The Shurangama Sutra, Volume V: The Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration of the Twenty-Five Sages — The Two Dharma Princes, Medicine King and Medicine Superior

The Dharma Princes Yao Wang and Yao Shang, along with five hundred Brahma Heaven beings present in the assembly, rose from their seats, prostrated at the Buddha’s feet, and addressed the Buddha, saying: "Since beginningless kalpas, we brothers have been virtuous physicians in the world. We have tasted in our mouths all the grasses, trees, metals, and stones of this Saha World, numbering in total one hundred and eight thousand. Thus, we fully know their bitter, sour, salty, bland, sweet, pungent, and other flavors, as well as all their combinations, co-arising, and transformations. Whether they are cool or hot, poisonous or non-poisonous, we are able to know them all exhaustively.

After serving and making offerings to the Tathagata, we gradually came to understand that this nature of flavor is neither empty nor existent, neither belonging to body and mind nor separate from body and mind. We contemplated the cause of flavor and thus attained enlightenment. By the grace of the Buddha Tathagata, we brothers were confirmed and named the Bodhisattvas Yao Wang and Yao Shang. Now, in this assembly, we participate as Dharma Princes. Through discerning the cause of flavor, we awakened to enlightenment, realized the true nature of all dharmas, and attained the Bodhisattva stage. The Buddha inquires about perfect penetration. According to our realization, the cause of flavor is supreme."

Explanation: The two Bodhisattvas Yao Wang and Yao Shang entered the path through the sense-object of flavor among the six dusts and cultivated to the stage of Dharma Prince, becoming the highest-stage Bodhisattvas closest to Buddhahood. During their long-term contact with and tasting of medicinal flavors, they developed doubt and sought to investigate the origin of the flavor-dust. Investigating again and again, they found neither the source nor the destination of the flavor-dust, realizing that the flavor-dust is a dharmic phenomenon born from dependent origination—neither empty nor existent, emptiness not being true emptiness, existence not being true existence—it is a product manifested by the Tathagatagarbha based on conditions. Thus, great Prajna wisdom arose. They were confirmed and predicted by the Buddha to become Dharma Princes, destined to attain Buddhahood. All dharmas, if one investigates their causes in profound samadhi, when the causes and conditions ripen, will lead to the realization of the emptiness of the Hinayana and the emptiness of the Mahayana, understanding the subtle relationship of non-duality between emptiness and existence, neither identical nor different. From then on, one is no longer deluded by any dharma.