Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
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.
Ananda then rose from his seat, bowed to the Buddha with palms joined, knelt down on both knees, and said, “World-Honored One, if this seeing and hearing truly is non-arising and non-ceasing, then why does the World-Honored One say that beings like us have lost our true nature and behave in an inverted way? I pray that your great compassion will cleanse me of my defilements.”
Immediately, the Tathagata lowered his golden arm, and with his wheel-marked finger pointing downward, said, “Do you now see my mudra-hand? Is it upright or inverted?”
Ananda replied, “Worldly beings would say this is upturned, but as for me—I do not know what is upright and what is inverted.”
The Buddha said, “If the people of the world take this as inverted, then what would they consider as upright?”
Ananda answered, “When the Tathagata raises his arm and points upward to the sky with his soft cotton-like hand, that is called upright.”
The Buddha then raised his arm and said, “If this inversion, where top and bottom are switched, causes all worldly people to look again, then carefully observe your body and all the buddhas’ bodies, which are pure and radiant dharma bodies. The body of the tathagatas is called ‘perfect and all-knowing,’ while your body is called ‘inverted in nature.’ Now examine closely your body and the Buddha’s body—where exactly can the name ‘inverted’ be applied? What part should be labeled as ‘inversion’?”
Ananda and the assembly stared blankly at the Buddha, confused and unaware of their inverted state of body and mind.
The Buddha, moved by compassion toward Ananda and the assembly, spoke with a voice like ocean tides and reminded them: “Good men! I often state that all forms, mental functions, and phenomena are merely projections of the mind. Everything conditioned is created by the mind.
“Your body and mind are all manifestations within the wondrous, luminous, and truly essential marvel of the true mind. How could you lose sight of your originally perfect, wondrously bright mind—the precious, luminous nature of the true mind—and fall into delusion right within awakening?
“You regard darkness as emptiness. In this void, darkness becomes form, and form gives rise to deluded thoughts. You mistake appearances for the body. Causes and conditions shake within and run amok without; all this hustle and bustle is then mistaken for the nature of the mind.
“Once deluded into taking this as the mind—believing it to reside within the physical body—you remain unaware that both the body and the external world—mountains, rivers, space, and the great earth—are all phenomena within the wondrous luminous true mind.
“It is like discarding the vastness of a hundred thousand clear oceans and instead clinging to a single bubble, mistaking it for the ocean’s entirety. You are thus doubly deluded! Just as my lowering and raising my hand are no different in essence, that is why the Tathagata said you are pitiable.”
Ananda asked: if the seeing-nature of King Prasenajit is non-arising and non-ceasing—and ours is the same—why did the Buddha say that it is inverted? In response, the Buddha pointed his finger upward and asked if that was up or down.
But the answer is irrelevant, because it has nothing to do with the immovable wondrous luminous true mind. In Zen Buddhism, The Record of Pointing to the Moon is the teaching that points to buddhanature—it is likened to the finger that points to the moon. Yet deluded sentient beings focus on the finger instead of the moon. Everything they see is not right; it arises due to causes and conditions. Sentient beings are deluded by sensory objects, and thus act in an inverted way.
The Buddha has a pure dharma body. He is omniscient and perfectly enlightened. Although the body of a buddha and a human is the same, a buddha is enlightened and thus immovable, while a human is deluded and therefore constantly moving.
Enlightened ones like Vimalakirti can go anywhere and do anything since they are unmoved. Whatever they do is solely for the sake of sentient beings. If one is truly unaffected—say by drinking—then they can drink. To them, gold is no different from rock. The truly wealthy one is the enlightened one; they possess the whole cosmos.
Newly aspiring Buddhists must abide by the precepts, because they have not realized their buddhanature and are easily deluded and moved. They are not yet qualified to cultivate Mahayana dharma. They perceive external phenomena—mere mirages—and mistake them for the mind. One must be aware of whether they are the host (enlightened) or the guest (deluded).