Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
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.
Ananda, deeply moved by the Buddha’s compassionate salvation and profound teaching, wept, joined his palms, and said to the Buddha:
“Though I have heard the Buddha’s sublime words and understood that the wondrously bright mind is originally perfect and eternally abiding, my current understanding still relies on conditioned thought—the very mind that now reverently listens. Though I have glimpsed this truth, I dare not yet claim it as my fundamental, original mind. May the Buddha, in his compassion, proclaim the perfect teaching once more, uproot my doubts, and guide me back to the supreme path!”
The Buddha said to Ananda:
“You are still using your conditioned mind to listen to the dharma, so what you grasp is also conditioned—not the true nature of dharma. It is like someone pointing at the moon to show it to another person. That person should look at the moon by following the direction of the pointing finger. But if they mistake the finger for the moon itself, not only do they fail to see the moon, they also lose sight of the finger. Why? Because they took the pointer to be the bright moon itself. Not only do they lose the finger, they also fail to recognize light and dark. Why? Because they mistake the finger’s form for the moon’s brightness, and thus cannot discern between light and dark at all.
“You are the same. If you take the discriminating mind that perceives my teachings to be your true mind, then this mind should still have a discriminating nature even apart from the sound of my words. For example, a guest may stay at an inn for a while but will eventually leave, never dwelling there permanently. Yet the innkeeper does not go anywhere—he is called the host. Likewise, if it were truly your mind, it would never depart. So how could it lose its discriminating nature when separated from sound?
“This means that not only does your mind discriminate sound, it also discriminates my appearance—apart from form, it has no independent nature. Even when all discrimination ceases, and it is neither form nor emptiness, some heretical followers mistake this for the ‘obscure primal truth.’ But if your mind’s nature depends on conditions and has nothing apart from them, then every aspect of it can be traced back to something else. How, then, can it be called the true master?”
Ananda said, “If my mind and its nature each return to something else, then how can the Tathagata speak of the wondrously bright original mind as being without return? I beg you to take pity on me and explain this clearly!”
The supreme path allows the realization of the wondrous luminous true mind.
Ananda was still affected by his senses and consciousnesses to listen and think, and thus could not understand the essence of buddhadharma and the wondrous luminous true mind. We too use the conditioned, clinging mind tied to causes and conditions [preconditioning, karma, habitual tendencies, attachments, etc.]. The Buddha says that even the buddhadharma arises due to causes and conditions—that’s not the true nature of dharma. Buddhadharma is like the finger that points to the moon, but people mistake buddhadharma for the wondrous luminous mind. By doing so, they lose sight of both the finger and the moon. The finger moves, but the moon does not.
What is a discriminating mind that is conditioned and clinging? It is the mental function that discerns and differentiates, dependent on the senses. All of this is irrelevant to the wondrous luminous true mind—It is neither existence nor emptiness. But Ananda still wandered between existence and emptiness.
In this sutra, the Buddha mentioned the heretics many times. One heretical group believes that the discriminating mind is the truth; that everything arises from ignorance and self-nature. But this is not the ultimate truth.
What does “each returning/belonging to something” mean? It refers to the process of discernment. For example when we see someone, deluded thoughts immediately arise—we begin discerning whether they are male or female, beautiful or ugly. As soon as our faculties perceive objects, we start to make distinctions. This is called “having a place to return to.”
In the Heavenly Realm of Form, there are the Five Heavens of No Return. What does “No Return” mean? It means that beings there will no longer return to samsara. Third level arhats can be reborn there. Of the four levels of arhatship, only arhats on the fourth level are true arhats.