The False Conception of the Element of Fire in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three

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 does not have the self-nature of an "I"; it resides in the various conditions for making fire. When the conditions are complete, fire will arise. Observe the households in Rājagṛha that have not yet eaten: when they are about to cook their food, they will hold in their hands the instrument for drawing fire from the sun and seek fire in the sunlight. Ānanda, what is meant by "harmonious blending"? For example, I and you, the twelve hundred and fifty bhikṣus, now form one assembly. Although the assembly is one, if you investigate its root, each has his own body, each has his own birth, clan, and name. For instance, Śāriputra is of the Brahmin 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 due to harmonious blending, then when those people hold mirrors 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, all the forests along its path should have been set ablaze. If the fire came out of the mirror, since the mirror can produce fire and ignite the mugwort, why has the mirror not been melted? The hand holding the mirror does not even feel any heat—how could it be melted and dissolved?

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 need to rely on the light of the mirror and the sun joining together before the fire could be produced? Observe again carefully: the mirror is held by 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 blend or combine. 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. It is pure and intrinsically so, pervading throughout the dharmadhātu, manifesting in accordance with sentient beings' minds and in response to the extent of what they can 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 all over the world. Its arising pervades the whole world—how could it have any fixed location? It simply manifests according to the karma of sentient beings. Worldly people, lacking knowledge, confusedly take fire to be conditional in nature or natural in nature. These are all discriminations and calculations of the deluded consciousness-mind; they are mere words and speech, without any real meaning at all.