Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
Life is nothing more than birth and death; it is a dream, a role in a play. Everyone undergoes birth and death. Only the karma that you create follows you.
“World-Honored One! If all sense faculties, sense objects, aggregates, sense fields and realms of the world are fundamentally the tathagata-garbha, innate and pure, then how is it that mountains, rivers, the great earth, and all conditioned phenomena suddenly arise, sequentially change and flow, end and begin again and again?
“Furthermore, the Tathagata has explained that the natures of earth, water, fire, and wind are perfectly interpenetrating, pervading the entire dharma realm, serene and eternally abiding.
“World-Honored One, if the nature of earth is all-pervasive, how can water coexist with it? If the nature of water pervades everywhere, how could fire ever arise? And how can it be explained that the natures of both water and fire pervade empty space without overcoming or extinguishing each other?
“World-Honored One! The nature of earth is obstructive, while the nature of space is empty and permeable. How can both equally pervade the entire dharma realm? I do not comprehend the direction of this meaning. I beseech the Tathagata to let your great compassion flow forth and disperse the clouds of confusion for me and this entire assembly!”
This part of the sutra text was skipped in the previous discourse. In this excerpt, Purna poses two questions to the Buddha. The first is why mountains, rivers, and everything arise and cease endlessly if they are all originally the tathagata-garbha. It is due to the deluded thoughts of sentient beings.
The second question concerns how the four elements coexist when each pervades all the dharma realms. In fact, within each element the other elements are also present. Within earth, there exists water, fire, wind, and space; in space there exists earth, fire, water, and wind; and so on. The human body itself is one such example.
Purna was foremost in preaching the dharma and was also a painter. He painted Sakyamuni Buddha at the age of forty-one, depicting him with a black beard, long hair, earrings and a kasaya robe. This image, painted during the Buddha’s lifetime, has been passed down through history and is currently in the British Museum.
In the early period, bhiksus were not required to shave their heads. After several incidents, such as the story of monks with long hair meditating under the trees and scaring villagers, they started to shave their heads. Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty in China required that monastics shave their heads, burn incense scars, and be vegetarian. However, during the Buddha’s era, monks ate whatever was given during alms rounds. Over time, things changed.
In Grandmaster Lu’s view, inner renunciation is more important than outer renunciation. If you wear monastic robes, shave your head, and appear to be a monk but possess the heart-mind of a mundane being, it’s meaningless. Conversely, even without formal ordination, if one’s heart-mind is devoted to the buddhas, pure, and observing the precepts, one is already a renunciant. Cultivation has nothing to do with outward appearance. There are virtuous laypeople who are essentially renunciant, and monastics who are no different than mundane beings.
Living Buddha Ji Gong was one such example. Although he resided at Lingyin Temple, he drank alcohol, ate and sold dog meat, wandered freely at night, and slept during the day. He did not care about trivial matters. Yet inside, he was a true renunciate. He liked to chant “Om mani padme hum.”
Vimalakirti was another example. He was a lay practitioner with immense spiritual power who was unconcerned with anything, let alone small or mundane matters. He could go anywhere, even to brothels and gambling parlors to deliver beings because he had attained non-leakage of the body [and the mind].
For a period, Grandmaster was together with Vimalakirti. Like him, he visited dance halls and clubs and delivered many beings, including Reverend Lian Yi of Taiwan Lei Tsang Temple, who used to play in a band in the clubs. When the heart-mind is truly renounced, one can go anywhere without fear, remaining pure inside. Whatever you do will be pure. Grandmaster, too, can experience this “bliss without lust” because he has no physical and mental leakages. For such people, anything anywhere is fine.
Life is nothing more than birth and death; it is a dream, a role in a play. When one sees through and understands that living is all about joy and suffering; work is all about wealth or poverty; love is all about union and separation, one is liberated. The Buddha says that human existence in this world is like a speck of dust or a bubble in the ocean. Time goes by swiftly, and everyone goes through birth and death. Only karma follows one onward.
The Buddha teaches the Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment. The Fourfold Mindfulness enables one to see through the illusions of life. The Four Right Exertions guide one to cultivate goodness and abandon evil. When one attains the Four Transcendent Bases, one can do as one pleases. The Five Roots then generate the Five Powers. The Seven Factors of Realization generate lucid awareness. The Noble Eightfold Path ensures that all actions are in accord with what is right.