楞嚴經The Śūraṅgama SūtraThe Śūraṅgama Sūtra

I. This Sūtra and the Scope of the Base Text

《大佛頂如來密因修證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經》 The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Secret Cause, Cultivation and Realization of the Complete Meaning, and the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, Called Śūraṅgama is no. 945 in volume 19 of the Taishō canon, in ten fascicles. This edition takes this Chinese stream as its sole base text, and the order of fascicles follows the base text. The title of Fascicle One reads 「大佛頂如來密因修證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經卷第一」—“The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Secret Cause, Cultivation and Realization of the Complete Meaning, and the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, Called Śūraṅgama, Fascicle One” 〔T19 0106b02〕; beneath the title an interlinear note reads 「一名中印度那蘭陀大道場經，於灌頂部錄出別行」—“also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately” 〔T19 0106b03〕; the three lines of translators’ attribution read 「大唐神龍元年龍集乙巳五月己卯朔二十三日辛丑中天竺沙門般剌蜜帝於廣州制止道場譯出」—“In the first year of Shenlong of the Great Tang, the year yisi, on the twenty-third day, xinchou, of the fifth month whose first day was jimao, translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of Central India at the Zhizhi Monastery in Guangzhou.” 「菩薩戒弟子前正諫大夫同中書門下平章事清河房融筆授」—“Taken down in writing by the bodhisattva-precept disciple Fang Rong of Qinghe, formerly Grand Master of Remonstrance and Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery.” 「烏長國沙門彌伽釋迦譯語」—“Rendered into Chinese by the śramaṇa Meghaśikha of the kingdom of Uḍḍiyāna.” 〔T19 0106b06–b11〕; Fascicle Ten carries the same long attribution, while Fascicles Two through Nine carry only 「唐天竺沙門般剌蜜帝譯」—“Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, Tang”, and in Fascicles Five and Seven the character 「帝」 is written 「諦」; this edition records them as they stand and does not collate them. The closing title of the fascicle reads 「大佛頂萬行首楞嚴經卷第一」—“The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle One” 〔T19 0110a07〕. Of the two prefaces placed at the head of the sūtra, the Taishō head-notes record that the Korean edition lacks them; they are entered from the Song edition and the Yuan edition respectively. The whole work runs to more than seventy thousand Chinese characters proper; Fascicle One has 5,177 characters (including the fascicle title, the attribution, and the closing title), and the two prefaces 929; these counts are this edition’s own, recorded without collation.

II. One Fascicle, One Unit

This edition takes the fascicle as its unit: ten fascicles, ten units, with the two prefaces at the head forming a further unit placed before the fascicles. Within each fascicle the sections follow the doctrinal outline of Zixuan of Changshui’s 《首楞嚴義疏注經》 Commentary on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra with Annotated Text; the outline guides the reading and is not the authority for dividing the text, and the boundaries of units follow the fascicle titles the base text itself marks. Fascicle One has fourteen sections: the attestation, the particular preface, Ānanda’s request to cultivate samādhi, the seven sections of seeking the mind in seven places, Ānanda’s petition, the direct disclosure, refuting false seeing and clarifying true seeing, and the extended explanation by way of the characteristics. Several doctrinal lines in the sūtra run across fascicles — the teaching that discloses seeing begins at the end of Fascicle One and is completed in Fascicle Two; the twenty-five perfect penetrations span Fascicles Five and Six; the demonic states of the aggregates span Fascicles Nine and Ten — and this edition does not re-cut units for them, but points out their continuation in the general remarks of the Exposition and in the Reading Guide.

III. What the Two Prefaces and Fascicles One to Ten Say

Xu Dong’s preface reads the sūtra with a Confucian scholar’s eye; one sentence, 「楞嚴經者，括諸佛萬行之樞紐也」—“The Śūraṅgama Sūtra is the pivot that gathers up the myriad practices of all buddhas” 〔T19 0105b28〕, marks its standing, and it takes the two episodes of Mātaṅgī and Ānanda as the opening theme of the sūtra. At the preface’s end, 「余見其。」—“I have seen him.” 〔T19 0105c18〕 — the base text stops here, and this edition records it as it stands. Zupai’s preface begins from 「至心歸命禮南謨無見頂相首楞嚴王」—“With utmost mind I take refuge and bow: namo, the Śūraṅgama King of the invisible crown-mark” 〔T19 0105c24〕 and walks through the headings of all ten fascicles — seeking the mind in seven places, revealing seeing through the eight returns, the seven elements, the twenty-five sages, the three trainings without outflows, the altar-ground, the three stages of gradual progress, the seven destinies, the fifty demonic states, the five aggregates — the shortest map there is before reading the whole sūtra.

Fascicle One begins from the attestation and the particular preface. Ānanda is caught by a spell, and Mañjuśrī goes bearing a spell to protect him; the Buddha asks about his first resolve in leaving home, then asks where his mind and eyes are, and the seeking of the mind in seven places refutes every answer: inside, outside, hidden in the faculty, seeing within, wherever it joins, in between, attached to nothing — at each place Ānanda proposes and the Buddha refutes, closing with 「無有是處」—“there is no such case.” Next the Buddha shows the two roots and rejects the grasping mind as not the true mind; he makes a fist to show Ānanda, and by the blind man who sees darkness makes clear that seeing is the mind, not the eye; finally, with the similes of the guest and the dust, the host and space, he asks what moves and what does not, and the fascicle stops at 「遺失真性，顛倒行事」—“losing the true nature and acting in inversion” 〔T19 0110a05〕. This fascicle only refutes the false mind; the disclosure of true seeing is left to the next fascicle.

Fascicle Two takes it up. King Prasenajit, at sixty-two, asks about arising and perishing, and the Buddha answers with the seeing of the Ganges that has never grown young or old: 「皺者為變，不皺非變；變者受滅，彼不變者元無生滅」—“What wrinkles changes; what does not wrinkle does not change. What changes undergoes perishing; what does not change has from the first no arising or perishing” 〔T19 0110c01〕. From here the Buddha discloses seeing to Ānanda layer by layer: the hanging hand, upright or inverted; the conditioned mind is not the nature; the eight returns and the seeing that has nowhere to return; seeing is not a thing; shrinking and breaking off, apart from the body; the two “so it is” of 「無是見者」—“none is the seeing” and 「無非見者」—“none is not the seeing”; neither spontaneity nor causes and conditions; 「見見之時，見非是見」—“when seeing sees seeing, the seeing is not seeing” 〔T19 0113a17〕; the two false seeings of individual action and shared portion; union and non-union; and at the end the five aggregates in five similes, closing on “from the first neither causes and conditions nor spontaneous in nature,” with the name 「如來藏」—tathāgatagarbha appearing in this sūtra for the first time 〔T19 0114a23〕. Later readers called this fascicle the tenfold disclosure of seeing.

Fascicle Three walks through the three categories and the seven elements with the same question. From 「云何六入本如來藏妙真如性」—“How are the six entrances from the first the wondrous nature of true suchness of the tathāgatagarbha?” 〔T19 0114c21〕, the six entrances, the twelve bases, and the eighteen realms are taken in six passages each, asking of every one where it comes from — from the faculty, from the dust, from space — none of the three, closing with “from the first neither causes and conditions nor spontaneous in nature.” Ānanda asks, from 「如來常說和合因緣」—“the Tathāgata has always spoken of union and of causes and conditions” 〔T19 0117b13〕, why both causes and conditions and spontaneity are set aside, and the Buddha consents to expound the seven elements: earth, fire, water, wind, space, seeing, and consciousness. For each he first traces that it is neither in union nor in combination; of the six—earth, fire, water, wind, space, and seeing—he then says 「清淨本然周遍法界，隨眾生心應所知量」—“pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing” 〔T19 0117c09〕, and of consciousness he says 「妙覺湛然，遍周法界，含吐十虛」—“wondrous awakening, profound and still, pervading the dharma-realm, holding and releasing the ten directions of space” 〔T19 0119a29〕; all manifest in accordance with action; that seeing and consciousness are also named elements is this sūtra’s distinctive teaching. At the fascicle’s end the assembly awakens and Ānanda speaks a verse — 「舜若多性可銷亡，爍迦囉心無動轉」—“the nature of śūnyatā may be dissolved away; the vajra-firm mind will not be moved” 〔T19 0119b20〕 — the first verse in the whole sūtra. Later readers called this fascicle the aggregates, entrances, bases, realms, and seven elements.

Fascicle Four changes the questioner to Pūrṇa. He asks two things: if all is pure and originally so, 「云何忽生山河大地諸有為相」—“how do mountains, rivers, the great earth, and all conditioned marks suddenly arise?” 〔T19 0119c17〕; and if earth, water, fire, and wind each pervade everywhere, how do they not obstruct one another. To the first the Buddha answers with a single thought, 「性覺必明，妄為明覺」—“the nature-awakening is necessarily bright; falsely it is taken as a bright awakening” 〔T19 0120a08〕, from which the three kinds of continuity — world, living beings, and action and result — arise; to the second he answers with space, which refuses no appearance, and says that the tathāgatagarbha 「隨為色空，周遍法界」—“accordingly becomes form and emptiness, pervading the dharma-realm” 〔T19 0121a01〕, and then a run of “is not” and a run of “is,” gathered into 「離即、離非，是即、非即」—“apart from ‘is,’ apart from ‘is not’; it is ‘is,’ and it is not ‘is’” 〔T19 0121a25〕. Pūrṇa asks again for the cause of delusion, and the Buddha answers with Yajñadatta: 「忽然狂歇，頭非外得」—“suddenly the madness stops; the head was never got from outside” 〔T19 0121b21〕, and 「歇即菩提」—“when it stops, that is bodhi” 〔T19 0121b25〕; Ānanda asks about causes and conditions, and the Buddha says that causes and conditions and spontaneity are alike idle disputation. The second half turns to practice: the two decisive meanings, examining the resolve at the stage of cause and examining the root of the afflictions; the five turbidities; the merits of the six faculties; how the faculties came to be knotted and the one door to enter; and at the end the striking of the bell to test hearing, 「聲於聞中自有生滅」—“sound, within hearing, has its own arising and perishing” 〔T19 0124a19〕, while the nature of hearing does not perish. This edition takes the sūtra’s own phrase 「三種相續」—“the three kinds of continuity” 〔T19 0121b24〕 as the fascicle’s title.

Fascicle Five follows the striking of the bell. Ānanda asks 「今日身心云何是結？從何名解？」—“Today, in body and mind, what is the knot? From where is it called untying?” 〔T19 0124b19〕, and says of himself that he is 「猶隔日瘧」—“still like one with a fever that returns every other day” 〔T19 0124b18〕. The Buddha does not answer himself; the tathāgatas of the ten directions speak with one voice: the knotted root of birth and death is 「唯汝六根更無他物」—“nothing but your six faculties and no other thing” 〔T19 0124c02〕, and supreme bodhi is 「亦汝六根更非他物」—“your six faculties too, and no other thing” 〔T19 0124c03〕. The Buddha explains with 「根、塵同源，縛、脫無二」—“faculty and dust share one source; bondage and release are not two” 〔T19 0124c06〕, gathers it into 「知見立知即無明本；知見無見斯即涅槃無漏真淨」—“to set up a knowing upon knowing-and-seeing is the root of ignorance; knowing-and-seeing with no seeing set up is nirvāṇa, true purity without outflows” 〔T19 0124c09〕, and speaks the verse 「結解同所因，聖凡無二路」—“knotting and untying share the same cause; sage and ordinary have no two roads” 〔T19 0124c17〕. Ānanda has not reached the order in which the six are untied and the one is gone, and the Buddha takes a flowered kerchief and ties six knots in it to show him: 「巾體是同，因結有異」—“the kerchief’s substance is the same; because of the knots there is difference” 〔T19 0125a23〕; when the knots are all undone, 「尚不名一，六云何成」—“it is not even called one—how could six come to be” 〔T19 0125b04〕, and the Buddha confirms, 「六解一亡，亦復如是」—“the six untied, the one gone—it is just so” 〔T19 0125b04〕. Pulling to the left and to the right unties nothing; 「當於結心，解即分散」—“it must be at the heart of the knot; untie it there and it comes apart” 〔T19 0125b13〕; when one faculty is first untied there follow the emptiness of persons, the emptiness of dharmas, and the non-arising of the emptiness of both, an order spoken of upon one faculty. At the end the Buddha asks the sages in the assembly 「誰為圓通」—“which one was perfectly penetrating” 〔T19 0125c09〕, and twenty-four sages each tell their gate of realization, ending with Mahāsthāmaprāpta’s 「都攝六根，淨念相繼」—“gather in all six faculties, with pure recollection continuing unbroken” 〔T19 0128b05〕; the perfect penetration of Avalokiteśvara through the ear-faculty is in Fascicle Six. This edition takes the sūtra’s own phrase 「六解一亡」—“the six untied, the one gone” 〔T19 0125a04〕 as the fascicle’s title. Fascicle Six follows the twenty-four sages. Avalokiteśvara tells of perfect penetration through the ear faculty: 「初於聞中入流亡所；所入既寂，動靜二相了然不生」—“at first, within hearing, I entered the stream and let the object of hearing vanish; what was entered being still, the two appearances of motion and stillness clearly did not arise” 〔T19 0128b18〕, step by step until 「生滅既滅，寂滅現前」—“arising and ceasing having ceased, stillness-and-extinction appears” 〔T19 0128b21〕, and so gains the two excellences: 「一者、上合十方諸佛本妙覺心，與佛如來同一慈力。二者、下合十方一切六道眾生，與諸眾生同一悲仰」—“first, above, to join the fundamental wondrous awakened mind of the buddhas of the ten directions, with the same power of kindness as the buddhas, the tathāgatas; second, below, to join all the beings of the six destinies in the ten directions, with the same yearning compassion as all beings” 〔T19 0128b22〕. From this come the thirty-two responses, the fourteen fearlessnesses, and 「四不思議無作妙德」—“the four inconceivable wondrous virtues without contrivance” 〔T19 0129c05〕: whatever is sought, that body appears, all by the power of 「聞薰聞修」—“hearing-permeation and hearing-cultivation” 〔T19 0128b27〕. The Buddha commands Mañjuśrī to select among 「二十五無學諸大菩薩及阿羅漢」—“the twenty-five great bodhisattvas and arhats beyond training” 〔T19 0130a09〕; Mañjuśrī first sets down in verse 「歸元性無二，方便有多門」—“returning to the source, the nature is not two; the expedient means have many gates” 〔T19 0130a24〕, then weighs the twenty-four gates one by one, and comes to rest on 「此方真教體，清淨在音聞」—“the true substance of teaching in this land is pure in sound and hearing” 〔T19 0130c18〕 and 「反聞聞自性，性成無上道」—“turn hearing back to hear the self-nature; the nature becomes the unsurpassed way” 〔T19 0131b06〕. Ānanda then asks, for the last age, how the mind is to be gathered in; the Buddha says 「所謂攝心為戒、因戒生定、因定發慧，是則名為三無漏學」—“what is called gathering in the mind is precept; from precept arises concentration; from concentration wisdom issues: these are named the three trainings without outflows” 〔T19 0131c14〕, and sets out in order the four decisive pure and clear instructions, no lust, no killing, no stealing, no false speech, each closing with the form of 「是名如來先佛世尊第一決定清淨明誨」—“this is named the first decisive pure and clear instruction of the tathāgatas, the buddhas of former times, the World-Honored Ones” 〔T19 0131c23〕 with its ordinal changed. This edition takes the ear faculty that Mañjuśrī selects as the fascicle’s title; the four characters of the Chinese title are not the base text’s own wording for this fascicle but this edition’s heading.

Fascicle Seven follows the four decisive pure and clear instructions. The Buddha first answers what remained of the question of gathering in the mind in the final kalpa: 「若有宿習不能滅除，汝教是人一心誦我佛頂光明摩訶薩怛多般怛囉無上神呪」—“If there are habits from former lives that cannot be extinguished, teach that person to recite with a single mind my Buddha-Crown Light, the Mahā-sitātapatra, the unsurpassed divine spell” 〔T19 0133a11〕, 「斯是如來無見頂相無為心佛，從頂發輝，坐寶蓮華所說心呪」—“This is the heart-spell spoken by the Tathāgata’s invisible crown-mark, the unconditioned mind-buddha, sending forth radiance from the crown and seated upon a jeweled lotus flower” 〔T19 0133a13〕. Ānanda asks how the bodhimaṇḍa is to be established, and the Buddha tells the method of building the altar from 「先取雪山大力白牛」—“they first take a white ox of great strength from the Snow Mountains” 〔T19 0133b04〕 onward, looking to the day when 「至第七日，十方如來一時出現，鏡交光處承佛摩頂」—“on the seventh day, the tathāgatas of the ten directions appear all at once, and where the lights of the mirrors cross, they receive the Buddha’s stroking of the crown” 〔T19 0133c06〕. 「爾時，世尊從肉髻中涌百寶光，光中涌出千葉寶蓮，有化如來坐寶華中」—“Then from his fleshy crown-knot the World-Honored One welled forth a light of a hundred jewels; from the light welled forth a thousand-petaled jeweled lotus; the transformation Tathāgata sat within the jeweled flower” 〔T19 0133c21〕, and the divine spell is spoken; following the example of the ancient masters the text of the spell is not translated, and this edition records it in full in the transcription of the base text. After the spell comes the heart of the spell, 「十方如來因此呪心，得成無上正遍知覺」—“The tathāgatas of the ten directions, by this heart of the spell, attain unsurpassed Right and Universal Knowledge and awakening” 〔T19 0136c17〕, then the merit of those who uphold the spell and their protection, 「縱不作壇、不入道場、亦不行道，誦持此呪，還同入壇行道功德」—“Even if they make no altar, do not enter a bodhimaṇḍa, and do not walk the path, if they recite and uphold this spell, it is the same as the merit of entering the altar and walking the path” 〔T19 0137b19〕. Ānanda asks again 「云何名為乾慧之地？四十四心至何漸次、得修行目？」—“what is called the ground of dry wisdom? By what gradual stages do the forty-four minds come to have the names of the stages of cultivation?” 〔T19 0138a27〕; the Buddha does not answer the stages at once, but first says 「先當識此眾生、世界二顛倒因。顛倒不生，斯則如來真三摩地」—“you should first recognize the two causes of inversion, of beings and of the world. When inversion does not arise, this is the Tathāgata’s true samādhi” 〔T19 0138b11〕, opens the twelve classes of beings from the two inversions, and the fascicle ends at 「是名眾生十二種類」—“These are called the twelve kinds of classes of beings” 〔T19 0139a12〕. This edition takes ‘the divine spell’ as the fascicle’s title; the two characters are taken from the base text’s own 「無上神呪」—“the unsurpassed divine spell” 〔T19 0133a13〕 in this fascicle; the stages are told from Fascicle Eight on.

Fascicle Eight follows the twelve classes of beings. The Buddha properly answers the question of the stages, first establishing the three gradual stages with the simile 「如淨器中除去毒蜜，以諸湯水并雜灰香洗滌其器，後貯甘露」—“as when, in a clean vessel, one removes the poisoned honey, washes the vessel with hot water mixed with ashes and fragrance, and afterward stores sweet dew in it” 〔T19 0141b25〕: 「一者、修習除其助因。二者、真修刳其正性。三者、增進違其現業」—“First, cultivation that removes the auxiliary causes. Second, true cultivation that cuts out the proper nature. Third, advancing that goes against the present deeds” 〔T19 0141b27〕. Then, beginning from the ground of dry wisdom, 「乾有其慧，名乾慧地」—“having wisdom in its dryness, this is called the ground of dry wisdom” 〔T19 0142a07〕, he passes through the ten faiths, the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the four applied practices, the ten grounds, and equal awakening, to wondrous awakening, 「是覺始獲金剛心中初乾慧地」—“this awakening first obtains the initial ground of dry wisdom within the vajra mind” 〔T19 0142c22〕, and closes with 「如是皆以三增進故，善能成就五十五位真菩提路」—“all these, by the three advances, are well able to accomplish the fifty-five stages of the true path of bodhi” 〔T19 0142c25〕 and 「作是觀者，名為正觀；若他觀者，名為邪觀」—“one who contemplates thus is called one of right contemplation; one who contemplates otherwise is called one of wrong contemplation” 〔T19 0142c27〕. Mañjuśrī asks 「當何名是經？我及眾生云何奉持？」—“What should this sūtra be named? How should I and all beings uphold it?” 〔T19 0143a01〕, and the Buddha answers with the five titles of the sūtra. Ānanda asks again 「云何復有地獄、餓鬼、畜生、修羅、人、天等道」—“why are there again the paths of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, devas, and the rest” 〔T19 0143a17〕; the Buddha begins from 「一切眾生實本真淨，因彼妄見有妄習生，因此分開內分、外分」—“all beings are in reality fundamentally true and pure; because of their false seeing, false habits arise, and from this the inner portion and the outer portion are divided” 〔T19 0143a29〕, feeling sinking and thought rising, 「造十習因，受六交報」—“they make the ten habit-causes and undergo the six crossed retributions” 〔T19 0143c04〕, the lighter and heavier hells, then the ghosts, the animals, the humans, the immortals, and the six heavens of desire, answering in sum 「自妄所招，還自來受」—“summoned by one’s own falsity, one comes back oneself to undergo them” 〔T19 0145b07〕, and the fascicle ends at 「如是六天，形雖出動，心跡尚交。自此已還，名為欲界」—“these six heavens, though in form they have come out of movement, in the traces of the mind still cross. From here downward is called the realm of desire” 〔T19 0146a02〕. This edition takes ‘the fifty-five stages’ as the fascicle’s title; the words are taken from the base text’s own 「五十五位真菩提路」—“the fifty-five stages of the true path of bodhi” 〔T19 0142c26〕 in this fascicle; the asuras, the realm of form, and the formless realm are told from Fascicle Nine on.

Fascicle Nine follows the six heavens of desire. The Buddha goes on to the realm of form: 「阿難！世間一切所修心人，不假禪那，無有智慧」—“Ānanda! All those in the world who cultivate the mind, if they do not rely on dhyāna, have no wisdom” 〔T19 0146a12〕; from the first dhyāna to the fourth, with the five heavens of no return, eighteen heavens in all, 「是十八天獨行無交，未盡形累。自此已還名為色界」—“these eighteen heavens go alone without mingling, but have not exhausted the burden of form. From here downward is called the realm of form” 〔T19 0146c04〕; then the four heavens of the formless realm, with the two kinds of arhats, those who turn their minds and those who do not, 「是四空天身心滅盡，定性現前，無業果色，從此逮終，名無色界」—“in these four heavens of formlessness body and mind are extinguished to the end, the nature of concentration appears, and there is no form as the fruit of deeds; from here to the finish is called the formless realm” 〔T19 0146c21〕; then the four kinds of asuras. With this the seven destinies are told to the end, and the Buddha sums them up: 「精研七趣，皆是昏沈諸有為想」—“when the seven destinies are finely examined, they are all dim and heavy conditioned thoughts” 〔T19 0147a06〕, warns that one 「要除三惑」—“must remove the three delusions” 〔T19 0147a16〕, and closes with 「作是說者，名為正說；若他說者，即魔王說」—“one who speaks thus is called one who speaks rightly; if one speaks otherwise, it is the speech of the Māra kings” 〔T19 0147a19〕. Then 「即時如來將罷法座，於師子床攬七寶机，迴紫金山，再來凭倚」—“at that moment the Tathāgata, about to leave the Dharma seat, on the lion throne took hold of the seven-jeweled armrest, turned his purple-gold mountain of a body, leaned back upon it once more” 〔T19 0147a21〕, and, unasked, speaks of the 「微細魔事」—“subtle doings of Māra” 〔T19 0147a25〕: 「或汝陰魔，或復天魔，或著鬼神，或遭魑魅」—“whether the demons of your aggregates, or again the Māra of the heavens, or possession by ghosts and spirits, or an encounter with mountain-demons” 〔T19 0147a26〕. He first makes clear why the demons arise and how they are subdued, 「成就破亂，由汝心中五陰主人。主人若迷，客得其便」—“that they accomplish their disruption is through the master of the five aggregates within your mind. If the master is deluded, the guest gets its chance” 〔T19 0147b21〕; then come the ten states appearing in dhyāna for each of the aggregates of form, feeling, and perception, the first state laying down the judgment 「不作聖心，名善境界；若作聖解，即受群邪」—“not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one receives the host of deviants” 〔T19 0147c09〕, and the fascicle ends at 「汝等必須將如來語，於我滅後傳示末法，遍令眾生開悟斯義」—“you must take the Tathāgata’s words and, after my extinction, transmit and show them in the final Dharma, so that all beings awaken to this meaning” 〔T19 0151b12〕. This edition takes ‘the demonic states of the aggregates’ as the fascicle’s title; the words are taken from the base text’s own 「或汝陰魔」—“whether the demons of your aggregates” 〔T19 0147a26〕 in this fascicle; the aggregates of formation and of consciousness are told from Fascicle Ten on.

Fascicle Ten follows the aggregate of perception. The Buddha goes on to the aggregate of formation: 「阿難！彼善男子修三摩提想陰盡者，是人平常夢想銷滅，寤寐恒一」—“Ānanda! For that good man who cultivates samādhi and whose aggregate of perception is ended, dreaming and thinking are ordinarily extinguished, and waking and sleeping are constantly one” 〔T19 0151b29〕, up to 「此則名為行陰區宇」—“this is called the domain of the aggregate of formation” 〔T19 0151c07〕; the ten states of the aggregate of formation all arise from calculation, the first being 「於圓元中起計度者，是人墜入二無因論」—“one who gives rise to calculation within the perfect source falls into the two theories of no cause” 〔T19 0151c14〕, and each closes with 「由此計度，亡正遍知，墮落外道，惑菩提性」—“by this calculation one loses Right and Universal Knowledge, falls into the non-Buddhist paths, and is confused about the nature of bodhi” 〔T19 0151c26〕; when the ten are told, the Buddha names them 「十種禪那狂解」—“ten kinds of mad interpretation in dhyāna” 〔T19 0153a25〕 and warns, 「無令心魔自起深㜸」—“do not let the demon of the mind raise up its deep calamity of itself” 〔T19 0153a29〕. Then the aggregate of consciousness: 「此則名為識陰區宇」—“this is called the domain of the aggregate of consciousness” 〔T19 0153b11〕; its ten graspings all arise from a superior understanding, each closing with 「違遠圓通，背涅槃城」—“turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa” 〔T19 0153b22〕, with the warning 「無令見魔自作沈𦾨」—“do not let the demon of views make its own sinking calamity” 〔T19 0154b06〕. With this the fifty states are told to the end, and the Buddha charges, 「汝當恭欽十方如來究竟修進最後垂範」—“you should reverently honor this final model, handed down by the Tathāgatas of the ten directions, for cultivation and advance to the very end” 〔T19 0154b23〕. Ānanda then asks what the five aggregates have as their root, where their boundaries lie, and whether they are dissolved all at once or exhausted in sequence; the Buddha answers that all five have false thought as their root, one false thought for each of form, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness, that of consciousness being 「此湛非真，如急流水，望如恬靜，流急不見，非是無流」—“this limpidity is not the true; it is like swiftly flowing water, which from afar looks still: the flow is swift and unseen, but it is not that there is no flow” 〔T19 0154c28〕; he sums up, 「是五受陰，五妄想成」—“these five aggregates of appropriation are formed by the five false thoughts” 〔T19 0155a04〕, and answers on the boundaries and on sudden and gradual: 「理則頓悟，乘悟併銷；事非頓除，因次第盡」—“in principle, sudden awakening: riding the awakening, all is dissolved together; in fact, not sudden removal: by sequence it is exhausted” 〔T19 0155a08〕. At the end the benefit of the sūtra is shown by comparison with an offering of the seven jewels, and the assembly 「皆大歡喜，作禮而去」—“all greatly rejoiced, bowed, and withdrew” 〔T19 0155b02〕, and the whole sūtra ends. This edition takes ‘the five false thoughts’ as the fascicle’s title; the words are taken from the base text’s own 「是五受陰，五妄想成」—“these five aggregates of appropriation are formed by the five false thoughts” 〔T19 0155a04〕 in this fascicle.

IV. The Mirror and the Old Commentaries

This edition takes Zixuan of Changshui’s Commentary on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra with Annotated Text (no. 1799 in volume 39 of the Taishō canon, twenty fascicles) as its mirror: the closing section of the Exposition, Carrying Forward, anchors to it; the first topic of the Apparatus divides sections by its outline; the third and fourth topics record its explanations section by section. Zixuan usually cites the sūtra in abbreviated form, and the twenty fascicles of the commentary do not correspond fascicle for fascicle to the ten of the sūtra; in carrying the mirror forward, this edition goes by page anchors, not by fascicle correspondence. Zixuan does not explain the two prefaces, and for these two sections the Apparatus sets the fixed sentence ‘Zixuan’s commentary does not gloss the prefaces’. Jiaoguang Zhenjian’s 《楞嚴經正脈疏》 The True Vein Commentary on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra (no. 275 in volume 12 of the Wan Supplement to the Canon) is recorded by title only, and this edition does not cite it; the commentaries of Hanshan, Ouyi, and others are not included.

V. The Translation Event and the Lines We Hold

On the translation of this sūtra, two Tang catalogues record different things. The 《開元釋教錄》 Kaiyuan Catalogue of the Buddhist Teachings lists 「大佛頂如來密因脩證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經十卷」—“the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Secret Cause, Cultivation and Realization of the Complete Meaning, and the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, Called Śūraṅgama, in ten fascicles” 〔T55n2154 0571c14〕, and beneath it records that the śramaṇa Huaidi 「後因遊廣府遇一梵僧」—“later, traveling to Guangfu, met an Indian monk” 〔T55n2154 0571c22〕 「未得其名」—“whose name is not known” 〔T55n2154 0571c23〕, who 「齎梵經一夾請共譯之。勒成十卷。即大佛頂萬行首楞嚴經是也」—“brought one bundle of Indian scripture and asked to translate it together. It was set down in ten fascicles. This is the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama” 〔T55n2154 0571c23〕; its register of the canon has 「大唐循州沙門懷迪共梵僧於廣州譯」—“translated at Guangzhou by the śramaṇa Huaidi of Xunzhou of the Great Tang together with an Indian monk” 〔T55n2154 0603a23〕, and it does not record the names of Pramiti, Fang Rong, or Meghaśikha. The 《貞元新定釋教目錄》 Zhenyuan Newly Settled Catalogue of the Buddhist Teachings instead records 「沙門般剌蜜帝。唐云極重。中印度人也」—“The śramaṇa Pramiti. In the Tang tongue, ‘Utmost Weight’. A man of Central India” 〔T55n2157 0874a16〕, and 「以神龍元年龍集乙巳五月乙卯二十三日辛丑。遂於灌頂部中誦出一品譯成十卷」—“In the first year of Shenlong, the year yisi, in the fifth month, yimao, on the twenty-third day, xinchou, he then recited from within the Consecration Section one chapter and translated it into ten fascicles” 〔T55n2157 0874a20〕, with Meghaśikha rendering into Chinese, Fang Rong taking it down, and Huaidi verifying the translation, which corresponds to the attribution at the head of the base text’s fascicle. This edition records both catalogues side by side and does not judge between them; the long debate over authenticity does not enter the five layers and does not enter the reader’s page.

The characters of the base text are not altered; variant readings are recorded side by side without judgment; verbatim quotations use double corner brackets with page anchors, and present-day phrasing uses single corner brackets; the body of the Exposition does not make a commentary’s name its subject, and Zixuan’s name belongs to the Apparatus and to Carrying Forward; the Essentials quote only the sūtra verbatim; no modern scholar is cited, and Sanskrit forms follow only what the ancient masters transmitted; the divine spell of Fascicle Seven is recorded as it stands and not translated, with no Sanskrit reconstruction. Doubts go to the open questions and do not enter the reader’s page as verdicts.