The Unreality of the Fire Element in the Third Fascicle of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra

Original text:阿难。火性无我。寄于诸缘。汝观城中。未食之家。欲炊爨时。手执陽燧。日前求火。阿难。名和合者。如我与汝。一千二百五十比丘。今为一众。众虽为一。诘其根本。各各有身。皆有所生。氏族名字。如舍利弗。婆罗门种。优楼频螺。迦叶波种。乃至阿难。瞿昙种姓。

Explanation: Ānanda, the nature of fire has no self-nature of that kind of self; it resides in the various conditions for making fire. When the conditions are complete, fire will arise. Observe in the city those households that have not yet eaten: when they are about to cook their meals, they will hold in their hands the instrument for drawing fire from the sun and seek fire before the sun. Ānanda, what is called "combination"? For example, I and you, the twelve hundred and fifty bhikṣus, now form one assembly. Although the assembly is one, if we investigate its root, each has his own body, each has his own birth, clan, and name. For instance, Śāriputra is of the brāhmaṇa caste, Uruvilvā is of the Kāśyapa caste, and even you, Ānanda, are of the Gautama clan.

Original text:阿难。若此火性。因和合有。彼手执镜。于日求火。此火为从。镜中而出。为从艾出。为于日来。阿难。若日来者。自能烧汝。手中之艾。来处林木。皆应受焚。若镜中出。自能于镜。出然于艾。镜何不镕。纡汝手执。尚无热相。云何融泮。

Explanation: Ānanda, if this nature of fire exists because of combination, then when those people hold a mirror in their hands and seek fire under the sun, does the fire that is produced come out of the mirror, come out of the mugwort, or come from the sun? Ānanda, if the fire came from the sun, since it can burn the mugwort in the hand, then all the trees and forests along its way should have been scorched. If the fire came out of the mirror, since the mirror can emit fire to ignite the mugwort, why has the fire not melted the mirror? The hand holding the mirror does not even feel any heat—how could it be melted?

Original text:若生于艾。何藉日镜。光明相接。然后火生。汝又谛观。镜因手执。日从天来。艾本地生。火从何方。游历于此。日镜相远。非和非合。不应火光。无从自有。汝犹不知。如来藏中。性火真空。性空真火。清净本然。周遍法界。随众生心。应所知量。

Explanation: If the fire arose from within the mugwort, why would it still need to rely on the brightness of the mirror and the sun joining together before the fire could be produced? Observe again carefully: the mirror is held by the hand, the sunlight comes down from the sky, and the mugwort grows from the earth—from what place did the fire travel to arrive here? The sun and the mirror are far apart and cannot combine together. It should not be that the firelight appears by itself from nowhere. You still do not know that within the tathāgatagarbha, the nature of fire is true emptiness, and the nature of emptiness is true fire—pure and intrinsically so, pervading throughout the dharmadhātu, manifesting in accordance with the minds of sentient beings and according to the extent of what they should know.

Original text:阿难。当知世人。一处执镜。一处火生。遍法界执。满世间起。起遍世间。宁有方所。循业发现。世间无知。惑为因缘。及自然性。皆是识心。分别计度。但有言说。都无实义。

Explanation: Ānanda, you should know that when worldly people hold a mirror in one place, fire arises in that one place; if mirrors were held throughout the dharmadhātu, fire would arise throughout the whole world. Since it arises throughout the world, how could it have any fixed location or abode? It simply manifests according to the karma of sentient beings. Worldly people, being ignorant, confusedly and deludedly take fire to be of a conditioned nature or of a spontaneously arising nature. All of these are the discriminations and calculations of the deluded conscious mind. Whatever is said in words has no real meaning at all.