Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
By cutting off the three conditions of killing, stealing, and lust, the bodhi-mind manifests. The bodhi-mind does not arise naturally nor due to causes and conditions; it is also not obtained through conceptual reasoning or arduous cultivation—it is inherently present.
The Buddha said to Ananda,
“Just as with Yajnadatta in the city, when the causes and conditions of his madness are eliminated, the non-mad nature naturally appears. Thus, whether speaking of causes and conditions or of what is called natural arising, the principle reaches its ultimate conclusion here.
“Ananda, Yajnadatta’s head was naturally there—and as it should be. There was nothing that was not so. For what causes and conditions, then, did he become terrified of his head and run mad?
“If the naturally existing head became mad through causes and conditions, why did it not, through causes and conditions, naturally become lost? The original head was never lost; madness and fear arose falsely. Since nothing ever changed, what need was there to invoke causes and conditions?
“If madness were natural, then madness and fear would have originally existed. Before the madness arose, where was the madness concealed? If non-madness were natural, and the head itself has never been false, why then did he run about in madness?
“If one awakens to the original head and recognizes the madness, then both causes and conditions and the so-called naturalness become empty speculation.
“Therefore I say: when the three conditions are severed, that is the bodhi‑mind.
“When the bodhi-mind arises and the mind of arising-and-ceasing is extinguished, this is still within arising-and-ceasing. When both arising-and-ceasing are utterly exhausted, that is the effortless path.
“If there is something called naturalness, then as soon as this is understood, a mind that perceives naturalness arises, and the mind of arising-and-ceasing ceases. Yet this itself is still within arising-and-ceasing. That which is truly free from arising-and-ceasing is called naturalness.
“Just as worldly phenomena combine and separate—those that form unified entities are called the nature of aggregation. What is not aggregated is termed the original nature. Yet original naturalness is not naturalness, and the aggregate is not truly combined.
“When both combination and naturalness are transcended, and even the notions of ‘transcendence’ and ‘non-transcendence’ are set aside—then, and only then, can it be called the dharma free from all conceptual proliferation.
“Bodhi and nirvana remain distant indeed. They are not attained through eons of toilsome cultivation and realization on your part. Even if you memorize and uphold the twelve divisions of the sutras spoken by all tathagatas the ten directions, along with pure and wondrous principles as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, it only adds to conceptual proliferation.
Sakyamuni Buddha again uses the analogy of Yajnadatta, who went mad because he thought he had lost his head when he saw his head in the mirror. If the head had truly been lost, and thus he went mad, then this would have been due to causes and conditions. But the head was never lost to begin with, so the madness had nothing to do with the head. This was not due to causes and conditions, but to false thoughts and delusion. Nor was the madness something naturally existing from the beginning.
When one severs the three conditions of killing, stealing, and lust, the bodhi-mind—the aspiration for enlightenment—manifests. It does not arise due to causes and conditions, nor does it arise naturally. One does not need to cultivate it as it has been inherently present all along. lt appears when one simply eliminates the dust.