Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
Sakyamuni Buddha teaches us to cultivate using the six roots, neither separating nor clinging to them—to go beyond seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. The realization attained in this way is the highest perfect enlightenment.
“Ananda! When all your faculties have been fully uprooted, the inner radiance will shine forth. Then all these fleeting dusts (sense objects) and the various changing phenomena of the material world will be like ice in hot water, melting—they will instantly transform, in accordance with thought, into supreme, perfect awareness.”
The wondrous luminous true mind is concealed because the six sense faculties adhere to it and obscure it. When the six roots are completely uprooted, buddhanature—our innate inner radiance—naturally emerges and shines forth. At that point, one knows what should be known.
When the six roots are stripped away, all the changing phenomena of the saha world dissolve like ice melting in hot water.
When the six roots no longer obscure the true mind, buddhanature naturally shines forth, and all delusive phenomena dissolve. Our thoughts should therefore align with the wondrous luminous true mind—anuttara samyaksambodhi.
Most sentient beings are easily affected by the ever-changing phenomena of the saha world through what they see, hear, and perceive through the six sense faculties. Grandmaster used examples such as phone addiction, Nintendo obsession, cashless transactions, and differences in repair costs between East and West, to show how the saha world is constantly changing. Sentient beings, because of the six sense faculties, are easily influenced and bound by these external phenomena.
Although Sakyamuni Buddha entered parinirvana 2,600 years ago, Grandmaster explains that whenever he thinks of the Buddha and closes his eyes, pulsing rays of light appear before him, and within that light, Sakyamuni Buddha manifests clearly.
When one’s spiritual cultivation reaches a certain level and one can radiate light from the heart, entering samadhi becomes like tuning in to a certain frequency. Once the frequencies align—whether with Sakyamuni Buddha or someone Grandmaster wishes to see—the person appears clearly within the light, like a video call on a smartphone. This is the function of the inner light. Our minds are likened to the smartphone.
The True Buddha Sutra arose in this way—from the emanation of the heart-light. When one can emit this inner light, simply thinking of a person causes light to appear, and within that light, the person becomes visible.
Recently, when Grandmaster visited the Drashi Temple, he and Shimu saw the skirts of Drashi Lhamo and Grandmaster’s other intangible wives’ sliding off. However, with physical eyes, one only sees a wooden statue, not her supreme figure. The real Drashi Lhamo is a perfect goddess. What Grandmaster and Shimu saw was the reality while what we saw was the false phenomena.
Grandmaster’s dharma body will come when one thinks of him and if one has spiritual awareness, one will sense when the dharma body arrives. Generally, this means the beginning of spiritual awareness and the existence of affinity. This also signifies the beginning of spiritual response or mutual connection.
Mahakasyapa had dissolved even his consciousness and became perfect starlight—a perfect manifestation of the wondrous luminous true mind. He had attained the four sagely realms.
If one completely eliminates the six roots, what remains is the perfect radiance, the realization of the unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment. One will be able to see and hear across all ten dharma realms. This is buddhanature. Sakyamuni Buddha teaches us to utilize the six roots to cultivate, to neither separate nor be in union, to go beyond seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears, smelling with the nose, tasting with the tongue, touching with the body, and thinking with the mind consciousness. This attainment is the highest perfect enlightenment.