Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
To describe how each being has the tathagata-garbha or wondrous luminous true mind, the Buddha gives two analogies. Although every being has the tathagata-garbha within, they do not realize it and keep looking for it externally. Even when they have been told that they have it, they remain enshrouded by the external world and cannot abandon their delusion.
If it had a cause, how could it be called delusion? These deluded thoughts merely perpetuate one another through mutual conditioning. Through layers of confusion upon confusion, beings pass through eons of dust-like reincarnations. Even when the Buddha reveals this truth, they still cannot turn back.
“Such confused causes arise from confusion itself. Recognize that confusion has no cause, and false thoughts have nothing to rely on. Since it never truly arose, what could possibly cease?
“An enlightened one is like a person awakened from sleep speaking of matters in a dream. No matter how keen their mind may be, by what causes and conditions could they grasp things from within a dream? Especially when there is no cause, and fundamentally nothing exists at all.
“Just like Yajnadatta in the city—how could there be causes and conditions by which he terrified himself over his own head and ran mad. The sudden madness came and went yet the head was not something obtained from outside.Even if the madness had not ceased, what had ever been lost?
“Purna, such is the nature of delusion—where, then, could a cause be found? Simply do not follow the discriminating mind that clings to the karmic results of the world and the three kinds of continuities of sentient beings.
“When the three conditions are severed, the three causes do not arise. Then the mad nature of Yajnadatta within your own mind naturally ceases. Once it ceases, that is bodhi (enlightenment)—the supremely pure and luminous mind that pervades the entire dharma realm.
“It is not obtained from others. Why then toil through arduous and complex cultivation to seek realization? It is like someone who carries a wish‑fulfilling pearl tied within his own garment, unaware of its presence. Poor and destitute, he wanders to distant lands, begging for food and running about. Though he is truly poor, the pearl has never been lost. Then suddenly a wise person points out the pearl to him. All his wishes are fulfilled from his own heart, and he attains great abundance. Only then does he realize the divine pearl was never obtained from outside.”
What is delusion? It arises due to false perception of the eighteen sense fields. Although the Tathagata has explained it very clearly, sentient beings still cannot abandon their delusion. They remain enshrouded by the material world, as if grasping at things or matters from a dream. If one can fly in a dream, can one fly when awake? Even knowing it is a dream, they are still deluded by it.
Because everything is an illusion, humans were never born into this saha world. Since they never arise, they never cease either. Likewise with the madness of Yajnadatta—it should have never arisen, and when it arose, it ceased by itself. When it ceases, that is awakening—enlightenment! Otherwise, it is simply madness.
All of us are confused because we are blinded by the world around us. All we need to do is to stop the madness! The wondrous luminous true mind, the tathagata-garbha, and buddhas all refer to the same truth. Yet we cannot manifest it since we are still enshrouded by the external world.
Each being has the wondrous luminous true mind; it has always been within you. There is no need to seek it externally—by searching everywhere or learning all sorts of buddhadharma—because you have possessed it all along.
Yajnadatta never lost his head to the mirror, nor did he get his it back from anywhere—it was always there. If we stop being confused, we never lose nor gain anything. Our true mind, like Yajnadatta’s head, has always been there.
It is akin to someone who has a precious jewel on their clothing but is unaware of it. Believing themselves poor, they beg from others, not realizing they already have the most precious jewel on them. When a wise person points out the wish-fulfilling jewel, they finally understand that they were rich all along. The treasure was never outside—it was always with them.