Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
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.
Then the Tathagata, before the assembly, made a fist with his five-wheel fingers, then opened them, and after opening, curl them again. He said to Ananda: “What do you see now?”
Ananda replied, “I see the Tathagata’s precious hand opening and closing before the assembly.”
The Buddha asked Ananda, “You see my hand opening and closing before the assembly. Is it the hand itself that opens and closes, or is it your seeing that opens and closes?”
Ananda said, “The precious hand of the World-Honored One opens and closes before the assembly. I see the Tathagata’s hand open and close; it is not my seeing-nature that opens and closes.”
The Buddha asked, “Then which one moves and which one is still?”
Ananda replied, “The Buddha’s hand is moving, yet my seeing-nature has not moved—so it is clear who is not still?”
The Buddha said, “It is so.”
Thereupon, the Tathagata emitted a radiant precious light from his wheel-marked palm, sending it to Ananda’s right. Immediately, Ananda turned his head and looked to the right. Then the Buddha emitted another light to Ananda’s left, and Ananda turned to look to the left. The Buddha asked Ananda: “Why did your head turn?”
Ananda replied, “I saw the Tathagata emit marvelous precious lights to my right and left, so I looked toward them, and thus my head moved accordingly.”
“Ananda, you turned your head left and right in response to the Buddha’s light—was it your head that moved, or your seeing that moved?”
“World-Honored One, my head moved by itself, yet my seeing-nature has never moved. It is clear which one moves.”
The Buddha said, “It is so.”
Then the Tathagata addressed the great assembly:
“If sentient beings call the one that moves ‘dust,’ and call the one that does not abide ‘guest,’ then although Ananda’s head moved, his seeing did not move. You also saw my hand open and close on its own, but your seeing had no opening or closing.
How, then, can you take what moves as the body and its realm? From beginningless time until now, each thought is subject to arising and ceasing, losing the true nature. Your actions are upside-down; your true nature and mind are lost; you mistake ‘things’ for the self—thus, within the rebirth cycle, you bring about your own endless wandering.”
At that time, Ananda and the great assembly, having heard the Buddha’s teaching, felt at ease in body and mind. They reflected on how, from beginningless time, they had lost their original mind, mistakenly taking the reflections of conditioned phenomena and discernment to be real. Now awakened, it was as if a lost infant had suddenly found its compassionate mother.
They joined their palms and bowed to the Buddha, wishing to hear the Tathagata reveal the truth and falsehood, the illusory and the reality of body and mind, and to clarify the two natures: that of arising and ceasing, and that of non-arising and non-ceasing.”
Our thoughts and actions are influenced by what the eyes see, ears hear, nose smells, tongue tastes, body touches, and mind thinks. Thoughts arise, cease, and move constantly, so the wondrous luminous true mind is lost amidst them. We are bound by the external—the sensory dust—leading us into endless cycle of birth and death in samsara. Only the true mind (buddhanature) always remains unaffected, and with no birth and death.
The Buddha’s opening and closing his hand, emitting light to Ananda’s right and left is not important. Yet, Ananda was deluded by the scenes before his eyes.
What is [the realm of] birth and death? What is no birth and no death? These two fundamental roots allow us to see the true buddhanature.