Author name: vajralotsawas

Sakyamuni Buddha’s teachings can sometimes seem contradictory. He teaches both the dharma of negation, and the dharma of affirmation. He also teaches the dharma of causes and conditions, through which many great disciples attained enlightenment, yet he teaches the negation of causes and conditions as well.

This is not a contradiction, but teachings of the different states.

Emotion and thought, union and separation, continually transform into one another. Bound by their own karma, they rise or sink. Through such causes and conditions, sentient beings continue in succession.

All actions, volitions, and mental formations are empty too. In fact, everything is illusory and ever-changing, therefore it is empty.

In this excerpt, Sakyamuni Buddha shows how sensations or feelings are illusory. Grandmaster Lu gives modern-day examples on how sensations and feelings are illusory and not real.

The Buddha explains the illusory and unreal nature of the five skandhas, elaborating on them one by one. In this excerpt, he talks about the skandha of form.

Only the wondrous luminous true mind is non-arising and non-ceasing. Everything else arises and ceases due to causes and conditions, and is illusory. Amid the wondrous luminous true mind, to seek birth, death, delusion, or enlightenment is futile. There is nothing to gain.

Everything in the world is made of aggregates, and all aggregates, including humans, arise and cease. The endless births and deaths of sentient beings result in transmigration within samsara. The wondrous luminous true mind, however, is non-arising and non-ceasing—even though its manifestations do arise and cease.

All things in this world are aggregates: our bodies, houses, cars, everything! The wondrous luminous true mind is neither an aggregate nor a non-aggregate; it does not arise due to causes and conditions, nature, or karma. It is ever-present, all-pervasive, and embodied in everything. It is beyond thought and beyond words—perfect, absolute, and the one and only.

In single-pointed samadhi, the wondrous luminous true mind manifests. When one’s heart emanates light, one understands everything. Everything other than the wondrous luminous true mind is a deluded view, and deluded views and thoughts create karma.

In this lengthy passage, Sakyamuni Buddha explains how karma is created. There are two kinds of karma: individual and collective, the latter generated by a group of people.

All kinds of seeing—whether it is empty dusts, or by the wondrous luminous true mind—are all mental formations. Therefore, one cannot say which is right or wrong, true or false, real or unreal.

Manjusri Bodhisattva, having attained the wondrous luminous true mind and the ability to generate myriad bodies, has a dialogue with the Buddha about what is real and what is not—that form and emptiness are the same. The wondrous luminous true mind can transcend both time and space, and form and emptiness.

The wondrous luminous true mind is indescribable and cannot be perceived with an ordinary mind, but some can experience it when it manifests. If one has experienced it, one will understand. Otherwise, no matter how it is explained, it is hard to fathom.

Although the wondrous luminous true mind cannot be pinpointed, its function can be perceived. A spiritual cultivator should gradually realize and witness it, and eventually become one with the wondrous luminous true mind. This is attaining the Dao! One who is in union with Dao is the greatest; everything else is merely a grain of sand.

The wondrous luminous true mind is neither big nor small, neither internal nor external, neither square nor round, and has no fixed position. It is not associated with a location or direction. It is not an object, has no form, and is limitless.

The wondrous luminous true mind is radiant and ever-present; it can manifest when obscurations are removed. It is the only mind that can transform and manifest unimaginable phenomena that an ordinary mind cannot.

What is the wondrous luminous true mind? How does one recognize it? Where can it be found? The mind that knows the presence of deities and their acceptance of offerings and responses; can see the whole saha world; without discernment; and is non-returning, non-arising and non-ceasing, is the wondrous luminous true mind.

Everything in samsara is impermanent and has a place to return. Karma returns to karma—endlessly—and that is the rebirth cycle. Only after your karma is eliminated can you attain the wondrous luminous true mind and be liberated from the six rebirth realms.

The wondrous luminous true mind is independent of sound, look, discerning mind and its mental function, and all phenomena. It has no differentiation and no coming and going. It is neither existence nor emptiness.

The body of a buddha and a human are the same: a buddha is enlightened and thus immovable, while a human is deluded and therefore constantly moving.

It does not end with death! There are two paths upon death: one is the endless birth and death in the rebirth realm, and another is the no-birth and no-death of the wondrous luminous true mind.

King Prasenajit of Sravasti asked the Buddha how to recognize the wondrous luminous true mind. The Buddha told him that although the physical body constantly changes, there is something that is unchanging, permanent, and eternal—that is the wondrous luminous true mind.

All things—including the six senses—are ever-changing; they move and hence, they are merely guests and dust. This impermanence is the realm of movements. Only the wondrous luminous true mind (buddhanature) is the immovable host. We must clearly know who the host is and who the guest is.

What is enlightenment?

Grandmaster Lu spelled out enlightenment very clearly. Enlightenment is understanding unattainability. All buddhas and bodhisattvas reach attainment due to this understanding.

What is enlightenment? Here are several analogies; because only through analogies will one gain enlightenment.

All phenomena arise from the consciousness; everything comes into existence because of the mind. Seeing, hearing, feeling, or knowing are not the true mind. The true mind exists independent of all sensory cognitions or consciousnesses.

Ananda believed that anytime he used his mind—whether to serve the buddhas, learn the dharma, or even slander it, that is his mind. It was rebuffed by the Buddha.

No matter how one describes the mind or tries to pinpoint it, one will miss the point. The Buddha shows the true nature—buddhanature—which is pure, permanent, and indescribable. It is unlike anything we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or even think about.

All sentient beings possess the Marvelous and Luminous True Mind—buddhanature. However, deluded by their own clinging mind, they perpetually cycle in the transmigration in samsara.

This is Ananda’s last presumption on where the mind is; he suggested that the mind exists when there is no attachment.

In this excerpt, Ananda and Sakyamuni Buddha continue discussing where the mind is. Hearing that the Buddha and Manjusri discussed the mind being neither inside nor outside the body, Ananda proposed that it must be in the middle. The Buddha rejects this notion as well.

Is there only one mind? Or many minds? If there is only one mind, there are many cases where the mind is not functional, such as the inability to know what is inside the body. If there are many minds, then it is like many Anandas inside one body. Therefore, both are incorrect.

In this part of the dialogue, Ananda indicated that there is a twofold awareness of the mind—one which can perceive inside and one which can perceive outside. He said that it is because the internals of the body is dark that one cannot see anything. But one can see the outside because it is bright.

In this excerpt, Ananda said that the mind is located somewhere within the eyes so that it can only see the outside but not inside the body. This, too, was rejected by the Buddha.

In this chapter of the Surangama Sutra, the Buddha attempted to bring Ananda to an understanding of the mind—where the mind really is. It is not easy to determine where the mind is located whereas it is easier to say that eyes are on the body.

Where is the mind, really? Is it inside the body? Or outside the body? The Buddha uses analogies to explain.

“Everything is created by the mind,” is a famous saying in Buddhism. Yogacara emphasizes that all things manifest from the Alaya (Storehouse) consciousness, thus Yogacara means Consciousness-Only.

The Buddha asked Ananda about what he thought he saw through a philosophical dialog of logic. He did not refer to the physicality or biological function of these sense organs or faculties, but delved deeper beyond the surface into the realm of consciousness.

Ananda was drawn to monastic life by the Buddha’s sublime thirty-two hallmarks, unattainable by ordinary beings born from desire. They are unaware that they, too, embody inherent purity and innate luminosity. This inherent buddhanature is the true reality.

Taoist teachings state that to follow the natural flow is to be human, while reversing it makes one an immortal. Taoist practices involve refining essence into energy, energy into spirit, and spirit into emptiness.

The Buddha is endowed with inconceivable transcendent power. His voice, likened to the song of kalavinka birds of Sukhavati, induces the mindfulness of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

As the Buddha’s heart-son, one must uphold and transmit buddhadharma so it can continue to flourish in the saha world to deliver sentient beings.

The Surangama Sutra is vast and boundless; it is seen by His Holiness in his samadhi as the countless stars—bright and radiant—illuminating the whole universe.