What is called false seeing?

"Deluded" means false and illusory. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra teaches that deluded seeing is divided into deluded seeing of individual karma and deluded seeing of shared karma, both referring to sentient beings' seeing in the mundane world—seeing that perceives illusory dharmas. Deluded seeing has one meaning: the seeing of the deluded seven consciousnesses; another meaning: the six sense-objects perceived by the seven consciousnesses are all illusory and unreal. How is what the seven consciousnesses perceive illusory and unreal? What is the ultimate and fundamental meaning of "deluded"?

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha explained to us what deluded seeing is. A person with an eye disease sees a round red shadow under a lamp, whereas a person without eye disease sees only the lamplight, with no red, black, or yellow round shadow of any kind. There is no round shadow under the lamp; when the eyes are diseased, one will falsely see a round shadow. Having an eye disease is called deluded seeing—deluded seeing perceives dharmas that do not exist, and such dharmas are also illusory and unreal. The Buddha used this as an analogy: because the minds of sentient beings all have the disease of ignorance, they will see mountains, rivers, and the great earth, the material world of the universe with its six sense-objects, the sentient beings of the six realms, as well as sentient beings' birth, aging, sickness, and death. Seeing that arises from ignorance is called deluded seeing, and what deluded seeing perceives is even more deluded. The Buddhas, however, have no disease of ignorance; everything they see is the mark of suchness (tathatā), with no deluded dharmas and no mundane dharmas. The eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, which is without ignorance, also has no deluded seeing: it does not see any mundane dharmas, does not see any illusory marks, does not see the marks of the six sense-objects, and does not see the marks of sentient beings.

If someone claims to have truly seen the six sense-objects, to have seen you, me, him, or her, to have seen sentient beings, to have seen the marks of mundane dharmas, then this is deluded seeing born of ignorance. To see the dharmas of the mundane world as truly existing marks is deluded seeing born of ignorance; to affirm a mundane dharma as existent is deluded seeing. If one does not see deludedly, what does one see? One sees true suchness and buddha-nature, one sees the unborn and unceasing reality, just as the Buddhas see.

By studying the true dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, gradually seeing through and seeing clearly the delusion of deluded dharmas, and seeing through the essence of deluded dharmas, one will gradually reduce deluded seeing and the seeing of ignorance, gradually reduce afflictions and suffering, and gradually move toward the Buddha's wisdom, finally, like the Buddha, exhausting ignorance. This is the wellspring of happiness and the bright great road of liberation.