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PREFACE

We take refuge in the Buddha,

We take refuge in the Dharma,

We take refuge in the Sahgha,

We take refuge in the Triple Gem within ourselves.

This important sermon contains the essence of the Buddha’s teaching and, as foretold by Him, will be the first sũtra to dis­appear in the Dharma ending age. It reveals the law of caus­ality relating to both delusion and enlightenment and teaches the methods of practice and realization to destroy forever the roots of birth and death. It aims at breaking up ălaya, the store consciousness, whose three characteristics are: self-evidencing, perception and form, by means of the three meditative studies of noumenon which is immaterial, of phe­nomenon which is unreal and of the ‘Mean’ which is inclu­sive of both, and leads to the all-embracing Sũrarigama samãdhi which is the gateway to Perfect Enlightenment and reveals the nature of the Tathãgata store of One Reality.

In the practice of the Sũrarigama samãdhi to wipe out the store consciousness, we should know that the latter has been under delusion for a very long time and that it is very dif­ficult to transmute it into the Great Mirror Wisdom. Hence the Buddha uses two of its characteristics, perception and form, to explain the falseness of both so that we can relinquish our attachment to them and break its first characteristic, self-evidencing. The illusion of form which includes the body and mind made of the five aggregates and the visible world is tack­led first by returning each of its aspects to where it arises to prove its unreality. Then the illusion of perception is wiped out by revealing its essence, or ălaya, which like a second moon is also an illusory creation. Hence the Buddha says: ‘When seeing (perceives) seeing, seeing is not seeing (for) seeing strays from ‘seeing; seeing cannot reach it, which Han Shan ably interprets thus: ‘When the absolute seeing per­ceives the essence of seeing, the former is not the latter which still differs from it; how then can false seeing reach that abso­lute seeing?’ Absolute seeing is likened to the real moon in the sky; the essence of seeing to a second moon seen by bad eyes; and false seeing to the moon’s reflection in water. In other words, the true moon stands for basic Enlightenment; the second moon for ãlaya, or the essence of seeing which is close to the true moon; and the moon in water for perception, an illusion which is very far from the real moon. As to ãlaya which is the unenlightened aspect of the self-nature, we cannot lightly dismiss it as non-existent; and this is why the Buddha avoids mentioning it for, as He says in His gãthã:

‘Old habits flow like torrents in

Ãlaya’s subtle consciousness.

Since the real yet unreal can create confusion

I have refrained from revealing it to you.’

In answer to Ananda’s request for insfruction on the three meditative studies (samaiha, samãpatti and dhyãna), the Buddha reveals the light of Sũrangama samãdhi from the host position of the all-embracing One Mind in its state of passionless imperturbability. Readers should not regard this revelation as some kind of miracle which cannot be proved by science and which should be dismissed as nonsense. We have mentioned in our previous book, The Secrets of Chinese Meditation, that all serious students of the Dharma experience this state of brightness as soon as they succeed in stilling their minds in the practice of dhyãna.

This absolute Mind as revealed by the Buddha, has three great characteristics: greatness of its essence or sub­stance, called Dharmakãya; greatness of its attributes or manifestations, perfect in wisdom and mercy, called Sambhogakãya; and the greatness of its functions, perfectly con­verting all living beings to the right Path, called Nirmãnakãya.

Instead of cognizing the True Mind, we cling-to the illu­sory body and mind made of the five aggregates as an ego, with sense data in the surrounding world as its objective field of activity. This coarse attachment to ego and things (dharmã) arises from discrimination and pertains to both the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The subtle attachment to ego and Dharma is inborn for it arises from the seventh consciousness clinging to alaya’s perception as an inner ego and its realiza­tion of sainthood as Dharma. Only after wiping out both discriminative and inborn attachments can we reach the source of the One Mind and attain Enlightenment. Hence the three meditative studies which aim at destroying both coarse and subtle clingings.

It is much easier to relinquish the discriminative clinging than the inborn attachment and few practisers succeed in overcoming the latter; hence Han Shan says: ‘This pass is the most difficult one to get through and only one or two percent of practisers can succeed in negotiating it’ (See The Secrets of Chinese Meditation, p. 58, Rider and Co.) Here is the great difference between the Buddha Dharma and the teach­ings of other religions in the Orient.

The inborn attachment to an ego can be cut off only after one has reached the seventh stage of Bodhisattva de­velopment whereas the inborn clinging to Dharma still re­mains in and above the eighth stage, for the seventh consciousness has its unclean and clean characteristics. The unclean one is wiped out in the seventh stage when the name of store consciousness is dropped and replaced by that of pure consciousness which can now be transmuted into the Absolute. However the seventh consciousness still remains and clings to the Absolute as the object aimed at; this is the subtle attachment to Dharma. Hence the Buddha says: The idea that Bodhi Mind is created after the samsaric mind has been annihilated pertains to samsãra’ (see p. 99), for this clinging to the Absolute that can be attained also implies the duality of subject and object, that is attachment to Dharma. Only after this last attachment has been cut off can Enlight­enment be realized. These two coarse and subtle attach­ments do not go beyond the Eighth Consciousness and its created five aggregates; the breaking up of which is the aim of the teaching in this sũtra.

This sermon deals with basic Ignorance caused by the first dim thought of self-awareness as subject and its counter­part, dull emptiness, as object The dimness so created by mind’s separateness is called Primordial Darkness by non-Buddhist philosophers in the East and is the origin of creation according to the Buddha’s teaching which then explains the three subtle causes of unenlightenment: basic ignorance, subject and object, and its six coarse conditions: knowledge, responsiveness, attachment, assigning names to objects, karmic activity and suffering. These six conditions result in the manifestation of different forms, such as the world and living beings in the store consciousness. Here begins the law of continuity: that of the physical world resting on the four wheels of wind, water, metal and space which spring horn the illusion thus created; that of living beings of the four types of birth; and that of karmic retribution caused by carnality, killing and stealing, the three cardinal conditions of birth and death.

The Buddha orders the twenty-five enlightened ones in the assembly to disclose the various means by which they have attained enlightenment so that others can learn something horn them. After their statements of their realization by means of the six sense data, six sense organs, six consciousnesses and seven elements of fire, earth, water, wind, space, consciousness and perception, the World Honoured One asks Mafijusri for his opinion on these twenty-five methods. Mafijusri praises Avalo- kitesvara Bodhisattva for the latter’s method by means of the organ of hearing which is the most suitable for human beings.

The Buddha then teaches the assembly the Surangama mantra and rituals for avoiding all obstructions on the Path to Enlightenment. We have not presented this section of the sutra partly because the Chinese transliteration of the mantra is corrupt so that an English transliteration would be mislead­ing, and partly because of lack of space. Moreover, the average Western student of Buddhism seems to have little faith in mantras and rituals which should not be published lest they create unnecessary disbelief and confusion and so compro­mise the beauty of this profound sutra.

The Buddha goes on to explain why living beings are caught in the net of samsãra through the twelve types of birth and how to escape by practising the fifty-five gradual stages of Bodhisattva development to realize Complete Enlighten­ment. As asked by Ananda, He described the realms of hells, the ten realms each of hungry ghosts, animals, human beings and seers; the six deva realms of desire, the eighteen deva realms of form, the four deva realms beyond form and the four realms of titans.

Before the meeting ends, the Buddha warns the assem­bly against fifty mental states caused by the five aggregates which hinder the practice of Dharma. These states should be recognized by all students in their meditation and cases are known of those having visions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who by clinging to them, fell into heresy and thereby re­turned to samsãra.

This translation is based on the explanation and com­mentary written by Master Han Shan of the Ming dynasty after his own enlightenment. The original Chinese text is a forest of vertical columns and is not divided, as in our pres­entation, into chapters with headings and sub-headings which the master added for the benefit of students. After this, important sũtra reached China it was read and studied by all great masters before and after their major awakening, and was widely expounded and commented on in all well-known monasteries throughout the country. According to the late master Hsu Yun, it should be studied carefully until it is well understood by students of Mahãyăna and Ch’an before they begin their spiritual training.

In spite of our desire long ago to present this sũtra to sincere students in the West, we hesitated to do so because it is very profound and is beyond the comprehension of materialistic commentators and blasphemers who are in­clined to seize every opportunity to criticize and vilify the holy Teaching thereby misleading the reading public and causing embarrassment and even loss of money to well-meaning publishers. A European book reviewer recently took the un­necessary trouble to question our competence to translate sũtras in Sanskrit without appreciating that we have only Chinese sũtras in our country so that all our translations are from Chinese texts.

We are, however, indebted to our two Canadian read­ers, Mr. and Mrs. Carroll Aikins, who have studied and prac­tised Mahãyãna and Ch’an for some thirty-five years and who, when hearing of our hesitation during their visit to Hong Kong in 1963, immediately offered to purchase a thousand copies of our translation for free distribution. They told us that it was worth spending money to spread the Buddha Dharma, and we can find no words to express our thanks and gratitude for their encouragement and valuable support in this Dharma ending age.

All brackets are mine and are added to make the sũtra and commentary more clear and intelligible to sincere stu­dents of the Dharma in the West. Only part of Han Shan’s commentary has been translated and is presented in the form of footnotes.

Upãsaka Lu K’uan Yu (Charles Luk)

Hong Kong

Contents of the Sũrangama Sũtra

Comment……………………………….. iii

Translator……………………………….. v

Preface………………………………….. 15

I

The Noumenon in the Tathãgata Store… 24

Ãnanda’s Weakness – The Reason for this Sermon.. 25

Meditative Study of All as Void (Samatha)…………. 26

Wiping Out the Five Aggregates &

Eight Consciousnesses to Expose the Unreality of Ego….. 27

Revealing the Bright Samãdhi……………………………. 38

Origin of Inversion…………………………………………… 39

Actual Inversion………………………………………………. 41

The Inverted Mind……………………………………….. 41

Probe into the false mind………………………….. 41

Thinking is unreal……………………………………. 41

The sixth consciousness Is empty………………. 42

The seventh consciousness is unreal…………… 43

Refuting all inversion……………………………….. 45

The Inverted Perception………………………………… 45

A bright Light to reveal the One Reality……… 46

Returning perception to Mind……………………. 46

Inverted Men……………………………………………….. 48

The worlding’s inverted views……………………. 49

The Hinayanist’s inverted views………………… 50

The heretics’ inverted view of annihilation …. 52

The inverted behaviour…………………………….. 55

Delusion and Enlightenment are of the same source ….55

Wiping Out the Unreal ……………….. 59

The Non-existence of Discriminative Perception. 59

Ananda’s wrong view …………….. 59

Unreality of illusory causes……… 59

Falseness of both sense organs and consciousness… 60

All phenomena returnable to causes are unreal 61

Borrowing The Essence Of Perception To Pick Out Causal Externals.. 61

Setting up the essence of perception…… 62

Picking out causal externals …………….. 62

The nature of perception………………….. 63

The (Underlying) Nature of Perception is Not the Essence of Perception…63

The capacity of perception……………….. 64

Picking out causal objects…………………. 64

The essence of perception ………………… 65

The Essence of Perception Mistaken for Externals…….. 65

Refuting this misconception …………….. 65

True perception………………………………. 66

Wiping Out the Capacity of Perception to Reveal the True Mind … 66

The capacity of seeing……………………… 66

Breaking up the capacity of seeing…….. 67

Revealing the Real………………….. 67

Eradicating Attachment to the Ego to Reveal the One Reality………. 68

Rooting Out Ananda’s Misconception of Objects

Being and NOT BEING Perception …… 69

Misconception of objects BEING perception……….. 69

Misconception of objects NOT BEING perception . 70

Manjusri’s Helpful Interposition …………… 72

Wiping Out Alaya’s Self-Evidencing to Reveal One Reality… 74

Ananda’s Discrimination………………….. 74

Wiping Out Ananda’s Discrimination…….. 74

Rooting out the self as such………………. 74

Eliminating cause and condition………… 75

Revealing the essential Bodhi …………… 75

Brushing away wrong assumptions…… 76

Eliminating the Essence of Perception to Reveal Inceptive Enlightenment. 76

Wiping Out Ananda’s Discrimination ……. 76

Revealing the Inceptive Bodhi …………………… 77

Individual Karma………………………………… 80

Collective Karma…………………………………. 81

Revealing the Independent Basic Bodhi to Expose

the Unfettered Absoluteness (Bhutatathata)…….. 83

Wiping Out All Traces of the False to Enter the Abstruse

to Reveal the Bhũtatathatã …………………………… 84

Direct Pointing to the One Mind…………….

Fusing Myriads of Things with the Absolute to Reveal

the Identity of Phenomenon with Noumenon……. 87

Fusing the Five Aggregates……………….. 87

The First Aggregate Rũpa…………….. 87

The Second Aggregate Vedanã……… 88

The Third Aggregate Safljfia…………. 89

The Fourth Aggregate Samskãra…… 90

The Fifth At^regate Vifiana………….. 90

Fusing the Six Entrances……………… 91

Entrance through the Eyes……………. 91

Entrance through the Ears……………. 92

Entrance through the Nose…………… 93

Entrance through the Tongue……….. 93

Entrance through the Body…………… 94

Entrance through the Intellect……….. 95

Fusing the Twelve Ãyatana (Six Sense Organs & Six Sense Data)……. 96

Eyes & Form…………………………….. 96

Ears & Sound……………………………. 97

Nose & Smell …………………………….. 98

Tongue & Taste…………………………. 99

Body & Touch…………………………… 99

Intellect & Dharma……………………. 100

Fusing the Eighteen Fields or Realms of the Senses ………… 101

The Field of Sight-Perception……… 101

The Reid of Sound-Perception…….. 102

The Field of Smell-Perception……… 103

The Reid of Taste-Perception……… 105

The Reid of Touch-Perception…….. 106

The Field of the Sixth Consciousness……. 107

Fusing the Seven Elements into the Absolute to Reveal

the Free Intermingling of Phenomenon & Noumenon…… 108

Exposing Faulty Differentiation …………. 109

Pointing to the One Source…………………. 109

Instruction on the Seven Dements……….. 110

The element of earth……………………………….. 110

The element of fire…………………………………. 111

The element of water ……………………………… 112

The element of wind……………………………….. 114

The element of space ……………………………… 115

The element of perception……………………….. 117

The element of consciousness………………….. 119

Ananda’s Understanding Expressed in his Gãthã …… 122

II

The Phenomenon in the Tathãgata Store…………. 124

The Meditative Study of All as Unreal (Samãpatti) 124

The One Mind Being the Source of Both Delusion & Enlightenment 124

A Probe into the Disciple’s Understanding of

Noumenon & Phenomenon to Reveal the Rise of Illusions. 126

The Real Missed by Cognizance of the False ……… 126

The Three Finer Conditions of Unenlightenment

(Basic Ignorance: Subject & Object)………….. 127

The Six Coarser Conditions of Unenlightenment… 127

The Law of Continuity……………………….. 128

Continuity of the (physical) universe……. 128

Continuity of living beings …………………. 129

Continuity of karmic retribution………….. 131

The Uncreated & Unending………………………………………………….. 132

The Unhindered Intermingling of Noumenon & Phenomenon……. 133

Expounding the Common Source of Delusion & Enlightenment to

Sum Up the Intermingling of Phenomenon & Noumenon…………. 135

III

The Tathãgata Store Containing Both Noumenon & Phenomenon…. 137

Meditative Study of the Mean (Dhyãna) ……………. 137

Elimination of ‘is’ to reveal the True Mind… 137

Elimination of ‘is not’ to reveal the True Mind……. 138

Simultaneous elimination of ‘is’ & ‘is not’ to reveal the Absolute Mind. 138

The One Mind, Sudden Awakening & Realization. 139

IV

Self-Enlightenment………………………………………… 146

Objects Contemplated in Meditative Studies………. 146

The subjective mind in the meditation……….. 147

The objective phenomena in the meditation.. 147

The point of departure……………………………. 150

Looking into the roots of klesa to find

the sense organ suitable for meditation……… 150

Expedient Instruction on the One Mind …………….. 158

Main Instruction on the Three Meditative Studies of the One Mind 162

How to Untie the Six Knots…………………………….. 166

Meditation on the six sense data ……………… 171

Meditation on the five sense organs …………. 175

Meditation on the six consciousnesses………. 178

Meditation on the seven elements ……………. 183

Meditation on the organ of hearing…………… 191

Manjusri’s Gãthã Teaching the Appropriate Method for Human Beings 203

V

The Enlightenment of Others…………………………. 213

Discipline & its Three Decisive Steps: S3a, Dhyãna, & Prajna 214

Prohibition against carnality……………………. 214

Prohibition against killing……………………….. 215

Prohibition against stealing……………………… 217

Prohibition against lying…………………………. 220

VI

Bodhisattva Development into Buddhahood……. 222

The Tathãgata Store from which Arise Both Samsãra & Nirvana 223

The Origin of Living Beings & the World…………… 223

The Inverted Cause of the Existence of Living Beings……… 224

The Inverted Cause of the Existence of the World …. 225

The Twelve Types of Transformation………….. 225

The Twelve Groups of Living Beings ………….. 229

Transmutation of Samsãra into Nirvana……………. 229

The Three Gradual Steps to Wipe Out Samsãra….. 229

Progressive Advance in Bodhisattva Development 232

The Stage of Dry Wisdom…………………………… 232

The Ten Stages of Bodhisattva Faith ……………. 232

The Ten Practical Stages of Bodhisattva Wisdom……. 234

The Ten Lines of Bodhisattva Action …………… 236

The Ten Acts of Dedication (Parinãmanã)……… 237

The Four Additional Harnessing Stages (Prayoga) ….. 239

The Ten Highest Stages of Bodhisattva Attainment (Dasabhumi).. 240

The Universal Enlightenment……………………….. 241

The Absolute (or Wonderful) Enlightenment …. 242

The Titles of this Sũtra …………………………………… 242

VII

The Six Planes of Existence Caused by Unenlightenment…… 244

The Six States of Living Beings in Samsãra……….. 244

The realm of devas…………………………………. 247

The realm of seers (rsi) and spirits …………… 247

The realm of human beings …………………….. 248

The realm of animals………………………………. 248

The realm of hungry ghosts ……………………. 248

The realm of hells…………………………………… 248

The Ten Causes & Six Effects in the Realm of Hells…….. 249

The Ten Karmic Causes of the Realm of Hells …… 249

The habit of sexual desire……………………….. 249

The habit of craving ………………………………. 250

The habit of arrogance……………………………. 250

The habit of anger …………………………………. 250

The habit of deceitfulness………………………… 251

The habit of lying…………………………………… 251

The habit of resentment………………………….. 252

The habit of wrong views………………………… 252

The habit of unfairness ………………………….. 253

The habit of disputation………………………….. 253

The Six Retributive Effects in the Realm of Hells… 254

Retributive effects of wrong seeing…………… 254

Retributive effects of wrong hearing ………… 254

Retributive effects of wrong smelling………… 255

Retributive effects of wrong tasting………….. 256

Retributive effects of wrong touching……….. 256

Retributive effects of wrong thinking………… 257

Degrees of Perversity in Relation to Suffering in the Hells… 258

The Ten Categories in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts 258

The Ten Categories of Animals (Birds, etc.)……….. 260

The Ten Categories in the Realm of Human Beings 262

The Ten Categories in the Realm of Seers (Rsis)…. 263

The Realm of the Gods (Devaloka) …………………… 265

The Six Heavens of the Realm of Desire (Kãmadhãtu).. 265

The Four Regions of the Dhyãna Heavens

of the Realm of Form (Rũpadhãtu)……………………. 267

The first region of the three dhySna heavens………. 267

The second region of the three dhyăna heavens ….. 268

The third region of the three dhyãna heavens……… 268

The fourth region of the four dhyãna heavens…….. 269

The five heavens from which there is no return…… 270

The Four Heavens of the Formless Realm of Pure Spirit (Arũpadhãtu) 272

The state of the Great Arhat…………………… 272

The four heavens beyond form……………….. 272

The Anãgãmin stage………………………………. 273

The Four Classes in the Realm of Titans (Asura-gati)…… 274

VIII

Warning to Practisers: The Fifty False States Caused

by the Five Aggregates…………………………………… 277

States of Mara Caused by the Five Aggregates……. 277

The Ten States Affected by the First Aggregate of Form (Rũpa) 280

The Ten States Affected by the Second Aggregate

of Receptiveness (Vedanã)…………………………… 284

The Ten States Affected by the Third Aggregate of Conception (Safijfia)… 291

The Ten States Affected by the Fourth Aggregate of

Discrimination (Sarnskara)……………………… 304

The Ten States Affected by the Fifth Aggregate of Consciousness (Vijana)…. 316

The Falsehood of the Five Aggregates……………….. 325

Falseness of die first aggregate of form (rũpa)… 326

Falseness of the second aggregate of receptiveness (vedani). 327

Falseness of the third aggregate of conception (safiifia)……. 327

Falseness of the fourth aggregate of discrimination (samskãra). 327

Falseness of the fifth aggregate of consciousness (vijfiana)… 328

Glossary……………………………… 331

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