The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Wind Element Is Illusory

Original text: 阿难。风性无体。动静不常。汝常整衣。入于大众。僧伽梨角。动及傍人。则有微风。拂彼人面。此风为复。出袈裟角。发于虚空。生彼人面。阿难。此风若复。出袈裟角。汝乃披风。其衣飞摇。应离汝体。我今说法。会中垂衣。汝看我衣。风何所在。不应衣中。有藏风地。

Explanation: Ānanda, the nature of wind has no self-nature of its own; its movement and stillness are unfixed and not permanently existent. You often tidy your clothes before entering among the assembly. When the corner of your saṃghāṭī flutters and touches other people, there is a slight breeze that brushes across their faces. Does this wind come out from the corner of the kaṣāya, arise from empty space, or arise from the faces of the people nearby? Ānanda, if this wind came out from the corner of the kaṣāya, then you would be draped in wind as you walk, stand, sit, and lie down all day long; if there were wind inside the clothes, the clothes would flutter up and leave your body. Right now I am speaking the Dharma, and in this assembly my robe hangs down without fluttering. Look at my robe—where is the wind? Surely there is not a place inside the robe where wind is stored, is there?

Original text: 若生虚空。汝衣不动。何因无拂。空性常住。风应常生。若无风时。虚空当灭。灭风可见。灭空何状。若有生灭。不名虚空。名为虚空。云何风出。若风自生。被拂之面。从彼面生。当应拂汝。自汝整衣。云何倒拂。汝审谛观。整衣在汝。面属彼人。虚空寂然。不曾流动。风自谁方。鼓动来此。风空性隔。非和非合。不应风性。无从自有。

Explanation: If the wind arose from empty space, then when your clothes are not moving, why is there no phenomenon of a breeze brushing by? Empty space is permanently abiding, so wind should be constantly arising. If that were so, then when there is no wind, empty space would also cease and no longer exist. When wind ceases, it can be seen; but what would the state of vanished space be like? If empty space also had phenomena of arising and ceasing, then all other dharmas could not exist, and it could no longer be called empty space. If it were still called empty space, how could wind arise from it?

If the wind arose from the face of the person being brushed by it, then the wind should also brush against you. Since it was you who tidied your own clothes, how could the wind blow in reverse onto your own face? Observe carefully and scrutinize this once more: the one tidying the clothes is you, while the face being brushed belongs to another person. Empty space is still and silent, never having moved—so from where does the wind stir itself and come here? The nature of wind and the nature of space are different attributes; they cannot merge or combine. Nor should the nature of wind exist on its own without any source.

Original text: 汝宛不知。如来藏中。性风真空。性空真风。清净本然。周遍法界。随众生心。应所知量。阿难。如汝一人。微动服衣。有微风出。遍法界拂。满国土生。周遍世间。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: You still do not know that within the tathāgatagarbha, the nature of wind is true emptiness, and the nature of emptiness is true wind; both are intrinsically pure, pervading throughout the dharmadhātu, according with what the minds of sentient beings should perceive in measure. Ānanda, if you alone gently put on your clothes and a slight breeze arises, it brushes throughout the dharmadhātu and arises throughout the whole land, pervading the entire world—how could it have any fixed direction or location? It only manifests in accordance with the karma of sentient beings. Worldly people, in their ignorance, confusedly believe it is produced by causes and conditions, or that it exists naturally. All of this is discriminated and reckoned by sentient beings' deluded consciousness; whatever words are spoken about it, none carry any real meaning.