Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume 3: The Body Entrance Is Originally the Wondrous True Suchness Nature of the Tathāgatagarbha

Original text: 阿难。譬如有人。以一冷手。触于热手。若冷势多。热者从冷。若热功胜。冷者成热。如是以此。合觉之触。显于离知。涉势若成。因于劳触。兼身与劳。同是菩提。瞪发劳相。因于离合。二种妄尘。发觉居中。吸此尘象。名知觉性。此知觉体。离彼离合。违顺二尘。毕竟无体。

Explanation: Ānanda, suppose someone touches a hot hand with a cold hand. If the cold force is stronger than the hot force, the hot hand, infused by the cold, becomes cold; if the hot force is stronger, the cold hand, infused by the heat, becomes hot. In this way, through the contact that occurs together with awareness, the knowing of separation and union is revealed. When the interaction of forces is established, it arises from fatigued contact. Both the body faculty and this fatigue are manifestations of the bodhi mind—marks of fatigue induced by staring. Due to the two kinds of illusory sense-objects, separation and union, awareness arises dwelling within; that which absorbs these sense-object appearances is called the nature of knowing and perceiving. This knowing-perceiving body faculty, apart from those two sense-objects of separation-union and compliance-opposition, ultimately has no self-nature of its own.

Original text: 如是阿难。当知是觉。非离合来。非违顺有。不于根出。又非空生。何以故。若合时来。离当已灭。云何觉离。违顺二相。亦复如是。若从根出。必无离合。违顺四相。则汝身知。元无自性。必于空出。空自知觉。何关汝入。是故当知。身入虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: Ānanda, you should know that this nature of knowing and perceiving does not come from separation and union, does not exist due to compliance and opposition, does not emerge from the body faculty, nor is it produced from empty space. Why do I say this? If the sensation of touch arose when the body faculty and the touch sense-object unite, then when they separate, the sensation of touch would vanish—how then could one know that the faculty and object have separated? If the sensation of touch arose when the faculty and object separate, then when they unite, the sensation of touch would vanish—how then could one know that the faculty and object have united?

If the sensation of touch arose from one of the two marks—compliance or opposition—then it would not be aware of the other mark. If the sensation of touch came from the body faculty, then by the nature of the body faculty, there would necessarily be no marks of separation and union, nor marks of compliance and opposition, and thus it could not be aware of these marks. Therefore, the sensation of touch in your body originally has no self-nature of its own. If the sensation of touch emerged from empty space, then empty space itself would possess knowing and perceiving—what would that have to do with the body entrance of your body? Therefore you should know that the body entrance is illusory; it is fundamentally neither of the nature of causes and conditions nor of a spontaneously existing nature, but rather the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.