Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
Only emptiness does not change; everything else is subject to change.
“O Supreme and Compassionate Jewel King of Purity, who skillfully opens my mind! Through such varied causes and conditions, with expedient means you guide and uplift, leading all those sunk in darkness out of the sea of suffering.
“World-Honored One, I have now received this dharma teaching and know that the tathagata-garbha, the wondrous awakened luminous mind, pervades the realms of the ten directions and contains and nurtures the Tathagata’s pure, jewel-adorned lands of wondrous enlightenment. Yet, the Tathagata again reproaches wide learning as without merit, falls short of actual cultivation and practice.
“Now I am like a traveler who has long wandered, when suddenly a heavenly king bestows upon him a magnificent mansion. Though he has received it, he must still enter its gate. I only pray that the Tathagata, in his great compassion, will show me—and all those in this assembly who remain shrouded in darkness—how to cast aside the Lesser Vehicle and ultimately attain the path of the Tathagata’s unsurpassed nirvana, which is our original aspiration for enlightenment. May those still in training learn how to subdue their long-standing clinging and wandering, attain dharani, and enter the Buddha’s wisdom and vision.”
Having spoken thus, he prostrated with his five limbs upon the ground. The entire assembly waited single-mindedly for the Buddha’s compassionate instruction.
At that time, the World-Honored One, out of compassion for those in the assembly among the pratyekabuddhas and sravakas who had not yet attained mastery in the bodhi mind, and also for sentient beings of the dharma-ending age after his passing who would give rise to the bodhi mind, revealed the wondrous path of supreme practice.
He proclaimed to Ananda and the great assembly,
“If you are determined to awaken the bodhi mind and do not grow weary of the Tathagata’s wondrous samadhi, you must first understand the two decisive principles for initiating the enlightened resolve.
“What are the two decisive principles for initiating the enlightened resolve?”
The tathagata’s pure, jewel-adorned lands of wondrous enlightenment refers to a land that is entirely pure, magnificent, filled with treasures, attainment, true reality, and wondrous experiences.
The Buddha reproached Ananda because he had not put the teachings into practice. At this moment, he resembled a wandering traveler, drifting on his journey, without actual spiritual attainment.
Ananda then asked the Buddha to give instruction to all those gathered at the dharma assembly, including those aspiring to cultivate and those remaining in the Lesser Vehicle, so they could enter the Greater Vehicle.
The unsurpassed nirvana is nirvana without remainder. It is a state of nirvana that is completely non-leaking—without any outflows or leakages.
Everything in this world is subject to decay, and nothing is truly real. As mentioned before, romance is also illusory. Grandmaster gave the example of a man who loved his wife more than anything in this world. After developing dementia, his once most intimate and beloved stood before him and asked if he still loved her. To her dismay, he could not recognize her at all. She had become nothing to him! Their love was once so real, yet in the end, it all faded into nothing.
Things may endure for a time, but they eventually transform into emptiness. Everything in the saha world is ever-changing, undergoing creation, existence, deterioration, and annihilation. There is only one thing that does not change—and that is emptiness.
The evil can become virtuous, and evil deeds can transform into good deeds. We can transform greed, anger, and ignorance into purity. All these are subject to change. Only emptiness remains unchanged.