Abandoning the Deluded Mind to Realize the True Mind

Why did the Buddha discuss the sevenfold inquiry into the mind at the very beginning of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra? It was to refute the false and reveal the true. The false dharma refuted in the first fascicle is the mind of the six consciousnesses. Through seven rounds of inquiry into the mind with Ānanda, searching for the location of the false mind that delights in and loves the Buddha, in the end, no matter where they searched, they could not find where the false mind actually was—there was no place where the manas resided. This demonstrates that the false mind is illusory and unreal, not truly existent, telling sentient beings not to take the false mind of the six consciousnesses as themselves and grasp onto it. Only by abandoning the false mind, realizing the true mind, and recognizing one's own family treasure can one shatter delusion and attain enlightenment, be freed from the bonds of birth and death, and thereby attain great liberation.