Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
Having realized the wondrous luminous true mind and understood that the body is a mere speck of dust amid vast space, Ananda joyfully joined his palms with utmost gratitude and praised the Tathagata.
“At that time, Ananda and the entire great assembly, having received the Tathagata’s profound and marvelous instruction, felt their bodies and minds open and purified, free from all obstruction. Everyone in that great assembly became aware that their own minds pervaded the ten directions, beholding the emptiness of the ten directions as clearly as one might observe a leaf held in the palm of the hand.
“All phenomena in the world were seen to be nothing other than the enlightened, wondrous luminous innate mind—the essence of mind, perfectly pervasive and all-embracing, containing the ten directions within it. Reflecting upon the physical body born of their parents, they saw it as like a single speck of dust drifting in the vastness of space—seemingly present, yet easily lost; like a single bubble floating upon a clear, immense ocean, appearing and disappearing without a trace.
“With clear understanding, they realized they had attained their original wondrous mind, eternally abiding and indestructible. Bowing with palms joined, they felt a joy unlike any they had known, and before the Tathagata, Ananda spoke a verse in praise of the Buddha:
‘O, wondrous, steadfast, immovable Chief,
The supreme Surangama King, so rare in the world!
You have dissolved my eons of inverted and deluded thoughts,
And I have attained the dharma body without the toil of immeasurable kalpas.
May I now realize the fruition and become a precious King,
Returning to liberate beings countless as the sands of the Ganges.
I offer this profound mind to the dusty world;
This shall be my true repayment of the Buddha’s grace.
I beg the World-Honored One to bear witness:
Into this evil world of five turbidities, I vow to enter first.
Should but one being remain unawakened,
I shall not attain final nirvana.
O Great Hero, mighty and compassionate!
I pray you cleanse the subtlest traces of my delusion,
That I may swiftly ascend to supreme enlightenment,
And, in worlds in all directions, establish the seat of the Way.
Even if the nature of emptiness were to perish,
My vajra resolve will never waver!’”
Here ends Volume Three of the Surangama Sutra.
Upon the Buddha’s painstaking explanation that all eighteen sense-fields and the elements are all empty by nature, Ananda and the entire assembly felt their bodies and minds purified, free from any obscuration. They realized that the wondrous luminous true mind—the consciousness of the tathagata-garbha—pervades everywhere. They could see it like a leaf in their own palm.
Yet, the physical body is a mere speck of dust in the vast universe, seemingly there yet lacking true reality; like a bubble in the ocean that appears and then quickly disappears without a trace. This is because birth and death are impermanent. One does not know when death will come, nor when birth will occur. The world itself is equally impermanent.
In everyday life, this impermanence is constantly evident. Accidents occur without warning: one moment someone is riding a motorcycle, the next their life has ended. Cars collide, people are rushed to hospitals, limbs are lost, or a pedestrian is suddenly struck. Life ends in an instant. Everything is impermanent. Only the wondrous luminous true mind is unborn and undying.
The five turbidities are explained in the Amitabha Sutra. They are the turbidity of time, turbidity of views, turbidity of afflictions, turbidity of sentient beings, and turbidity of lifespan.
Ananda made the same vow as Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva: as long as even one being has not attained buddhahood, he will not become a buddha himself.
There are three ways to deliver sentient beings. One is to become a buddha first, then return to guide others. The second approach is like being the captain of a boat, remaining with others, guiding and supporting them so that everyone crosses together. The third, exemplified by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, is to help all others attain buddhahood first, postponing one’s own enlightenment until all beings are liberated.