Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Nose Entrance Is the Wondrous True Suchness Nature of the Tathāgatagarbha

Original text:阿难。譬如有人。急畜其鼻。畜久成劳。则于鼻中。闻有冷触。因触分别。通塞虚实。如是乃至。诸香臭气。兼鼻与劳。同是菩提。瞪发劳相。因于通塞。二种妄尘。发闻居中。吸此尘象。名嗅闻性。此闻离彼。通基二尘。毕竟无体。

Explanation: Ānanda, for example, if someone rapidly twitches their own nose, after twitching it for a long time, the nose will develop a sign of fatigue from strain, and within the nose one will feel a cool tactile sensation. Because the nose contacts the cold mark, one will know whether the nose is open or blocked, empty or solid. And so on, up to all the fragrant and foul odors that the nose faculty contacts—the nose knows them all through tactile sensation. And the nose faculty together with these signs of fatigue are all signs of fatigue arising from staring, generated by the bodhi mind. Because of the two delusive sense-objects of openness and blockage, the faculty of smelling arises dwelling within, absorbing these sense-object appearances; this is called the nature of smelling. This smelling, apart from those two sense-objects of openness and blockage, ultimately has no self-nature of its own.

Original text:当知是闻。非通塞来。非于根出。不于空生。何以故。若从通来。塞则闻灭。云何知塞。如因塞有。通则无闻。云何发明。香臭等触。若从根生。必无通塞。如是闻机。本无自性。若从空出。是闻自当。回嗅汝鼻。空自有闻。何关汝入。是故当知。鼻入虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: Ānanda, you should know that this nature of smelling does not come from openness and blockage, does not emerge from the nose faculty, and is not born from empty space. Why is this said? If the nature of smelling came from openness, then when there is blockage the smelling would vanish and disappear—how could one know the nose is blocked? If the nature of smelling came from blockage, then when there is openness the smelling would vanish and disappear—how then could it discern the contact of fragrant and foul odors?

If the nature of smelling emerged from the nose faculty, it would follow the attributes of the nose faculty itself, in which case there would be neither the sense-object of openness nor of blockage, and it would not know openness and blockage—what self-nature would such a smelling faculty have? If the nature of smelling came from empty space, then this faculty of smelling should turn back and smell your own nose; if empty space itself had a nature of smelling, what would that have to do with your nose entrance? Therefore you should know that the nose entrance is false and illusory; it is fundamentally not a nature of dependent origination, nor is it a natural nature—it is rather the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.