Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
By practicing transcendental dharma, we can open the knots in our heart-mind. Once all six are untied, we eradicate the six roots, the dust-like appearances of the saha world no longer obscure us, and the wondrous luminous true mind naturally emerges.
The Tathagata took the knotted cloth in his hand and pulled it toward the left. He asked Ananda:
“Can it be untied in this way?”
“No, World-Honored One.”
He then pulled it toward the right and again asked Ananda:
“Can it be untied in this way?”
“No, World-Honored One.”
The Buddha said to Ananda:
“I have now pulled it to both the left and the right, yet it still cannot be untied. What skillful means would you use to untie it?”
Ananda said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One, it must be untied from the center of the knot. Then it will come apart.”
The Buddha said to Ananda:
“So it is. So it is. To untie a knot, one must work from its center.
“Ananda, when I teach that all dharmas arise from causes and conditions, I am not referring merely to the coarse appearances of worldly combinations or aggregates.
“The Tathagata clearly elucidates all worldly and transcendental dharmas, knowing their fundamental causes and the conditions from which they arise.
“Even a single drop of rain falling beyond worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges—I know its exact number.
“As for all the things before us—the straightness of pine trees, the crookedness of thorn bushes, the whiteness of swans, and the blackness of crows—I fully understand the original causes of each.
“Therefore, Ananda, within your mind, choose any one of the six roots. If the knot at that root is untied, the coarse appearances of sense objects will naturally disappear. When all delusions have dissolved, what remains but the true?
The way to untie the knots is, first, to find the causes and conditions of how the knot was tied in the first place. And second, is to untie it from the center—i.e. the heart-mind.
Only through the causes of the transcendental can we reach the result of the transcendental. Everything in the world is only phenomena on the surface of the wondrous luminous true mind. These are considered the coarse causes and conditions, whereas the transcendental causes and conditions are considered the subtle type.
All phenomena are aggregates or combinations. Examples of coarse aggregates are houses, cars, a hand drum, and a human body, whereas the transcendental is the subtle combinations. To untie the six knots of the six roots, one must start from the heart-mind.
The six knots are attached to the surface of the wondrous luminous true mind. They are all dust-like phenomena. By practicing transcendental dharma, we can untie the knots in our heart-mind. When the six knots are fully released, attachment through the six roots ceases. Then the dust-like appearances of the saha world no longer obscure us, and the wondrous luminous true mind naturally emerges.