma-Gate Realized by the Earth-Holding Bodhisattva)

Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 时国大王。筵佛设斋。我于尔时。平地待佛。毗舍如来。摩顶谓我。当平心地。则世界地。一切皆平。我即心开。见身微尘。与造世界。所有微尘。等无差别。微尘自性。不相触摩。乃至刀兵。亦无所触。

Explanation: When Bodhisattva Dharanīdhara (Ridi) first went forth as a monk, throughout countless eons he often built roads and bridges to help people travel, always silently providing convenience for the multitude without seeking reward, devoting himself enthusiastically to conditioned dharmas without awakening to the mind-ground. In between, countless Buddhas appeared in the world, and he accumulated immeasurable resources of merit, laying an extremely solid foundation for seeing the Path; in the interim he may also have awakened many times, but his awakening was not deep or thorough enough.

It was not until he met Vipaśyin Buddha that he leveled the ground along the Buddha's path. The Buddha rubbed his crown in blessing and told him: You should level your mind-ground; if your mind-ground is leveled, then all the lands in the world will be leveled, including the lands of the worlds in the ten directions. Under the Buddha's blessing, hearing the Buddha's teaching, Bodhisattva Dharanīdhara's mind-ground instantly opened and he awakened. He immediately saw that the fine dust composing his material body and the fine dust composing the world were exactly the same, without any difference. The self-nature of these dust particles is empty, without form or mark, so they do not touch one another and do not merge with one another; even the weapons and blades on the battlefield can do nothing to these dust particles and cannot touch them in the slightest.

What does "when the mind is level, the ground is level" mean? All things arise from the mind. An unlevel mind sees unlevel ground, sees the world rising and falling, sees heaven and earth vast and endless, sees wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. If one can level and settle the mind, then whatever one sees is bodhi; whatever one sees is the manifestation of the seeds of the seven great elements; whatever one sees is equal and without difference, without high or low, superior or inferior. Therefore, leveling the mind-ground enables one to see the true reality and reach directly the unsurpassed bodhi.

After the Buddha finished explaining the principle of leveling the mind-ground, Bodhisattva Dharanīdhara, with the immeasurable good roots and merit cultivated over countless eons, together with profound meditative concentration (dhyāna), instantly entered meditative absorption (samādhi). He saw that the fine dust within his own material body and all the fine dust composing the world were equal and without difference—that is, the constituent elements and components were identical, composed of the same elements—and he instantly realized that body and world were non-dual. And the essence of the dust particles is empty: the dust composing the body and the world is composed of the five great elements, and the five great elements are formless and markless; the dust particles they compose, though having marks, are empty in their marks.

Since the marks are empty, there is no such thing as dust with substantiality, so they cannot touch or combine with one another; thus there is no hindrance or obstruction between bodies, nor do they overlap or collide with one another, like the merging of space with space. Between body and world, and between world and world, there is likewise no mutual hindrance or obstruction, no mutual overlapping or collision, like the merging of space with space, utterly without contact. Since this is so, immeasurable supernatural powers can manifest without obstruction; the body entering all states is like entering empty space, requiring not a moment nor the slightest effort.

Original text: 我于法性。悟无生忍。成阿罗汉。回心今入。菩萨位中。闻诸如来。宣妙莲花。佛知见地。我先证明。而为上首。佛问圆通。我以谛观。身界二尘。等无差别。本如来藏。虚妄发尘。尘销智圆。成无上道。斯为第一。

Explanation: Bodhisattva Dharanīdhara said: On the dharma-nature of fine dust I awakened to the patience of non-arising and realized arhatship. I then turned my mind back to enter the bodhisattva stages of the Great Vehicle. Hearing the various Tathāgatas proclaim the wondrous Lotus Sutra, the Buddha's ground of knowledge and vision, I was the first to certify and confirm the Dharma taught by the Buddha, and thereby became the foremost. When the Buddha asked about the dharma-door of perfect penetration, I said: I carefully contemplated the two kinds of dust—the material body and the dharma realm—and found them equal and without difference, both being dust emitted from the originally existing tathāgatagarbha through falsity. In samādhi, the dust dissolved and ceased to exist from the mind, wisdom thereby became perfect and complete, and I accomplished the unsurpassed fruit of the Path. This is my foremost dharma-door of perfect penetration.

This self-account of Bodhisattva Dharanīdhara is also the key to accomplishing cultivation. After hearing the wondrous and profound dharma principles taught by our Buddha, Bodhisattva Dharanīdhara personally practiced them, and in the end truly and actually certified the reality of the Buddha's teachings, rather than stopping at merely accepting in faith what the Buddha taught. Faith and actual practice are two different levels; mere faith does not yet make one a true disciple of the Buddha. Only practicing the Dharma the Buddha taught is truly honoring the Buddha, truly understanding the Buddha's intent, and being a true child of the Buddha. If one does not cultivate, what use is faith? What use is learning principles and knowledge?

Now that we know the above principles, are body and mind, and the world, free of obstruction? Not in the slightest. Obstructions remain obstructions, karmic obstructions remain karmic obstructions, afflictions remain afflictions, ignorance remains ignorance—nothing is helped, nothing is remedied. Only by cultivating diligently in accordance with these principles, and realizing the non-duality of dust particles, can those obstructions be removed, can karmic obstructions and afflictions be eliminated, can body, mind, and world become perfectly harmonious, and can immeasurable samādhis and supernatural powers of the Path manifest. Principles are meant to guide practice; if one does not wish to practice, even principles piled up like mountains are of no help. Knowledge cannot save a person; only practice and actual realization can save one from fire and water. Therefore, those who take the quantity of their knowledge as their accomplishment should wake up long ago and stop dreaming. If knowledge cannot be transformed into the power of cultivation, there is no difference between having it and not having it.

There are people who, over many years, have continuously sent me various tables and charts—an outline of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra compiled and organized by someone unknown—spending years making a fuss over the outline, studying the structural threads of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, yet never willing to follow the methods taught in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra to guide their own actual cultivation, never willing to put theory into practice. Such research can at most make one a scholar or a theoretical researcher. And what is a scholar or researcher? Apart from playing with words, they are nothing. Even if they keep circling within words for another billion years, they will still be nothing.