Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
Like Subhuti, Sariputra has cultivated for countless lifetimes. He is of utmost purity and understands all phenomena without any obstructions. Upon encountering the Buddha’s teachings, he reaches perfect enlightenment and radiates the Eternal Quiescent Light.
Sariputra then rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha
“For countless kalpas, my mind’s perception has been pure. Through as many rebirths as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, I could understand all kinds of changes in worldly and transcendental phenomena as soon as I encountered them, without any obstruction.
“One day, while walking along the road, I encountered the Kasyapa brothers, who were traveling together. They were reciting the gatha on causes and conditions, and I realized that the mind is boundless.
“I followed the Buddha and became a monk. My seeing and awareness became perfectly clear and complete. I attained great fearlessness and achieved arhatship.
“I became the Buddha’s eldest son, born from the Buddha’s mouth and transformed through the dharma.
“The Buddha asks about perfect penetration. According to my realization, when the mind’s perception radiates light, and that light reaches its ultimate extent, illuminating all knowledge and views, this is the supreme means.”
Sariputra is foremost in wisdom among the Buddha’s disciples in the Hinayana tradition, while Manjusri Bodhisattva is wisest in the Mahayana tradition.
Sariputra’s mind had been pure through countless lifetimes of cultivation. Whatever he encountered, whether worldly or transcendental, he understood immediately without obstruction. Grandmaster compares this to his own experience of immediately understanding the Buddhist sutras he reads.
Grandmaster pointed out a difference between accounts in Buddhist texts. The Mahasamnipata Sutra (The Great Collection Sutra) and the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom identify the monk Asvajit as the person who recited the gatha on causes and conditions. In the Surangama Sutra, however, it is written that Sariputra encounters the Kasyapa brothers.
The gatha states:
All phenomena arise from causes and conditions;
All phenomena cease from causes and conditions.
Our Buddha, the great sramana,
Always speaks in this way.
Upon hearing this verse, Sariputra recognized that the person reciting it truly understood buddhadharma. The teaching touched his heart and opened his mind. He realized that the teacher who taught it must be a true guru, so he followed the Buddha and became a monk, bringing all his followers to also take refuge. Through the Buddha’s guidance, Sariputra’s seeing and awareness became perfectly clear and complete. He attained fearlessness and arhatship. Being “born from the Buddha’s mouth and transformed through the dharma” means that he heard the Buddha’s teachings, understood them, and attained realization through them.
Sariputra’s profound wisdom enabled his mind to radiate pure, quiescent light. As this light reached its ultimate extent, it illuminated all knowledge and views without obstruction. This was his supreme means of perfect penetration.
Grandmaster emphasized Sariputra’s purity and complete realization. He also recalled visiting Sariputra’s cave and Ananda’s cave at Vulture Peak in India. Before the Buddha’s parinirvana, Sariputra returned to his homeland and entered parinirvana first.