Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Great Element of Seeing Is Illusory

Original text: 阿难。见觉无知。因色空有。如汝今者。在只陀林。朝明夕昏。设居中宵。白月则光。黑月便暗。则明暗等。因见分析。此见为复。与明暗相。并太虚空。为同一体。为非一体。或同非同。或异非异。

Explanation: Ānanda, seeing and awareness themselves have no knowing nature; it is due to the two sense-objects of material form and space that seeing-awareness arises. For example, you are now in the Jeta Grove: in the morning it is bright, in the evening it is dim. If you are there at midnight, during the bright moon (before the fifteenth day of the lunar month) there is moonlight, and during the dark moon (after the fifteenth day) there is darkness. These marks such as brightness and darkness are manifested and discerned through the nature of seeing-awareness. Is this seeing that sees brightness and darkness of the same substance as the marks of brightness and darkness and great empty space, or of a different substance? Or is it both the same and not the same, both different and not different?

Original text: 阿难。此见若复。与明与暗。及与虚空。元一体者。则明与暗。二体相亡。暗时无明。明时无暗。若与暗一。明则见亡。必一于明。暗时当灭。灭则云何。见明见暗。若明暗殊。见无生灭。一云何成。

Explanation: Ānanda, if this seeing were originally of one substance with brightness, darkness, and empty space, then brightness and darkness, being two substances, cannot exist simultaneously: when there is darkness there is no brightness, and when there is brightness there is no darkness. If seeing were one with darkness, then when brightness appears, seeing would perish, and it could not see brightness; if seeing were one with brightness, then when darkness arrives, seeing would cease. If seeing ceases, how could it see darkness? If brightness and darkness differ and are not one substance, while seeing has no arising or ceasing, how could the three be of one substance?

Original text: 若此见精。与暗与明。非一体者。汝离明暗。及与虚空。分析见元。作何形相。离明离暗。及离虚空。是见元同。龟毛兔角。明暗虚空。三事俱异。从何立见。明暗相背。云何或同。离三元无。云何或异。分空分见。本无边畔。云何非同。见暗见明。性非迁改。云何非异。

Explanation: If this essence of seeing is not of one substance with brightness and darkness, then when you set aside brightness, darkness, and empty space and analyze the essence of seeing, what shape and form does it have? Apart from brightness and darkness and apart from empty space, this essence of seeing is inherently like a turtle's hair or a rabbit's horns. Brightness, darkness, and empty space—these three things are all different; from which mark could the essence of seeing be established? Brightness and darkness are mutually opposed, so how could they possibly be the same? Apart from these three there is originally no seeing, so how could it be said to be perhaps different? There is simply no question of same or different. If you divide space and seeing apart, the two originally have no boundary or connection, so how could they be said to be not the same? Again, there is simply no question of same or different. Whether seeing darkness or seeing brightness, the nature of seeing never changes, so how could it be said to be not different?

Original text: 汝更微细审详。审谛审观。明从太陽。暗随黑月。通属虚空。壅归大地。如是见精。因何所出。见觉空顽。非和非合。不应见精。无从自出。若见闻知。性圆周遍。本不动摇。当知无边。不动虚空。并其动摇。地水火风。均名六大。性真圆融。皆如来藏。本无生灭。

Explanation: Now examine and observe in finer, more detailed fashion, scrutinizing carefully: brightness comes from the sun, darkness accompanies the dark moon, penetrability belongs to empty space, and obstruction belongs to the great earth. From what does this essence of seeing emerge? Seeing-awareness is formless, empty and inert, without any nature of combination or union; surely the essence of seeing does not emerge from nowhere, self-arising without any source? If the nature of seeing, hearing, and knowing is perfect and pervades everywhere, fundamentally unmoving and unshaking, you should know that boundless, unmoving empty space, together with the moving and shaking great earth, water, fire, and wind, are all alike called the six great elements. Their nature is true and perfectly harmonious; all are the tathāgatagarbha, fundamentally without arising or ceasing.

Original text: 阿难。汝性沉沦。不悟汝之。见闻觉知。本如来藏。汝当观此。见闻觉知。为生为灭。为同为异。为非生灭。为非同异。汝曾不知。如来藏中。性见觉明。觉精明见。清净本然。周遍法界。随众生心。应所知量。如一见根。见周法界。听嗅尝触。觉触觉知。妙德莹然。遍周法界。圆满十虚。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, your mind-nature is still sunk and submerged; you have not yet awakened to the fact that your seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are originally the tathāgatagarbha. You should observe whether this seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing arises and ceases, being the same as or different from the sense-objects, or whether it neither arises nor ceases, being neither the same as nor different from the sense-objects. You have never known that within the tathāgatagarbha, the nature of seeing is the luminosity of true awareness, and the essence of true awareness is the luminous nature of seeing; both are intrinsically pure, pervading the entire dharma-realm, manifesting in accordance with what sentient beings' minds should know and measure.

For example, a single faculty of seeing can see material form pervading the whole dharma-realm; the faculties of hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching can be aware of contact and aware of all dharmas. Their wondrous virtues are luminous and pure, pervading the whole dharma-realm, perfectly filling the ten directions of empty space. How could there be any fixed direction or location? They manifest according to the karma of each being. Worldly people, lacking knowledge, confusedly suppose them to be produced from causes and conditions, or to exist by nature spontaneously. The arising of these ideas and views is all the result of sentient beings' consciousness-mind discriminating, reckoning, and measuring. As long as there is verbal expression, none of it has any real meaning.