The tathagata-garbha encompasses both form and emptiness. Therefore, do not regard the self as real!
Ruminating on which shadow of the sun or which reflection of the moon is the real one is simply wasting time; it is merely circling in empty falsity and has no basis in reality. The sun and the moon themselves are not real; likewise, the human body and the entire saha world are not real.
The Tathagata explains that while the cosmic space is empty, boundless, and without form, it accommodates the interplay of five elements to manifest freely.
After the Buddha’s explanation, what do you think, do mountains, rivers, and the great earth truly exist?
Grandmaster, through his own direct experiences, shows us and asks us to reflect and correct ourselves. Even the slightest deviation can lead us astray and leave us disoriented. In confusion, one needs someone to prompt us and guide the way.
Sentient beings cycle endlessly due to the root of killing, stealing, and sexual desire.
The Buddha teaches that the world forms in successive stages, beginning with a deluded thought arising from a lack of illumination.
Movement becomes the world; stillness is empty space. Empty space is sameness; the world is difference. When there is movement, the wheel of wind starts.
Life is nothing more than birth and death; it is a dream, a role in a play. Everyone undergoes birth and death. Only the karma that you create follows you.
The key point of this passage is the two kinds of emptiness: the absence of self is self-emptiness, and seeing all phenomena as emptiness is dharma-emptiness. Since the body only lasts a short time, how much can one attain or realize? That is what matters most; everything else is unimportant.
In the beginning of volume four, Purna Maitrayaniputra speaks for the assembly, acknowledging that these awakened people are still entangled in their own ingrained habitual tendencies and have not liberated themselves from afflictions and attachments.
Having realized the wondrous luminous true mind and understood that the body is a mere speck of dust amid vast space, Ananda joyfully joined his palms with utmost gratitude and praised the Tathagata.
The consciousnesses arise due to the sense faculties and objects. Without the six roots and six dusts, they are non-existent. They are mere manifestation of the tathagatha-garbha, and empty in nature.
The Heart Sutra states: “No eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or mind; no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or anything. No realm of the eyes, up to and including the realm of mind-consciousness.”
This excerpt covers the non-existence of the realm of the eyes. It has no form, no bases, no location, and it is not an aggregate. It is empty, neither dependent-arising nor self-arising.
The empty space is truly vast, without any fixed form or shape, and it is indescribable.
It is difficult to know where wind comes from or where it will go. It is ever-changing and has no fixed form or location. Wind may appear to come from cosmic space, but it is not space. Wind and space are not related.
The water element exists even within space. Just like the wondrous luminous true mind—the tathagatha-garbha that contains everything, pervading all phenomena.
In a single thing, all the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space are present. Tantric spiritual cultivation utilizes the body’s earth, water, fire, and wind to eventually transform the body into rainbow light. It is crucial to first practice and attain the Treasure Vase Qi, as it is the foundation of all attainments.
The wondrous luminous true mind manifests as both the true emptiness and marvelous existence, where they coexist. All the myriad forms and appearances came from these manifestations.
Physical bodies in the world of form are coarse and temporary and undergo birth and death. But in the realm of dharma bodies, there is no birth or death.
The wondrous luminous true mind, another term for true suchness and buddhanature, can manifest and transform in myriad ways.
The Buddhist understanding of the world is divided into two viewpoints: worldly dharma and the ultimate truth of the transcendental beyond-worldly dharma.
The Surangama Sutra reveals the ultimate truth; therefore, all worldly phenomena are regarded as nonexistent and illusory.
When the eyes see, the ears hear, or the nose smells, corresponding consciousness arises. Yet all these processes have no clear boundaries nor any inherent nature; they are neither spontaneous nor born through causes and conditions.
The human body, the object it touches, and the consciousness that arises are interconnected. At the same time these three are not due to causes and conditions, or naturally self-arising, and even the feeling is only a temporary phenomenon.
Ultimately, all existence is temporary.
The tongue, the object of taste, and tongue-consciousness are interdependent and empty of self-nature. When separate, none of them exist on their own; only through mutual contact do they give rise to the experience of taste.
In this passage, the Buddha reiterates that the sense faculty of the nose, the sense object of smell, and the nose-consciousness are likewise false and illusory, devoid of any self-nature.
The ear consciousness, the faculty of hearing, and sounds are all illusory. They are interconnected and always changing. None of them have any fixed or self-nature.
The mind gives rise to “good,” “bad,” and “indeterminate (unrecorded)” phenomena within consciousness. Yet all are illusory and ever-changing.
Both the human body and the sense of touch do not come from themselves, nor do they arise from anything; thus they are false and illusory.
In this excerpt, the Buddha explains that taste does not arise in the tongue, not from the taste objects, and not from emptiness. Thus, both taste and the faculty of the tongue are without inherent nature.
The Buddha uses sandalwood incense to illustrate the nose faculty. Fragrance does not arise from the incense, the nose, or space. Both scent and smelling are illusory, without self-nature, neither dependent-arising nor self-arising.
Ears and sound are both illusory and lack inherent existence. Sound does not move toward the ears, nor do the ears move toward sound. Yet they also arise from the wondrous luminous true mind due to a single deluded thought.
Sakyamuni Buddha explained to Ananda that the twelve sense bases—six sense faculties and six sense objects—also arise from the wondrous luminous true mind. A single thought of ignorance generates the twelve sense bases.
Thoughts arise due to the causes and conditions of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body combined, and go through arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing. All these are momentary, illusory, and empty.
The Buddha explains that the sensory awareness of the body through touch or contact is also illusory; it is fleeting and it is not buddhanature or the wondrous luminous true mind. The main point of the Surangama Sutra is to explain that the buddhanature/wondrous luminous true mind is non-arising and non-ceasing; it is unspeakable.
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).
Your nose and sense of smell can change, but buddhanature—the wondrous luminous true mind—always remains the same. It is unchanging, neither born nor destroyed, and cannot be blocked or congested. Sakyamuni Buddha uses buddhanature as an example, contrasting it with the five senses to show that they are all deluded views.
In this discourse, the Buddha covers the second sense faculty—the ears. They too are illusory and are neither dependent-arising nor self-arising. Grandmaster Lu gave examples of how the hearing of the wondrous luminous true mind differs from the ordinary hearing.
In Volume Three, Sakyamuni Buddha explains that the six sense entries—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—are illusory and unreal. In this discourse, Grandmaster Lu first covered the eye faculty and gave clear examples contrasting seeing with the eye faculty versus the seeing nature of the wondrous luminous true mind.
Consciousness is also ever-changing and illusory. Consciousness discriminates, whereas non-discrimination is wisdom. All five skandhas are empty in nature. Yet, although they are illusory and unfixed, they are manifestations of the wondrous luminous true mind, due to an instant of deluded thought.
This excerpt discusses that perception is illusory. Where does fear come from? From our own perception. Fear, too, is illusory.
Whether one has eye problems or not, because of karma, all that is seen is deluded vision. We all possess buddhanature, yet it is obscured by our own karma and delusions. When karma is cleared and one remains unaffected by causes and conditions, the wondrous luminous true mind emerges.
Buddhadharma must be cultivated and personally experienced; merely listening to it will not manifest the wondrous luminous true mind. One must realize single-pointedness in samadhi.
Why does the Buddha teach us that everything arises due to causes and conditions, yet also says that the wondrous luminous true mind is unrelated to causes and conditions?
The wondrous luminous true mind is independent of any phenomena, yet it encompasses everything. It is neither self-arising nor dependent-arising, neither a cause nor an effect—its manifestation is sudden and impromptu.
Everything manifests from the wondrous luminous true mind. Though illusory, they are neither true nor false, neither real nor unreal. There is no duality.
Spiritual cultivation is a path that each person must take on their own. We cannot depend on the Buddha or anyone else to do it for us. No matter how much one has learned, if it is not put into practice, then it is of no use.
Ananda, foremost in hearing the Buddha’s teaching but lacking real practice, beseeched the Buddha to teach the methods to enter true samadhi and be liberated from defilements.