Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Fascicle Three: The Unreality of the Ear Faculty and Sound Objects

Original text:阿难。汝更听此祇陀园中。食办击鼓。众集撞钟。钟鼓音声。前后相续。于意云何。此等为是声来耳边。耳往声处。阿难。若复此声。来于耳边。如我乞食室罗筏城。在只陀林。则无有我。此声必来阿难耳处。目连迦叶。应不俱闻。何况其中一千二百五十沙门。一闻钟声。同来食处。

Explanation: Ānanda, listen again to the sounds in this Jetṛvana garden: when the meal is ready, the drum is struck; when the assembly is to gather, the bell is struck. The sounds of the bell and drum follow one another in succession. What do you think? Do you hear sounds because the sounds come to your ear, or does your ear go to where the sounds are? Ānanda, if these sounds came to your ear, then just as when I go begging for food in Śrāvastī, I am not present in the Jetṛvana, so if the sound came to your ear, there would be no sound at the places of Maudgalyāyana and Mahākāśyapa, and they would not be able to hear it at the same time. Still less could those twelve hundred and fifty bhikṣus hear it—how could they all arrive at the place of the meal as soon as they heard the bell?

Original text:若复汝耳。往彼声边。如我归住只陀林中。在室罗城。则无有我。汝闻鼓声。其耳已往击鼓之处。钟声齐出。应不俱闻。何况其中象马牛羊。种种音响。若无来往。亦复无闻。是故当知听与音声。俱无处所。即听与声。二处虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: If it were your ear going to where the sound is, then just as when I return to reside in the Jetṛvana, I am no longer present in Śrāvastī, so when you hear the drum sound, your ear has already gone to where the drum was struck; when the bell sound arises at the same time, you should not be able to hear it simultaneously. Still less would you hear the sounds of elephants, horses, cattle, sheep, and all kinds of other sounds. If your ear and the sounds do not reach each other, you would hear nothing at all. Therefore you should know that both of these places—hearing and sound—are false and illusory; they are fundamentally neither of the nature of causes and conditions nor of a self-existing nature; both are the wondrous true suchness nature of the tathāgatagarbha.