The Esoteric Significance of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
Chapter 4 Explanations of Passages in Scroll Four
Section 1 The Intrinsic Nature of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind Is Perfectly Harmonious
I. Original text: 富楼那。又汝问言。地水火风。本性圆融。周遍法界。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Pūrṇa, you now ask about the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind—whether their intrinsic nature is perfectly harmonious and pervades all the dharmadhātus.
This passage in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra is a dialogue between the World-Honored One and Pūrṇa. The gist of the premise is this: Pūrṇa deliberately asked the World-Honored One: the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind are perfectly harmonious and unobstructed in their intrinsic nature, so why are water and fire incompatible? Water can extinguish fire, fire can boil water away, and earth can obstruct empty space? "Perfectly harmonious in nature" means that the intrinsic nature of the four great seeds is the tathāgatagarbha nature, without any substantive properties of their own. Since this is so, the seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind can each perfectly merge together, jointly constituting all the myriad dharmas of the threefold world, including the five aggregates and eighteen realms of sentient beings. For example, soil is formed by the earth element seed, water element seed, fire element seed, and wind element seed fused together in proportion, only with the earth element component in greater proportion. Likewise, blood is also composed of the four great seeds in proportion, with a greater proportion of the water element.
"Pervading the dharmadhātu" means that the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind can appear throughout all dharmadhātus. The four elements often appear in combined and fused form, constituting the various dharmadhātus—this is the meaning of pervading all dharmadhātus. The dharmadhātus include the three realms: the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. The composition of these three realms is formed by the combination of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, including the vessel-world of the desire realm and the vessel-world of the form realm. The ten dharmadhātus are the six destinies of ordinary beings and the four noble dharmadhātus of arhats, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas. The physical bodies and five aggregates of the ten dharmadhātus are composed of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind in combination.
Original text: 疑水火性不相陵灭。又征虚空。及诸大地。俱遍法界。不合相容。
Explanation: You doubt why the nature of water and the nature of fire can merge together without destroying each other. You believe water and fire are incompatible: water can extinguish fire, and fire can boil water away; where there is water there should be no fire, and where there is fire there should be no water. You also question how empty space and the great earth can combine together to pervade all dharmadhātus and fill the threefold world; you believe the earth element and the space element are mutually incompatible. You think that where there is the great earth there is no empty space, and where there is empty space there is no great earth—they cannot be perfectly harmonious with each other.
In reality, the intrinsic nature of earth, water, fire, and wind is perfectly harmonious; indeed, all seven great seeds are perfectly harmonious and pervade the dharmadhātu. The intrinsic nature of the four great seeds is the tathāgatagarbha nature; nothing cannot be fused. Thus empty space and the great earth can merge together. For example, a tree contains the earth element and also the space element, as well as the water, fire, and wind elements, all perfectly fused together. For example, the body contains empty space—there are cavities—and also the earth element, which composes the flesh, bones, and other material substances; they can perfectly merge together. Being perfectly fused together, they can constitute various material things and constitute the threefold world. For example, a stone is mainly composed of the earth element, but it also has space inside—that is the space element, that is empty space. Likewise, various material forms can merge into empty space without obstruction.
Original text: 富楼那。譬如虚空。体非群相。而不拒彼诸相发挥。所以者何。富楼那。彼太虚空。日照则明。云屯则暗。风动则摇。霁澄则清。气凝则浊。土积成霾。水澄成映。
Explanation: Pūrṇa, for instance, empty space: its essential nature has no marks of any dharmas—it has no marks at all, possessing nothing. If empty space had a mark, it would not be empty space. Yet empty space does not refuse or reject any marks from manifesting within it; it can accommodate all marks, embrace all marks, and merge with all marks.
Why is this? Pūrṇa, look at that vast empty space: when the sun shines down, brightness appears within empty space—light manifests—and empty space does not reject the sun or the light. When clouds pile up and fill the sky, blocking the sunlight, empty space becomes dark, yet empty space does not reject the clouds or the darkness. When wind stirs in empty space, wind blows throughout the whole sky, yet empty space does not reject the wind or its marks of stirring and drifting.
Empty space rejects no marks whatsoever; it can contain them all. After the rain clears, empty space is very clear and pure; when turbid vapors gather and condense, empty space appears murky and dim, hazy so that forms cannot be seen clearly; when dust accumulates, it forms mounds and hills; when water settles and becomes very clear, it can reflect the images of all things. Empty space does not reject the marks of purity or turbidity, does not reject vapors, dust, or flowing water, does not reject earthen mounds or the clarity of water.
This principle is like the analogy of empty space: the essence of empty space is not any material form, yet empty space does not obstruct the existence of forms. Because in vast empty space, when the sun shines, empty space is bright; when clouds gather, empty space is dark; when wind blows, empty space has a mark of movement; when rain stops, the sky is clear; when vapors gather, the air is turbid; when earth piles up, small hills form; when water settles clear, it can reflect objects.
Original text: 于意云何。如是殊方。诸有为相。为因彼生。为复空有。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Pūrṇa, what do you think of these phenomena—like the various different conditioned, fabricated marks just described: do these conditioned marks arise from those objects, or do they arise from empty space? For example, when the sun shines, empty space becomes bright—is that brightness produced from the sun, or born from empty space? Is darkness produced by the piling up of clouds, or born from within empty space? Are mounds and mountains produced from earth dust, or born from empty space?
Are the reflections in the water produced by the water, or born from empty space? Is it the objects that can produce those phenomena, or empty space that can produce them? Are all these marks born due to the causes of various things, or are they inherent in empty space? What do you think, Pūrṇa—these various different conditioned dharma-marks, such as brightness, darkness, wind movement, clear skies, and so on, are they born because of the sun, clouds, wind and rain, earth, river water, and so forth, or are they born because of empty space?
Original text: 若彼所生。富楼那。且日照时。既是日明。十方世界。同为日色。云何空中。更见圆日。
Explanation: Pūrṇa, if those conditioned marks were all produced from their corresponding objects—for example, brightness produced by the sun, darkness produced by clouds, wind movement produced by the wind, the property of clear water reflecting forms produced by the water, high mountains and land produced by sand and soil—if brightness were shone out by the sun, then since it is light produced by the sun, the worlds in the ten directions should all be bright; yet in one part of the world there are bright forms and colors, while in another part there are none. The sun exists all along, so why does the light not shine everywhere? That shows the light is not produced by the sun but produced by the tathāgatagarbha.
If they were born from things such as the sun, then when the sun shines, since it is light born of the sun, the worlds in the ten directions all have light and should all be sunlight—why then do the worlds in the ten directions not have the sun but only see light? (The meaning here is that light is not born of the sun but born of the tathāgatagarbha; worlds without a sun still have light.)
If light were born from the sun, and the sun is in empty space, and the worlds in the ten directions are also in empty space, then the worlds in the ten directions should all have the sun's illumination and should all be bright, with only this one material form of light and no other material substance. Yet we see in empty space a round sun—that other material substance besides the light. This contradicts what was said before, that the worlds in the ten directions are all of the sun's color, all light.
This shows that light has another source and is not produced from the sun. What then is this source? The Buddha said it is the tathāgatagarbha. This means: the worlds in the ten directions are all in empty space, and the sun is also in empty space; since light is produced from the sun, the worlds in the ten directions should all be bright—it should not be that some places are bright and others dark. Therefore the claim that light is produced from the sun is refuted.
The original text says "all of the sun's color," meaning that all of empty space in the ten directions would be the sun's light, and there should be nothing else, nor should there be a sun, because the sun and light are two different material things. Yet we now see the sun, which shows that the worlds in the ten directions are not all of one sun-color, that light is not produced from the sun, and that there is something else. If light were produced from the sun, then the worlds in the ten directions should all equally be of the sun's color. In the end the World-Honored One will conclude that light is produced from within the tathāgatagarbha and is the tathāgatagarbha nature.
Original text: 若是空明。空应自照。云何中宵。云雾之时。不生光耀。当知是明。非日非空。不异空日。
Explanation: If empty space inherently possessed light and did not need the sun to shine, all worlds would be bright at every moment. If so, empty space could illuminate everything by itself at all times, and there would be no darkness in the world. Why then, at midnight, when clouds gather, or when fog obscures, is there no bright light? This shows that light is not inherent in empty space.
If light were born of empty space, there should be light in empty space at all times, and there should never be darkness. Therefore light is not born of the sun, nor born of empty space—it is born of the tathāgatagarbha. Yet light does not exist apart from the sun and empty space; the sun and empty space are the supporting conditions for the tathāgatagarbha to produce light.
II. Original text: 观相元妄。无可指陈。犹邀空花。结为空果。云何诘其。相凌灭义。观性元真。唯妙觉明。妙觉明心。先非水火。云何复问。不相容者。真妙觉明。亦复如是。
Explanation: Observing these marks, one finds they are all false and unreal, and one cannot point out where these marks come from. Yet to still seek those sky-flowers and have them form empty fruits is even more impossible and even more illusory. So do not ask further about how the four elements destroy one another. Water and fire originally have no phenomenon of destroying each other; the arising and ceasing of water and fire are all due to the tathāgatagarbha, not due to their opposites. The great earth and empty space are likewise: it is because of the tathāgatagarbha that phenomena of arising and ceasing appear, not because of their opposites.
Therefore, observing the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, it is indeed true and real; the nature of all dharmas is the tathāgatagarbha nature, the wondrous awakened luminosity of the tathāgatagarbha. Yet the wondrous awakened luminosity of the tathāgatagarbha has no such illusory marks as water and fire—why then do you still ask how water and fire are incompatible, these illusory marks? The true mind's wondrous awakened luminosity is also like this: perfect, harmonious, and unobstructed, with no conflicting, incompatible nature.
Original text: 汝以空明。则有空现。地水火风。各各发明。则各各现。若俱发明。则有俱现。云何俱现。富楼那。如一水中。现于日影。两人同观。水中之日。东西各行。则各有日。随二人去。一东一西。先无准的。不应难言。此日是一。云何各行。各日既双。云何现一。宛转虚妄。无可凭据。
Explanation: When your mind wants to apprehend empty space, empty space appears; when your mind wants to apprehend earth, water, fire, and wind, they appear one by one; if you want these dharmas to appear simultaneously, they will all appear simultaneously. How do they appear simultaneously? Pūrṇa, for example, in a river the reflection of the sun appears; two people observe the sun in the water together, then each walks off east and west, and two suns appear, each following one of the two people—one east, one west—with no fixed reference beforehand. You should not object, saying: the sun's reflection was originally one, why have two now appeared, each following one of the two people? The suns following the two people together make two, so why did only one sun's reflection appear in the water at first? However you think about it, it seems illusory, and no evidence can be found to account for these phenomena.
In fact, it is sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha that, based on the real four great seeds of the sun in the sky, manifests a virtual sun within each mind. After the manas contacts it and wants to apprehend it, the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with the manas, gives rise to the mind consciousness to discern it, and sentient beings see the sun in their own minds. Every sentient being is like this, so everyone sees a sun following them. This is how the many suns appear; therefore what sentient beings see are all reflections, all false.
In fact, no matter how many sun reflections there are in the water, all are born and conjured by the tathāgatagarbha; even the sun in the sky is born and conjured by the tathāgatagarbha. Do not think these sun reflections have any real existence and speculate: clearly there is one sun, so why do two, three, or many appear? When conditions exist, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the myriad phenomena; when conditions do not exist, the tathāgatagarbha does not give rise to them. Such is the pattern of the dharmadhātu.
III. Original text: 富楼那。汝以色空。相倾相夺。于如来藏。而如来藏。随为色空。周遍法界。是故于中。风动空澄。日明云暗。众生迷闷。背觉合尘。故发尘劳。有世间相。
Explanation: The Buddha said: Pūrṇa, you believe that form and space within the tathāgatagarbha oppose and supplant each other—when this one is present the other is absent, and when that one is present this one is absent. Yet the tathāgatagarbha can, in accordance with form and space, pervade the entire dharmadhātu. (The entire dharmadhātu refers to the dharmadhātu of sentient beings' five aggregates and eighteen realms; the tathāgatagarbha pervades them, so the five aggregates and eighteen realms are all the tathāgatagarbha nature.) Therefore, within the tathāgatagarbha, there is wind blowing, space clear, the sun bright, and clouds dark. Sentient beings are deluded and ignorant; their minds turn away from the awakened nature, the tathāgatagarbha, do not see the tathāgatagarbha, and see only the worldly dust-marks of the five-aggregate world born of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus weariness (dausthulya) arises, and worldly marks come into being.
Original text: 我以妙明。不灭不生。合如来藏。而如来藏。唯妙觉明。圆照法界。是故于中。一为无量。无量为一。小中现大。大中现小。不动道场。遍十方界。身含十方。无尽虚空。于一毛端。现宝王刹。坐微尘里。转大法轮。灭尘合觉。故发真如。妙觉明性。
Explanation: As for me, I observe the wondrous suchlike nature of form and space—neither arising nor ceasing—conforming to the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. And the tathāgatagarbha is endowed with wondrous awakened luminosity, perfectly illuminating the dharmadhātu. Therefore, within the tathāgatagarbha, one is the immeasurable many, and the immeasurable many is one; within the small the great can manifest, and within the great the small can manifest. The tathāgatagarbha never leaves its own bodhimaṇḍa; immovable, it pervades the worlds of the ten directions and contains the endless empty space of the ten directions. At the tip of a single hair it can conjure the jeweled kṣetra of the precious king; seated within a mote of dust, it turns the wheel of the Dharma. Having extinguished dust and merged with awakening, it can therefore reveal the wondrous awakened luminous nature of suchness.
The tathāgatagarbha is an extremely subtle body of awakened nature. He has wondrous luminous awareness and no ignorance. This luminous awareness can perfectly and brightly illuminate all dharmas and reveal all dharmas; there is no dharma He does not know. Though there is no dharma He does not know, His knowing is not a knowing of the six sense objects; it is not the kind of knowing of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. Suchness knows nothing yet knows everything, perfectly illuminating all dharmadhātus; on the six faculties, six objects, and six consciousnesses there are all His awakened nature and His care and oversight. How does He care and oversee? This requires your own investigation; once you investigate it out, part of the doctrinal path of the Buddha-dharma will become clear. In the four noble destinies and six ordinary destinies there is His awakened nature and His care and oversight; every sentient being has His care and protection.
IV. Original text: 而如来藏。本妙圆心。非心非空。非地非水。非风非火。非眼非耳。鼻舌身意。非色非声。香味触法。非眼识界。如是乃至。非意识界。非明无明。明无明尽。如是乃至。非老非死。非老死尽。非苦非集。非灭非道。非智非得。非檀那。非尸罗。非毗黎耶。非羼提。非禅那。非钵剌若。非波罗蜜多。如是乃至。非怛闼阿竭。非阿罗诃。三耶三菩。非大涅槃。非常非乐。非我非净。以是俱非。世出世故。
Explanation: The tathāgatagarbha is originally a subtle and perfect true mind: it is neither a mind like the seven consciousnesses nor empty nothingness; neither earth nor water, neither wind nor fire; neither the eye nor the ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; neither form nor sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; neither the eye-consciousness realm nor the ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, and mind-consciousness realms; neither luminosity nor ignorance, nor the exhaustion of luminosity and ignorance; neither old age nor death, nor the exhaustion of old age and death; neither suffering nor origin, neither cessation nor path; neither wisdom nor attainment.
It is neither the perfection of generosity nor the perfection of morality, neither the perfection of patience nor the perfection of diligence, neither the perfection of meditation nor the perfection of prajñā, and indeed not even the reaching of the other shore; neither the Tathāgata nor an arhat, neither perfect omniscience nor great nirvāṇa; neither permanence nor bliss, neither self nor purity—indeed the tathāgatagarbha is none of these things, not any worldly or world-transcending dharma.
Original text: 即如来藏。元明心妙。即心即空。即地即水。即风即火。即眼即耳。鼻舌身意。即色即声。香味触法。即眼识界。如是乃至。即意识界。即明无明。明无明尽。如是乃至。即老即死。即老死尽。即苦即集。即灭即道。即智即得。即檀那。即尸罗。即毗黎耶。即羼提。即禅那。即钵剌若。即波罗蜜多。如是乃至。即怛闼阿竭。即阿罗诃。三耶三菩。即大涅槃。即常即乐。即我即净。以是即俱。世出世故。即如来藏。妙明心元。离即离非。是即非即。
Explanation: Yet the tathāgatagarbha is originally the pure, luminous, subtle mind that can manifest all dharmas. Therefore the tathāgatagarbha is both the mind of the seven consciousnesses and space; both earth and water, both wind and fire; both the eye and the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; both form and sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma; both the eye-consciousness realm and the ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, and mind-consciousness realms; both luminosity and ignorance, and the exhaustion of luminosity and ignorance; thus down to both old age and death and the exhaustion of old age and death; both suffering and origin, both cessation and path, both wisdom and attainment.
It is both the perfection of generosity and the perfection of morality, both the perfection of patience and the perfection of diligence, both the perfection of meditation and the perfection of prajñā; indeed it is also the reaching of the other shore; both the Tathāgata and an arhat, both perfect omniscience and great nirvāṇa; both permanence and bliss, both self and purity. Because the tathāgatagarbha is precisely all dharmas, worldly and world-transcending, this subtle, luminous original mind of the tathāgatagarbha both departs from "is" (all dharmas) and departs from "is not" (all dharmas); it is both "is" (all dharmas) and not "is" (all dharmas).
Original text: 如何世间。三有众生。及出世间。声闻缘觉。以所知心。测度如来。无上菩提。用世语言。入佛知见。譬如琴瑟。箜篌琵琶。虽有妙音。若无妙指。终不能发。汝与众生。亦复如是。宝觉真心。各各圆满。如我按指。海印发光。汝暂举心。尘劳先起。由不勤求。无上觉道。爱念小乘。得少为足。
Explanation: Why do the sentient beings of the three realms in the world, as well as the world-transcending śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, use their knowing consciousness—the mind that can analyze and deliberate—to speculate about and measure the Tathāgata's unsurpassed great bodhi, and use worldly language to enter the Buddha's knowledge and vision? For example, the zither, the se, the konghou, and the pipa, though capable of producing wondrous sounds, can never produce them without skillful fingers. You and sentient beings are also like this: with the conscious mind you speculate about the Tathāgata's unsurpassed bodhi—how could you ever fathom it? Each sentient being's precious awakened true mind is complete and perfect without duality. But when I press my finger, the ocean-seal samādhi appears with radiance, whereas the moment you raise a thought, the realm of weariness arises first. This is because you do not diligently seek the unsurpassed path of awakening of the Great Vehicle; your minds constantly cherish fondness for the Small Vehicle of self-liberation, and having attained so little dharma you are content, unwilling to cultivate further.
V. In the previous passage, the tathāgatagarbha is described as "not" the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, and other dharmas, negating all the way down, and then it goes on to say the tathāgatagarbha "is" the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, and all other dharmas, affirming all the way down. What does this mean?
The tathāgatagarbha's essence is formless and markless, neither arising nor ceasing, whereas the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, and other dharmas are arising-and-ceasing, illusory, and marked; the two are not identical and cannot substitute for each other. Yet the two are also not different: the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, and other dharmas are all born of the tathāgatagarbha and are not different from it; the two are closely related, like the relationship between gold ornaments and gold. The functions of gold and gold ornaments cannot replace each other, but in essence the two are the same: gold is also called a gold ornament, and a gold ornament is just gold; apart from gold there is no gold ornament.
The passage "the tathāgatagarbha is the wondrous luminous mind" and so forth means: the tathāgatagarbha's essence is not earth, water, fire, wind, or space, not form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma, not the six consciousnesses, not birth, aging, sickness, and death, not ignorance; yet all these dharmas are born and fabricated by the tathāgatagarbha, so the tathāgatagarbha transmigrates into these dharmas—that is, it is these dharmas, and these dharmas are the tathāgatagarbha. In essence the tathāgatagarbha and these dharmas are one; in appearance they differ—they are neither identical nor different. When you have free time, take a lump of clay and mold a clay figure, repeatedly contemplating the relationship between the two, and you will understand the relationship between the tathāgatagarbha and the myriad dharmas; the wisdom that emerges will be extremely deep and wondrous.
Only through your own personal realization and your own contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) can great wisdom emerge. Understanding the principle of the clay figure, you can understand what your own five aggregates and eighteen realms are and are not—then what difficulty is there in eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)? Then carefully consider: how does the tathāgatagarbha transmigrate into the myriad dharmas? Are the myriad dharmas in essence the tathāgatagarbha? What does the one true dharmadhātu refer to? The whole is precisely suchness—observe and contemplate well, and what illusory dharma remains? All the Buddha-dharmas form one system, all can be threaded together; none is a separate, independent branch; all are dharmas within the whole—that is, the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha. In appearance there are all sorts of differences, and all marks are illusory; in essence the whole is precisely suchness, all real. The Buddha-dharma is extremely marvelous; if you do not attentively and carefully realize it, then it will not be marvelous. You must contemplate and deliberate on the Buddha-dharma within meditative concentration (samādhi), realizing as you contemplate, gaining as you contemplate. Without samādhi, everything is out of the question.
