When the Mind-Ground Is Level, the World's Ground Is Level (The Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration Realized by Bodhisattva Dizhi)

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 Upland-Holding (Dharanimdhara) first went forth countless kalpas ago, he often built roads and bridges to help people travel, always quietly and without expectation of reward providing convenience for the multitude, 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 and virtue, laying an extremely solid foundation for seeing the Path; he may also have awakened many times in between, but his awakening was not deep or thorough enough.

It was not until he met Vipaśyin Buddha that he leveled the ground for the Buddha to pass by. 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 instruction, Bodhisattva Upland-Holding'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 motes is empty, without form or appearance, so they have no property of touching one another and do not merge with each other; even the weapons and blades on a battlefield can do nothing to these dust motes 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 the wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, good and bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha). If one can level and settle the mind, then whatever one sees is bodhi; whatever one sees is the manifestation of the seven intrinsically existing great seeds (earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, consciousness); whatever one sees is equal and without difference, without high or low, above or below. 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 Upland-Holding, with the immeasurable wholesome roots and merit and virtue cultivated over countless kalpas, together with profound dhyāna, instantly entered samādhi. He saw that the dust motes in his own material body and all the dust motes composing the world were equal and without difference—that is, the constituent elements and components were the same, composed of the same elements—and he instantly realized that body and world are non-dual. Moreover, the essence of the dust motes is empty: the dust motes composing the material body and the world are made of the five great elements; the five great elements are formless and without appearance; the dust motes they compose, though having appearance, are empty in that appearance.

Since the appearance is empty, there is no such thing as dust motes of substantial essence, so they cannot touch and combine with one another; thus there is no hindrance or obstruction between bodies, and they neither overlap nor 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 any state of experience 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 Upland-Holding said: I awakened to the patience with non-arising on the dharma-nature of dust motes and realized arhatship. I then turned my mind to enter the bodhisattva stages of the Mahāyāna. Hearing the various Tathāgatas proclaim the wondrous Lotus Sutra (Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra) and the Buddha's knowledge and vision, I was the first to validate and confirm the Dharma the Buddha taught, and thereby became the foremost. When the Buddha asked about the perfect penetration I cultivated, it was that I carefully contemplated the two kinds of dust—the material body and the dharma realm—and found them identical and without difference, all being dust motes generated from the original tathāgatagarbha. In samādhi, the dust motes dissolved from the mind and ceased to exist, wisdom thereby became perfect, and I accomplished the unsurpassed path-fruit. This is my foremost perfect penetration.

This self-account of Bodhisattva Upland-Holding is also the key to accomplishment in cultivation. After hearing the wondrous and profound Dharma principles taught by our Buddha, Bodhisattva Upland-Holding personally practiced them and in the end genuinely validated the truth of the Buddha's Dharma, 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; practicing the Dharma the Buddha taught is what truly shows filial reverence to the Buddha, truly understands the Buddha's intent, and makes one 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 principle, 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—none of it helps, nothing is remedied. Only by cultivating earnestly in accordance with this principle and realizing the non-duality of dust motes can those obstructions be removed, can karmic obstructions and afflictions be eliminated, can body, mind, and world become perfectly harmonious, and can immeasurable samādhi and the power of supernatural penetration manifest. Principles are meant to guide practice; if one does not wish to practice, then even if principles pile up like mountains, it is of no help. Knowledge cannot save a person; only practice and firsthand realization can rescue one from fire and water. So those who make the quantity of their knowledge their chief accomplishment should wake up long ago and stop dreaming. If knowledge cannot be transformed into the power of cultivation, having it or not makes no difference.

There is someone who, over the course of many years, has kept sending me various tables and charts—an outline of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra compiled and organized by who knows whom—spending years working on 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, 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.