Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
The six roots function independently, however, once one of the roots has been overcome, the rest also disappear. Know that these roots are unreal—they are mere delusions attached to the wondrous luminous true mind.
“Therefore, when you establish another knowing upon your knowing and seeing, that is the very root of ignorance. But when knowing and seeing are free from another act of knowing, that is nirvana—undefiled (non-leaking) and truly pure.
“How could there be anything else within it?”
At that time, the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke these verses:
True nature is empty of conditioned existence;
What arises through causes and conditions is therefore like an illusion.
The unconditioned has neither arising nor ceasing;
Its unreality is like flowers in the sky.
To speak of delusion is to reveal all truth,
Yet both delusion and truth are themselves dualistic illusions.
Even “neither true nor untrue”
Cannot perceive reality.
Between the perceiver and the perceived,
There is no real essence.
Therefore, they are like intertwined reeds,
Bound and released by the same cause.
For sages and ordinary beings,
There are not two different paths.
Observe the nature of this interdependence:
Neither emptiness nor existence can stand alone.
Obscured by delusion, it is ignorance;
When illumination arises, it is liberation.
The knots are untied in sequence;
When the six are released, even the one disappears.
Choose a sense faculty for perfect penetration,
Enter the stream, and realize perfect enlightenment.
The alaya’s subtle consciousness
Flows like a torrent because of habitual tendencies.
Lest people mistake the true for the false,
I have seldom explained it.
The mind grasps at its own mind;
The non-illusory becomes the dharma of illusion.
When there is no grasping,
Nothing remains that is not beyond illusion.
If even the non-illusory does not arise,
How can illusory dharmas exist?
This is called the Wondrous Lotus,
The Vajra King’s Precious Enlightenment,
The illusion-like samadhi,
Where, in the snap of a finger,
One transcends the stage of learning.
This is the Abhidharma
By which the Bhagavans of the ten directions
Enter the single gateway to nirvana.
Then Ananda and the entire assembly heard the Tathagata’s unsurpassed compassionate teaching. The verses were refined and radiant, and the principles clear and penetrating. Their minds opened and brightened, and they marveled at what they had never experienced before.
Imagine six birds—representing the six roots—perched on a power line—representing the wondrous luminous true mind. If one bird is shot, how many remain? None—the rest immediately fly away. Thus, when one root is untied or purified, the others follow because they are interconnected and have no independent self-nature.
The verses are a recap of the principles discussed up to this point.
As Sakyamuni Buddha told Ananda, we regard what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think to be real. Yet, these are delusions, like the birds perching on a power line, temporarily attached to the wondrous luminous true mind—the buddhanature. When the birds are gone, it is as if the six roots have been eliminated, and thus, the wondrous luminous true mind naturally appears.
As long as the mind and consciousness believe that all senses and sense objects are real and remain bound to them, buddhanature cannot manifest. When knowing and seeing no longer involve grasping or dualistic awareness, what remains is undefiled (non-leaking) and truly pure buddhanature, also called dharma nature. In this state of true purity, nothing—including the six roots—has independent existence.