Surangama Sutra Exposition
by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Grandmaster Sheng-Yen Lu
The Buddha asks the great arhats and bodhisattvas through what causes and conditions each one of them attains enlightenment.
Upanisada, who attained arhatship by upholding the Buddha’s teaching to contemplate the impurities of the body until he saw his buddhanature, answers that form is supreme.
Upanisada then rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha:
“I too observed the Buddha when he first attained enlightenment. By contemplating the impurity of the body, I developed great disenchantment and renunciation. I awakened to the nature of all forms. I saw that from impurity to white bones, and from white bones to fine dust, all ultimately return to emptiness. When both emptiness and form are the same, I attained the path beyond learning.
“The Tathagata confirmed my realization and named me Nisada. When both dust and form were exhausted, the wondrous form became secretly complete and perfect. Through the characteristics of form, I attained arhatship.
“The Buddha now asks about perfect penetration. According to my realization, form as the cause is supreme.”
The Buddha asks: Through what causes and conditions does one attain enlightenment?
When the Buddha first attained the Way, he taught Upanisada the contemplation of impurity—observing the impurity of the body. The pores produce sweat and odors, the scalp produces dandruff, the eyes have discharge, the ears produce earwax, and the nose produces mucus. If we don’t brush our teeth for a few days, our breath becomes unpleasant, and even saliva smells unpleasant after it is spat out.
Grandmaster explained that humans consume many unclean things as well. Meat comes from dead animals that were once filled with oozing blood. After meat is cooked, we think it is fragrant, but we don’t know how long ago the animal died. It may have been frozen before being taken out for us to eat. Sometimes we even want it medium-rare or raw.
This is what we eat. We think that what we eat is fragrant, while what we excrete is unpleasant. But is that really so? It has been said that the excrement of a healthy person contains beneficial probiotics that may help improve a poor digestive system.
Urine is ordinarily regarded as unclean. Yet in some traditional medicine, the urine of a young boy who drinks only his mother’s milk is considered healing and is known as Returning Dragon Water.
Grandmaster now eats fish, which may have an even stronger odor. Yet he still eats it because the body requires nourishment. Fruit is cleaner and fresher by comparison, but people cannot live on fruit alone. Meat and fish are slaughtered, frozen, thawed, and seasoned with spices to make them appealing. Are they not dirty?
The Buddha taught Upanisada to visualize what happens when the skin decomposes. Picture how, after death, the body becomes white bones and, after cremation, ashes. Through this contemplation, one develops disenchantment with the body and no longer clings to it.
One then realizes that all form phenomena are like this—man or woman, beautiful or not, all are temporary physical shells. They change, deteriorate, decay, and do not last forever. In time, white bones become ashes, and ashes return to emptiness. When Upanisada realized that form and emptiness are inseparable, he attained the path beyond learning.
The Tathagata then confirmed his attainment and named him Nisada, meaning very fine or microscopic. For Upanisada, the dust-like phenomena of the saha world and attachment to his own form no longer remained as objects of grasping. He saw the perfect light of his own buddhanature. Through contemplating the impurity of form, he realized that all phenomena are empty. Upon entering the realm of emptiness, his dharma body manifested, and he attained arhatship.
It is important not to cling to worldly matters. Whatever is meant to come will come, and whatever is meant to go will go. Although things appear to come and go, in reality, there is neither coming nor going, neither birth nor death.
Once we realize this state, we recognize our own inner light and attain liberation and self-mastery. We then return our original light to the Eternal Quiescent Light, where we may manifest many emanation bodies, live eternally, and escape the six rebirth realms. We must be able to reach the Four Sagely Realms. Otherwise, we will remain in the six realms of reincarnation.
Do not take life too seriously! Just take it easy and glide gracefully through life. Know that everything is predestined and go with the flow.