The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Five: The Youth Moonlight (Candraprabha-kumāra) among the Twenty-five Sages' Dharma Gates of Perfect Penetration

Original text:月光童子即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我忆往昔。恒河沙劫。有佛出世。名为水天。教诸菩萨。修习水观。入三摩地。观于身中。水性无夺。初从涕唾。如是穷尽。津液精血。大小便利。身中旋复。水性一同。见水身中。与世界外。浮幢王刹。诸香水海。等无差别。我于是时。初成此观。但见其水。未得无身。

Explanation: The Moonlight Youth rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: I recall that, as many kalpas ago as the sands of the Ganges, there was a Buddha appearing in the world named Water Sky (Śānta?), who taught the bodhisattvas to cultivate water contemplation. I entered samādhi and contemplated that within my own material body, the nature of water was pure and luminous, with nothing gained and nothing lost. I began the contemplation from the mucus and saliva, gradually extending it throughout the whole body, inside and out, without missing the slightest bit, all the way to the fluids, essences, blood, urine, and feces, contemplating that the nature of water circulating within the body was all the same. I saw that the water element within my body, the water realm within the Jeweled Banner King's lands floating beyond the world, and the water realms in all the fragrant seas within the world were all completely alike, without any difference. At that time I had just accomplished this contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), having only cultivated to the point of being able to see the great water within the body, but not yet to the point of emptying the material body; I still had awareness of and attachment to the body.

Original text:当为比丘。室中安禅。我有弟子。窥窗观室。惟见清水遍在屋中。了无所见。童稚无知。取一瓦砾投于水内。激水作声。顾盼而去。我出定后。顿觉心痛。如舍利弗遭违害鬼。我自思惟。今我已得阿罗汉道。久离病缘。云何今日忽生心痛。将无退失。

尔时。童子即来我前。说如上事。我则告言。汝更见水。可即开门。入此水中。除去瓦砾。童子奉教。后入定时。还复见水。瓦砾宛然。开门除出。我后出定。身质如初。逢无量佛。如是至于山海自在通王如来。方得亡身。与十方界。诸香水海。性合真空。无二无别。今于如来得童真名。预菩萨会。佛问圆通。我以水性。一味流通。得无生忍。圆满菩提。斯为第一。

Explanation: At that time I had gone forth as a bhikṣu and was sitting in meditation in my chamber. A disciple of mine peered through the window into the room, and he could only see the chamber filled with clear water, and nothing else besides. Since he was still a child and did not yet understand the states of meditative cultivation, he picked up a piece of broken tile and threw it into the water in the room, making a splashing sound; he looked around, saw no one, and left. After I emerged from meditative concentration, I suddenly felt a pain in my chest, just like when Śāriputra was struck by the harmful ghost. I thought to myself: I have now attained the path-fruit of an arhat, my karmic obstructions have already been dissolved, and it has been a long time since I was free from the conditions for illness—why do I now suddenly feel chest pain? Could it be that my arhat fruit is going to regress?

At that moment the child came before me and told me about the incident of throwing the tile. I told him: the next time you see the great water in the room, open the door, enter the room, go into the water, and take out that tile. The child agreed. Later, when I entered meditative concentration again, the child once more saw the great water in the room, and the tile was still in its original place; so the child opened the door and took the tile out. After I emerged from concentration, I felt my body light and at ease, the same as my original experience.

Afterwards I encountered countless Buddhas, until I met the Tathāgata King of Free Sovereignty over Mountains and Seas (Śailācala-vicāra?), and only then did I forget the material body and empty it away. I realized that the nature of the material body and the nature of all the fragrant seas in the worlds of the ten directions were both in accord with true emptiness (samyag-śūnyatā), with true emptiness being neither two nor different. Now, from the World-Honored One, I have received the name "Everlasting Youth" (童真) and participate in the assembly of bodhisattvas. The Buddha asks about the dharma gate of perfect penetration: it was because I contemplated the water nature flowing everywhere with a single flavor, without obstruction, that I attained the patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) and perfected the great path of bodhi. This is my foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration.