Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
As Grandmaster was reminiscing about his childhood sweetheart, he found that everything in life is coincidental. Things just happen—like a cloud, appearing and drifting into one’s heart, and then drifting away again. Everything that happens is impermanent, illusory, and without inherent nature. The only thing that remains permanent is the wondrous luminous true mind (buddhanature).
“Ananda, suppose someone licks with the tongue. Licking repeatedly, strain arises. If the person is ill, there will be a bitter taste; if not ill, there will be a faint sweetness. From sweetness and bitterness, the faculty of the tongue is revealed; and when unmoving, the bland taste is always present. Both the tongue and the strain are manifestations of bodhi, appearing as the state of strain.
Because of the false dusts of sweetness/bitterness and blandness, the faculty of tasting arises in between them. It absorbs these dust-like appearances, and this is called the tongue faculty.
Yet apart from sweetness/bitterness and blandness, this tasting has no real substance of its own. Thus, Ananda, you should know that this tasting of bitterness or blandness does not come from sweetness or bitterness, nor does it exist because of blandness, nor does it arise from the tongue, nor is it born from emptiness.
Why is this so? If it came from sweetness or bitterness, then blandness would vanish, and how then could blandness be known? If it arose from blandness, then sweetness would disappear, and how then could sweetness and bitterness be recognized? If it arose from the tongue, then there should be no dusts of sweetness, blandness, or bitterness, meaning the faculty of tasting has no inherent nature of its own. If it came from emptiness, then emptiness itself would have taste and not your mouth; and if emptiness itself could taste, what connection would that have with your sense faculty?
Therefore, you should understand that the the tongue faculty is ultimately false. It is produced neither by dependent-arising nor self-arising.”
Manifestations of bodhi means manifestations of the wondrous luminous true mind. Everything is a manifestation of the wondrous luminous true mind and everything embodies the wondrous luminous true mind.
The sense entry of the tongue involves taste. Long ago, Tibetans did not know to put salt on their meat. Then one day a piece of meat fell on the ground. When they roasted it and ate it, they found not only did the meat taste much better, but they also felt more energetic. They then discovered rock salt in the ground as well as in some lakes. It became a good business.
Joke: A couple once agreed that they would kiss each other whenever they stopped at a traffic light. After they married, the wife asked the husband if he would still kiss her when stopping at a red light. He replied, “I always drive on the highway now. There are no traffic lights.”
Another example of the faculty of the tongue is the French kiss. Kissing can enhance affection but the experience varies. The first kiss is ever so sweet, but after a while, or after marriage, it fades and eventually becomes bland, just like chewing on a sugarcane. A sweet kiss is something we yearn for. On the other hand, kissing someone with bad breath is revolting. It is human to favor novelty and sweetness, yet taste is everchanging and illusory; so is the faculty of the tongue. Only the wondrous luminous true mind, or buddhanature, remains the same and eternal.
In kindergarten, Grandmaster experienced his first love with his desk-mate. At that time, he didn’t know anything about kissing and he thought that holding hands was already very serious. He dated her for a semester, and back then the water tasted sweet, the grass was green, and his heart was blossoming—everything was perfect. But when she disappeared as her family moved to Taipei, he was heart-broken as he glanced at the empty stool next to him. Everything is impermanent.
In sixth grade, Grandmaster pursued a young trainee teacher because he was deeply moved when she intervened to stop the resident teacher from beating the whole class. He rode his bicycle the whole day from Kaohsiung all the way to Pingtung to see her. It was Lunar New Year’s Eve and they invited him for dinner and an overnight stay. The next day he took his bicycle with him on the train home. When Grandmaster was younger, he was quite outrageous and did many crazy things.
In surveying college, Grandmaster and two of his classmates went out together with his former girlfriend who brought along Shimu, and another lady friend. None of them ended up together, except in a twist of fate, Grandmaster with Shimu.
Such is life, all happens just like that.