The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Five: The Twenty-Five Sages' Gate to Perfect Penetration — Śāriputra

Original text: 舍利弗即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我旷劫来。心见清净。如是受生如恒河沙。世出世间种种变化。一见则通。获无障碍。我于路中。逢迦叶波兄弟相逐。宣说因缘。悟心无际。从佛出家。见觉明圆。得大无畏。成阿罗汉。为佛长子。从佛口生。从法化生。佛问圆通。如我所证。心见发光。光极知见。斯为第一。

Explanation: Śāriputra rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: "Since beginningless kalpas, whatever dharma I have seen, my views and knowledge have been pure, without defilement. Having taken rebirth in this way as many times as the sands of the Ganges, whenever I saw the various changes occurring in the worldly and world-transcending realms, I immediately understood their causes and conditions and penetrated their origins without any obstruction. In this life, before I had gone forth from home, one day while walking along the road I encountered the three Kāśyapa brothers discussing together the dharma of causes and conditions taught by the Buddha. As soon as I heard it, I awakened to the fact that the mind is boundless and infinite. Thereupon I went forth from home following the World-Honored One. My views became increasingly perfect and wondrously luminous, and I came to fear nothing with regard to all dharmas, becoming an arhat (the fourth fruit). As the Buddha's eldest son, I was born from following the Buddha's teachings, transformed and born from within the Buddha's Dharma. The Buddha asks about the gateway to perfect penetration; as I have realized it, the mind's views emit a great light of wisdom, and this great light of wisdom guides my views to become ever more perfectly luminous. This is my foremost gateway to perfect penetration." Śāriputra is known as foremost in wisdom among the Buddha's disciples; everywhere his great wisdom is displayed—his views are pure and perfectly luminous, penetrating without obstruction. Upon seeing a dharma, he immediately knows its deepest source, never falling into worldly signs or being stained by worldly views. That he has been taking rebirth with such pure great wisdom for countless kalpas shows that Śāriputra's realization far surpassed that of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva. According to records in the Buddhist sūtras, Śāriputra and the Buddha's other great disciples were all ancient Buddhas returning, cooperating with Śākyamuni Buddha to spread the teaching and transform sentient beings with karmic affinity in the Sahā world, together performing one grand drama.