Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
Movement becomes the world; stillness is empty space. Empty space is sameness; the world is difference. When there is movement, the wheel of wind starts.
The Buddha said,
“Purna, as to what you said: ‘If the nature is fundamentally pure, how do mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise?’ Have you not often heard the Tathagata explain that the nature of awareness is wondrously luminous, and that primordial awareness is luminously wondrous?”
Purna replied,
“Indeed, World-Honored One. I have often heard the Buddha expound this meaning.”
The Buddha said,
“You call it ‘luminous awareness.’ Is it that its nature is inherently luminous and therefore you call it ‘luminous’ awareness? Or is it that [there is] awareness that is not luminous, and thus you add ‘luminous’ to it?”
Purna replied,
“If that which is not luminous were called awareness, then there would be nothing that could be illumined.”
The Buddha said,
“If there is nothing that can be illumined, then there can be no luminous awareness. If there is something that is not awareness, then there is nothing that is not illumination. Yet this absence of illumination is not the clear, quiescent, luminous nature of awareness.
“The nature of awareness is necessarily luminous, but it is falsely called luminous awareness. Delusion mistakes luminosity for awareness. Awareness itself is not illumination and is not established due to illumination. When its bases are wrongly established, it gives rise to false potentials. Where sameness and differences are devoid, the differences blaze into being. With all the differences, sameness is established. From the manifestation of sameness and differences, there is then further establishment of neither sameness nor difference.
“In this way, mutual disturbance and chaos give rise to weariness. Over time, weariness gives rise to dust, and appearances become turbid among themselves. From this arise worldly dust and afflictions.
“Movement becomes the world; stillness becomes empty space. Empty space is sameness; the world is difference.
“Within this neither-sameness-nor-difference of truly conditioned dharmas, luminous awareness and obscured emptiness oppose one another and generate agitation. From this the wind wheel comes into being, which upholds the world.”
The following phrase is crucial for understanding this passage:
Empty space is sameness; the world is difference.
“Wu ming”, commonly translated as “ignorance,” means more than that; it indicates lack of luminosity, lack of wisdom, or darkness due to delusion. It is the opposite of “you ming” which means luminosity or enlightenment.
Delusion due to lack of illumination gives rise to this world, while illumination remains as empty space. However, the world of ignorance and darkness is fundamentally empty and will eventually return to emptiness. For this reason, we say that the world is essentially equal to empty space. At the same time, they are not the same because the empty space is empty, while the world appears as existing forms. Empty space is empty space; the earth is the earth; and the world is the world. In this sense, they are different.
With respect to the ultimate truth as stated in the Heart Sutra, “form is emptiness, emptiness is form; form is no other than emptiness, emptiness is no other than form,” the world is empty space and empty space is the world.
The Heart Sutra continues, “…There is no ignorance nor the ending of ignorance…” Since there is are no humans, how can ignorance exist? Even when humans momentarily exist, in relation to the vast universe they are as insubstantial as emptiness.
Sakyamuni Buddha teaches [in the Vajra Sutra] that there is no phenomena of self, no phenomena of others, no phenomena of sentient beings, and no phenomena of lifespan. Since there are no phenomena whatsoever, how could ignorance exist? Mountains, rivers, and the great earth come from emptiness and return to emptiness. The earth goes through cycles of formation, existence, decay, and annihilation, seven times. At the end of annihilation, it returns to emptiness. Although forms and emptiness seem different, they are ultimately the same.
The Buddha uses luminosity and awareness as an analogy. Where there is luminosity, there is awareness. Without luminosity, there is no awareness. Afflictions and attachments indicate a lack of luminosity, and they are inherently empty. When one realizes that afflictions and attachments are empty, luminous awareness is present. Otherwise, awareness remains obscured.
Conflicts on earth seem like a big deal, but viewed from other planets, they are miniscule. This too reflects a lack of luminosity and wisdom. When one dies, nothing remains except karma.
When one can be still, there is luminosity, when there is movement, the world is created.