The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Falsity of the Nose Faculty and the Scent Sense-Object

Original text:阿难。汝又嗅此炉中栴檀。此香若复然于一铢。室罗筏城四十里内。同时闻气。于意云何。此香为复生栴檀木。生于汝鼻。为生于空。阿难。若复此香。生于汝鼻。称鼻所生。当从鼻出。鼻非栴檀。云何鼻中有栴檀气。称汝闻香。当于鼻入。鼻中出香。说闻非义。

Explanation: Ānanda, smell again the sandalwood fragrance in the incense burner. With this kind of sandalwood fragrance, if just one铢 is burned, all sentient beings within forty li of Śrāvastī can smell it at the same time. What do you think? Does this fragrance arise from the sandalwood, arise from your nose, or arise from empty space? Ānanda, if this fragrance arises from your nose, being called that which is produced by the nose, it should come out from the nose. But the nose is not sandalwood—how could there be a sandalwood fragrance in the nose? If it is said that you smell the fragrance, it should enter through the nose. If the fragrance comes out from the nose, then to say that the nose smells it would be meaningless.

Original text:若生于空。空性常恒。香应常在。何藉炉中。爇此枯木。若生于木。则此香质。因爇成烟。若鼻得闻。合蒙烟气。其烟腾空。未及遥远。四十里内。云何已闻。是故当知。香鼻与闻。俱无处所。即嗅与香。二处虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: If the fragrance arises from empty space, since the nature of space is constant and imperishable, the fragrance should constantly arise and constantly be present—why then would one need to rely on an incense burner to burn sandalwood? If the fragrance arises from the sandalwood, then the essence of this sandalwood fragrance, upon being burned, turns into smoke. If your nose smelled it, you should have been enveloped by the smoke. But after the smoke rises into the sky, it does not reach very far—how could it be smelled within forty li? Therefore you should know: the fragrance, the nose, and the smelling all have no location. The two places—the faculty of smelling and the fragrance—are both illusory; they are fundamentally neither causes and conditions nor a self-existing nature, but rather the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.