Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
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 Buddha said to Ananda, “All worldly matters—great or small, internal or external—belong to prior conditions and should not be taken to mean that seeing expands or contracts.
“It is like seeing square space inside a square container. Now let me ask you: the square space you see within that square container—is that space truly and inherently square, or not? If it is truly square, then if you place the same space inside a round container, the space should stay square. But if it is not fixed, then inside the square container, there should not always be a square space.
“You say you do not understand where this meaning lies. Yet the nature of meaning is as such—how can you ask?
“Ananda, if you do not wish to restrict the space to a square or round, then all you need to do is to remove the container. Space has no shape. One cannot say that when it enters a room, it contracts to become small.
“As for your question: ‘When it enters a room, does it cause the seeing to shrink and become small?’ When you look up at the sun, do you pull your seeing back to fit the size of the sun’s disc?
“If walls and structures could truncate the seeing-nature, then when pierced with a hole, how could vision resume without interruption? This idea does not hold.
“All sentient beings, since beginningless time, have been deluded into mistaking themselves for objects, losing their original mind and being swayed by material things. Thus, in this state, they perceive things as either large or small.
“Yet if one can master objects instead of being mastered by them, then one becomes like the Tathagata—body and mind perfectly luminous, abiding immovably in the seat of enlightenment, capable of containing all ten-directional worlds within a single tip of a hair.”
Ananda said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, if this seeing-nature is truly my wondrous nature, and if this wondrous nature now appears before me—if seeing is truly my true self—then what, now, are my body and mind? Now my body and mind make real distinctions, yet this seeing makes no such distinctions about my body.
“If it’s truly my mind that enables me to see now, and if the seeing-nature is truly myself while the body is not me, how does this differ from the Tathagata’s previous refutation that ‘objects can see me’? I beseech your great compassion to enlighten my unawakened state!”
The Surangama Sutra is hard to expound upon because of the great distance between an enlightened being who truly understands the mind and has seen the buddhanature and someone without any realization. People at the same level can detect each other instantly.
Ananda asked why he could see the whole world when the Buddha took him to the heavens, but not when he returned to the temple. He asked if the wondrous luminous true mind can be big or small?
A frog at the bottom of the well thinks the sky is just a small circle and the ocean is as big as the well water. It cannot imagine how vast the sky and the ocean is. Ananda was like that frog.
Ordinary people are bound by what they see—such as big or small—and are affected byit. Thus, they are bound by the rebirth cycle. Once you discover your wondrous luminous true mind, you are the same as the buddhas—unmoved and able to change the world. You can transform and manifest unimaginable things and embody all things within you—just like Vimalakirti, who can make his room big or small at will, hold purelands in his palm, and does as he wishes.
People feel they are the center of the universe, yet in fact they are just a grain of sand. If you understand buddhadharma, wherever you are, you are the whole world. Otherwise, no matter where you go, you are just like a grain of sand. Similarly, countries are also just grains of sand, big countries become small and vice versa. Even the whole world is like a tiny grain of sand, so what is there to fight for?
Grandmaster uses his wondrous luminous true mind to see the buddhas and bodhisattvas. When he closes his eyes, he sees rays of fine, flickering lights forming a circle, and a buddha or bodhisattva will appear at the center. The same wondrous luminous true mind allows him to see spirits lining up to receive his blessings during group practice.
Grandmaster talks about how his physical body changes and deteriorates as he ages. However, the wondrous luminous true mind never ages or changes.