The Shurangama Sutra, Volume Five: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva among the Twenty-Five Sages' Methods of Perfect Penetration

Original text:普贤菩萨即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我已曾与恒沙如来。为法王子。十方如来。教其弟子。菩萨根者。修普贤行。从我立名。世尊。我用心闻。分别众生所有知见。若于他方恒沙界外。有一众生。心中发明普贤行者。我于尔时。乘六牙象。分身百千。皆至其处。纵彼障深。未合见我。我与其人暗中摩顶。拥护安慰。令其成就。佛问圆通。我说本因。心闻发明。分别自在。斯为第一。

Explanation: The Bodhisattva Samantabhadra rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: I have formerly served as a Dharma prince to as many Tathāgatas as the sands of the Ganges. The Tathāgatas of the ten directions teach their disciples who possess the indriya of bodhisattvas to cultivate the practices of Samantabhadra, and these practices of Samantabhadra are named after me. World-Honored One, I am able to hear with the mind and discern all the views that sentient beings hold. If, beyond worlds as distant as Ganges sands in other buddha-lands, there is a sentient being in whose mind the great vow to cultivate the practices of Samantabhadra arises, I will at once ride a six-tusked elephant and manifest hundreds of thousands of millions of transformation bodies, all gathering at the place where that person is. Even if that person's karmic obstructions are heavy and he cannot see me no matter what, I will still secretly stroke his head, comforting and protecting him in this way, so that the practices of Samantabhadra he cultivates may reach accomplishment. Now the Buddha asks me what is the perfect penetration dharma gate of my practice. Let me speak of the fundamental cause by which I was able to attain perfect penetration: it is hearing with the mind, clearly knowing the thoughts and aspirations within sentient beings' minds, being able to freely discern the mental states of sentient beings — this is the foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration in my practice.