楞嚴經 白話全本The Śūraṅgama Sūtra · Complete Vernacular

Xu Dong of the Song, Preface to the Newly Printed Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and the śramaṇa Zupai, Preface to the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, appended at the head of the scroll in the Taishō canon, T19n0945; the Korean recension does not have them. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔1 · Preface to the Newly Printed Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama Sūtra (Xu Dong)〕（0105b25）The preface is titled “Preface to the Newly Printed Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama Sūtra”, and signed “Composed by Xu Dong, former Prefectural Judge of the Xiongwu Army Military Commission”—composed by Xu Dong, formerly Prefectural Judge under the Military Commissioner of the Xiongwu Army. This Śūraṅgama Sūtra gathers up the pivot of the myriad practices of all buddhas. It penetrates the hidden and sees through the subtle, and is not something the two vehicles can fathom; it opens up things and accomplishes affairs, and is what the bodhisattvas of the ten grounds take as their source. Its words wind yet reach through; its purport is hidden yet flows clear. It enters the domain of the utmost wonder and passes beyond the appearance of the unborn; its sound rings out and its bearing is vast, so that all kinds of beings are transformed in its wake—exhausting the mysterious and surpassing the sagely realm, it lies, perhaps, in this very sūtra! From this we know: the virtue of great harmony has no partiality, so that even in dark places it surely warms; the working of the utmost spirit leaves no trace, so that even in subtle places it surely penetrates; the efficacy of the mysterious and wondrous has no master, so that even in distant places it surely reaches. All this is because the mind has cut off the conditioned, and the great chiliocosm is illumined together; the path has ascended to non-action, and the response to utmost sincerity surely reaches through.

〔1 · Preface to the Newly Printed Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama Sūtra (Xu Dong)〕（0105c07）The Tathāgata held that this sūtra could rouse the minds of the multitude of beings and open up and settle buddha-nature, and so he gathered the great assembly in the city of Śrāvastī, where gods, dragons, ghosts, and spirits together bathed in this teaching. Ah! The three realms are formed through the five desires, and so Mātaṅgī’s display of lust is made the beginning that sets forth the sūtra’s theme; beings arise through the entanglement of craving, and so Ānanda’s breaking of delusion is made the foundation for accomplishing the path. Therefore, when it speaks of having mind, it gathers it in by no-mind; in pitying what has birth, it leads on by the unborn; in speaking of having characteristics, it takes the breaking of all realms of form as its principle; in pointing to what has action, it takes the departure from all afflictions as its joy—this is awakening to the false and returning to the true. As for its listing of the causes and effects of the thirty-six hells and the conditions and actions of the ten kinds of ghosts and ten classes of beings, this is being deluded about the true and giving rise to the false. Without understanding true reality, there is no way to kindle the mind of bodhi; without breaking the false dusts, there is no way to awaken to the nature of beings. This Dharma is subtle and wondrous, and those who know it are already few; one who can probe it deeply and also spread its benefit widely through the world—I have seen him… [the sentence in the base text stops here]

〔2 · Preface to the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama (Śramaṇa Zupai)〕（0105c21）The preface is titled “Preface to the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama”, and signed “Set forth by the śramaṇa Zupai of Quannan under the Zhao Song”—set forth by Zupai, a śramaṇa of Quannan in the time of the Zhao Song. With utmost mind I take refuge and pay homage: namo the Śūraṅgama King, the crown-mark that cannot be seen! It perfects the Tathāgata’s secret cause and fulfills the bodhisattvas’ myriad practices; it is the road of true cultivation and the gate of wondrous realization and entry; through it the meaning of the Great Vehicle becomes clear and evident, and through it all matters are ultimately and perfectly accomplished. Ever since the summer retreat in the Jeta Grove came to its end and the sagely king invited the Buddha to a meal, the purple-golden mass of light has shone through the ten directions, and the immortal voice like the kalaviṅka’s has spread through the Dharma realm; bodhisattvas as many as the sands of the Ganges all came to inquire and resolve the doubts in their minds, and the rulers and ministers of the whole kingdom all gathered, wishing to hear the essentials of the Dharma. The teaching arises from conditions—Ānanda was sunk in a house of lust; the path relies on people to spread it—Mañjuśrī received the command to proclaim the secret spell.

〔2 · Preface to the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama (Śramaṇa Zupai)〕（0106a01）From this there is seeking the mind in seven places, revealing that it is wholly false, while the nature is fundamentally pure and originally bright; there is revealing seeing through the eight returns, revealing the original true awakening, perfect and constantly abiding. It marks the root of delusion and awakening, so that the icchantikas break down the mleccha; it points out the frenzied toil of shared portion and individual action, so that the icchantika shatters the cluster of akṣa seeds. Pūrṇa, attached to characteristics, challenges the nature, yet the four conditions are originally recorded within sameness and difference; Prasenajit, deluded about annihilation, takes it for permanence, yet the single thought originally has no arising and ceasing. The wondrous bright substance of awakening is neither causes, nor conditions, nor spontaneous; the essential true source of seeing is neither joined, nor blended, nor apart-or-identical. Even the six faculties, being false, are none other than the wondrous mind of bodhi; the seven elements, pervading everywhere, are wholly the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. When the three conditions are forever cut off, one is no longer deluded about the head reflected in the mirror; once the two meanings are clear, one suddenly awakens to the jewel tied within the garment. Where the golden bell is struck, the sound ceases yet the nature of hearing does not itself perish; when the flowered cloth is knotted, the six knots are untied and forgotten, and even the one cannot be found.

〔2 · Preface to the Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama (Śramaṇa Zupai)〕（0106a11）It is like a heavenly king granting a house, and the twenty-five sages each set out their gate of awakening and entry; like a distant traveler wandering abroad, and multitudes as many as the sands of ten rivers all come to know the road of return. The Buddha bade Mañjuśrī choose: whose fits the capacity best? He designated Avalokiteśvara’s perfect penetration, for truly it is from this gate that one enters. How much more so the three trainings without outflows, which are truly the vital key of cultivation; and the four pure disciplines, which may truly be called the bright instruction to be upheld. One who wishes to recite and hold the secret verses must adorn a pure altar; boundless accumulated actions all melt like ice, and all that is sought bears fruit as wished. Again it discloses the three gates of gradual progress, which is the pattern of the former buddhas; it establishes the five-part title, to serve as eyes for those to come. It is precisely through the two kinds of inversion that the twelve classes of beings are formed, pass through the cycling of the seven destinies, and are interwoven with the five layers of turbidity. Then he turned and released a thousand lights and held up the seven-jeweled couch, deeply pitying those who indulge the guest and lose the host, and keenly mindful of those who take a thief for their own son. When the washing of the mind is not right, the fifty demonic states appear before one; when the edge of awakening enters into convergence, the forty-four sagely minds are surpassed. Thereafter Ānanda reverently received the wondrous instruction, the Capable and Humane One sent forth his true compassion, and the false source of the five aggregates was fathomed, surpassing an offering of the treasures of the ten directions. When a poor man gives seven coins in alms, he still gains the reward of a wheel-turning king; when a practitioner, in a single thought, causes it to circulate, he will surely ascend to the fruit of buddhahood. This profound scripture of the true vehicle, this numinous text of secret letters, is the most profound Dharma-collection of “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 of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. The preface division has two parts: the attestation, which records the time and place of the discourse and the assembly who heard it together; and the particular preface, which records Ānanda meeting with peril while begging for food, the Tathāgata releasing light and speaking a spell, and his sending Mañjuśrī to take the spell and go to protect him. The main division opens with Ānanda, in grief and remorse, asking to cultivate samādhi; the World-Honored One first examines his first resolve, asking him with what he saw and who it was that loved and delighted, and thereupon comes seeking the mind in seven places—inside the body, outside the body, hidden in the faculty, seeing within, wherever it joins, in between, and attached to nothing—seven times Ānanda sets up a location for the mind, and seven times each is refuted. Thereafter Ānanda extends his petition, the Tathāgata shows auspicious signs, and the World-Honored One discloses the two roots, raises his fist to question him, rebukes the mind that is able to infer as not the true mind, and shows the shadow-matter of discrimination of the dusts before one; next he refutes false seeing and clarifies true seeing, and through the examples of a blind person seeing darkness and of lamp-seeing and eye-seeing, teaches that the nature of seeing is the mind, not the eye; then, through the two meanings of guest-dust, the opening and closing of the hand, and the moving of the head, he gives an extended explanation by way of the characteristics, concluding with a rebuke that beings take what moves as their body and what moves as their objects. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translators’ Attribution〕（0106b02）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle One; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translators’ attribution runs to three lines. The first line: “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.”—in the first year of Shenlong of the Great Tang, the year being yisi, with the first day of the fifth month falling on jimao, on the twenty-third day, xinchou, the śramaṇa Pramiti of Central India translated it at the Zhizhi Monastery in Guangzhou. The second line: “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.”—Fang Rong, a disciple who had received the bodhisattva precepts, formerly Grand Master of Remonstrance and Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery, a man of Qinghe, took down the text in writing. The third line: “Rendered into Chinese by the śramaṇa Meghaśikha of the kingdom of Uḍḍiyāna.”—Meghaśikha, a śramaṇa of the kingdom of Uḍḍiyāna, interpreted the language. The Taishō head-notes to this fascicle record variant readings of the attribution in the Song, Yuan, and Ming recensions (see the apparatus).

〔1 · Attestation〕（0106b12）Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was dwelling at the Jeta Grove in the city of Śrāvastī, together with a great assembly of bhikṣus, one thousand two hundred and fifty in all. They were all great arhats already without outflows—sons of the Buddha who uphold and maintain the Buddha’s Dharma, well able to transcend all states of existence, able to perfect their deportment in every land; following the Buddha in turning the Dharma wheel, worthy to receive the Buddha’s bequest, strictly and purely keeping the vinaya, serving as a vast model for the three realms; their response-bodies were countless, liberating beings, rescuing those of the future, transcending all the entanglements of the dusts.—Their names were: Śāriputra of great wisdom, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākauṣṭhila, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, Subhūti, Upaniṣad, and others, who were the foremost. There were also countless pratyekabuddhas and sages beyond training, together with those who had first resolved, who all came together to where the Buddha was.

〔2 · The Particular Preface〕（0106b20）It was just at the time when the bhikṣus, having completed the summer retreat, were holding the pravāraṇā; bodhisattvas from the ten directions had come asking to resolve the doubts in their minds, respectfully serving the Buddha’s compassionate majesty, about to seek the secret meaning. At that time the Tathāgata spread out his seat and sat at ease in meditation, proclaiming the profound Dharma for those in the assembly. The pure assembly at the Dharma banquet obtained a benefit of the Dharma never had before; the immortal, wondrous voice, like that of the kalaviṅka bird, reached throughout the worlds of the ten directions. Bodhisattvas as many as the sands of the Ganges came and gathered at the bodhimaṇḍa, with Mañjuśrī as the foremost.

〔2 · The Particular Preface〕（0106b24）At that time King Prasenajit, for the memorial day of his father the king, prepared a meal offering and invited the Buddha to the palace. He himself welcomed the Tathāgata, laying out a wide array of rare delicacies and unsurpassed wondrous flavors, and also personally invited the great bodhisattvas. In the city there were also elders and householders who at the same time were offering meals to the saṅgha, waiting for the Buddha to come and receive their offerings. The Buddha bade Mañjuśrī lead the bodhisattvas and arhats in separate groups to accept the invitations of the various meal hosts. Only Ānanda, having earlier accepted a separate invitation, had gone far away and not yet returned, and so did not reach the saṅgha’s order of invitation. He had neither a senior monk nor an ācārya with him, and was returning alone on the road; that day he had received no offering. So Ānanda took up his alms vessel of proper measure and, in the city he was passing through, begged for food from house to house in order. In his mind he had at first wished to seek a last donor to be his meal host, without asking whether pure or impure, and without regard to whether of the honored kṣatriya caste or a caṇḍāla. He meant precisely to practice the compassion of equality, not choosing against the humble and lowly, resolving to bring to perfection the immeasurable merit of all beings. Ānanda already knew that the Tathāgata, the World-Honored One, had rebuked Subhūti and Mahākāśyapa for being arhats whose minds were not even; he revered the Tathāgata’s opening of the way without barriers, which delivers people from all doubts and slanders. He passed the moat of that city and walked slowly to the outer city gate, his deportment dignified and in order, reverently keeping the rule of begging for food.

〔2 · The Particular Preface〕（0106c09）At that time Ānanda, on account of begging for food, passed by a house of lust and encountered the woman Mātaṅgī, versed in great illusory arts. Using the Kapila spell of the Former Brahmā, she drew Ānanda onto the bed of lust and caressed him with her lustful body, about to destroy the substance of his precepts. The Tathāgata knew that Ānanda had been subjected to the arts of lust; when the meal was finished he returned at once. The king and his great ministers, the elders and householders, all came along with the Buddha, wishing to hear the essentials of the Dharma. Then from the crown of the World-Honored One’s head there issued a fearless light of a hundred jewels; within the light arose a jeweled lotus of a thousand petals, and on the lotus was a transformation body of the Buddha seated with legs crossed, proclaiming a divine spell. The Buddha bade Mañjuśrī take the divine spell and go to protect him; the evil spell was dispelled, and Mañjuśrī raised up and encouraged Ānanda and Mātaṅgī, and together they returned to where the Buddha was.

〔3 · Ānanda in Grief Asks to Cultivate Samādhi; the Buddha Examines His First Resolve, Exposes His Error, Urges Straight Speech, and Asks About His Seeing and Love〕（0106c16）When Ānanda saw the Buddha, he bowed his head to the ground and wept in grief, regretting that from beginningless time he had sought only much learning and the power of his path was not yet complete; he earnestly requested the very first expedient of the wondrous śamatha, samāpatti, and dhyāna by which the tathāgatas of the ten directions attained bodhi. At that time there were also bodhisattvas as many as the sands of the Ganges, as well as the great arhats and pratyekabuddhas of the ten directions and others, who all wished to hear. They withdrew to their seats and sat in silence, receiving the sagely intent.

〔3 · Ānanda in Grief Asks to Cultivate Samādhi; the Buddha Examines His First Resolve, Exposes His Error, Urges Straight Speech, and Asks About His Seeing and Love〕（0106c21）‘Examining his first resolve’—The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You and I share the same blood and breath; our bond is equal to that of natural kin. When you first resolved, what surpassing marks did you see in my Dharma, that you could at once cast off the world’s deep love and affection?’ Ānanda answered the Buddha: ‘I saw that the Tathāgata’s thirty-two marks were surpassing, wondrous, and beyond compare, his form translucent, like beryl. I often thought to myself: ‘Such marks are not born of desire and love. Why? The breath of desire and love is coarse and turbid; foul smells mingle in union, pus and blood are in confusion; it could not give rise to such a surpassing, pure, wondrous and bright purple-golden mass of light.’ Therefore I thirsted with longing, and followed the Buddha, shaving my head and leaving home.’

〔3 · Ānanda in Grief Asks to Cultivate Samādhi; the Buddha Examines His First Resolve, Exposes His Error, Urges Straight Speech, and Asks About His Seeing and Love〕（0106c27）‘Exposing his error’—The Buddha said: ‘Excellent, Ānanda! You should all know: that all beings from beginningless time continue in birth and death is all because they do not know the constantly abiding true mind, the substance whose nature is pure and bright, and use instead all kinds of false thinking; this thinking is not true, and so there is turning on the wheel.

〔3 · Ānanda in Grief Asks to Cultivate Samādhi; the Buddha Examines His First Resolve, Exposes His Error, Urges Straight Speech, and Asks About His Seeing and Love〕（0107a01）‘Urging straight speech’—‘Now that you wish to investigate the nature of unsurpassed bodhi in its true discovery, you should answer what I ask with a straight mind. The tathāgatas of the ten directions are of one and the same path, and so in leaving birth and death they all use the straight mind. Because mind and speech are both straight, so it is, even through all the stages from beginning to end, that in between there are never any marks of crookedness.

〔3 · Ānanda in Grief Asks to Cultivate Samādhi; the Buddha Examines His First Resolve, Exposes His Error, Urges Straight Speech, and Asks About His Seeing and Love〕（0107a04）‘Asking about his seeing and love’—‘Ānanda! I now ask you: when you resolved, taking the Tathāgata’s thirty-two marks as your object, with what did you see? And who was it that loved and delighted?’ Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Such love and delight came by way of my mind and eyes. The eyes beheld the Tathāgata’s surpassing marks, and in the mind love and delight arose; therefore I resolved, wishing to cast off birth and death.’

〔4 · Refuting: Inside the Body〕（0107a07）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘As you say, the true love and delight arise from the mind and eyes. If one does not recognize and know where the mind and eyes are, one cannot subdue the toils of the dusts. It is like a king invaded by bandits who sends out troops to suppress and drive them out; these troops must first know where the bandits are. What makes you flow and turn is the fault of the mind and eyes; I now ask you: as for the mind and eyes alone, where are they now?’ Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! All the ten kinds of beings in the world place the cognizing mind within the body; even when I look at the Tathāgata’s blue-lotus eyes, they too are on the Buddha’s face. Now as I look at these four dusts of the floating faculty, they are only on my face; this being so, the cognizing mind truly dwells within the body.’

〔4 · Refuting: Inside the Body〕（0107a16）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Now you are sitting in the Tathāgata’s lecture hall, looking at the Jeta Grove; where is it now?’ ‘World-Honored One! This great, multistoried, pure lecture hall is in the Park of Anāthapiṇḍada, and the Jeta Grove is now indeed outside the hall.’ ‘Ānanda! Now that you are in the hall, what do you see first?’ ‘World-Honored One! In the hall I first see the Tathāgata, next I look at the great assembly, and looking outward in this way, I then see the grove and park.’ ‘Ānanda! When you see the grove and park, through what are you able to see?’ ‘World-Honored One! The doors and windows of this great lecture hall are thrown open, so that from within the hall I can see far off.’

〔4 · Refuting: Inside the Body〕（0107a22）At that time the World-Honored One, in the midst of the great assembly, extended his golden arm and stroked Ānanda’s crown, and announced to Ānanda and the great assembly: ‘There is a samādhi called the Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama King, complete with the myriad practices; it is the path of wondrous adornment by which the tathāgatas of the ten directions transcend through a single gate. Now listen carefully!’ Ānanda bowed his head to the ground and, prostrate, received the compassionate instruction.

〔4 · Refuting: Inside the Body〕（0107a26）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Just as you said: ‘The body is in the lecture hall; the doors and windows are thrown open, and one sees the grove and park far off.’ Yet are there also beings who, in this hall, do not see the Tathāgata but see what is outside the hall?’ Ānanda answered: ‘World-Honored One! To be in the hall without seeing the Tathāgata and yet to see the groves and springs—there is no such case.’ ‘Ānanda! You too are like this. The spirit of your mind is clearly aware of everything; if this present clearly aware mind of yours were truly within the body, then at that time it ought first to know clearly what is within the body. Are there beings who first see within the body and only afterward look at things outside? Even if they do not see the heart, liver, spleen, and stomach, the growth of the nails, the lengthening of the hair, the turning of the sinews, and the pulsing of the veins ought indeed to be clearly known; why are they not known? Since it certainly cannot know what is within, how could it know what is without? Therefore you should know: as for your saying, ‘The mind that is aware and able to know dwells within the body’—there is no such case.’

〔5 · Refuting: Outside the Body〕（0107b06）Ānanda bowed his head and said to the Buddha: ‘Hearing such a Dharma sound from the Tathāgata, I realize that my mind truly dwells outside the body. Why? It is like a lamp lit within a room: this lamp must first illumine the inside of the room, and only then shine from the room’s door into the courtyard. All beings do not see within the body and see only what is outside, which is just like a lamp’s light being outside the room and unable to illumine its inside. This principle is surely clear and should leave no doubt; it is the same as the Buddha’s complete meaning—it cannot be mistaken, can it?’

〔5 · Refuting: Outside the Body〕（0107b12）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘These bhikṣus just now followed me to beg for balls of food in order in the city of Śrāvastī, and have returned to the Jeta Grove. I have already finished my meal. Consider: when one of the bhikṣus eats, are all the others full?’ Ānanda answered: ‘No, World-Honored One! Why? Although these bhikṣus are all arhats, their bodily lives are each different; how could one person’s eating make everyone full?’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘If your mind of aware knowing and seeing were truly outside the body, body and mind would be separated, each outside the other, and naturally would have nothing to do with each other. Then what the mind knows the body could not feel, and what is felt at the body the mind could not know. Now I show you my tūla-cotton hand; when your eyes see it, does your mind discriminate it?’ Ānanda answered: ‘Yes, World-Honored One!’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘If body and mind know each other, how can you say it is outside? Therefore you should know: as for your saying, ‘The mind that is aware and able to know dwells outside the body’—there is no such case.’

〔6 · Refuting: Hidden in the Faculty〕（0107b22）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Just as the Buddha said: ‘Because it does not see within, it does not dwell within the body; because body and mind know each other and are not separate, it is not outside the body.’ I now reflect and know that it is in one place.’ The Buddha said: ‘Where is that place now?’ Ānanda said: ‘This mind that knows, since it does not know within yet can see without, as I consider it, lies hidden in the faculty. It is like a person who takes beryl bowls and covers both eyes with them; although something covers them, they do not obstruct; as the faculty sees, it at once discriminates. That this mind of mine that is aware and able to know does not see within is because it is in the faculty; that it clearly sees outside without obstruction is because it is hidden within the faculty.’

〔6 · Refuting: Hidden in the Faculty〕（0107c01）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘As you say, ‘it is hidden within the faculty, like beryl’: when that person covers his eyes with beryl and is looking at mountains and rivers, does he see the beryl?’ ‘Yes, World-Honored One! When this person covers his eyes with beryl, he does indeed see the beryl.’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘If your mind is like beryl covering the eyes, then when you are looking at mountains and rivers, why do you not see your eyes? If you see your eyes, the eyes are the same as the outer objects seen, and you cannot say that discrimination follows the faculty; if you do not see them, how can you say, ‘This mind that knows is hidden within the faculty, like beryl covering the eyes’? Therefore you should know: as for your saying, ‘The mind that is aware and able to know lies hidden in the faculty, like beryl covering the eyes’—there is no such case.’

〔7 · Refuting: Seeing Within〕（0107c09）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Now I again reflect in this way: ‘In the bodies of these beings, the organs are in the middle and the openings are on the outside; where there are organs it is dark, and where there are openings it is bright.’ Now, facing the Buddha, I open my eyes and see brightness, and call it seeing outside; I close my eyes and see darkness, and call it seeing within. How is this principle?’

〔7 · Refuting: Seeing Within〕（0107c13）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘When you close your eyes and see darkness, does this realm of darkness face the eyes, or does it not face the eyes? If it faces the eyes, the darkness is before the eyes; how does it become within? If this too counts as becoming within, then when you dwell in a dark room without the light of sun, moon, or lamp, is the darkness in this room all your inner organs? If it does not face them, how does it become seeing? If you say: apart from seeing outward, it is formed by facing inward; closing the eyes and seeing darkness is called seeing within the body—then when you open your eyes and see brightness, why do you not see your own face? If you do not see your face, facing inward cannot be established. If seeing your face can be established, this mind that knows and the eye faculty are in empty space; how are they within? If they are in empty space, naturally they are not your body; then the Tathāgata, now seeing your face, should also be your body. Since your eyes already know, the body should have no awareness. If you insist that both body and eyes have awareness, there should be two knowings, and then your one body should become two buddhas! Therefore you should know: as for your saying, ‘Seeing darkness is called seeing within’—there is no such case.’

〔8 · Refuting: Wherever It Joins〕（0107c23）Ānanda said: ‘I have often heard the Buddha instruct the fourfold assembly: ‘Because mind arises, all kinds of dharmas arise; because dharmas arise, all kinds of minds arise.’ I now reflect: ‘The very substance of this reflecting is truly my mind-nature; wherever it joins, there the mind accordingly exists; nor is it in the three places of inside, outside, or in between.’’

〔8 · Refuting: Wherever It Joins〕（0107c27）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You now say, ‘Because dharmas arise, all kinds of minds arise; wherever it joins, there the mind accordingly exists.’ If this mind has no substance, there is nothing it can join; if without substance it could join, then a nineteenth realm would join through a seventh dust—this principle cannot be established. If it has substance, then when you pinch your own body with your hand, does your mind that knows come out from within, or enter from without? If it comes out from within, it should again see within the body; if it comes from without, it should first see your own face.’

〔8 · Refuting: Wherever It Joins〕（0108a04）Ānanda said: ‘Seeing is the business of the eyes; the mind knows and is not the eyes; to say that the mind sees does not make sense.’ The Buddha said: ‘If the eyes could see, when you are in a room, can the door see? Then those who have already died, still having eyes, should all see things; if they see things, how are they called dead? Ānanda! Moreover, if your mind that is aware and able to know must have a substance, is it one substance, or many substances? Now that it is in your body, does it pervade the whole body, or not pervade the whole body? If it is one substance, then when you pinch one limb with your hand, all four limbs should feel it; if all four limbs feel it, the place pinched should have no fixed location; if the place pinched does have a fixed location, then your claim of one substance naturally cannot be established. If it is many substances, it becomes many persons; which substance is you? If it pervades the whole body, it is the same as the case of pinching above; if it does not pervade, then when you touch the head and also touch the foot, if the head feels it, the foot should know nothing. Yet now you are not like this. Therefore you should know: ‘Wherever it joins, there the mind accordingly exists’—there is no such case.’

〔9 · Refuting: In Between〕（0108a15）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! I have also heard that when the Buddha was discussing true reality with Mañjuśrī and the other Dharma princes, the World-Honored One also said: ‘The mind is not within, nor is it without.’ As I reflect: ‘Within, it sees nothing; without, they do not know each other. Because within there is no knowing, being within cannot be established; because body and mind know each other, being without does not make sense. Now since they know each other, and within there is nothing seen, it ought to be in between.’’

〔9 · Refuting: In Between〕（0108a20）The Buddha said: ‘You say in between; this in between must be unconfused, not without a location. Now you seek the in between; where is the in between? Is it in some place? Or is it in the body? If it is in the body, at the edge it is not the middle, and in the middle it is the same as within. If it is in some place, is it marked? Or unmarked? If unmarked, it is the same as not existing; if marked, it has no fixed standard. Why? Suppose someone uses a marker to mark the middle; seen from the east it becomes west, seen from the south it becomes north. Since the substance of the marker is already confused, the mind too should be in disorder, should it not?’

〔9 · Refuting: In Between〕（0108a26）Ānanda said: ‘The in between I speak of is not these two kinds. It is as the World-Honored One said: ‘The eye and form are conditions that give rise to eye-consciousness.’ The eye discriminates, the dust of form has no knowing, and consciousness arises between them; this is where the mind is.’ The Buddha said: ‘If your mind is between the faculty and the dust, does this mind-substance combine both faculty and dust, or not combine both? If it combines both, things and substance are confused: the things faced have no knowing, while what knows is the substance of the faculty; the two stand opposed side by side; how does it become the middle? Combining both cannot be established; if it does not combine both, then it is neither knowing nor not knowing, and so has no substantial nature; what then would serve as the characteristic of the in between? Therefore you should know: ‘It ought to be in between’—there is no such case.’

〔10 · Refuting: Attached to Nothing〕（0108b04）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Formerly I saw the Buddha turning the Dharma wheel together with the four great disciples Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Subhūti, Pūrṇa, and Śāriputra, and he often said: ‘The nature of the mind that is aware, knows, and discriminates is neither within, nor without, nor in between; it is nowhere at all; to be attached to nothing at all is called mind.’ Then if I am attached to nothing, can that be called mind?’

〔10 · Refuting: Attached to Nothing〕（0108b09）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You say, ‘The nature of the mind that is aware, knows, and discriminates is nowhere at all’; the various phenomena of the world—empty space, the waters, the land, and what flies—are called everything; does your mind that is not attached exist, or not? If it does not exist, it is the same as a tortoise’s hair or a hare’s horn; what then is it that is not attached? If there is a mind that is not attached, it cannot be called nonexistent. To be without characteristics is nonexistence; not to be nonexistent is to have characteristics; to have characteristics is to exist; how can you say attached to nothing? Therefore you should know: ‘To be attached to nothing at all is called the aware and knowing mind’—there is no such case.’

〔11 · Ānanda’s Petition; the Tathāgata Shows Auspicious Signs〕（0108b15）At that time Ānanda, in the midst of the great assembly, at once rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, knelt on his right knee, joined his palms respectfully, and said to the Buddha: ‘I am the Tathāgata’s youngest younger brother and have received the Buddha’s compassionate love; although I have now left home, I still rely on the Buddha’s affection, and so I sought only much learning and have not yet realized the absence of outflows; I could not overcome the Kapila spell and was turned by it, sinking in a house of lust. This is because I did not know where the true limit leads. I only pray that the World-Honored One, in great compassion and pity, will disclose to us the path of śamatha, so that the icchantikas may destroy the mleccha!’ Having spoken these words, he cast all five limbs to the ground. The great assembly too, all with hearts inclined and thirsting, gazed up expectantly, respectfully waiting to hear the disclosure and teaching.

〔11 · Ānanda’s Petition; the Tathāgata Shows Auspicious Signs〕（0108b23）At that time the World-Honored One released all kinds of light from his face, that light dazzling like hundreds of thousands of suns; throughout all the buddha-worlds there were six kinds of quaking. In this way lands as many as the motes of dust in the ten directions were revealed at once; the Buddha’s majestic spirit caused all the worlds to merge into one world. All the great bodhisattvas in that world remained in their own lands, joined their palms, and listened.

〔12 · The Direct Disclosure〕（0108b28）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘All beings, from beginningless time, through all kinds of inversion, have the seeds of action form of themselves, like a cluster of akṣa seeds. Practitioners who cannot accomplish unsurpassed bodhi, and even become śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas apart from it, or become outsiders, gods, demon kings, and the retinues of demons, all do so because they do not know the two roots and practice in error and confusion; it is like cooking sand in hopes of making a fine meal—though one passes through kalpas as many as dust motes, one can never obtain it. What are the two? Ānanda! The first is the root of beginningless birth and death, which is what you now and all beings take as self-nature: the grasping mind. The second is the originally pure substance of beginningless bodhi and nirvāṇa, which is your present essence of consciousness, originally bright, which can produce all conditions and is lost by those conditions. Because beings have lost this original brightness, though they use it all day long they are not aware of it, and wrongly enter the destinies.

〔12 · The Direct Disclosure〕（0108c09）‘Ānanda! Now you wish to know the path of śamatha, wishing to leave birth and death; now I ask you again!’ At once the Tathāgata raised his golden arm, bent his five wheel-marked fingers, and said to Ānanda: ‘Do you see now?’ Ānanda said: ‘I see.’ The Buddha said: ‘What do you see?’ Ānanda said: ‘I see the Tathāgata raise his arm and bend his fingers into a fist of light, shining on my mind and eyes.’ The Buddha said: ‘With what do you see?’ Ānanda said: ‘I and the great assembly all see with our eyes.’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Now answer me: the Tathāgata bends his fingers into a fist of light shining on your mind and eyes, and your eyes can see it; then what do you take as the mind that meets the light of my fist?’ Ānanda said: ‘The Tathāgata now questions where the mind is, and I use my mind to infer, investigate exhaustively, and search it out; it is precisely this that is able to infer that I take as the mind.’

〔12 · The Direct Disclosure〕（0108c18）The Buddha said: ‘Tut! Ānanda! This is not your mind!’ Ānanda, startled and at a loss, left his seat, joined his palms, stood, and said to the Buddha: ‘If this is not my mind, what should it be called?’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘This is the false thought-of-characteristics of the dusts before you, which deludes your true nature! Because from beginningless time up to this present life you have taken a thief for your son and lost your original constancy, you undergo turning on the wheel.’

〔12 · The Direct Disclosure〕（0108c22）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! I am the Buddha’s beloved younger brother; because my mind loved the Buddha, it made me leave home. My mind has not only made offerings to the Tathāgata, but even passing through lands as many as the sands of the Ganges, serving all buddhas and good spiritual friends, arousing great courage, carrying out every kind of Dharma task that is difficult to practice—all with this mind; even if I slandered the Dharma and forever regressed from wholesome roots, it would also be because of this mind. If what is thus discovered is not the mind, then I have no mind and am the same as earth and wood; apart from this awareness and knowing there is nothing else at all; why does the Tathāgata say this is not the mind? I am truly alarmed and fearful, and of this great assembly here too there is none who is not in doubt. I only pray that you will bestow your great compassion and disclose this to us who are not yet awakened!’

〔12 · The Direct Disclosure〕（0109a01）At that time the World-Honored One, instructing Ānanda and the great assembly, wished to cause their minds to enter patient acceptance of the unborn. On the lion seat the Buddha stroked Ānanda’s crown and said to him: ‘The Tathāgata always says: all dharmas that arise are manifested by mind alone; all causes and effects, worlds, and dust motes take on substance by depending on mind. Ānanda! If, of all that exists in all the worlds, even down to a blade of grass or a knot of thread, when one traces its root origin, each has a substantial nature; even empty space has a name and appearance; how much more the pure, wondrous, pure and bright mind, which is the nature of all minds—how could it itself have no substance? If you cling to and hold fast to the nature that knows by discriminating and by awareness and contemplation, and insist on taking it as the mind, then this mind ought to have, apart from the activities of all the dusts—forms, scents, tastes, touches, and the rest—a complete nature of its own. Just as you now listen to my Dharma, this is discrimination arising because of sound. Even if you extinguish all seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing and inwardly guard a secluded stillness, it is still the shadow-matter of discrimination of mental objects. I am not ordering you to cling to it as not-mind; only weigh it closely in your mind: if, apart from the dusts before you, there is still a nature that can discriminate, that is truly your mind; if the discriminating nature has no substance apart from the dusts, this is the shadow-matter of discrimination of the dusts before you. The dusts are not constantly abiding; when the dusts change and perish, this mind would be the same as a tortoise’s hair or a hare’s horn, and then your Dharma body would be the same as annihilation; who then would cultivate and realize patient acceptance of the unborn?’ At that time Ānanda and the great assembly fell silent, as if they had lost something.

〔12 · The Direct Disclosure〕（0109a16）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘All those in the world who cultivate and train, though they presently accomplish the nine successive concentrations, cannot exhaust their outflows and become arhats, all because they cling to this false thinking of birth and death and mistake it for the real. So though you have now obtained much learning, you cannot accomplish the sagely fruit.’

〔13 · Refuting False Seeing, Clarifying True Seeing〕（0109a19）When Ānanda heard this, he again grieved and wept, cast his five limbs to the ground, knelt upright with joined palms, and said to the Buddha: ‘Since I followed the Buddha in resolving to leave home, relying on the Buddha’s majestic spirit, I have often thought to myself: ‘I need not toil at practice, thinking that the Tathāgata would bestow samādhi on me.’ I did not know that body and mind fundamentally cannot substitute for each other, and I lost my original mind; although my body left home, my mind did not enter the path, like the destitute son who abandons his father and runs away. Only today do I know: although one has much learning, if one does not practice, it is the same as not hearing, like a person who talks of food and in the end cannot be full. World-Honored One! We are now bound by the two obstructions, truly because we do not know the quiescent and constant nature of mind. I only pray that the Tathāgata will pity us in our destitution and helplessness, disclose the wondrous bright mind, and open my eye of the path!’

〔13 · Refuting False Seeing, Clarifying True Seeing〕（0109a28）At once, from the svastika on his chest, the Tathāgata sent forth a jeweled light; that light was brilliant, with hundreds of thousands of colors; at once it pervaded the universal buddha-worlds of the ten directions, as many as dust motes, pouring over the crowns of all the tathāgatas in all the jeweled lands of the ten directions, and then turned back to Ānanda and the great assembly. The Tathāgata said to Ānanda: ‘I now set up for you the great Dharma banner, and also cause all beings of the ten directions to obtain the wondrous, subtle, secret mind whose nature is pure and bright, and to gain the pure eye.

〔13 · Refuting False Seeing, Clarifying True Seeing〕（0109b03）‘Ānanda! Earlier you answered me that you saw the fist of light; from what does this fist’s light come? How does it become a fist? With what do you see it?’ Ānanda said: ‘Because the Buddha’s whole body is Jambūnada gold, red like a jeweled mountain, born of purity, therefore there is light; I actually see with my eyes; the tips of the five wheel-marked fingers are bent and clenched to show people, therefore there is the appearance of a fist.’

〔13 · Refuting False Seeing, Clarifying True Seeing〕（0109b08）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Today the Tathāgata tells you in words of truth: all who have wisdom attain awakening through similes. Ānanda! Take my fist: without my hand, it would not form my fist; without your eyes, it would not form your seeing. Taking your eye faculty and comparing it with the principle of my fist—is the meaning equal?’ Ānanda said: ‘Yes, World-Honored One! Since without my eyes there would be no forming of my seeing, comparing my eye faculty with the Tathāgata’s fist, the matter and the principle are alike.’

〔13 · Refuting False Seeing, Clarifying True Seeing〕（0109b13）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You say they are alike; this principle is not right. Why? For someone without hands, the fist is altogether gone; but for one without eyes, seeing is not altogether absent. Why do I say so? Try asking a blind person on the road: ‘What do you see?’ That blind person will surely answer you: ‘Now before my eyes I see only darkness, and there is nothing else to look at.’ Observing by this principle, the dusts before him have themselves gone dark; what loss is there to seeing?’

〔13 · Refuting False Seeing, Clarifying True Seeing〕（0109b18）Ānanda said: ‘Those blind people see only darkness before their eyes; how does that count as seeing?’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Those blind people without eyes see only darkness, and people with eyes are in a dark room; are these two kinds of black different, or not different?’ ‘Just so, World-Honored One! When the people in this dark room and that group of blind people are compared, the two blacks have never been different.’ ‘Ānanda! If a person without eyes, seeing entirely black before his eyes, suddenly obtained the light of the eyes and again saw all kinds of forms in the dusts before him, this would be called the eyes seeing; then the person in the dark room, seeing entirely black before his eyes, suddenly obtaining lamplight and also seeing all kinds of forms in the dusts before him, ought to be called the lamp seeing. If it is the lamp that sees, then the lamp, being able to see, would naturally not be called a lamp; moreover, if it is the lamp that looks, what does it have to do with you? Therefore you should know: the lamp can reveal forms, but what sees in this way is the eye, not the lamp; the eye can reveal forms, and such is the nature of seeing: the nature of seeing is the mind, not the eye.’

〔14 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Characteristics〕（0109b28）Although Ānanda had heard these words again, he and the great assembly fell silent in speech, but in their minds they had not yet awakened; still hoping that the Tathāgata would proclaim with his compassionate voice, they joined their palms, cleared their minds, and awaited the Buddha’s compassionate teaching.

〔14 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Characteristics〕（0109c02）At that time the World-Honored One extended his hand of light, web-marked and soft as tūla cotton, opened his five wheel-marked fingers, and admonished and instructed Ānanda and the great assembly: ‘When I first attained the path, in the Deer Park, for the five bhikṣus, including Ājñāta, and for you of the fourfold assembly, I said: ‘All beings fail to accomplish bodhi and arhatship because they are misled by the afflictions of guest-dust.’ Through what did you then awaken, so that you have now accomplished the sagely fruit?’

〔14 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Characteristics〕（0109c07）Then Kauṇḍinya rose and said to the Buddha: ‘I am now an elder, and in the great assembly alone received the name ‘Understanding,’ because I awakened to the two words guest and dust and attained the fruit. World-Honored One! It is like a traveling guest who puts up at an inn, either to lodge or to eat; when the business of lodging and eating is done, he packs his bags and sets out on the road, with no leisure to stay settled; if he were the true host, he would naturally have nowhere to go. I reflected thus: ‘What does not stay is called the guest; what stays is called the host; what does not stay is taken as the meaning of guest.’ Again, it is like when the sky first clears after rain and the clear sunlight rises into the sky; the light enters through a crack and reveals the various appearances of dust in space; the substance of the dust moves and shakes, while space is quiescent and unmoving. I reflected thus: ‘What is clear and still is called space; what moves and shakes is called dust; what moves and shakes is taken as the meaning of dust.’’ The Buddha said: ‘Just so.’

〔14 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Characteristics〕（0109c15）At once the Tathāgata, in the great assembly, bent his five wheel-marked fingers, bending and then opening them, opening and then bending them again, and said to Ānanda: ‘What do you see now?’ Ānanda said: ‘I see the Tathāgata’s palm with its wheel of a hundred jewels opening and closing in the assembly.’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You see my hand opening and closing in the assembly; is it my hand that opens and closes, or is it your seeing that opens and closes?’ Ānanda said: ‘The World-Honored One’s jeweled hand opens and closes in the assembly; what I see is the Tathāgata’s hand itself opening and closing, not my nature of seeing itself opening and closing.’ The Buddha said: ‘Which moves? Which is still?’ Ānanda said: ‘The Buddha’s hand does not stay, while my nature of seeing cannot even be called still—what then is there that does not stay!’ The Buddha said: ‘Just so.’

〔14 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Characteristics〕（0109c22）The Tathāgata then, from within his wheel-marked palm, sent flying a jeweled light that fell to Ānanda’s right, and Ānanda at once turned his head and looked to the right; again he released a light that fell to Ānanda’s left, and Ānanda again turned his head and looked to the left. The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Why does your head move today?’ Ānanda said: ‘I saw the Tathāgata release a wondrous jeweled light that came to my left and right, so I looked left and right, and my head moved of itself.’ ‘Ānanda! When you look at the Buddha’s light and turn your head left and right, is it your head that moves, or is it seeing that moves?’ ‘World-Honored One! It is my head that moves of itself, while my nature of seeing cannot even be called stopped—what then is there that moves!’ The Buddha said: ‘Just so.’

〔14 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Characteristics〕（0110a01）Then the Tathāgata announced to the whole assembly: ‘If beings call what moves and shakes dust and call what does not stay guest, look at Ānanda: his head moves and shakes of itself, while seeing does not move; and look at my hand: it opens and closes of itself, while seeing does not open or furl. Why do you now take what moves as your body and what moves as your objects, from beginning to end arising and perishing thought after thought, losing your true nature and acting in inversion? The nature-mind loses its reality, you take things as yourselves, and within this you cycle on, bringing the flowing and turning upon yourselves!’ The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle One’.

Fascicle Two of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. Carrying on the meaning of ‘seeing does not move’ at the end of Fascicle One, Ānanda and the great assembly wish to hear of the true and the false, the empty and the real, of body and mind, and of what presently arises and perishes and what neither arises nor perishes. King Prasenajit cites the outsiders’ teaching of ‘annihilation after death’ and asks; the World-Honored One questions and answers with him through his seeing of the river, showing that though the face wrinkles the essence of seeing does not wrinkle, and though the body changes the nature of seeing neither arises nor perishes. Thereafter he turns directly to Ānanda: by the upright and inverted positions of his lowered hand he shows the characteristic of inversion, and extensively shows the characteristics of inversion; he refutes the conditioned mind as not the nature; shows that the nature of seeing has nowhere to return; clarifies the nature of seeing again by way of substance and function; and gives extended explanation by way of the doubts—the doubt that the nature of seeing shrinks or breaks off, the doubt that the nature of seeing is apart from the body, and Mañjuśrī asking on behalf of the great assembly about what is seeing and what is not seeing; he refutes spontaneity and refutes causes and conditions; answers the request with extended explanation of the two kinds of false seeing, that of individual action and that of shared portion; refutes the doubt of union and non-union; and at the end, by five similes for the five aggregates, makes clear that the five aggregates are originally the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous nature of true suchness. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0110a11）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Two [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Two; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. The Taishō head-notes to this fascicle record variant readings of the attribution in the Song, Yuan, and Ming recensions (see the apparatus).

〔1 · Ānanda States What He Holds in Mind and Asks to Have True and False Distinguished〕（0110a16）At that time Ānanda and the whole great assembly, having heard the Buddha’s instruction and teaching, were at peace and at ease in body and mind. They reflected that from beginningless time they had lost the original mind and falsely taken as theirs the shadow-matter of the discrimination of the conditioned dusts; now, today, they had gained awakening, like an infant who had lost its milk suddenly meeting its loving mother. They joined their palms and bowed to the Buddha, wishing to hear the Tathāgata reveal the true and the false, the empty and the real, of body and mind, and, concerning the two—what presently arises and perishes and what neither arises nor perishes—to bring their nature to light.

〔2 · King Prasenajit Cites the Outsiders and Asks for Proof of the Unborn〕（0110a21）King Prasenajit rose and said to the Buddha: ‘Formerly, when I had not yet received the teaching and instruction of the buddhas, I saw Kātyāyana and Vairāṭīputra, and they all said: ‘This body after death is annihilated, and this is called nirvāṇa.’ Although I have met the Buddha, to this day I am still doubtful and undecided, like a fox. How may it be brought out and shown, so that I may realize and know the ground where this mind neither arises nor perishes? All those in this great assembly who still have outflows wish to hear it.’

〔2 · King Prasenajit Cites the Outsiders and Asks for Proof of the Unborn〕（0110a25）The Buddha said to the great king: ‘Your body exists now; I now ask you again: this flesh body of yours—is it like vajra, constantly abiding and imperishable? Or does it change and decay?’ King Prasenajit answered: ‘World-Honored One! This body of mine will in the end follow change and perish.’ The Buddha said: ‘Great king! You have never yet perished; how do you know that you will perish?’ King Prasenajit answered: ‘World-Honored One! Although this impermanent, changing, decaying body of mine has never yet perished, I observe what is before me: thought after thought it shifts and falls away, new and again new, never staying; like fire turning to ash, it gradually wastes away, its dwindling never ceasing; therefore I am certain that this body will in the end perish utterly.’

〔2 · King Prasenajit Cites the Outsiders and Asks for Proof of the Unborn〕（0110b03）The Buddha said: ‘Just so, great king! Your years have now come to decline and old age; how does your appearance compare with the time when you were a boy?’ King Prasenajit answered: ‘World-Honored One! When I was small, my skin and flesh were moist and glossy; when I grew up, my blood and breath were full; and now my years are failing, pressing toward decrepitude, my form and complexion withered and haggard, my spirit dim and dull, my hair white and my face wrinkled—I probably have not long left in the world. How could I compare with my prime!’ The Buddha said: ‘Great king! Your form and appearance surely did not decay all at once?’ The king said: ‘World-Honored One! The change moves on in secret, and I truly have not noticed it; cold comes and heat goes, shifting and flowing without rest, gradually reaching this point. Why do I say so? When I was twenty, though I was called young, my appearance was already older than at the age of ten; at thirty, I had declined further than at twenty; and now at sixty and two years more, looking back at fifty, I was still clearly strong. World-Honored One! I see this secret shifting; although it withers gradually in this way, its flowing and changing I have still only reckoned by limits of ten years. If I were to reflect more finely: ‘Its change is not just by one twelve-year cycle or two; truly it changes year by year; and not just year by year, but it also transforms month by month; and not merely month by month, but it also shifts day by day.’ Contemplating deeply and looking closely, from instant to instant, thought after thought, it cannot stop; therefore I know that this body of mine will in the end follow change and perish.’

〔2 · King Prasenajit Cites the Outsiders and Asks for Proof of the Unborn〕（0110b18）The Buddha said: ‘Great king! You see change shifting without stopping, and from this you realize that you will perish; then at the time of perishing, do you know that within your body there is something that does not perish?’ King Prasenajit joined his palms and said to the Buddha: ‘I truly do not know!’ The Buddha said: ‘I will now show you the nature that neither arises nor perishes. Great king! At what age did you see the water of the Ganges?’ The king said: ‘When I was three years old, my loving mother took me to pay homage to the deva Jīva; we passed this river, and at that time I knew it was the water of the Ganges.’ The Buddha said: ‘Great king! Just as you have said, at twenty you had declined from ten, and so on until sixty, the days, months, years, and seasons shifting and changing thought after thought; then when you saw this river at three, by the age of thirteen, what was its water like?’ The king said: ‘Clearly no different from when I was three; and so on until now at sixty-two, it is also no different.’ The Buddha said: ‘You now grieve that your hair has whitened and your face has wrinkled; your face must surely be more wrinkled than in childhood. Then the seeing with which you now look at this Ganges, and the seeing with which you looked at the river in childhood long ago—is there a difference of youth and old age between them?’ The king said: ‘No, World-Honored One!’

〔2 · King Prasenajit Cites the Outsiders and Asks for Proof of the Unborn〕（0110b29）The Buddha said: ‘Great king! Though your face has wrinkled, the nature of this essence of seeing has never wrinkled! What wrinkles is change; what does not wrinkle is not change. What changes undergoes perishing; that which does not change originally has no arising or perishing—how could it undergo your birth and death within it? And yet you still cite the words of Maskarin and the others, who all say that this body after death perishes completely!’ Hearing these words, the king believed and knew that after the body dies one relinquishes this life and goes on to another; and together with the great assembly he leapt for joy, gaining an understanding never had before.

〔3 · Directly Refuting Ānanda’s View of Permanence〕（0110c05）Ānanda then rose from his seat, bowed to the Buddha, joined his palms, knelt upright, and said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! If this seeing and hearing surely neither arise nor perish, why does the World-Honored One say that we have lost our true nature and act in inversion? May you arouse compassion and wash away my dust and defilement!’

〔3 · Directly Refuting Ānanda’s View of Permanence〕（0110c09）At once the Tathāgata lowered his golden arm, pointed downward the hand bearing the wheel-mark, and showed it to Ānanda, saying: ‘Now you see my mudrā hand: is it upright or inverted?’ Ānanda said: ‘The beings of the world take this as inverted, but I do not know which is upright and which is inverted.’ The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘If people of the world take this as inverted, then what do people of the world take as upright?’ Ānanda said: ‘When the Tathāgata raises his arm and the tūla-cotton hand points upward to space, that is called upright.’

〔3 · Directly Refuting Ānanda’s View of Permanence〕（0110c14）The Buddha then raised his arm and said to Ānanda: ‘Such inversion is no more than head and tail exchanged, yet people of the world look at it twice over. From this you may know: your body and the pure Dharma bodies of the tathāgatas, when compared, can be made clear—the body of the Tathāgata is called Right and Universal Knowledge; the bodies of you all are called inverted in nature. Look as closely as you will at your body and the Buddha’s body: what is called inversion—in what place is this name called inversion?’ At that time Ānanda and the great assembly stared blankly, gazing at the Buddha, their eyes unblinking, not knowing where the inversion of body and mind lay.

〔4 · Extensively Showing the Characteristics of Inversion〕（0110c20）The Buddha aroused compassion, pitying Ānanda and the great assembly, and sending forth a voice like the ocean tide, announced to all in the assembly: ‘Good men! I have always said: ‘Form, mind, and all conditions, together with what the mind employs and all dharmas that are its objects, are all manifested by mind alone.’ Your body and your mind are all things manifested within the wondrous, bright, true, essential, wondrous mind. Why do you lose the originally wondrous, perfectly wondrous, bright mind, the jeweled, bright, wondrous nature, and within awakening take up delusion? Dark and dim, it becomes space; within the darkness of space, darkness congeals and becomes form; form mixes with false thinking, and thought joining with characteristics becomes the body; gathering conditions, it stirs within, and running toward outer objects it rushes off; and this confused and agitated characteristic is taken as the nature of mind. Once deluded and taking this as mind, one is certain to mistake the mind as being within the physical body, not knowing that outside the physical body, even mountains and rivers, space, and the great earth are all things within the wondrous, bright, true mind. It is like abandoning the hundreds of thousands of clear great oceans and recognizing only a single floating bubble, regarding it as the whole tide, as if it exhausted the great seas Ying and Bo. You are people doubly deluded within delusion! It is no different from my lowering of the hand to show inversion; the Tathāgata says that such are pitiable people.’

〔5 · Showing That the Conditioned Mind Is Not the Nature〕（0111a03）Ānanda, receiving the Buddha’s compassionate, rescuing, and profound teaching, wept, folded his hands, and said to the Buddha: ‘Although I have heard such a wondrous voice from the Buddha, and have awakened to the wondrous bright mind as originally perfect, the constantly abiding ground of mind, yet in understanding the Dharma sound the Buddha now speaks, I am presently using the conditioned mind in sincerely gazing up; I have merely obtained this mind, and dare not acknowledge it as the original ground of mind. May the Buddha take pity, proclaim the perfect sound of the Dharma, uproot the root of my doubt, and turn me toward the unsurpassed path!’

〔5 · Showing That the Conditioned Mind Is Not the Nature〕（0111a08）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You still listen to the Dharma with the conditioned mind; this Dharma, too, becomes a condition, and you have not obtained the nature of the Dharma. It is like a person who points at the moon with his finger to show another; that person ought to follow the finger and look at the moon. If he instead looks at the finger and takes it to be the substance of the moon, this person has lost not only the disc of the moon but also the finger. Why? Because he takes the finger that serves as a marker to be the bright moon. Not only has he lost the finger, he also does not recognize brightness and darkness. Why? Because he takes the substance of the finger itself to be the bright nature of the moon, and understands nothing of the two natures of brightness and darkness.

〔5 · Showing That the Conditioned Mind Is Not the Nature〕（0111a13）‘You are also like this. If you take what discriminates the sound of my speaking the Dharma as your mind, this mind ought of itself to have a nature of discrimination apart from the discriminated sound. It is like a guest lodging at an inn, who stays briefly and then leaves, never abiding for good; but the one who keeps the inn goes nowhere at all, and is called the innkeeper. This is the same: if it were truly your mind, it would go nowhere; why then, apart from sound, is there no nature of discrimination? So it is not only the mind that discriminates sound: the mind that discriminates my appearance, apart from the characteristics of form, also has no nature of discrimination; and so on until discrimination is altogether absent, neither form nor space—which Gośālī and the others obscurely take as the dark principle; apart from the conditions of dharmas there is no nature of discrimination. Then the nature of your mind in each case has somewhere to return to; how can it be the master?’

〔6 · Showing That the Nature of Seeing Has Nowhere to Return〕（0111a22）Ānanda said: ‘If the nature of my mind in each case has somewhere to return to, then why does the wondrous, bright, original mind that the Tathāgata speaks of have nowhere to return? I only ask that you take pity and explain it for me!’

〔6 · Showing That the Nature of Seeing Has Nowhere to Return〕（0111a24）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Take the bright origin of the essence of seeing with which you see me: although this seeing is not the wondrous, essential, bright mind, it is like the second moon, not the moon’s reflection. Listen carefully! I will now show you the ground of nowhere to return. Ānanda! This great lecture hall opens wide to the east; when the sun’s disc rises into the sky, there is bright radiance; at midnight in the dark of the moon, when clouds and mist darken, it is dark again; at the gaps of the doors and windows, one again sees openness; between the walls and roofs, one again sees obstruction; where there is discrimination, one again sees conditions; within obdurate void, all is the nature of space; in the appearance of gathering dust and haze, dim dust swirls about; when after rain the sky clears and the vapors are gathered in, one again sees clarity.

〔6 · Showing That the Nature of Seeing Has Nowhere to Return〕（0111b02）‘Ānanda! You see all these characteristics of change; I will now return each to the place of its original cause. What are the original causes? Ānanda! Among these changes, brightness returns to the sun’s disc. Why? Without the sun there is no brightness; the cause of brightness belongs to the sun, so it returns to the sun. Darkness returns to the dark moon; openness returns to the doors and windows; obstruction returns to the walls and roofs; conditions return to discrimination; obdurate void returns to space; gathering dust and haze return to dust; clarity returns to the clearing sky. Then all that exists in the world does not go beyond these kinds. The bright nature of the essence of seeing with which you see these eight—to whom would you return it! Why? If it returned to brightness, then when there is no brightness you would no longer see darkness. Although brightness, darkness, and the rest are various and different, seeing has no difference. Whatever can be returned is naturally not you; what is not returned to anything else—if not you, then who? From this we know that your mind is originally wondrous, bright, and pure; it is you yourself who are deluded and confused, lose the root, undergo the cycle of rebirth, and are constantly drifting and drowning in birth and death; therefore the Tathāgata calls you pitiable.’

〔7 · Clarifying Again by Way of Substance and Function〕（0111b13）Ānanda said: ‘Although I recognize that this nature of seeing has nowhere to return, how can I know that it is my true nature?’

〔7 · Clarifying Again by Way of Substance and Function〕（0111b15）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘I now ask you: you have not yet attained the purity without outflows, yet receiving the Buddha’s spiritual power you can see the first dhyāna without obstruction; Aniruddha sees Jambudvīpa as if looking at the āmra fruit in his palm; the bodhisattvas can see hundreds of thousands of worlds; the tathāgatas of the ten directions exhaust pure lands as many as fine dust motes, and there is nothing they do not see; the clear sight of beings reaches no more than a few inches.

〔7 · Clarifying Again by Way of Substance and Function〕（0111b19）‘Ānanda! Let me and you look at the palaces where the Four Heavenly Kings dwell, and in between survey all that moves in water, on land, and in the air; although there are images of every kind, dark and bright, they are none other than the obstructions left by the discrimination of the dusts before one. Here you should distinguish self from other. Now I shall have you sort out within seeing: which is the substance of self? Which are the images of things? Ānanda! Exhausting the source of your seeing, from the palaces of the sun and moon onward—these are things, not you; up to the seven golden mountains, looking all around closely, though there are lights of every kind, these too are things, not you; gradually looking further at clouds rising, birds flying, wind moving, dust arising, trees, mountains and rivers, grasses and tiny plants, people and animals—all are things, not you. Ānanda! These natures of things, near and far, though each is different, are all alike what is seen by the purity of your essence of seeing. Thus the kinds of things are of themselves different, but the nature of seeing has no difference. This essential, wondrous brightness is truly your nature of seeing.

〔7 · Clarifying Again by Way of Substance and Function〕（0111b28）‘If seeing were a thing, then you could also see my seeing. If you say that when we see things at the same time, that is called seeing me, then when I am not seeing, why do you not see the place where I do not see? If you can see that place of not seeing, naturally that is not the characteristic of not seeing. If you cannot see my ground of not seeing, seeing is naturally not a thing; how is it not you? Moreover, if it were so, then when you see things now, since you see the things, the things should also see you; substance and nature would be confusedly mixed, and you and I and all the worlds could not be established. Ānanda! If, when you see, it is you and not I, the nature of seeing pervades everywhere—if not you, then who? Why do you yourself doubt your true nature? Your own nature you do not acknowledge as true, and instead seek to obtain real proof from me!’

〔8 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Doubts: Does Seeing Shrink or Break Off?〕（0111c08）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! If this nature of seeing is surely I and not another, when I and the Tathāgata looked at the supreme repository and jeweled palaces of the Four Heavenly Kings and dwelt in the palaces of the sun and moon, this seeing was perfectly pervasive, reaching throughout the lands of Sahā; when we withdrew to the vihāra, I saw only the saṃghārāma; when I sit quietly with a clear mind in the hall, I see only the eaves and verandas. World-Honored One! This seeing is like this: its substance originally pervades one world, yet now in the room it fills only one room. Does this seeing shrink from large to small? Or do the walls and roofs pinch it off? I do not now know where this meaning lies; may you extend your vast compassion and expound it for me!’

〔8 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Doubts: Does Seeing Shrink or Break Off?〕（0111c15）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘All the large and small, inner and outer, and all the affairs of the world belong each to the dusts before one; one should not say that seeing stretches or shrinks. It is like seeing square space in a square vessel. I ask you again: the square space seen in this square vessel—is it fixed as square? Or is it not fixed as square? If it is fixed as square, then if one sets down a round vessel instead, the space ought not to be round; if it is not fixed, then within the square vessel there ought to be no square space. You say you do not know where this meaning lies; the nature of the meaning is originally just so—how can you speak of where it lies?

〔8 · Extended Explanation by Way of the Doubts: Does Seeing Shrink or Break Off?〕（0111c20）‘Ānanda! If you wish to make it enter what is neither square nor round, simply remove the squareness of the vessel. The substance of space is originally without squareness; one should not say one must further remove where the square characteristic of space lies. If, as you ask, ‘on entering the room, seeing shrinks and becomes small,’ then when you look up at the sun, do you stretch your seeing out so that it reaches the face of the sun? If building walls and roofs could pinch seeing off, then when one bores a small hole, would there be no trace of its joining? This reasoning is not so. All beings from beginningless time have lost themselves and become things, lost the original mind and are turned by things; therefore within this they see large and see small. If one can turn things, one is the same as the Tathāgata, body and mind perfectly bright, unmoving at the bodhimaṇḍa, able on the tip of a single hair to contain all the lands of the ten directions.’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0111c29）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! If this essence of seeing is surely my wondrous nature, and this wondrous nature is now before me, seeing must be my true self; then what are my present body and mind? And my present body and mind have discrimination and are real; but that seeing has no other means of discerning my body. If it is truly my mind, enabling me now to see, the nature of seeing is truly I and the body is not I—how is this different from what the Tathāgata earlier refuted, ‘things can see me’? I only ask that you extend great compassion and open up those of us not yet awakened!’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112a06）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘What you now say, ‘seeing is in front of you,’ this reasoning is not true. If it were truly in front of you and you could truly see it, then this essence of seeing would have a location, and would not be without a place to point to. Now, I and you are sitting in the Jeta Grove, looking all around at the forest, the channels, and the halls, up to the sun and moon, and facing the Ganges in front. You are now before my lion seat; raise your hand and point out one by one these various characteristics—what is shaded is the forest, what is bright is the sun, what obstructs is the wall, what is open is space, and so on down to grasses, trees, and the finest hairs—though large and small differ, whatever has shape can be pointed to. If there is surely seeing that appears before you, you should point it out with your hand for certain: which is seeing? Ānanda, you should know: if space is seeing, since it has already become seeing, which is space? If a thing is seeing, since it is already seeing, which is the thing? You may finely split apart the myriad images and separate out that essential, bright, pure, wondrous origin of seeing, and point it out to me, as clearly and without confusion as those things.’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112a18）Ānanda said: ‘Now in this lecture hall of the storied pavilion, as far as the Ganges and up to the sun and moon, whatever my hand points to and my eyes look upon—all that is pointed to is things; not one is seeing. World-Honored One! It is as the Buddha says; not to speak of me, a śrāvaka of first learning with outflows—even bodhisattvas cannot, before the images of the myriad things, split out the essential seeing and have a separate self-nature apart from all things!’ The Buddha said: ‘So it is, so it is!’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112a23）The Buddha again said to Ānanda: ‘As you say, ‘there is no essential seeing apart from all things with a separate self-nature,’ then among these things you point to, not one is seeing. Now I tell you again: you and the Tathāgata are sitting in the Jeta Grove; look again at the grove and park and on up to the sun and moon, with their various different images; surely there is no essence of seeing that you could point to. Now bring it to light again: among these things, which is not seeing?’ Ānanda said: ‘I indeed see all through this Jeta Grove, and do not know which among these is not seeing. Why? If the trees are not seeing, how does one see the trees? If the trees are seeing, how are they trees? And so on: if space is not seeing, how does it become space? If space is seeing, how is it space? I further reflect: ‘Among these myriad images, bringing them finely to light, there is nothing that is not seeing!’’ The Buddha said: ‘So it is, so it is.’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112b04）At that time, those in the great assembly who were not yet beyond training, hearing these words of the Buddha, were at a loss, not knowing the beginning and end of this meaning; all at once they were alarmed and afraid and lost what they had held to. The Tathāgata, knowing that their minds and spirits were shaken with fear, gave rise to pity and comforted Ānanda and the great assembly: ‘Good men! What the unsurpassed Dharma king says is true speech! It is spoken as things truly are, neither deceiving nor false; it is not the four kinds of equivocating argument about the deathless of Maskarin. Reflect carefully, and do not fail this compassionate regard.’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112b10）At that time Mañjuśrī, the Dharma prince, taking pity on the fourfold assembly, rose from his seat in the great assembly, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, joined his palms respectfully, and said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! This great assembly does not awaken to the two kinds of essential seeing that the Tathāgata has brought to light—the meaning of what is seeing and what is not seeing as said with regard to form and space. World-Honored One! If these images of form, space, and the rest, conditioned before them, were seeing, there ought to be somewhere to point to; if they were not seeing, there ought to be nothing seen. Now they do not know where this meaning comes to rest, and therefore they are alarmed and afraid; it is not that their good roots of former times are slight. I only ask that the Tathāgata, in great compassion, bring to light: these images of things and this essence of seeing—what are they originally? Between them there is neither what is nor what is not.’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112b18）The Buddha said to Mañjuśrī and the great assembly: ‘For the tathāgatas of the ten directions and the great bodhisattvas, in the samādhi in which they themselves abide, seeing and the conditions of seeing, together with the characteristics thought of, are all like flowers in space, originally nonexistent; this seeing and its conditions are originally the wondrous, pure, bright substance of bodhi—how could there be within it what is and what is not? Mañjuśrī! I now ask you: as you are Mañjuśrī, is there another Mañjuśrī who is Mañjuśrī? Or is there no Mañjuśrī?’ Mañjuśrī answered: ‘So it is, World-Honored One! I am the true Mañjuśrī; there is no Mañjuśrī who ‘is Mañjuśrī.’ Why? If there were an ‘is,’ there would be two Mañjuśrīs. Yet today I am not without Mañjuśrī; within this there truly are not the two characteristics of ‘is’ and ‘is not.’’

〔9 · Refuting the Doubt That the Nature of Seeing Is Apart from the Body〕（0112b25）The Buddha said: ‘The wondrous brightness of this seeing and space and all the dusts are also like this. Originally they are the wondrous, bright, unsurpassed bodhi, the pure, perfect, true mind, falsely become form and space, hearing and seeing; like the second moon—which is the moon? And which is not the moon? Mañjuśrī! Only the one moon is true; in between there is naturally no ‘is the moon’ and ‘is not the moon.’ Therefore your present observing of seeing and the dusts, bringing them to light in various ways, is called false thinking, and cannot within it get free of ‘is’ and ‘is not.’ By this essential, true, wondrous, aware, bright nature, you can be made to get free of pointing and not pointing!’

〔10 · Refuting Spontaneity〕（0112c02）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Truly as the Dharma king says, the conditions of awareness pervade the worlds of the ten directions, clear and constantly abiding, by nature neither arising nor perishing; how does this differ from the dark principle spoken of earlier by the brahmin Kapila, and from the true self pervading the ten directions that the ash-smearers and the other kinds of outsiders say exists? The World-Honored One also once expounded this meaning on Mount Laṅkā for Mahāmati and others—those outsiders always speak of spontaneity; I speak of causes and conditions, which is not their sphere.—I now observe this nature of awareness as spontaneous, neither arising nor perishing, far apart from all falsity and inversion; it seems not to be causes and conditions, but the same as their spontaneity. How should it be shown, so that we do not fall in among the deviant, and obtain the true and real mind, the wondrous, aware, bright nature?’

〔10 · Refuting Spontaneity〕（0112c11）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘I have now opened up expedients in this way and told you truly, yet you have not awakened and mistake it for spontaneity. Ānanda! If it is surely spontaneous, it ought to be distinguished clearly as having its spontaneous substance. Look now within this wondrous, bright seeing: what does it take as self? Does this seeing take brightness as self? Darkness as self? Space as self? Obstruction as self? Ānanda! If it took brightness as self, it ought not to see darkness? If it took space as its self-substance, it ought not to see obstruction? And so on: if it took the characteristics of darkness and the rest as self, then at the time of brightness the nature of seeing would be cut off and perish—how could it see brightness?’

〔11 · Refuting Causes and Conditions; Reconciling〕（0112c18）Ānanda said: ‘This nature of wondrous seeing is surely not spontaneous; I now bring to light that it is of the nature of causes and conditions. In my mind it is still not clear; I ask the Tathāgata: how does this meaning accord with the nature of causes and conditions?’ The Buddha said: ‘You speak of causes and conditions; I ask you again: you now, because of seeing, have the nature of seeing present before you; does this seeing exist with brightness as cause? With darkness as cause? With space as cause? With obstruction as cause? Ānanda! If it existed with brightness as cause, it ought not to see darkness; if it existed with darkness as cause, it ought not to see brightness; and so on with space and obstruction as cause, the same as with brightness and darkness. Again, Ānanda! Does this seeing exist with brightness as condition? With darkness as condition? With space as condition? With obstruction as condition? Ānanda! If it existed with space as condition, it ought not to see obstruction; if it existed with obstruction as condition, it ought not to see space; and so on with brightness and darkness as condition, the same as with space and obstruction. You should know: such essential, aware, wondrous brightness is neither cause nor condition, neither spontaneous nor not spontaneous; it is neither negation nor non-negation, neither affirmation nor non-affirmation; it is apart from all characteristics, and is all dharmas. How do you now apply your mind within it, discriminating it with the frivolous names and characteristics of the worlds! It is like trying to grasp and rub space with the palm of the hand—you only add to your own toil; how could space follow your grasp?’

〔11 · Refuting Causes and Conditions; Reconciling〕（0113a03）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! The nature of wondrous awareness is surely neither cause nor condition. World-Honored One! Why do you always proclaim to the bhikṣus that the nature of seeing has four kinds of conditions—namely, space as cause, brightness as cause, mind as cause, and the eye as cause? How is this meaning to be explained?’ The Buddha said: ‘Ānanda! What I spoke of were the characteristics of causes and conditions of the world, not the foremost meaning. Ānanda! I ask you again: people of the world say ‘I can see’; what is called seeing? What is called not seeing?’ Ānanda said: ‘People of the world, because of the light of the sun, the moon, and lamps, see various characteristics, and this is called seeing; if these three kinds of light are absent, they cannot see.’ The Buddha said: ‘Ānanda! If when there is no brightness it is called not seeing, one ought not to see darkness; if one surely sees darkness, this is merely the absence of brightness—how can you say there is no seeing? Ānanda! If in darkness, because one does not see brightness, it is called not seeing, now in brightness, not seeing the characteristic of darkness, it would also be called not seeing; so would both characteristics be called not seeing? If the two characteristics themselves overrun each other, your nature of seeing is not, within them, absent even for a moment; thus you know that both are called seeing—how can you say not seeing?

〔11 · Refuting Causes and Conditions; Reconciling〕（0113a14）‘Therefore, Ānanda, you should now know: when seeing brightness, seeing is not brightness; when seeing darkness, seeing is not darkness; when seeing space, seeing is not space; when seeing obstruction, seeing is not obstruction—the four meanings are accomplished by this. You should further know: when seeing sees seeing, seeing is not seeing; seeing is still apart from seeing, and seeing cannot reach it—how can you still speak of causes and conditions, spontaneity, and the characteristic of union? You śrāvakas are narrow and inferior, without understanding, and cannot penetrate pure true reality. I now instruct you: you should reflect well, and not grow weary and slack on the wondrous road of bodhi!’

〔12 · Answering the Request with Extended Explanation〕（0113a22）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! The Buddha, the World-Honored One, has proclaimed for us causes and conditions and spontaneity, the characteristics of union and non-union, yet my mind has still not opened; and now, hearing further that seeing seeing is not seeing, I am all the more deluded and confused. I humbly ask that, with your vast compassion, you bestow the eye of great wisdom and show us the bright purity of the mind of awareness!’ Having spoken these words, he bowed his head to the ground in sorrowful tears and received the sagely intent.

〔12 · Answering the Request with Extended Explanation〕（0113a27）At that time the World-Honored One, taking pity on Ānanda and the great assembly, and about to expound the great dhāraṇī, the wondrous path of practice of all samādhis, said to Ānanda: ‘Although you have a strong memory, it merely adds to much learning; as to the subtle and secret contemplative illumination of śamatha, your mind is not yet clear. Listen carefully now! I will distinguish and show it for you, and also enable those with outflows in the future to obtain the fruit of bodhi. Ānanda! All beings cycle through the worlds because of the falsity of seeing of two kinds of inverted discrimination, which arises right where it is, and they turn on the wheel according to their action. What are the two kinds of seeing? First, the false seeing of individual action of beings; second, the false seeing of shared portion of beings.

〔12 · Answering the Request with Extended Explanation〕（0113b06）‘What is called the false seeing of individual action? Ānanda! It is like a person in the world whose eyes have a red cataract; at night, seeing lamplight, he sees in addition a round shadow, with five colors overlapping. What do you think? The round light appearing in the bright lamp at night—is it the color of the lamp? Or the color of seeing? Ānanda! If this were the color of the lamp, why do those without the cataract disease not see it alike, while this round shadow is seen only by the one with the cataract? If it were the color of seeing, seeing has already become color; then what is that by which the person with the cataract sees the round shadow to be called? Again, Ānanda! If this round shadow existed separately apart from the lamp, then looking at the screens, curtains, tables, and mats beside it, there ought also to be a round shadow appearing; if it existed separately apart from seeing, it ought not to be seen by the eye—why do the eyes of the person with the cataract see the round shadow? Therefore you should know: the color is truly in the lamp, and seeing, being diseased, forms the shadow; the shadow and the seeing are both the cataract, and what sees the cataract is not diseased. In the end one should not say, ‘It is the lamp, it is the seeing, and in between there is what is neither lamp nor seeing’; it is like the second moon, which is neither the substance of the moon nor its reflection. Why? Because the sight of the second moon is made by pressing the eye. Those with wisdom should not say, ‘The root origin of this pressing of the eye is form or not form, apart from seeing or not seeing’; here too it is so: it is made by the cataract of the eye; now which do you wish to call the lamp, and which the seeing? How much less can one discriminate what is neither lamp nor seeing!

〔12 · Answering the Request with Extended Explanation〕（0113b20）‘What is called the false seeing of shared portion? Ānanda! This Jambudvīpa, apart from the waters of the great ocean, has in the level land in its midst three thousand continents. In the great continent at the very center, counting from east to west, there are in all two thousand three hundred great countries; the other, small continents are in the various seas, and among them some have two or three hundred countries, some only one or two, and some up to thirty, forty, or fifty. Ānanda! Suppose that among these there is a small continent with only two countries, and only the people of one country together incur evil conditions; then the beings of that small continent’s land see all inauspicious realms: they see two suns, or see two moons, and so on to halos, eclipses, pendant- and ring-shaped glows, broom comets, bushy comets, flying stars, shooting stars, sun-ears, and rainbows—all kinds of evil signs, seen only in this one country; the beings of the other country originally do not see them, nor do they hear of them.

〔12 · Answering the Request with Extended Explanation〕（0113b29）‘Ānanda! I will now, by these two matters, explain them to you by advancing and retreating, matching them together. Ānanda! Like the false seeing of individual action of those beings, the round shadow seen in the lamplight, though it appears to seem an object, is in the end made by the cataract of the eye of the one who sees. The cataract is the fatigue of seeing, not made by form; yet what sees the cataract is in the end without fault of seeing. Compared with this, you today, seeing with your eyes the mountains, rivers, lands, and beings—all are made by the sickness of seeing from beginningless time. Seeing and the conditions of seeing seem to appear as objects before the eyes; originally they are a cataract made by the conditioning of the seeing of my bright awareness. The seeing of awareness is the cataract; the conditions of awareness of the bright mind of original awakening are not the cataract; the awareness of what is perceived is the cataract; awareness is not within the cataract. This is truly seeing seeing; how can it still be called feeling, hearing, knowing, and seeing? Therefore you now see me and yourself and the ten classes of beings of all the worlds—all are the cataract on seeing, and not that which sees the cataract; that true essence of seeing, its nature not being the cataract, is therefore not called seeing.

〔12 · Answering the Request with Extended Explanation〕（0113c09）‘Ānanda! Like the false seeing of shared portion of those beings, compared with the one person of the false seeing of individual action: the one person with diseased eyes is the same as that one country. That person sees the round shadow, born of the falsity of the cataract; the inauspicious signs that appear in common to the many of this country arise from the pestilent evils within the action of shared seeing; all are born of the falsity of seeing from beginningless time. Compare the three thousand continents of Jambudvīpa, together with the four great oceans and the Sahā world, and all the lands with outflows of the ten directions and all beings: they are alike the wondrous mind of bright awareness without outflows; seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing are the false, diseased conditions; by union they falsely arise, by union they falsely die. If one can be far apart from all conditions of union and from non-union, one can extinguish all the causes of birth and death, perfect the unborn and unperishing nature of bodhi, and the pure original mind, the original awakening, constantly abides.

〔13 · Refuting the Doubt of Union and Non-Union〕（0113c19）‘Ānanda! Although you earlier awakened to original awakening, wondrous and bright, as not the nature of causes and conditions and not the nature of spontaneity, you still do not understand that such an origin of awareness is neither born of union nor of non-union. Ānanda! I will now again question you by way of the dusts before one: you now still doubt yourself with the natures of causes and conditions of union of all the false thinking of the worlds, and suppose that the mind that realizes bodhi arises from union. Then is your present wondrous, pure essence of seeing in union with brightness? In union with darkness? In union with openness? In union with obstruction? If in union with brightness, look when you observe brightness: brightness appears before your eyes—where is seeing mixed in? If seeing and characteristic can be distinguished, what shape does the mixture form? If it is not seeing, how can it see brightness? If it is seeing, how can it see seeing? If seeing is surely complete, where does it unite with brightness? If brightness is complete, it should not unite with seeing. Seeing must be different from brightness; mixed, it would lose the name of the nature of brightness; mixed and losing the nature of brightness, the claim of union with brightness makes no sense. Darkness, openness, and all obstructions are also like this.

〔13 · Refuting the Doubt of Union and Non-Union〕（0114a01）‘Again, Ānanda! Is your present wondrous, pure essence of seeing in combination with brightness? In combination with darkness? In combination with openness? In combination with obstruction? If in combination with brightness, when darkness comes, the characteristic of brightness has already perished; this seeing is not in combination with darkness—how can it see darkness? If when seeing darkness it is not in combination with darkness and still sees, then when in combination with brightness it ought not to see brightness? Since it does not see brightness, how can you say it is in combination with brightness, knowing clearly that it is brightness and not darkness? Darkness, openness, and all obstructions are also like this.’

〔13 · Refuting the Doubt of Union and Non-Union〕（0114a07）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! As I reflect, could it be that this origin of wondrous awareness is not in union with all the conditioned dusts and the mind’s thinking and pondering?’ The Buddha said: ‘You now say again that awareness is non-union; I ask you again: this wondrous essence of seeing being non-union—is it not in union with brightness? Not in union with darkness? Not in union with openness? Not in union with obstruction? If it is not in union with brightness, then seeing and brightness must have a boundary. Examine closely: where is brightness? Where is seeing? Between seeing and brightness, from where is the boundary made? Ānanda! If within the bounds of brightness there is surely no seeing, then they do not reach each other, and naturally it would not know where the characteristic of brightness is—how could a boundary be established? Darkness, openness, and all obstructions are also like this.

〔13 · Refuting the Doubt of Union and Non-Union〕（0114a15）‘Again, the wondrous essence of seeing being non-union—is it not in combination with brightness? Not in combination with darkness? Not in combination with openness? Not in combination with obstruction? If it is not in combination with brightness, then seeing and brightness are contrary in nature and characteristic, like the ear and brightness, which do not touch at all; seeing does not even know where the characteristic of brightness is—how can it make clear the principle of combination and non-combination? Darkness, openness, and all obstructions are also like this.

〔13 · Refuting the Doubt of Union and Non-Union〕（0114a19）‘Ānanda! You still do not understand that all floating dust and all characteristics of illusory transformation arise right where they are and are extinguished wherever they are; illusory and false, they are called characteristics, but their nature is truly the wondrous, aware, bright substance. In this way, and so on to the five aggregates and the six entrances, from the twelve bases to the eighteen realms: when causes and conditions unite, there is false arising; when causes and conditions part, it is falsely called perishing. You simply cannot know that arising and perishing, going and coming, are originally the tathāgatagarbha, constantly abiding, wondrous and bright, unmoving, all-pervading and perfect—the wondrous nature of true suchness. Within the true and constant nature, if one seeks going and coming, delusion and awakening, death and birth, nothing whatever is to be found.

〔14 · Refuting Attachment, Revealing the True: Refuting the Five Aggregates〕（0114a26）‘Ānanda! Why do I say that the five aggregates are originally the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous nature of true suchness? Ānanda! Suppose a person with pure eyes looks at the clear, bright sky, seeing only clear emptiness, far and altogether without anything. That person, for no reason, without moving his eyes, stares until fatigue arises, and then in space sees in addition wild flowers, and also all kinds of wild and confused unreal characteristics. The aggregate of form, you should know, is also like this. Ānanda! These wild flowers do not come from space, nor do they come out of the eyes. So it is, Ānanda! If they came from space, since they came from space, they should go back into space; if there were coming out and going in, it would not be space. If space were not empty, naturally it could not admit the arising and perishing of the characteristics of the flowers, just as Ānanda’s body cannot admit another Ānanda. If they came out of the eyes, since they came out of the eyes, they should go back into the eyes; this nature of the flowers, since it came out of the eyes, ought to have seeing. If it had seeing, going out it became flowers in space, and coming back it ought to see the eyes. If it had no seeing, going out it filmed over space, and coming back it ought to film over the eyes. Again, when seeing the flowers, the eyes ought to have no film; why is it only when seeing clear space that they are called clear and bright eyes? Therefore you should know: the aggregate of form is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔14 · Refuting Attachment, Revealing the True: Refuting the Five Aggregates〕（0114b09）‘Ānanda! Suppose a person whose hands and feet are at ease and whose hundred bones are in harmony suddenly seems to forget his own living body, with nothing in his nature against him or for him. That person, for no reason, rubs his two palms together in the air, and between the two hands there falsely arise roughness, smoothness, cold, heat, and all kinds of characteristics. The aggregate of feeling, you should know, is also like this. Ānanda! These illusory touches do not come from space, nor do they come out of the palms. So it is, Ānanda! If they came from space, since they can touch the palms, why do they not touch the body? Space should not choose what it comes to touch. If they came out of the palms, they ought not to need to wait for the two palms to join. Again, if they came out of the palms, when joined the palms would know it, and when parted the touch would go in; then the arms, wrists, bones, and marrow ought also to feel the traces of the touch at the time of its going in. If there is surely an aware mind that knows its coming out and knows its going in, there would naturally be a thing going back and forth within the body; why wait for joining to know it and call it touch? Therefore you should know: the aggregate of feeling is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔14 · Refuting Attachment, Revealing the True: Refuting the Five Aggregates〕（0114b20）‘Ānanda! Suppose a person speaks of sour plums, and water flows in his mouth; thinks of treading on the edge of a cliff, and the soles of his feet tingle. The aggregate of perception, you should know, is also like this. Ānanda! Such talk of sourness is not born from the plums, nor does it enter from the mouth. So it is, Ānanda! If it were born from the plums, the plums ought to talk of themselves; why wait for a person to speak? If it entered from the mouth, the mouth ought itself to hear; why wait for the ears? If only the ears hear, why does this water not flow out of the ears? Thinking of treading on a cliff is of the same kind as speaking of sour plums. Therefore you should know: the aggregate of perception is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔14 · Refuting Attachment, Revealing the True: Refuting the Five Aggregates〕（0114b27）‘Ānanda! It is like a torrent, its waves following one after another, the earlier and the later not overstepping each other. The aggregate of formation, you should know, is also like this. Ānanda! Such a nature of flowing is not born because of space, nor does it exist because of water; it is not the nature of water, nor is it apart from space and water. So it is, Ānanda! If it were born because of space, then the endless space of the ten directions would all become endless flowing, and the worlds would naturally all be submerged. If it existed because of water, then the nature of this torrent ought not to be water, having its own place and its own characteristics, which ought now to be present. If it were the nature of water, then when the water is clear and still it ought not to be the substance of water. If it were apart from space and water, there is nothing outside space, and outside water there is no flowing. Therefore you should know: the aggregate of formation is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔14 · Refuting Attachment, Revealing the True: Refuting the Five Aggregates〕（0114c07）‘Ānanda! Suppose a person takes a kalaviṅka pitcher, stops up its two holes, holds it up full of space, and travels a thousand li to present it to another country. The aggregate of consciousness, you should know, is also like this. Ānanda! Such space does not come from that place, nor does it enter at this place. So it is, Ānanda: if it came from that place, then since the pitcher had stored space and gone, at the place where the pitcher originally stood there ought to be a little less space. If it entered at this place, when the holes are opened and the pitcher turned over, one ought to see space come out. Therefore you should know: the aggregate of consciousness is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.’ The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Two’.

Fascicle Three of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. Carrying on the meaning, from Fascicle Two, that the five aggregates are originally the tathāgatagarbha, it next refutes the six entrances, the twelve bases, and the eighteen realms, revealing of each one that it is originally the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous nature of true suchness. When Ānanda asks about union and causes and conditions, the Tathāgata opens up the seven elements—earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, and consciousness—all pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, manifesting in accordance with action. At the end Ānanda and the great assembly awaken and enter, and a verse is spoken in praise of the Buddha. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0114c16）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Three [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Three; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation notes on the fascicle title or the attribution.

〔1 · Refuting the Six Entrances · the eye entrance〕（0114c21）The Buddha went on: ‘Further, Ānanda! Why do I say that the six entrances are originally the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous nature of true suchness? Ānanda! It is that very eye which stares and gives rise to the appearance of strain: the eye and the strain are both the strained appearance of bodhi staring. Because of the two kinds of false dusts, brightness and darkness, seeing arises and dwells in their midst, absorbing these images of the dusts; this is called the nature of seeing. This seeing, apart from those two dusts of brightness and darkness, in the end has no substance of its own. So it is, Ānanda! You should know: this seeing does not come from brightness or darkness, does not come out of the faculty, and is not born from space. Why? If it came from brightness, then in darkness seeing would perish along with brightness, and one ought not to see darkness. If it came from darkness, then in brightness seeing would perish along with darkness, and one ought not to see brightness. If it were born from the faculty, there would surely be no brightness and darkness, and such an essence of seeing originally has no self-nature. If it came out of space, then as it gazes forward at the images of the dusts, on turning back it ought to see your eye-faculty; moreover, it would be space itself that looks—what would that have to do with your entrance? Therefore you should know: the eye entrance is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔1 · Refuting the Six Entrances · the ear entrance〕（0115a01）‘Ānanda! It is like a person who with the fingers of both hands quickly stops up his ears; the ear-faculty grows strained, and a sound arises in his head; the ear and the strain are both the strained appearance of bodhi staring. Because of the two kinds of false dusts, movement and stillness, hearing arises and dwells in their midst, absorbing these images of the dusts; this is called the nature of listening and hearing. This hearing, apart from those two dusts of movement and stillness, in the end has no substance of its own. So it is, Ānanda! You should know: this hearing does not come from movement or stillness, does not come out of the faculty, and is not born from space. Why? If it came from stillness, then in movement hearing would perish along with stillness, and one ought not to hear movement; if it came from movement, then in stillness hearing would perish along with movement, and one ought not to be aware of stillness. If it were born from the faculty, there would surely be no movement and stillness, and such a substance of hearing originally has no self-nature. If it came out of space, then, having hearing and forming its nature, it would no longer be space; moreover, it would be space itself that hears—what would that have to do with your entrance? Therefore you should know: the ear entrance is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔1 · Refuting the Six Entrances · the nose entrance〕（0115a12）‘Ānanda! It is like a person who quickly draws in breath through his nose; when he has drawn it in for long, strain arises, and in his nose a cold touch is smelled. Because of this touch he distinguishes open and blocked, empty and full, and so on to all kinds of fragrant and foul odors; the nose and the strain are both the strained appearance of bodhi staring. Because of the two kinds of false dusts, openness and blockage, smelling arises and dwells in their midst, absorbing these images of the dusts; this is called the nature of smelling. This smelling, apart from those two dusts of openness and blockage, in the end has no substance of its own. You should know: this smelling does not come from openness or blockage, does not come out of the faculty, and is not born from space. Why? If it came from openness, then in blockage smelling would perish along with openness—how could one know blockage? If it existed because of blockage, then in openness there would be no smelling—how could it bring to light fragrance, foulness, and such touches? If it were born from the faculty, there would surely be no openness and blockage, and such a substance of smelling originally has no self-nature. If it came out of space, this smelling ought itself to turn back and smell your nose; it would be space itself that smells—what would that have to do with your entrance? Therefore you should know: the nose entrance is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔1 · Refuting the Six Entrances · the tongue entrance〕（0115a23）‘Ānanda! It is like a person who licks his lips with his tongue; when he has licked for long, strain arises. If this person is ill, there is a bitter taste; for a person without illness there is a faint touch of sweetness; by sweetness and bitterness this tongue-faculty is shown, and when it does not move, the nature of blandness is constantly present. The tongue and the strain are both the strained appearance of bodhi staring. Because of the two kinds of false dusts, sweet-and-bitter and bland, knowing arises and dwells in their midst, absorbing these images of the dusts; this is called the nature of knowing taste. This nature of knowing taste, apart from those two dusts of sweet, bitter, and bland, in the end has no substance of its own. So it is, Ānanda! You should know: such knowing that tastes bitterness and blandness does not come from sweetness or bitterness, does not exist because of blandness, does not come out of the faculty, and is not born from space. Why? If it came from sweetness and bitterness, then in blandness knowing would perish—how could it know blandness? If it came out of blandness, then in sweetness knowing would vanish—how again could it know the two characteristics of sweet and bitter? If it were born from the tongue, there would surely be no sweet, bland, or bitter dusts, and such a faculty of knowing taste originally has no self-nature. If it came out of space, it would be space itself that tastes, not your mouth that knows; moreover, it would be space itself that knows—what would that have to do with your entrance? Therefore you should know: the tongue entrance is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔1 · Refuting the Six Entrances · the body entrance〕（0115b07）‘Ānanda! It is like a person who touches a hot hand with a cold hand: if the force of the cold is greater, the hot one follows the cold; if the power of the heat prevails, the cold one becomes hot. Thus by the touch felt at the time of joining, the knowing at the time of parting is shown; if the force of entering is accomplished, it is because of the strain of touch. The body and the strain are both the strained appearance of bodhi staring. Because of the two kinds of false dusts, parting and joining, awareness arises and dwells in their midst, absorbing these images of the dusts; this is called the nature of knowing awareness. This substance of knowing awareness, apart from those two dusts of parting and joining, adverse and agreeable, in the end has no substance of its own. So it is, Ānanda! You should know: this awareness does not come from parting or joining, does not exist because of adverse or agreeable, does not come out of the faculty, and is not born from space. Why? If it came at the time of joining, then at parting awareness ought already to have perished—how could it be aware of parting? The two characteristics of adverse and agreeable are also like this. If it came out of the faculty, there would surely be none of the four characteristics of parting, joining, adverse, and agreeable, and so the knowing of your body originally has no self-nature. If it surely came out of space, it would be space itself that is aware—what would that have to do with your entrance? Therefore you should know: the body entrance is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔1 · Refuting the Six Entrances · the mind entrance〕（0115b19）‘Ānanda! It is like a person who, wearied, falls asleep, and when fully slept wakes; seeing objects he remembers, and losing memory is forgetting. This is its inverted arising, abiding, changing, and perishing; absorbing habits and returning them within, in sequence, not overstepping one another—this is called the faculty of mental knowing. The mind and the strain are both the strained appearance of bodhi staring. Because of the two kinds of false dusts, arising and perishing, knowing gathers and dwells in their midst, absorbing and gathering the inner dusts; seeing and hearing flow back against the current, and the ground the flow does not reach is called the nature of awareness and knowing. This nature of awareness and knowing, apart from those two dusts of waking and sleeping, arising and perishing, in the end has no substance of its own. So it is, Ānanda! You should know: such a faculty of awareness and knowing does not come from waking or sleeping, does not exist because of arising or perishing, does not come out of the faculty, and is not born from space. Why? If it came from waking, then in sleep it would perish along with waking—what would do the sleeping? If it surely existed only at arising, then at perishing it would be gone along with it—whom would you have undergo the perishing? If it existed from perishing, then at arising perishing would be absent—who would know the arising? If it came out of the faculty, the two characteristics of waking and sleeping open and close along with the body; apart from these two substances, this awareness and knowing is the same as flowers in space, in the end without self-nature. If it were born from space, then naturally it would be space that knows—what would that have to do with your entrance? Therefore you should know: the mind entrance is false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔2 · Refuting the Twelve Bases · the base of eye and form〕（0115c04）‘Further, Ānanda! Why do I say that the twelve bases are originally the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous nature of true suchness? Ānanda! Look now at the trees of this Jeta Grove and at the springs and pools. What do you think? Does form give rise to the eye’s seeing, or does the eye give rise to the characteristic of form? Ānanda! If the eye-faculty gave rise to the characteristic of form, then when it sees space, space not being form, the nature of form ought to dissolve away; once dissolved, it would disclose that all is altogether absent; the characteristic of form being gone, who would make clear the substance of space? Space is also like this. If the dust of form gave rise to the eye’s seeing, then when it looks at space, space not being form, seeing ought to dissolve and vanish; once vanished, all would be absent—who would make clear space and form? Therefore you should know: seeing, together with form and space, has no location; that is, the two bases of form and seeing are false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔2 · Refuting the Twelve Bases · the base of ear and sound〕（0115c13）‘Ānanda! Listen again: in this Jeta Park, when the meal is ready the drum is struck, and when the assembly gathers the bell is rung; the sounds of bell and drum follow one after another. What do you think? Do these sounds come to the side of the ear, or does the ear go to the place of the sound? Ānanda! If this sound came to the side of the ear, it would be like my going on alms round in the city of Śrāvastī: in the Jeta Grove, then, I am not present. This sound must come to the place of Ānanda’s ear; then Maudgalyāyana and Kāśyapa ought not both to hear it—how much less the one thousand two hundred and fifty śramaṇas among them, who, on hearing the sound of the bell, all come together to the place of the meal? If your ear went to the side of that sound, it would be like my returning to dwell in the Jeta Grove: in the city of Śrāvastī, then, I am not present. When you hear the sound of the drum, your ear has already gone to the place where the drum is struck; when the sound of the bell rings out at the same time, you ought not to hear both—how much less the various sounds of elephants, horses, oxen, and sheep among them? If there were no coming and going, would there then be no hearing either? Therefore you should know: listening and sound have no location; that is, the two bases of listening and sound are false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔2 · Refuting the Twelve Bases · the base of nose and scent〕（0115c25）‘Ānanda! Smell again the sandalwood in this censer: if this incense is burned to the amount of a single zhu, the whole city of Śrāvastī within forty li smells its scent at the same time. What do you think? Is this scent born from the sandalwood wood, born from your nose, or born from space? Ānanda! If this scent were born from your nose, since it is said to be born of the nose, it ought to come out of the nose; the nose is not sandalwood—how is there the scent of sandalwood in the nose? Since it is said that you smell the scent, the scent ought to enter through the nose; for scent to come out of the nose and be called smelling the scent does not accord with reason. If it were born from space, the nature of space is constant and abiding, and the scent ought always to be present—why need one rely on burning this dry wood in the censer? If it were born from the wood, then the substance of this incense becomes smoke through burning; if the nose can smell it, it ought to be suffused with smoke; that smoke rises into the air and has not yet reached far away—how, within forty li, has it already been smelled? Therefore you should know: scent, nose, and smelling have no location; that is, the two bases of smelling and scent are false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔2 · Refuting the Twelve Bases · the base of tongue and taste〕（0116a07）‘Ānanda! At the two times you constantly take up your bowl among the assembly, and at times among the food you meet with butter, curds, and ghee, which are called supreme tastes. What do you think? Is this taste born in space? Born in the tongue? Or born in the food? Ānanda! If this taste were born from your tongue, there is only one tongue in your mouth; that tongue having at that time already become the taste of butter, on meeting black rock-sugar it ought not to shift. If it does not change and shift, it is not called knowing taste; if it does change and shift, the tongue is not many substances—how are many tastes known by one tongue? If it were born from the food, the food has no consciousness—how could it know of itself? Moreover, if the food knew of itself, it would be the same as another person eating—what has it to do with your knowing that is called taste? If it were born from space, when you chew on space, what taste ought it to have? Suppose space made a salty taste: since it has salted your tongue, it would also salt your face, and then the people of this world would be the same as fish in the sea. Since they constantly receive the salty taste, they would not know blandness at all; if they do not recognize blandness, they would also not feel saltiness; surely knowing nothing, how could it be called taste? Therefore you should know: taste, tongue, and tasting have no location; that is, tasting and taste are both false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔2 · Refuting the Twelve Bases · the base of body and touch〕（0116a20）‘Ānanda! Every morning you constantly rub your head with your hand. What do you think? In the knowing born of this rubbing, who is the one that touches? Is the one that touches in the hand, or in the head? If in the hand, the head would have no knowing—how would touch be formed? If in the head, the hand would be of no use—how could it be called touch? If each had it, then you, Ānanda, ought to have two bodies. If head and hand were born of one touch, then hand and head ought to be one substance; if one substance, touch could not be formed. If two substances, where is the touch? If it is in what touches, it is not in what is touched; if it is in what is touched, it is not in what touches; nor should it be space that forms touch with you. Therefore you should know: awareness, touch, and body have no location; that is, body and touch are both false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔2 · Refuting the Twelve Bases · the base of mind and dharmas〕（0116a29）‘Ānanda! In your mind you constantly take as objects the three natures of good, bad, and indeterminate, which give rise to and form the patterns of dharmas. Are these dharmas the mind itself, born of it? Or do they have a separate location apart from the mind? Ānanda! If they were the mind itself, dharmas would not be dusts, not objects of the mind—how could they form a base? If they had a separate location apart from the mind, then is the self-nature of dharmas knowing, or not knowing? If knowing, it would be called mind; being different from you and not a dust, it would be the same as the measure of another person’s mind. If it were you and were the mind, how would your mind again become two with you? If it were not knowing, this dust being neither form, sound, scent, taste, parting, joining, cold, warmth, nor the characteristic of space, where ought it to be? Now within form and space there is nothing that shows it; there should not be, in the human world, a further place outside space. The mind having nothing it takes as object, from whom is the base established? Therefore you should know: the patterns of dharmas and the mind have no location; that is, mind and dharmas are both false, originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔3 · Refuting the Eighteen Realms · the realm of eye-consciousness〕（0116b10）‘Further, Ānanda! Why do I say that the eighteen realms are originally the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous nature of true suchness? Ānanda! As you understand it, with eye and form as conditions, eye-consciousness arises. Is this consciousness born because of the eye, taking the eye as its realm? Or born because of form, taking form as its realm? Ānanda! If it were born because of the eye, then, there being neither form nor space, there would be nothing to discriminate; even if you had consciousness, what use would it be? Your seeing, moreover, is not blue, yellow, red, or white, and has nothing that shows it—from what would a realm be established? If it were born because of form, then in space, when there is no form, your consciousness ought to perish—how could consciousness know that it is the nature of space? If, when form changes, you can also recognize the shifting of the characteristic of form, while your consciousness does not shift, from what would a realm be established? If it changed along with the change, the characteristic of the realm would naturally be absent; if it did not change, it would be constant. Since it is born from form, it ought not to recognize where space is? If it combined both, eye and form born together, then united, they are again parted in between; parted, the two sides each unite; its substance and nature would be mixed and confused—how could it form a realm? Therefore you should know: of the realm of eye-consciousness born with eye and form as conditions, the three places are all nonexistent; so eye and form and the realm of form, these three, are originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔3 · Refuting the Eighteen Realms · the realm of ear-consciousness〕（0116b23）‘Ānanda! Again, as you understand it, with ear and sound as conditions, ear-consciousness arises. Is this consciousness born because of the ear, taking the ear as its realm? Or born because of sound, taking sound as its realm? Ānanda! If it were born because of the ear, then since the two characteristics of movement and stillness are not present, the faculty does not form knowing and surely knows nothing. Since knowing is not even formed, what shape would consciousness have? If you take the hearing of the ear, because there are no conditions of movement and stillness, hearing too forms nothing. How could the bodily shape of the ear, mixed with the dusts of form and touch, be called a realm of consciousness? Then from whom would the realm of ear-consciousness be established! If it were born from sound, consciousness exists because of sound and has nothing to do with hearing; without hearing, the location of the characteristic of sound is lost. If consciousness is born from sound, then even granting that sound has its characteristic of sound because of hearing, hearing ought to hear consciousness; if it does not hear, it does not form a realm. If it hears, it is the same as sound; consciousness having been heard, who would know the hearing of consciousness? If there is no knower, in the end it would be like grass and trees; sound and hearing should not mix to form a realm in between. If the realm has no middle position, then from what would the characteristics of inner and outer be formed? Therefore you should know: of the realm of ear-consciousness born with ear and sound as conditions, the three places are all nonexistent; so ear and sound and the realm of sound, these three, are originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔3 · Refuting the Eighteen Realms · the realm of nose-consciousness〕（0116c07）‘Ānanda! Again, as you understand it, with nose and scent as conditions, nose-consciousness arises. Is this consciousness born because of the nose, taking the nose as its realm? Or born because of scent, taking scent as its realm? Ānanda! If it were born because of the nose, then in your mind what do you take as the nose? Do you take that fleshly shape like a pair of claws? Or that nature of smelling and knowing, moving and stirring? If you take the fleshly shape, the substance of flesh is the body, and the knowing of the body is touch; named body, it is not the nose; named touch, it is a dust; the nose does not even have a name—how is a realm established? If you take smelling and knowing, then in your mind what again do you take as knowing? If you take flesh as knowing, then the knowing of flesh is originally touch, not the nose. If you take space as knowing, space would know of itself, and the flesh ought not to be aware. Thus space ought to be you, your body would not know, and the Ānanda of today ought to be nowhere. If you take scent as knowing, the knowing would naturally belong to the scent—what has it to do with you? If the airs of fragrance and foulness are surely born from your nose, then those two flowing airs of fragrance and foulness would not be born from the eraṇḍa and the sandalwood. When these two things do not come, you smell your own nose: is it fragrant or foul? What is foul is not fragrant; what is fragrant ought not to be foul. If both fragrance and foulness can be smelled, then you, one person, ought to have two noses, and there would be two Ānandas facing me and asking about the path—which is your substance? If the nose is one, fragrance and foulness would not be two; foulness having become fragrance and fragrance having become foulness, the two natures do not exist—from whom is a realm established? If it were born because of scent, consciousness exists because of scent; just as the eye has seeing but cannot see the eye, consciousness, existing because of scent, ought not to know scent. If it knows, it is not born from scent; if it does not know, it is not consciousness; scent not existing because of knowing, the realm of scent is not formed. If consciousness does not know scent, then this realm is not established from scent. There being no middle, inner and outer are also not formed, and all that nature of smelling is in the end false! Therefore you should know: of the realm of nose-consciousness born with nose and scent as conditions, the three places are all nonexistent; so nose and scent and the realm of scent, these three, are originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔3 · Refuting the Eighteen Realms · the realm of tongue-consciousness〕（0116c29）‘Ānanda! Again, as you understand it, with tongue and taste as conditions, tongue-consciousness arises. Is this consciousness born because of the tongue, taking the tongue as its realm? Or born because of taste, taking taste as its realm? Ānanda! If it were born because of the tongue, then the sugarcane, black plum, coptis, rock salt, wild ginger, ginger, and cassia of the world would all be without taste. Taste your own tongue: is it sweet or bitter? If the nature of the tongue were bitter, who would taste the tongue? The tongue cannot taste itself—who would be aware? If the nature of the tongue is not bitter, taste naturally does not arise—how is a realm established? If it were born because of taste, consciousness itself would be taste, the same as the tongue-faculty, and ought not to taste itself—how could consciousness know what is taste and what is not taste? Moreover, all tastes are not born of one thing; since tastes are born of many kinds, consciousness ought to have many substances! If the substance of consciousness is one, and that substance is surely born of taste, then salty, bland, sweet, and pungent, and the various changing characteristics born together in union, would all be of one taste and ought to have no discrimination! Since there is no discrimination, it is not called consciousness—how again could it be called the realm of tongue-taste-consciousness? It should not be that space gives rise to your mind’s consciousness! When tongue and taste unite, right within this there is originally no self-nature—how is a realm born? Therefore you should know: of the realm of tongue-consciousness born with tongue and taste as conditions, the three places are all nonexistent; so tongue and taste and the realm of the tongue, these three, are originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔3 · Refuting the Eighteen Realms · the realm of body-consciousness〕（0117a14）‘Ānanda! Again, as you understand it, with body and touch as conditions, body-consciousness arises. Is this consciousness born because of the body, taking the body as its realm? Or born because of touch, taking touch as its realm? Ānanda! If it were born because of the body, there would surely be no conditions of the two kinds of awareness and contemplation, joining and parting—what would body-consciousness know? If it were born because of touch, there would surely be no body of yours—who is there that, not being a body, can know joining and parting? Ānanda! Things cannot touch and know; it is because the body knows that there is touch. To know the body is touch; to know touch is the body; speaking of touch, it is not the body; speaking of the body, it is not touch; the two characteristics of body and touch originally have no location. Joined to the body, it is the body’s own substance and nature; apart from the body, it is the characteristics of space and the like; inner and outer are both not formed—how is the middle established? The middle cannot be established further, and the natures of inner and outer are both empty; then when your consciousness arises, from whom is a realm established? Therefore you should know: of the realm of body-consciousness born with body and touch as conditions, the three places are all nonexistent; so body and touch and the realm of the body, these three, are originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.

〔3 · Refuting the Eighteen Realms · the realm of mind-consciousness〕（0117a25）‘Ānanda! Again, as you understand it, with mind and dharmas as conditions, mind-consciousness arises. Is this consciousness born because of the mind, taking the mind as its realm? Or born because of dharmas, taking dharmas as its realm? Ānanda! If it were born because of the mind, in your mind there must be something thought of, bringing your mind to light; if there are no dharmas before it, the mind has nothing from which to arise; apart from conditions it has no shape—what use would consciousness be? Further, your cognizing mind, together with the various kinds of thinking and pondering and the nature of discerning—are they the same or different? If the same as the mind, it is the mind—how is it what is born? If different from the mind and not the same, it ought to be conscious of nothing! If it is conscious of nothing, how can one say it is born from the mind? If it is conscious of something, how does it recognize the mind? Only the two natures of same and different cannot be formed—how is a realm established? If it were born because of dharmas, the dharmas of the world do not depart from the five dusts. Look at form-dharmas and the various sound-dharmas, scent-dharmas, taste-dharmas, and touch-dharmas: their characteristics and appearances are distinct, facing the five faculties, and are not what the mind takes in. If your consciousness surely arises in dependence on dharmas, now observe closely: what shape are dharmas and dharmas? If, apart from form and space, movement and stillness, openness and blockage, joining and parting, arising and perishing, one goes beyond these characteristics, in the end nothing whatever is obtained. At arising, form, space, and the other dharmas arise together; at perishing, form, space, and the other dharmas perish together; what it depends on being absent, what shape would the consciousness born because of it have? The characteristics and appearances being absent, how is a realm born? Therefore you should know: of the realm of mind-consciousness born with mind and dharmas as conditions, the three places are all nonexistent; so mind and dharmas and the realm of mind, these three, are originally neither causes and conditions nor the nature of spontaneity.’

〔4 · Ānanda Presses the Difficulty · The Buddha Consents to Expound · Establishing the Principle and Refuting in General〕（0117b13）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! The Tathāgata has always said, “Union and causes and conditions: all the various transformations of the world are brought to light by the union of the four elements.” Why does the Tathāgata reject and cast out both causes and conditions and spontaneity? I do not now know to what this meaning belongs; I only ask that you bestow your pity, and open up for beings the dharma of the complete meaning of the middle way, without idle disputation!’

〔4 · Ānanda Presses the Difficulty · The Buddha Consents to Expound · Establishing the Principle and Refuting in General〕（0117b17）At that time the World-Honored One said to Ānanda: ‘You earlier turned in weariness from the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas, and the various dharmas of the Lesser Vehicle, and resolved to seek diligently unsurpassed bodhi; therefore I now open up for you the truth of the foremost meaning. Why do you again entangle yourself with the idle disputation of the world and the causes and conditions of false thinking? Although you have heard much, you are like one who talks of medicine: when the true medicine is before him he cannot distinguish it; the Tathāgata says this is truly pitiable! Listen carefully now! I will distinguish and show it for you, and also enable those in the future who cultivate the Great Vehicle to penetrate true reality.’ Ānanda was silent and received the Buddha’s sagely intent.

〔4 · Ānanda Presses the Difficulty · The Buddha Consents to Expound · Establishing the Principle and Refuting in General〕（0117b24）‘Ānanda! As you say, “the union of the four elements brings to light all the various transformations of the world.” Ānanda! If the substance of the nature of the elements were not union, it could not mix and blend with the elements, just as space does not blend with forms. If it were union, it would be the same as transformation, beginning and end forming each other, arising and perishing following one another, born and dying, dying and born, birth upon birth and death upon death, like a whirling ring of fire with no rest. Ānanda! It is like water becoming ice, and ice turning back into water.

〔5 · The Nature of Earth〕（0117b29）‘Look at the nature of earth: coarse, it becomes the great earth; fine, it becomes fine dust; reaching the dust bordering on void, splitting that most minute particle—the boundary-characteristic of form—it is formed of seven parts; splitting the dust bordering on void further, it is truly the nature of emptiness.

〔5 · The Nature of Earth〕（0117c02）‘Ānanda! If this dust bordering on void can be split into space, you should know that space can also give rise to the characteristic of form. You now ask, ‘Because of union, all the various transformed characteristics of the world arise’; look then at this one mote of dust bordering on void: how much space must be united to have it? It should not be that dust bordering on void unites to form dust bordering on void. Further, when the dust bordering on void is split into emptiness, how many characteristics of form must unite to form space? If it is when characteristics of form unite, what is formed by uniting is form, not emptiness; if it is when characteristics of emptiness unite, what is formed by uniting is emptiness, not form. Form can still be split—how can emptiness be united?

〔5 · The Nature of Earth〕（0117c08）‘You originally did not know that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of form is true emptiness and the nature of emptiness is true form, pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing. It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all!

〔6 · The Nature of Fire〕（0117c12）‘Ānanda! The nature of fire has no self; it lodges in the various conditions. Look at the households in the city that have not yet eaten: when they are about to cook, they hold the burning-mirror in their hands and seek fire before the sun. Ānanda! What is called union is like my now forming one assembly with you, the one thousand two hundred and fifty bhikṣus; although the assembly is one, when one inquires into its root, each person has his own body, and each has the clan and name of his birth—as Śāriputra is of the brahmin caste, Uruvilvā is of the Kāśyapa clan, and so on to Ānanda, who is of the Gautama clan.

〔6 · The Nature of Fire〕（0117c17）‘Ānanda! If this nature of fire existed because of union, then when that person holds the mirror and seeks fire beneath the sun, does this fire come out of the mirror? Does it come out of the mugwort? Or does it come from the sun? Ānanda! If it came from the sun, since it can of itself burn the mugwort in your hand, then the forests and trees of the place it comes from ought all to be burned? If it came out of the mirror, since it can of itself come out of the mirror and set the mugwort alight, why does the mirror not melt? The mirror held in your hand does not even have a characteristic of heat—how could it melt? If it were born from the mugwort, why need one rely on the light of the sun and the mirror meeting before the fire is born? Observe again closely: the mirror is held by the hand, the sun comes from the heavens, the mugwort is originally born from the earth—from what direction does the fire travel to come here? The sun and the mirror are far apart, neither union nor combination; it should not be that the light of fire exists of itself, coming from nowhere.

〔6 · The Nature of Fire〕（0117c25）‘You still do not know that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of fire is true emptiness and the nature of emptiness is true fire, pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing. Ānanda! You should know: when people of the world hold a mirror in one place, fire arises in one place; when mirrors are held throughout the dharma-realm, fire arises filling the world; fire arising throughout the world—where is there a fixed location? It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all!

〔7 · The Nature of Water〕（0118a03）‘Ānanda! The nature of water is not fixed; flowing and stopping have no constancy. For instance, in the city of Śrāvastī, the great masters of illusion—the ṛṣi Kapila, the ṛṣi Cakra, Padmahasata, and others—seek the essence of the moon in order to blend their illusion potions. These masters of illusion, at the time of the white moon, hold the fang-zhu moon-mirror in their hands and catch the water in the moon. Does this water come out of the pearl? Does it exist in space of itself? Or does it come from the moon?

〔7 · The Nature of Water〕（0118a07）‘Ānanda! If it came from the moon, since it can even from afar make the pearl give forth water, then the forests and trees it passes through ought all to pour out streams of water. If they all pour forth, why need one wait for what the fang-zhu gives forth? If they do not pour forth, this shows that the water does not descend from the moon. If it came out of the pearl, then water ought constantly to flow from within this pearl—why need one wait until midnight, at the time of the white moon, to catch it? If it were born from space, the nature of space is boundless, and the water ought to be limitless; from the human world up to the heavens all would alike be overwhelmed and drowned—how would there still be beings that move in water, on land, and in the air? Observe again closely: the moon rises from the heavens, the pearl is held by the hand, and the water basin that receives the pearl is set out by the person himself—from what direction does the water flow to pour in here? The moon and the pearl are far apart, neither union nor combination; it should not be that the essence of water exists of itself, coming from nowhere.

〔7 · The Nature of Water〕（0118a15）‘You do not yet know that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of water is true emptiness and the nature of emptiness is true water, pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing. When a pearl is held in one place, water comes forth in one place; when pearls are held throughout the dharma-realm, water arises filling the dharma-realm; water arising filling the world—where is there a fixed location? It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all!

〔8 · The Nature of Wind〕（0118a21）‘Ānanda! The nature of wind has no substance; movement and stillness are not constant. You constantly arrange your robes and enter the great assembly; the corner of your saṃghāṭī moves and reaches the person beside you, and a faint wind brushes that person’s face. Does this wind come out of the corner of the kāṣāya? Does it arise from space? Or is it born from that person’s face?

〔8 · The Nature of Wind〕（0118a23）‘Ānanda! If this wind came out of the corner of the kāṣāya, you would be wearing wind; that robe, flying and fluttering, ought to leave your body! I am now speaking the Dharma, letting my robe hang down in the assembly; look at my robe—where is the wind? There should not be within the robe a place where wind is stored. If it were born from space, when your robe does not move, why is there no brushing of wind? The nature of space is constantly abiding, and wind ought constantly to arise; if there were times without wind, space ought to perish. Perished wind can still be seen—what would perished space look like! If it had arising and perishing, it would not be called space; since it is called space, how could it give forth wind? If wind were born of itself from the face of the person brushed, being born from that person’s face, it ought to brush toward you! You yourself arrange your robe—how does it instead brush back toward him? Observe closely: arranging the robe lies with you, the face belongs to that person, space is still and does not take part in flowing—from whose direction does the wind blow to come here? The natures of wind and space are separated, neither union nor combination; it should not be that the nature of wind exists of itself, coming from nowhere.

〔8 · The Nature of Wind〕（0118b04）‘You actually do not know that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of wind is true emptiness and the nature of emptiness is true wind, pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing. Ānanda! As when you, one person, slightly move your robe, a faint wind comes forth; when there is brushing throughout the dharma-realm, wind arises filling the lands, pervading the world—where is there a fixed location? It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all!

〔9 · The Nature of Space〕（0118b11）‘Ānanda! The nature of space has no shape; it is disclosed because of form. For instance, in the city of Śrāvastī, in places far from the river, the kṣatriyas and the brahmins, vaiśyas, and śūdras, together with the Bhāradvājas, caṇḍālas, and others, newly setting up dwellings for the rains retreat, dig wells in search of water. When a foot of earth is dug out, there is within it a foot of space; and so on until a zhang of earth is dug out, and in the middle again a zhang of space is obtained. The depth of space follows how much is dug out. Does this space come out because of the earth? Does it exist because of the digging? Or is it born of itself without cause?

〔9 · The Nature of Space〕（0118b16）‘Ānanda! If this space were born of itself without cause, before the earth was dug, why was it not unobstructed? Only the great earth was seen, with no opening far and wide. If it came out because of the earth, then when the earth came out, one ought to see space go in. If the earth came out first and no space went in, how can one say that space comes out because of the earth? If there were no coming out and going in, then space and earth originally have no different cause; not being different, they are the same; then when the earth comes out, why does space not come out? If it came out because of the digging, then what the digging brings out is space, and it ought not to bring out earth; if it does not come out because of the digging, the digging itself brings out earth—how is space seen? Examine again, closely examine, closely contemplate: the digging follows the person’s hand, turning according to direction; the earth moves because of the ground; so because of what does space come out? Digging and space—one empty, one solid—do not serve each other, neither union nor combination; it should not be that space comes out of itself from nowhere.

〔9 · The Nature of Space〕（0118b25）‘If the nature of this space is perfectly full and pervasive, originally unmoving, you should know that the present earth, water, fire, and wind are equally called the five elements, their nature true and perfectly interfused, all the tathāgatagarbha, originally without arising or perishing. Ānanda! Your mind is dim and confused and does not awaken to the four elements as originally the tathāgatagarbha; you should observe space: does it come out, does it go in, or is it neither coming out nor going in? You do not know at all that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of awakening is true emptiness and the nature of emptiness is true awakening, pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing.

〔9 · The Nature of Space〕（0118c03）‘Ānanda! It is like the space of one well: space gives rise to one well; the space of the ten directions is also like this, perfectly filling the ten directions—where is there a fixed location? It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all!

〔10 · Seeing-Awareness〕（0118c07）‘Ānanda! Seeing-awareness has no knowing; it exists because of form and space. As you are now in the Jeta Grove, in the morning it is bright and in the evening dim; suppose you are there at midnight: under the white moon it is light, under the dark moon it is dark; thus brightness, darkness, and the rest are distinguished by means of seeing. Is this seeing, together with brightness and darkness and with the great void of space, one substance? Or not one substance? Or the same yet not the same? Or different yet not different?

〔10 · Seeing-Awareness〕（0118c11）‘Ānanda! If this seeing were originally one substance with brightness, darkness, and space, then the two substances of brightness and darkness cancel each other out: in darkness there is no brightness, and in brightness it is not darkness. If it were one with darkness, then in brightness seeing would vanish; if it were surely one with brightness, then in darkness seeing ought to perish; perished, how could it see brightness and see darkness? If darkness and brightness differ while seeing has no arising or perishing, how is one substance established? If this essence of seeing were not one substance with darkness and brightness, then apart from brightness, darkness, and space, analyze the origin of seeing: what shape does it have? Apart from brightness, apart from darkness, and apart from space, this origin of seeing is the same as the hair of a tortoise or the horn of a hare. The three things—brightness, darkness, and space—being all different, from what is seeing established? Brightness and darkness being opposed to each other, how can one say it is the same? Apart from the three, the origin is absent—how can one say it is different? Dividing space and dividing seeing, there is originally no boundary—how can one say it is not the same? Seeing darkness and seeing brightness, the nature does not shift or change—how can one say it is not different? Examine again finely, examine minutely, examine in detail, examine closely, and observe: brightness comes from the sun, darkness follows the dark moon, openness belongs to space, obstruction returns to the great earth; so from what does such an essence of seeing come forth? Seeing is aware, space is insensate, neither union nor combination; it should not be that the essence of seeing comes forth of itself from nowhere.

〔10 · Seeing-Awareness〕（0118c24）‘If the natures of seeing, hearing, and knowing are perfectly full and pervasive, originally unmoving, you should know that boundless, unmoving space, together with the moving earth, water, fire, and wind, are equally called the six elements, their nature true and perfectly interfused, all the tathāgatagarbha, originally without arising or perishing. Ānanda! Your nature is sunk and submerged, and does not awaken to your seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing as originally the tathāgatagarbha. You should observe this seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing: is it arising, is it perishing? Is it the same, is it different? Is it neither arising nor perishing? Is it neither the same nor different?

〔10 · Seeing-Awareness〕（0118c29）‘You have never known that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of seeing is awakened brightness and the essence of awakening is bright seeing, pure and originally so, pervading the dharma-realm, answering to the minds of beings according to the measure of their knowing. As with the one faculty of seeing, seeing pervades the dharma-realm; listening, smelling, tasting, touching, the awareness of touch, and the awareness of knowing—wondrous virtue, lustrous and clear—pervade the dharma-realm everywhere, perfectly filling the space of the ten directions—where is there a fixed location? It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all!

〔11 · The Nature of Consciousness〕（0119a06）‘Ānanda! The nature of consciousness has no source; it comes forth falsely because of the six kinds of faculties and dusts. You now look all around at the sagely assembly in this gathering, letting your eyes pass over them in turn; those eyes look all around, just as in a mirror, without any other analysis; your consciousness within this points them out in sequence: this is Mañjuśrī, this is Pūrṇa, this is Maudgalyāyana, this is Subhūti, this is Śāriputra. This discerning knowing of consciousness—is it born from seeing? Born from characteristics? Born from space? Or does it come forth suddenly without any cause?

〔11 · The Nature of Consciousness〕（0119a11）‘Ānanda! If your nature of consciousness were born within seeing, then if there were no brightness and darkness and no form and space—these four being surely absent—originally there would be no seeing of yours; since even the nature of seeing is absent, from what would consciousness arise? If your nature of consciousness were born within characteristics and not from seeing, then it would see neither brightness nor darkness; brightness and darkness both not being seen, there would be no form or space; since even those characteristics are absent, from what would consciousness arise? If it were born from space, it is neither characteristic nor seeing; not being seeing, it has nothing to discern, and naturally cannot know brightness, darkness, form, or space; not being characteristic, conditions are extinguished, and seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing have no place to be established. Dwelling within these two negations, emptiness is not the same as nothing, and existence is not the same as a thing; even if your consciousness came forth, what would it discriminate? If it came forth suddenly without any cause, why does it not, at midday, separately recognize the bright moon? Examine again finely, minutely and in detail: seeing relies on your eyes, characteristics are referred to the objects before you; what can be described becomes existence, what has no characteristic becomes nonexistence; so from what do such conditions of consciousness come forth? Consciousness is moving, seeing is still, neither union nor combination; hearing, listening, feeling, and knowing are also like this; it should not be that the conditions of consciousness come forth of themselves from nowhere.

〔11 · The Nature of Consciousness〕（0119a22）‘If this cognizing mind originally comes from nowhere, you should know that discerning and seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing are perfect, full, and profoundly clear, their nature not coming from anywhere; together with space, earth, water, fire, and wind, they are equally called the seven elements, their nature true and perfectly interfused, all the tathāgatagarbha, originally without arising or perishing. Ānanda! Your mind is coarse and shallow, and does not awaken to the knowing brought to light by seeing and hearing as originally the tathāgatagarbha. You should observe this cognizing mind of the six places: is it the same, is it different? Is it empty, is it existent? Is it neither the same nor different? Is it neither empty nor existent?

〔11 · The Nature of Consciousness〕（0119a28）‘You originally do not know that in the tathāgatagarbha the nature of consciousness is bright knowing and awakened brightness is true consciousness, wondrous awakening, profoundly clear, pervading the dharma-realm everywhere, holding in and breathing out the space of the ten directions—where is there a fixed location? It manifests in accordance with action; the people of the world, without knowing, are deluded and take it to be causes and conditions and the nature of spontaneity; all this is the discrimination and calculation of the cognizing mind: there are only words, with no real meaning at all.’

〔12 · Carrying On the Preceding Disclosure, the Assembly Attains Awakening〕（0119b03）At that time Ānanda and all the great assembly, receiving the subtle and wondrous disclosure of the Buddha, the Tathāgata, were vast and open in body and mind, and attained freedom from obstruction. These great assemblies each knew of themselves that the mind pervades the ten directions, seeing the space of the ten directions as one looks at a leaf held in the palm of one’s hand. All that exists in all the worlds is simply the wondrous, bright, original mind of bodhi; the essence of mind is all-pervading and perfect, containing and enfolding the ten directions. Looking back on the body born of father and mother, it was like a single mote of dust blown about in the space of the ten directions, as if there, as if gone; or like a single floating bubble drifting on the vast, clear ocean, arising and perishing from nowhere. Clearly they knew of themselves that they had obtained the originally wondrous mind, constantly abiding and imperishable. Ānanda bowed to the Buddha and joined his palms, gaining what he had never had, and before the Tathāgata spoke a verse in praise of the Buddha:

〔12 · Carrying On the Preceding Disclosure, the Assembly Attains Awakening〕（0119b12）

　　Wondrous, profound, all-retaining, unmoving Honored One, the Śūraṅgama King, rare in the world!
　　You dissolve my inverted thinking of a hundred million kalpas; without passing through asaṃkhyeya kalpas I obtain the Dharma body.
　　I vow now to attain the fruit and become the Jeweled King, and in turn to deliver beings as many as the sands of the Ganges;
　　this profound mind I offer up to lands as many as dust-motes: this is what is called repaying the Buddha’s kindness.
　　I humbly ask the World-Honored One to bear witness: into the evil world of the five turbidities I vow to enter first;
　　if a single being has not yet become a buddha, I will never here take nirvāṇa.
　　Great Hero, Great Power, Great Compassion! I hope you will further examine and remove my subtle delusions,
　　so that I may soon ascend to unsurpassed awakening and sit at the bodhimaṇḍa in the realms of the ten directions.
　　The nature of śūnyatā may dissolve and vanish, but the vajra-firm mind has no moving or turning!

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Three’.

Fascicle Four of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. Pūrṇa asks how, being pure and originally so, there suddenly arise mountains, rivers, and the great earth, and how earth, water, fire, and wind can all pervade without encroaching upon and destroying one another; the Tathāgata answers that the nature-awakening is necessarily bright and falsely it is taken as a bright awakening, whence the three kinds of continuity—of the world, of living beings, and of action and result—while the tathāgatagarbha accordingly becomes form and emptiness, apart from ‘is’ and apart from ‘is not.’ Further, by the simile of Yajñadatta he shows that falsity has no cause, and rejects causes and conditions and spontaneity alike as idle disputation. Ānanda asks for the practice, and the Tathāgata opens up the two decisive meanings—carefully examining the resolve at the stage of cause, and carefully examining the root of the afflictions—shows the superior and inferior merits of the six faculties and the origin of the faculties’ knots, and at the end, by striking the bell, verifies that the nature of hearing is truly permanent. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0119c02）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Four [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Four; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation notes on the fascicle title or the attribution.

〔1 · The Request · Consent to Expound〕（0119c07）At that time Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, in the midst of the great assembly, rose at once from his seat, bared his right shoulder, knelt on his right knee, joined his palms respectfully, and said to the Buddha: ‘Greatly majestic and virtuous World-Honored One! You skillfully expound for beings the truth of the foremost meaning of the Tathāgata. The World-Honored One has always commended me as foremost among those who teach the Dharma; yet now, hearing the subtle and wondrous Dharma-voice of the Tathāgata, I am like a deaf man a hundred paces away listening for a mosquito: from the first he cannot even see it, much less hear it. Although the Buddha has proclaimed it clearly, to make me rid myself of doubt, I still cannot yet fully grasp this meaning and reach the ground of ultimate freedom from doubt. World-Honored One! Those like Ānanda, although they have awakened, have not yet rid themselves of habit-energy and of what has outflows; and those of us in the assembly who have ascended to the state without outflows, although we have exhausted all the outflows, now on hearing the Dharma-voice spoken by the Tathāgata still have doubt and regret entangling our minds. World-Honored One! If all the faculties, dusts, aggregates, bases, realms, and so on in the world are all the tathāgatagarbha, pure and originally so, why do there suddenly arise mountains, rivers, and the great earth, and all the conditioned appearances, shifting and flowing in sequence, ending and beginning again? Further, the Tathāgata says that earth, water, fire, and wind are by nature perfectly interfused, pervading the dharma-realm, profoundly clear and permanently abiding. World-Honored One! If the nature of earth pervades everywhere, how can it admit water? If the nature of water pervades everywhere, fire cannot arise. And how is it explained that the two natures of water and fire both fill all of space without encroaching upon and destroying each other? World-Honored One! The nature of earth is obstructive and the nature of space is open and penetrating; how can both pervade the dharma-realm? I do not know where this meaning leads. I only ask that the Tathāgata let his great compassion flow forth and open the clouds of my confusion, and the clouds of confusion of all the great assembly!’ Having said this, he cast his five limbs to the ground, reverently longing for the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed compassionate teaching.

〔1 · The Request · Consent to Expound〕（0119c25）At that time the World-Honored One said to Pūrṇa and to all the arhats in the assembly whose outflows were exhausted, beyond training: ‘Today the Tathāgata will proclaim, universally for this assembly, the nature of true supreme meaning within the supreme meaning, so that the fixed-nature śrāvakas in your assembly, and all the arhats who have not yet realized the two emptinesses and who turn toward the higher vehicle, may all obtain the ground of quiescence of the One Vehicle, the place of right practice of the true araṇya. Listen now attentively! I will explain it for you.’ Pūrṇa and the others, reverently awaiting the Buddha’s Dharma-voice, received it in silence and listened.

〔2 · Answering the Doubt about How Appearances Arise from the Nature of the tathāgatagarbha〕（0120a02）The Buddha said: ‘Pūrṇa! As you say, “Pure and originally so—why do there suddenly arise mountains, rivers, and the great earth?” Have you not always heard the Tathāgata proclaim that the nature-awakening is wondrously bright and the original awakening is brightly wondrous?’ Pūrṇa said: ‘Yes, World-Honored One! I have always heard the Buddha proclaim this meaning.’ The Buddha said: ‘What you call awakened brightness—is it that the nature is bright of itself and so is named awakening? Or is it that awakening is originally not bright, and is called bright awakening only when brightness is added to it?’ Pūrṇa said: ‘If this which is not bright is called awakening, then there is nothing that is brightened.’ The Buddha said: ‘If there is nothing that is brightened, there is no bright awakening. What has something brightened is not awakening; what has nothing brightened is not brightness; and non-brightness, again, is not the nature of awakening’s profound brightness. The nature-awakening is necessarily bright of itself; falsely adding brightness to it, it becomes a bright awakening. Awakening is originally not something brightened; because of brightening, an object is set up; once the object is falsely set up, your false subject is born. Within what is originally neither-same-nor-different, difference blazes forth. Differing from what is differentiated, sameness is set up because of difference; sameness and difference bringing each other to light, because of this there is further set up what is neither same nor different. Disturbed in this way, each waiting on the other gives rise to strain; strain long continued gives rise to dust, which muddies itself.

〔3 · Discerning the Resultant Appearances · The Continuity of the World〕（0120a12）‘From this arise the toils of the dusts and the afflictions. Arising, it becomes the world; at rest, it becomes empty space; empty space is sameness, the world is difference. That which is neither same nor different is truly the conditioned dharma. Awakened brightness and the dimness of space, waiting on each other, become shaking; so there is the wind-wheel holding up the world. Because of space, shaking arises; holding firm to its brightness, obstruction is set up; that metal treasure is the hardness set up by bright awakening; so there is the metal-wheel safeguarding the lands. Hardened awakening becomes treasure; shaking brightness gives rise to wind; wind and metal rub against each other, so there is the light of fire as the nature of transformation. The brightness of the treasure gives rise to moisture, and the light of fire steams upward, so there is the water-wheel containing the worlds of the ten directions. Fire rises upward and water descends; acting on each other they set up what is firm: the wet becomes the great ocean, the dry becomes continents and sandbanks. Because of this principle, in that great ocean the light of fire constantly rises, and on those continents and sandbanks the rivers constantly flow. Where the force of water is weaker than fire, it congeals into high mountains; so stone from the mountains gives out flame when struck and becomes water when melted. Where the force of earth is weaker than water, it draws out into grasses and trees; so forests and thickets become earth when burned and give out water when wrung. Falsities arising in exchange, each in turn becomes the seed of the other; by these causes and conditions, there is the continuity of the world.

〔4 · The Continuity of Living Beings〕（0120a25）‘Further, Pūrṇa! The falsity of brightening is nothing other: awakened brightness itself is the fault. Once the false object is set up, the principle of brightening cannot be passed beyond. By these causes and conditions, hearing does not go beyond sound, and seeing does not pass beyond form; the six falsities of form, scent, taste, touch, and so on are accomplished, and from them are divided seeing, feeling, hearing, and knowing. Those of the same action bind one another; uniting and separating, they bring about transformation. When seeing is bright, form arises; when brightness is seen, thought is formed. Differing views become hatred; shared thoughts become love; flowing love becomes the seed, and taking in thought becomes the embryo. Coupling gives rise to it and draws in those of the same action; so, through causes and conditions, there are born the kalala, the arbuda, and so on. The mother-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and transformation-born are born each as is fitting: the egg-born arise only from thought, the mother-born exist because of feeling, the moisture-born are stirred through union, and the transformation-born respond through separation. Feeling, thought, union, and separation change into one another in turn; all beings who receive action, according to their action, fly up or sink down; by these causes and conditions, there is the continuity of living beings.

〔5 · The Continuity of Action and Result〕（0120b05）‘Pūrṇa! Thought and love bind together, and love cannot part; so in the world fathers and mothers, children and grandchildren, beget one another without ceasing; all of these have the greed of desire as their root. Greed and love grow together, and greed cannot stop; so in the world the egg-born, transformation-born, moisture-born, and mother-born, according to the strength or weakness of their power, devour one another in turn; all of these have the greed of killing as their root. A person eats a sheep; the sheep dies and becomes a person, the person dies and becomes a sheep; and so on to the ten classes of beings, dying and being born, being born and dying, coming to devour one another, evil action arising together, to the end of the future; all of these have the greed of stealing as their root. You owe me a life, I repay you a debt; by these causes and conditions, through hundreds of thousands of kalpas one is constantly in birth and death. You love my mind, I cherish your form; by these causes and conditions, through hundreds of thousands of kalpas one is constantly in bondage. Only killing, stealing, and lust, these three, are the root; by these causes and conditions, there is the continuity of action and result.

〔6 · Concluding the Answer · The Tathāgata Explains by Simile〕（0120b14）‘Pūrṇa! These three kinds of inverted continuity are all awakened brightness, the nature of clear knowing: because of discerning, appearances are sent forth, arising from false seeing. Mountains, rivers, and the great earth, all the conditioned appearances, shift and flow in sequence; because of this falsity, they end and begin again.’ Pūrṇa said: ‘If this wondrous awakening is originally wondrously awakened and bright, neither increased nor decreased with the mind of the Tathāgata, and without cause there suddenly arise mountains, rivers, and the great earth and all the conditioned appearances—then now that the Tathāgata has attained the wondrous, empty, bright awakening, when will mountains, rivers, the great earth, and the conditioned habits and outflows arise again?’

〔6 · Concluding the Answer · The Tathāgata Explains by Simile〕（0120b21）The Buddha said to Pūrṇa: ‘It is like a man who has lost his way and, in a village, takes south for north. Is this confusion there because of confusion? Or does it come out because of awakening?’ Pūrṇa said: ‘Such a confused man is neither because of confusion nor because of awakening. Why? Confusion originally has no root; how can it be said to be because of confusion? Awakening does not give birth to confusion; how can it be said to be because of awakening?’ The Buddha said: ‘While that confused man is confused, suddenly an awakened man points it out to him and makes him awaken. Pūrṇa! What do you think? Even though this man was once confused, will he become confused again in this village?’ Pūrṇa answered: ‘No, World-Honored One!’ The Buddha said: ‘Pūrṇa! The Tathāgatas of the ten directions are also like this. This confusion has no root; its nature is ultimately empty. In the past there was originally no confusion; it only seemed that there was confusion and awakening. When confusion is awakened from, confusion perishes, and awakening does not give birth to confusion again. Again, it is like a man whose eyes have cataracts seeing flowers in the sky; if the cataract is removed, the flowers vanish in the sky. Suppose a foolish man, at the place in the sky where those sky-flowers vanished, waits for the flowers to be born again; would you consider this man foolish or wise?’ Pūrṇa said: ‘There were originally no flowers in the sky; it is false seeing that they arise and perish. To see the flowers vanish into the sky is already inverted; to go further and command them to be born again is truly madness and folly. Why go on to ask whether such a madman is foolish or wise?’ The Buddha said: ‘As you understand it, why do you still ask, “When will the wondrous awakened bright emptiness of the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, give rise again to mountains, rivers, and the great earth?” Again, it is like gold ore mixed with pure gold: once the gold is pure, it does not become mixed again; as when wood becomes ash, it does not become wood again. The bodhi and nirvāṇa of the Buddhas, the Tathāgatas, are also like this.

〔7 · Answering the Doubt about the Elements All Pervading〕（0120c09）‘Pūrṇa! You also asked: “Earth, water, fire, and wind are by nature perfectly interfused, pervading the dharma-realm; so I doubt how the natures of water and fire could fail to encroach upon and destroy each other; and I further question how empty space and all the great earth could both pervade the dharma-realm, since they ought not to admit each other.” Pūrṇa! It is like empty space, whose substance is not any of the many appearances, and yet which does not refuse those appearances their display. Why? Pūrṇa! That great empty space is bright when the sun shines, dark when clouds gather, moving when the wind stirs, clear when the sky clears after rain, turbid when vapors congeal, hazy when earth accumulates, and reflecting when water is still. What do you think? These conditioned appearances of different aspects—are they born because of those things? Or does space possess them of itself? If they are born of those things, Pūrṇa! then when the sun shines, since it is the sun’s brightness, the worlds of the ten directions would all be the color of the sun; why is a round sun still seen in the sky? If it were the brightness of space, space ought to shine of itself; why, at midnight when there are clouds and mist, does it not give off light? You should know that this brightness is neither the sun nor space, and yet is not different from space and the sun. Looking at the appearances, they are originally false and cannot be pointed out; it is like inviting sky-flowers to bear the fruit of the void—how then can you question the principle of their encroaching upon and destroying each other? Looking at the nature, it is originally true, only the wondrous awakened brightness; the wondrous awakened bright mind is from the first not water or fire—how then can you ask about their not admitting each other! The true, wondrous awakened brightness is also like this.

〔7 · Answering the Doubt about the Elements All Pervading〕（0120c23）‘When you bring it to light by means of space, there is space appearing; when earth, water, fire, and wind are each brought to light, each appears; if they are brought to light together, they appear together. How do they appear together? Pūrṇa! It is like the reflection of the sun appearing in one body of water: two people look together at the sun in the water and go off east and west, and then each has a sun following the two people as they go—one east, one west, with no fixed standard from the first. One should not object, saying, “This sun is one; how does it follow each? Since each sun is two, how does only one appear?” Twisting and turning in falsity like this, there is nothing to rely on.

〔7 · Answering the Doubt about the Elements All Pervading〕（0120c29）‘Pūrṇa! You take form and emptiness to overturn and seize from each other within the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha accordingly becomes form and becomes emptiness, pervading the dharma-realm; so within it there is the wind moving, space clear, the sun bright, and clouds dark. Beings, confused and stupefied, turn from awakening to join the dusts; so the toils of the dusts arise, and there are the appearances of the world. I, with the wondrous brightness that neither perishes nor arises, join the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha is only the wondrous awakened brightness, perfectly illumining the dharma-realm; so within it the one is immeasurable and the immeasurable is one; in the small the great appears, and in the great the small appears; without moving from the bodhimaṇḍa it pervades the worlds of the ten directions; the body contains the endless empty space of the ten directions; on the tip of a single hair it manifests the land of a Jeweled King; sitting within a mote of dust it turns the great Dharma-wheel. Extinguishing the dusts to join awakening, it therefore gives rise to the wondrous awakened bright nature of suchness.

〔7 · Answering the Doubt about the Elements All Pervading〕（0121a08）‘And the tathāgatagarbha, the originally wondrous perfect mind, is not mind, not space, not earth, not water, not wind, not fire; not eye, not ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; not form, not sound, scent, taste, touch, or dharmas; not the realm of eye-consciousness, and so on up to not the realm of mind-consciousness; not brightness, not ignorance, not the ending of brightness, not the ending of ignorance, and so on up to not old age, not death, not the ending of old age and death; not suffering, not origination, not cessation, not the path; not wisdom, not attainment; not dāna [giving], not śīla [keeping the precepts], not vīrya [vigor], not kṣānti [patience], not dhyāna [stillness and reflection], not prajñā [wisdom], not pāramitā [reaching the other shore]; and so on up to not tathāgata [Thus Come One], not arhat [Worthy of Offerings] or samyak-saṃbuddha [Right and Universal Knowledge]; not great nirvāṇa, not permanence, not bliss, not self, not purity—because it is neither of them all, worldly or world-transcending. And that very tathāgatagarbha, the original bright wondrous mind, is mind, is space, is earth, is water, is wind, is fire; is eye, is ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; is form, is sound, scent, taste, touch, and dharmas; is the realm of eye-consciousness, and so on up to is the realm of mind-consciousness; is brightness, is ignorance, is the ending of brightness, is the ending of ignorance, and so on up to is old age, is death, is the ending of old age and death; is suffering, is origination, is cessation, is the path; is wisdom, is attainment; is dāna, is śīla, is vīrya, is kṣānti, is dhyāna, is prajñā, is pāramitā; and so on up to is tathāgata, is arhat and samyak-saṃbuddha; is great nirvāṇa, is permanence, is bliss, is self, is purity—because it is each and every one of them all, worldly and world-transcending. That very tathāgatagarbha, the source of the wondrous bright mind, is apart from ‘is’ and apart from ‘is not’; it is ‘is,’ and it is not ‘is.’ How can the knowing minds of the beings of the three existences of the world, and of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas beyond the world, fathom the unsurpassed bodhi of the Tathāgata! How can one enter the knowledge and vision of the Buddha with the language of the world! It is like the qin, the se, the konghou, and the pipa: although they have wondrous sounds, without wondrous fingers they can never sound them forth. You and beings are also like this. The jeweled-awakening true mind is perfect and full in each; when I press my finger, the ocean-seal emits light; when you raise your mind for a moment, the toils of the dusts arise first; this is because you do not diligently seek the unsurpassed path of awakening, but love the Lesser Vehicle and are content with a little attainment.’

〔8 · Resolving Pūrṇa’s Doubt about the Cause of Falsity〕（0121b04）Pūrṇa said: ‘I and the Tathāgata are without duality, perfect and full in the jeweled-awakening, perfectly bright, true, wondrous, pure mind; but in the past I met with beginningless false thinking and long remained in the cycle of rebirth; now, though I have obtained the sagely vehicle, I have not yet reached the ultimate. The World-Honored One has perfectly extinguished all falsities, and only the wondrous true abides permanently. I venture to ask the Tathāgata: because of what do all beings have falsity, so that they themselves cover over the wondrous brightness and suffer this sinking and drowning?’ The Buddha said to Pūrṇa: ‘Although you have rid yourself of doubt, your remaining delusion is not yet exhausted. I will now ask you again with a matter present before the world: have you not heard of Yajñadatta in the city of Śrāvastī, who suddenly one morning looked at his face in a mirror, delighted that the head, eyebrows, and eyes in the mirror could be seen, yet angrily reproached his own head for not showing its face and eyes; taking it to be a mountain-demon, he ran about madly for no reason? What do you think? Because of what did this man run madly for no reason?’

〔8 · Resolving Pūrṇa’s Doubt about the Cause of Falsity〕（0121b14）Pūrṇa said: ‘This man’s mind was mad; there is no other reason.’ The Buddha said: ‘The wondrous awakening, bright and perfect, originally perfect, bright, and wondrous—since it is called falsity, how could it have a cause? If it had a cause, how could it be called falsity? It is only that all false thoughts in turn become causes of one another, accumulating confusion upon confusion, through kalpas as many as dust-motes; although the Buddha has brought it to light, still one cannot turn back. Such a cause of confusion exists of itself because of confusion. Recognize that confusion has no cause, and falsity has nothing to rely on; since there was never any arising, what is there to extinguish? One who has attained bodhi is like a man awake telling of things in a dream: however keen and bright his mind, by what causes and conditions could he take hold of a thing from the dream? How much more so, since there is originally no cause, and originally nothing at all. It is like Yajñadatta in that city: what causes and conditions could there be for him to fear for his head and run about of himself? Suddenly the madness stops, and the head was not got from outside; and even before the madness stopped, when was it ever lost? Pūrṇa! The nature of falsity is like this; where then is its cause? You need only not follow the discriminations of the three kinds of continuity—of the world, of action and result, and of living beings: when the three conditions are cut off, the three causes are not born, and the madness of the Yajñadatta in your mind stops of itself. When it stops, that is bodhi: the supremely pure bright mind originally pervades the dharma-realm and is not got from another. Why rely on toil and labor, exerting effort at the joints and sinews to cultivate and realize it?

〔8 · Resolving Pūrṇa’s Doubt about the Cause of Falsity〕（0121b28）‘It is like a man who has a wish-fulfilling jewel tied within his own garment and does not know it himself; impoverished, he wanders to other lands, begging for food and running about; though he is truly poor, the jewel has never been lost. Suddenly a wise man shows him the jewel; then whatever he wishes comes as his mind desires, and he gains great wealth, and only then does he realize that the spirit-jewel was not got from outside.’

〔9 · Resolving Ānanda’s Objection about Dependent Arising〕（0121c03）At once Ānanda, in the great assembly, bowed with his head at the Buddha’s feet, rose, and said to the Buddha: ‘The World-Honored One now says, “When the three conditions of the actions of killing, stealing, and lust are cut off, the three causes are not born; the madness of the Datta in the mind stops of itself, and when it stops, that is bodhi, not got from another.” This is plainly causes and conditions, clear and evident; why does the Tathāgata abruptly cast aside causes and conditions? It was from causes and conditions that my mind came to awakening. World-Honored One! This meaning is not only for us young śrāvakas still in training: now in this assembly Mahāmaudgalyāyana, together with Śāriputra, Subhūti, and the others, who were formerly old brahmins and came from among the outsiders, heard the Buddha speak of causes and conditions, aroused the resolve, awakened, and attained the state without outflows. Now you say that bodhi is not from causes and conditions; then the spontaneity taught by Gośālī and the others of Rājagṛha becomes the foremost meaning! I only ask that you bestow your great compassion and open up our confusion and stupefaction!’

〔9 · Resolving Ānanda’s Objection about Dependent Arising〕（0121c12）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘It is like Yajñadatta in the city: if the causes and conditions of his madness can be extinguished, then the nature that is not mad comes forth of itself. The principles of causes and conditions and of spontaneity are exhausted in this. Ānanda! Yajñadatta’s head is originally spontaneous—originally so of itself; there is nothing that is not spontaneous—so because of what causes and conditions did he fear for his head and run madly? If his spontaneous head went mad because of causes and conditions, why was it not also, spontaneously, lost because of causes and conditions? The original head was not lost; the madness and fear arose falsely; the head never changed at all—why rely on causes and conditions? If the original madness were spontaneous, there would originally be madness and fear; then before he went mad, where was the madness hidden? If the absence of madness were spontaneous, the head being originally without falsity, why did he run madly? If one awakens to the original head and recognizes the mad running, causes and conditions and spontaneity are both idle disputation. Therefore I say, “When the three conditions are cut off, that is the bodhi mind.” The bodhi mind arising and the arising-and-perishing mind perishing—this is still only arising and perishing; when perishing and arising are both exhausted, that is the effortless path. If there were spontaneity, then like this it would be making clear that the spontaneous mind arises and the arising-and-perishing mind perishes, and this too is arising and perishing; only what is without arising and perishing is called spontaneity. Just as in the world the various appearances mingled and combined into one body are called the nature of union, and what is not in union is called the nature of what is originally so. What is originally so is not so, and what is in union is not union; union and so-ness are both left behind, and leaving and union are both negated—only this phrase is called the dharma free of idle disputation.

〔9 · Resolving Ānanda’s Objection about Dependent Arising〕（0121c26）‘Bodhi and nirvāṇa are still far off; they are not what you can obtain by laborious cultivation and realization through kalpas. Even if you remembered and retained the pure, wondrous principles of the twelve divisions of the scriptures of the Tathāgatas of the ten directions, as many as the sands of the Ganges, it would only increase idle disputation. Although you discourse on causes and conditions and on spontaneity with decisive clarity, and people call you foremost in learning, with the perfuming of this learning accumulated over kalpas you could not escape the calamity of Mātaṅgī, but had to wait for my Buddha-crown divine spell. The fire of lust in Mātaṅgī’s mind ceased at once; she attained the fruit of anāgāmin and became in my Dharma a forest of vigor; the river of love dried up, and she enabled you to be freed. Therefore, Ānanda! although through kalpas you have remembered and retained the secret, wondrous adornment of the Tathāgata, it is not as good as cultivating action without outflows for a single day, far leaving behind the two sufferings of hatred and love in the world. Mātaṅgī was in the past originally a courtesan; by the power of the divine spell her desire of love was dissolved, and in the Dharma she is now named the bhikṣuṇī Prakṛti. She and Yaśodharā, the mother of Rāhula, together awakened to their past causes, knowing that through lifetimes they had suffered because of greed and love; because of a single thought of perfuming cultivation of goodness without outflows, one gained release from bondage, and one received the Buddha’s prediction. How can you still deceive yourself, still lingering in looking and listening!’

〔10 · Ānanda Understands and Asks for the Practice · The General Address and Consent to Expound〕（0122a10）Ānanda and all the great assembly, hearing the Buddha’s instruction and teaching, had their doubts and delusions dissolved; their minds awakened to true reality; body and mind were light and at ease, and they gained what they had never had! Again weeping with sorrow and shedding tears, he bowed with his head at the Buddha’s feet, knelt upright with joined palms, and said to the Buddha: ‘Unsurpassed, greatly compassionate, pure Jeweled King, you skillfully open my mind! You are able, by such various causes and conditions and expedient means, to lift up, encourage, and exhort, guiding all beings sunk in darkness out of the sea of suffering. World-Honored One! Although I have now received such a Dharma-voice and know that the tathāgatagarbha, the wondrous awakened bright mind, pervades the worlds of the ten directions, containing and nurturing the Tathāgata’s lands of the ten directions, the pure, jewel-adorned lands of the King of Wondrous Awakening; and although the Tathāgata has also rebuked much learning as without merit, not equal to cultivation; I am now like a traveler lodging on the road who suddenly receives from a heavenly king the gift of a splendid house: although he has obtained a great mansion, he must still enter by the gate. I only ask that the Tathāgata not abandon his great compassion, and show us in this assembly who are benighted and dull how to cast off the Lesser Vehicle and in the end obtain the road of the original resolve toward the Tathāgata’s nirvāṇa without remainder! Let those still in training know from where to gather in and subdue their past clinging to conditions, obtain dhāraṇī, and enter the knowledge and vision of the Buddha?’ Having said this, he cast his five limbs to the ground. The great assembly present, with one mind, waited for the Buddha’s compassionate intent.

〔10 · Ānanda Understands and Asks for the Practice · The General Address and Consent to Expound〕（0122a23）At that time the World-Honored One took pity on the pratyekabuddhas and śrāvakas in the assembly who were not yet at ease with regard to the bodhi mind, and, for the sake of beings who in the future, after the Buddha’s extinction, would arouse the bodhi mind in the age of the Dharma’s ending, opened up the wondrous path of practice of the unsurpassed vehicle. He proclaimed to Ānanda and all the great assembly: ‘You who have decisively aroused the bodhi mind and do not tire of the wondrous samādhi of the Buddha, the Tathāgata, should first make clear the two decisive meanings of arousing awakening in the initial mind.

〔11 · The Gate of Sameness and Difference of Cause and Result〕（0122a27）‘What are the two decisive meanings of the initial mind? Ānanda! The first meaning is this: if you wish to cast off the way of the śrāvaka, cultivate the bodhisattva vehicle, and enter the knowledge and vision of the Buddha, you should carefully contemplate whether the resolve at the stage of cause and the awakening at the stage of result are the same or different. Ānanda! If, at the stage of cause, one takes the arising-and-perishing mind as the root cause of cultivation and seeks the Buddha-vehicle’s neither arising nor perishing, there is no such principle.

〔11 · The Gate of Sameness and Difference of Cause and Result〕（0122b03）‘Because of this principle, you should illuminate this: all the dharmas that can be made in the container worlds return to change and perishing. Ānanda! Look at the dharmas that can be made in the world—which one does not decay? Yet one never hears of empty space rotting away. Why? Space is not something that can be made, and so from beginning to end it has no decay or perishing. Then in your body, what is solid is earth, what is moist is water, warm touch is fire, and movement is wind. Through these four bindings, your profoundly perfect, wondrous awakened bright mind is divided into seeing, into hearing, into feeling, and into discerning; from beginning to end, five layers pile up and form turbidity. What is turbidity? Ānanda! It is like clear water, pure and clean as it originally is; and that dust, earth, ash, sand, and the like are by nature obstructive; the natures of the two are so by their own law, and their natures do not follow each other. Someone in the world takes that earth and dust and throws it into pure water; the earth loses its obstructiveness, the water loses its purity, and its appearance becomes murky and disordered; this is named turbidity. Your five layers of turbidity are also like this.

〔11 · The Gate of Sameness and Difference of Cause and Result〕（0122b13）‘Ānanda! You see empty space pervading the realms of the ten directions, space and seeing undivided. There is space without substance, and seeing without awareness; the two weave together and are falsely formed; this is the first layer, named the turbidity of the kalpa. Your body now grasps the four elements as its substance; seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing are blocked and made obstructive; water, fire, wind, and earth are revolved into awareness and knowing; they weave together and are falsely formed; this is the second layer, named the turbidity of views. Further, in your mind, remembering, recognizing, reciting, and practicing, the nature gives forth knowing and seeing and admits the appearance of the six dusts; apart from the dusts there are no appearances, and apart from awareness there is no nature; they weave together and are falsely formed; this is the third layer, named the turbidity of afflictions. Further, you arise and perish morning and evening without stopping; knowing and seeing constantly wish to remain in the world, while the turning of action constantly shifts you from land to land; they weave together and are falsely formed; this is the fourth layer, named the turbidity of living beings. Your seeing and hearing originally have no different natures; separated by the many dusts, they give rise without cause to difference; in nature they know each other, in function they oppose each other; sameness and difference lose their standard; they weave together and are falsely formed; this is the fifth layer, named the turbidity of life.

〔11 · The Gate of Sameness and Difference of Cause and Result〕（0122b24）‘Ānanda! If you now wish your seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing to accord far off with the Tathāgata’s permanence, bliss, self, and purity, you should first choose and settle the root of death and birth, and accomplish it by relying on the perfect, profound nature that neither arises nor perishes. With the profound, revolve that false perishing and arising, subdue it and return to the original awakening, and obtain the original bright awakening’s nature without arising or perishing as the mind at the stage of cause; then perfectly accomplish the cultivation and realization at the stage of result. It is like clarifying turbid water: store it in a pure vessel, still and deep, unmoving; the sand and earth sink of themselves and the clear water appears before you; this is named first subduing the guest-dust afflictions. Removing the mud and leaving only pure water is named forever cutting off fundamental ignorance. When the bright appearance is essential and pure, no transformation or manifestation becomes affliction; all accord with the pure, wondrous virtues of nirvāṇa.

〔12 · The Gate of the Knotting and Untying of Faculties and Dusts〕（0122c03）‘The second meaning is this: if you are determined to arouse the bodhi mind, give rise to great valor in the bodhisattva vehicle, and decisively cast off all conditioned appearances, you should carefully examine the root of the afflictions: who makes, and who receives, this giving rise to action and moistening birth since beginningless time? Ānanda! In cultivating bodhi, if you do not carefully contemplate the root of the afflictions, you cannot know where the false faculties and dusts are inverted; when you do not even know the place, how can you subdue them and attain the Tathāgata’s position? Ānanda! Look at those in the world who untie knots: if they do not see where it is knotted, how will they know how to untie it? Yet one never hears of empty space being torn apart by you. Why? Space has no appearance or form; there is neither knotting nor untying. Then your present eye, ear, nose, and tongue, together with body and mind—these six are the thieves’ go-betweens, robbing the treasures of their own house; from this, since beginningless time, the world of living beings has given rise to bondage, and within the container world one cannot transcend it.

〔13 · Separately Showing the Superiority and Inferiority of the Faculties’ Functions〕（0122c12）‘Ānanda! What is called the world of living beings? ‘World’ is flowing passage, and ‘realm’ is direction and position. You should now know that east, west, south, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest, above, and below are the realm, and past, future, and present are the world; the directions are ten, and the flows are three. All beings weave falsity into one another; within the body there is exchange and shifting, and world and realm involve each other. And of this nature of the realm, although the ten directions can be fixed and clearly distinguished, the world points only to east, west, south, and north; above and below have no fixed position, and the in-between has no fixed direction. The number four is necessarily clear, and involves the world; three fours and four threes, turning around, make twelve; flowing and changing in three layers—one, ten, hundred, thousand. Taking it all together from beginning to end, within the six faculties each has twelve hundred merits.

〔13 · Separately Showing the Superiority and Inferiority of the Faculties’ Functions〕（0122c20）‘Ānanda! Within this, determine further which are superior and which inferior. As for the eye’s seeing: dark behind and bright in front—in front, fully bright; behind, fully dark; looking sideways to left and right, only two-thirds; taking its whole operation together, its merits are not complete; among the three parts, it is said to have merit, but one part has no virtue; you should know that the eye has only eight hundred merits. As for the ear, it hears everywhere in the ten directions without omission: in movement it is as if near and as if far, in stillness it is without boundary; you should know that the ear-faculty is complete with twelve hundred merits. As for the nose’s smelling, it passes through the breath going out and coming in: there is going out and coming in, but it lacks the junction in between; examining the nose-faculty, of three parts one is lacking; you should know that the nose has only eight hundred merits. As for the tongue’s proclaiming, it exhausts all worldly and world-transcending wisdom: words have their portions, but principle has no end; you should know that the tongue-faculty is complete with twelve hundred merits. As for the body’s feeling of touch, it recognizes the adverse and the agreeable: when united it can feel, when separate it does not know; separation is only one part, union has both parts; examining the body-faculty, of three parts one is lacking; you should know that the body has only eight hundred merits. As for the mind, it silently contains all the worldly and world-transcending dharmas of the ten directions and the three times; whether sagely or ordinary, there is nothing it does not embrace, to their very limits; you should know that the mind-faculty is complete with twelve hundred merits.

〔14 · Directing the Choice of the Perfectly Penetrating Faculty for Cultivation and Realization〕（0123a05）‘Ānanda! If you now wish to go against the flow of desire of birth and death, turning back to trace the flow to its root, and reach what neither arises nor perishes, you should examine these six faculties of reception and use: which unite and which separate? which are deep and which shallow? which is perfectly penetrating and which not perfect? If you can here awaken to the faculty of perfect penetration, go against that beginningless current of action woven of falsity, and so follow perfect penetration, then compared with a faculty that is not perfect, the effect is as a day to a kalpa. I have now fully revealed the merits originally possessed by the six, profound, perfectly bright, and their numbers are thus. Choose carefully among them the one by which you can enter, and I will bring it to light for you and let you advance. The Tathāgatas of the ten directions cultivated through each of the eighteen realms and all attained perfect, unsurpassed bodhi, and among them there is no superior or inferior. It is only because you are low and inferior, and cannot yet attain within them the wisdom of perfect interfusion and freedom, that I proclaim it, so that you need only enter deeply by one gate; entering the one, without falsity, those six knowing faculties are at once purified.’

〔14 · Directing the Choice of the Perfectly Penetrating Faculty for Cultivation and Realization〕（0123a15）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! How does one go against the flow and enter deeply by one gate, so that the six faculties can be purified at once?’

〔14 · Directing the Choice of the Perfectly Penetrating Faculty for Cultivation and Realization〕（0123a17）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You have now attained the fruit of srota-āpanna and have already extinguished the delusions of the world of beings of the three realms that are cut off by seeing; yet you still do not know the beginningless false habits accumulated life after life within the faculties—those habits can be cut off only by what is cut off by cultivation—how much less the divisions and number of arising, abiding, changing, and perishing within them? Now observe the six faculties before you: are they one or six? Ānanda! If you say they are one, why can the ear not see? Why can the eye not hear? Why can the head not walk? Why can the feet not speak? If these six faculties are decisively six, then as I now in this assembly proclaim to you the subtle and wondrous Dharma-gate, which of your six faculties receives it?’ Ānanda said: ‘I hear with my ears.’ The Buddha said: ‘Your ear hears by itself—what has that to do with your body and mouth? Your mouth comes to ask about the meaning, and your body rises in reverent acceptance. Therefore you should know: not one, yet in the end it becomes six; not six, yet in the end it becomes one. In the end it is not that your faculties are originally one or originally six. Ānanda! You should know that these faculties are neither one nor six; because of beginningless inversion and sinking, within the perfect profundity the meanings of one and six arise. You, a srota-āpanna, although you have attained the dissolving of the six, have not yet forgotten the one. It is like the great empty space mixed among many vessels: because the shapes of the vessels differ, it is named different spaces; remove the vessels and look at space, and space is said to be one. How could that great empty space become same or not same for you? How much less could it further be named one or not one? Then the six faculties of reception and use that you know are also like this.

〔15 · Expounding at Length the Origin of the Faculties’ Knots · Directly Showing the Gate of Entering the One〕（0123b03）‘Because of the two kinds of appearances, brightness and darkness, shaping each other, within the wondrous perfection, adhering to the profound, seeing arises; the essence of seeing reflects form, and knotting form, it forms the faculty; the faculty in its origin is called the pure four elements, and so it is named the substance of the eye, shaped like a grape cluster; the four dusts of the floating faculty flow out and rush toward form. Because of the two kinds of appearances, movement and stillness, striking each other, within the wondrous perfection, adhering to the profound, hearing arises; the essence of hearing reflects sound, and rolling up sound, it forms the faculty; the faculty in its origin is called the pure four elements, and so it is named the substance of the ear, shaped like a newly rolled leaf; the four dusts of the floating faculty flow out and rush toward sound. Because of the two kinds of appearances, openness and blockage, arising from each other, within the wondrous perfection, adhering to the profound, smelling arises; the essence of smelling reflects scent, and taking in scent, it forms the faculty; the faculty in its origin is called the pure four elements, and so it is named the substance of the nose, shaped like two hanging claws; the four dusts of the floating faculty flow out and rush toward scent. Because of the two kinds of appearances, blandness and change, mingling with each other, within the wondrous perfection, adhering to the profound, tasting arises; the essence of tasting reflects taste, and wringing taste, it forms the faculty; the faculty in its origin is called the pure four elements, and so it is named the substance of the tongue, shaped like a crescent moon just lying down; the four dusts of the floating faculty flow out and rush toward taste. Because of the two kinds of appearances, separation and union, rubbing each other, within the wondrous perfection, adhering to the profound, feeling arises; the essence of feeling reflects touch, and grasping touch, it forms the faculty; the faculty in its origin is called the pure four elements, and so it is named the substance of the body, shaped like the drumhead of a waist-drum; the four dusts of the floating faculty flow out and rush toward touch. Because of the two kinds of appearances, arising and perishing, continuing each other, within the wondrous perfection, adhering to the profound, knowing arises; the essence of knowing reflects dharmas, and surveying dharmas, it forms the faculty; the faculty in its origin is called the pure four elements, and so it is named the mind’s thinking, like seeing things in a dark room; the four dusts of the floating faculty flow out and rush toward dharmas.

〔15 · Expounding at Length the Origin of the Faculties’ Knots · Directly Showing the Gate of Entering the One〕（0123b20）‘Ānanda! These six faculties, from that awakened brightness, come to have the awakening of brightening brightness; losing that essential clarity, they adhere to falsity and give forth light. Therefore now, apart from darkness and apart from brightness, you have no substance of seeing; apart from movement and apart from stillness, there is originally no substance of hearing; without openness and without blockage, the nature of smelling does not arise; neither change nor blandness, tasting has nowhere to come forth; neither separation nor union, the feeling of touch is originally nonexistent; without perishing and without arising, where would clear knowing lodge! You need only not follow these twelve conditioned appearances—movement and stillness, union and separation, blandness and change, openness and blockage, arising and perishing, darkness and brightness; pull out any one faculty as it suits you, free it from adhesion and subdue it inwardly; subdued, it returns to the original truth and sends forth the radiance of the original brightness; when the radiant nature comes to light, the other five adhesions are pulled out at that very moment, in perfect and complete liberation; not by the knowing and seeing produced by the dusts before one, the brightness does not follow the faculty, but lodging in the faculty the brightness comes forth; from this the six faculties function for one another.

〔15 · Expounding at Length the Origin of the Faculties’ Knots · Directly Showing the Gate of Entering the One〕（0123b29）‘Ānanda! Do you not know that now in this assembly Aniruddha sees without eyes; the dragon Upananda hears without ears; the goddess of the Gaṅgā smells scents without a nose; Gavāṃpati knows taste with an unusual tongue; the spirit Śūnyatā has touch without a body—illumined within the Tathāgata’s light, it is made to appear for a moment, but being of the substance of wind, its body is originally nonexistent; and the śrāvakas who have attained quiescence through the samādhi of cessation, like Mahākāśyapa in this assembly, have long since extinguished the mind-faculty, yet know with perfect brightness, not by way of the mind’s thought. Ānanda! Now if your faculties are all perfectly pulled out, inwardly lustrous and giving forth light, then the floating dusts and all the changing appearances of the container world will be like ice melted by hot water, transformed in response to thought into unsurpassed knowing-awareness. Ānanda! It is like a person of the world who gathers his seeing in his eyes: if he suddenly closes his eyes, the appearance of darkness appears before him; the six faculties are dim, head and feet alike. That person feels around the outside of his body with his hands; although he does not see, he distinguishes head and feet one by one, and his knowing-awareness is the same. Seeing that depends on brightness becomes no seeing in the dark; what arises of itself without brightness can never be darkened by any appearance of darkness. When the faculties and dusts are dissolved, how could awakened brightness not become perfectly wondrous?’

〔16 · Separately Refuting the Doubt〕（0123c13）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! As the Buddha said, “The awakened mind at the stage of cause, seeking permanent abiding, must accord with the names at the stage of result.” World-Honored One! At the stage of result, bodhi, nirvāṇa, suchness, buddha-nature, the amala-consciousness, the empty tathāgatagarbha, and the great perfect mirror wisdom—these seven names, though their designations differ, are pure and perfect, their substance and nature firm and congealed, permanently abiding and indestructible like the Vajra King. If this seeing and hearing, apart from darkness and brightness, movement and stillness, openness and blockage, ultimately have no substance—just as the thinking mind, apart from the dusts before it, is originally nothing at all—how can one take what is ultimately annihilated as the cause of cultivation and wish to obtain the Tathāgata’s seven permanently abiding fruits? World-Honored One! If, apart from brightness and darkness, seeing is ultimately empty—just as when there are no dusts before it, thought perishes of itself—then as I go back and forth around it, searching subtly, there is originally no mind of mine and nothing belonging to my mind; with what shall I set up the cause and seek unsurpassed awakening? The Tathāgata earlier spoke of the profound, essential, perfect, and permanent, contradicting his truthful words, and in the end it becomes idle disputation; how is the Tathāgata said to be one who speaks the truth? I only ask that you bestow your great compassion and open my dullness and obstinacy!’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0123c25）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You study much learning but have not yet exhausted the outflows; in your mind you know only the causes of inversion, but when true inversion appears before you, you truly cannot recognize it. Fearing that your sincere mind has not yet believed and submitted, I will now try taking up worldly matters of the dusts to remove your doubt.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0123c27）At once the Tathāgata commanded Rāhula to strike the bell once, and asked Ānanda: ‘Do you hear now?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0123c29）Ānanda and the great assembly all said: ‘I hear.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0123c29）When the sound of the bell had stopped and there was no sound, the Buddha asked again: ‘Do you hear now?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a01）Ānanda and the great assembly all said: ‘I do not hear.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a01）At that time Rāhula struck once more, and the Buddha asked again: ‘Do you hear now?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a02）Ānanda and the great assembly again said: ‘All hear.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a03）The Buddha asked Ānanda: ‘What do you call hearing? What do you call not hearing?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a03）Ānanda and the great assembly all said to the Buddha: ‘If the bell is struck, then I get to hear; when it has been struck long and the sound fades away, and sound and echo are both cut off, that is called not hearing.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a05）The Tathāgata again commanded Rāhula to strike the bell, and asked Ānanda: ‘Is there sound now?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a06）Ānanda and the great assembly all said: ‘There is sound.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a06）After a short while the sound faded away, and the Buddha asked again: ‘Is there sound now?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a07）Ānanda and the great assembly answered: ‘There is no sound.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a07）After a moment Rāhula came again and struck the bell, and the Buddha asked again: ‘Is there sound now?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a08）Ānanda and the great assembly all said: ‘There is sound.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a09）The Buddha asked Ānanda: ‘What do you call there being sound? What do you call there being no sound?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a09）Ānanda and the great assembly all said to the Buddha: ‘If the bell is struck, that is called there being sound; when it has been struck long and the sound fades away, and sound and echo are both cut off, that is called there being no sound.’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a11）The Buddha said to Ānanda and all the great assembly: ‘Why do you now speak in equivocation?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a12）The great assembly and Ānanda at the same time asked the Buddha: ‘Why do you now call us equivocating?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Resolves It〕（0124a13）The Buddha said: ‘When I ask you about hearing, you speak of hearing; when I ask you again about sound, you speak of sound. Only, about hearing and sound, your answers have no fixed standard; how is this not called equivocation?

〔18 · Refuting His View of Annihilation by the Nature of Hearing〕（0124a15）‘Ānanda! When the sound fades and there is no echo, you say there is no hearing. If there were truly no hearing, the nature of hearing would already have perished, the same as a withered tree; when the bell is struck again, how would you know it? Knowing there is and knowing there is not are of themselves the dust of sound sometimes being absent and sometimes present; how could that nature of hearing be present or absent for you? If hearing were truly absent, who would know that absence? Therefore, Ānanda! sound within hearing has of itself arising and perishing; it is not that because you hear sound arise and sound perish your nature of hearing is made present or absent. You are still inverted, mistaking sound for hearing; no wonder you are confused and take the permanent for the annihilated. In the end you should not say that apart from movement and stillness, blockage and opening, hearing has no nature.

〔18 · Refuting His View of Annihilation by the Nature of Hearing〕（0124a22）‘It is like a person sound asleep on his bed and pillow; while he sleeps, someone in his household pounds silk or hulls rice; in his dream that person hears the sound of pounding and hulling and takes it for something else—either the beating of a drum or the striking of a bell; while dreaming, he himself wonders why the bell makes the sound of wood and stone. Then suddenly he wakes and at once knows it is the sound of the pestle. He tells his household himself: “Just as I was dreaming, I mistook this sound of hulling rice for the sound of a drum.” Ānanda! In his dream does this person remember stillness and shaking, opening and closing, openness and blockage? Although his body sleeps, the nature of hearing is not darkened. Even if your body dissolves and perishes and the light of your life passes away, how could this nature be dissolved and destroyed for you? Because all beings, since beginningless time, have followed forms and sounds and flowed along pursuing thoughts, they have never awakened to the nature pure, wondrous, and permanent. Not following the permanent, they pursue all that arises and perishes; because of this, life after life, they flow on in defilement. If one casts aside arising and perishing and guards true permanence, the permanent light appears before one, and the dusts and faculties and the cognizing mind fall away at that very moment. The appearances of thought are dust, and the feelings of consciousness are defilement; when both are left far behind, then your dharma-eye at that very moment becomes clear and bright; how could it not become unsurpassed knowing-awareness?’

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Four’.

Fascicle Five of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. Ānanda asks about the origin of what is knotted; the tathāgatas of the ten directions, with different mouths and one voice, show him that the root of the knots lies only in the six faculties; the Tathāgata teaches that faculty and dust share one source and that bondage and release are not two, and proclaims it again in verse. Further, he ties the flowered kerchief offered by the Kapāla deva into six knots, shows the six untied, the one gone, and the order of loosening the knots, and has them choose the faculty of perfect penetration; thereupon twenty-four sages each tell the gate of perfect penetration they realized, from Kauṇḍinya’s sound to Mahāsthāmaprāpta’s recollection of the Buddha, which closes the fascicle. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0124b09）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Five [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Five; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation note on the fascicle title; on the attribution line, the second character of the translator’s name carries a collation note.

〔1 · The Doubt That Knot and Untying Share One Substance · Ānanda’s Request〕（0124b14）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Although the Tathāgata has proclaimed the gate of the second meaning, yet now, looking at those in the world who untie knots, if one does not know the origin from which the knot was tied, I believe such a person can never untie it. World-Honored One! I and the śrāvakas in the assembly who are still at the stage of learning are also like this. Since beginningless time we have perished together and arisen together with all ignorance; although we have obtained such roots of goodness of much learning, and are called those who have left home, we are still like a fever that returns every other day, now abating, now flaring up again. I only ask that the greatly compassionate World-Honored One have pity on us who are sunk and drowning! Today, in our bodies and minds, what is the knot? And from where can untying be spoken of? Let the suffering and afflicted beings of the future also escape the cycle of rebirth and not fall into the three existences.’ Having said this, Ānanda together with the great assembly cast their five limbs to the ground, their tears falling like rain, earnest and utterly sincere, waiting for the Buddha Tathāgata’s unsurpassed opening instruction.

〔2 · The Tathāgata Expounds at Length · Ānanda Asks Again〕（0124b23）At that time the World-Honored One, taking pity on Ānanda and on all those in the assembly still at the stage of learning, and also for all beings of the future, to be a cause and condition for leaving the world and to be the eyes of the future, stroked the crown of Ānanda’s head with his hand of jambūnada purple-gold light. At once all the buddha-worlds everywhere in the ten directions shook in six ways, and the tathāgatas dwelling in each of those worlds, as many as fine dust-motes, each sent forth jeweled light from the crown of the head; these lights at the same moment came from their own worlds to the Jeta Grove and poured upon the crown of the Tathāgata’s head. All in the assembly gained a sense of the rare such as they had never had before! Then Ānanda and the great assembly together heard the tathāgatas of the ten directions, as many as fine dust-motes, with different mouths and one voice, say to Ānanda: ‘Excellent, Ānanda! You wish to know innate ignorance, the knotted root that makes you revolve in birth and death: it is only your six faculties, and nothing else. You further wish to know unsurpassed bodhi, which makes you swiftly realize ease, release, stillness, the wondrous and permanent: it too is your six faculties, and nothing else!’

〔2 · The Tathāgata Expounds at Length · Ānanda Asks Again〕（0124c04）Although Ānanda heard such a Dharma-voice, his mind was still not clear, and he bowed his head and said to the Buddha: ‘Why is it that what makes me revolve in birth and death and what makes me attain ease and the wondrous and permanent are alike these six faculties, and nothing else?’

〔3 · The Buddha Explains It〕（0124c06）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Faculty and dust share one source; bondage and release are not two; the nature of consciousness is false, like flowers in the sky. Ānanda! Because of the dusts, knowing is set off; because of the faculties, appearances are there; the seen appearance and the seeing have no self-nature, leaning on each other and standing like crossed reeds. Therefore, now, if upon knowing-and-seeing you set up a knowing, this is the root of ignorance; if in knowing-and-seeing there is no further seeing set up, this is nirvāṇa, true purity without outflows. How can there be room within this for anything else?’

〔4 · The Verses〕（0124c10）At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to proclaim this meaning again, spoke in verse:

〔4 · The Verses〕（0124c12）

　　In the true nature the conditioned is empty; because it arises from conditions, it is illusion-like;
　　the unconditioned neither arises nor perishes; it is not real, like flowers in the sky.
　　Speaking of the false is to show all that is true, yet false and true are alike two falsities.
　　Even true and not-true cannot be spoken of; how then speak of the seer and the seen?
　　Between faculty and dust there is no real nature; therefore they are like crossed reeds.
　　Knotting and untying share the same cause; sage and ordinary have no two roads.
　　Look at the nature in the midst of the crossed reeds: it is neither emptiness nor existence.
　　Confusion and dimness are ignorance; to bring forth brightness in the nature is release.
　　Untying the knots follows an order; when the six are untied, the one too is gone.
　　Among the six faculties choose the perfectly penetrating one; enter the stream of the Dharma and become perfectly awakened.
　　The subtle ādāna consciousness: habit-energy builds into a torrent;
　　lest true and not-true confuse people, I do not ordinarily expound it.
　　The mind itself grasps the mind itself; what is not illusion becomes, on the contrary, illusory dharmas.
　　If there is no grasping, there is no non-illusion; since even non-illusion does not arise,
　　how could illusory dharmas be set up? This is called the wondrous lotus,
　　the jeweled awakening of the Vajra King, the illusion-like samādhi;
　　in a snap of the fingers it surpasses those beyond training. This is the abhidharma,
　　of all the bhagavāns of the ten directions, the one road, the gate of nirvāṇa.

〔5 · The Doubt about the Six Untied and the One Gone〕（0125a01）Then Ānanda and the great assembly, having heard the unsurpassed compassionate teaching of the Buddha Tathāgata, its geya and gāthā interwoven, pure and lustrous, its wondrous principle clear and penetrating, had their minds and eyes opened and brightened, and praised it as never before. Ānanda joined his palms, bowed his head, and said to the Buddha: ‘Today I have heard the Buddha’s unobstructed great compassion, the true Dharma-phrases of the nature pure, wondrous, and permanent; yet my mind has still not understood the meaning of the six knots untied and the one gone, nor the order of loosening the knots. I only ask that you once more bestow your great compassion, once more take pity on this assembly and on beings of the future, and bestow the Dharma-voice to wash away our deep-sunk defilement!’

〔6 · Showing at Length by a Deed〕（0125a07）At that time the Tathāgata, on the lion seat, straightened his nivāsana, gathered his saṃghāṭī, leaned upon the table of seven jewels, reached his hand to the table, took the flowered kerchief offered by the Kapāla deva, and before the great assembly tied it into a knot. He showed it to Ānanda and asked: ‘What is this called?’

Ānanda and the assembly said to the Buddha: ‘This is called a knot.’

Then the Tathāgata tied the folded flowered kerchief again, making another knot, and asked Ānanda again: ‘What is this called?’

Ānanda and the assembly again said to the Buddha: ‘This too is called a knot.’

In this way the Tathāgata tied the folded flowered kerchief in order, making six knots in all. As each knot was made, he held up the knot made in his hand and asked Ānanda: ‘What is this called?’

Ānanda and the assembly likewise answered the Buddha in order: ‘This is called a knot.’

〔6 · Showing at Length by a Deed〕（0125a15）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘When I first tied the kerchief, you called it a knot; this folded flowered kerchief was from the first really a single strip; why, at the second and the third, do you again call it a knot?’

Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! This jeweled folded flowered kerchief is a kerchief woven from spun thread; although it is originally one substance, as I think it over: “Each time the Tathāgata ties it, he gets the name of one knot; if he tied it a hundred times, in the end they would be called a hundred knots. How much more this kerchief, which has only six knots, in the end never reaching seven and not stopping at five?” Why does the Tathāgata allow only the first to be called a knot, and not the second and the third?’

〔6 · Showing at Length by a Deed〕（0125a21）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘This jeweled flowered kerchief—you know that the kerchief was originally only a single strip; I tied it six times, and it is named as having six knots. Observe carefully: the kerchief’s substance is the same; because of the knots there is difference. What do you think? The knot first tied is named the first, and so on until the sixth knot arises; if I now wish to take the name of the sixth knot and make it the first, can it be done?’

‘No, World-Honored One! If the six knots remain, this name of the sixth is in the end not the first. Even if, life after life, I exhausted my intelligence and eloquence, how could I make the names of these six knots disordered?’

〔6 · Showing at Length by a Deed〕（0125a27）The Buddha said: ‘The six knots are not the same; tracing back their original cause, they are made by one kerchief; to make them mixed and disordered can never be done. Your six faculties are also like this: in the utterly same, the utterly different arises.’

〔7 · Directly Showing the Six Untied and the One Gone〕（0125a29）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You must dislike that these six knots do not make one, and wish to make them one; how then is it to be done?’

Ānanda said: ‘If these knots exist, “this” and “not this” rise up like blades, and in their midst there arises of itself the discrimination, “This knot is not that one; that knot is not this one.” If the Tathāgata today unties them all, then since knots do not arise, there is no this and that; even the one is not named one—how could the six be established?’

The Buddha said: ‘The six untied, the one gone, is also like this. Because since beginningless time your mind-nature has been wild and disordered, knowing-and-seeing has falsely arisen; arising falsely without ceasing, toiling seeing gives rise to dust. It is like eyes that toil in staring and then see mad flowers in the sky. Within the profound essential brightness, without cause they arise in confusion; all the mountains, rivers, and great earth of the world, birth and death and nirvāṇa, are all appearances of flowers from mad toil and inversion.’

〔8 · Then Discerning the Order of Untying the Knots〕（0125b08）Ānanda said: ‘This appearance of toil is like a knot; how is it to be removed?’

The Tathāgata with his hand pulled the tied kerchief toward the left and asked Ānanda: ‘Like this, can it be untied?’

‘No, World-Honored One!’

The Tathāgata again with his hand pulled it toward the right, and again asked Ānanda: ‘Like this, can it be untied?’

‘No, World-Honored One!’

The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘I now pull it with my hand to the left and to the right, and in the end cannot untie it; you think of an expedient—how can it be untied?’

Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! One should set to work at the heart of the knot; untie it there, and it falls apart.’

〔8 · Then Discerning the Order of Untying the Knots〕（0125b14）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘So it is, so it is! If you wish to remove a knot, you should work at the heart of the knot. Ānanda! I say that the Buddha-Dharma arises from causes and conditions; it does not take the coarse appearances of worldly union. The Tathāgata brings to light worldly and world-transcending dharmas, knowing that their original causes come forth according to what they are conditioned by; even of a single drop of rain beyond worlds as many as the sands of the Ganges, he knows the number; of all that is before one—the pine’s straightness, the bramble’s crookedness, the swan’s whiteness, the crow’s blackness—he fully knows the origin. Therefore, Ānanda! As you please, choose in your mind among the six faculties; if the knot of the faculty is removed, the appearances of dust perish of themselves; when all false appearances dissolve, what is this if not the true! Ānanda! I now ask you: the six knots of this Kapāla kerchief are now before your eyes; untying their windings all at once, can they be removed together?’

‘No, World-Honored One! These knots were originally tied in order; today they must be untied in order. The six knots are one substance, but the knots were not tied at the same time; then when untying them, how could they be removed together?’

〔8 · Then Discerning the Order of Untying the Knots〕（0125b23）The Buddha said: ‘The untying of the six faculties is also like this. When this faculty is first untied, one first attains the emptiness of persons; when the nature of emptiness is perfectly bright, one accomplishes release from dharmas; having been released from dharmas, persons and dharmas are both empty, and emptiness too does not arise; this is called the bodhisattva’s attaining, from samādhi, the acceptance of non-arising.’

〔9 · Citing Cultivation and Realization at Length〕（0125b27）Ānanda and the great assembly, having received the Buddha’s instruction, their wisdom and awakening perfectly fused and penetrating, were able to be without doubt. At one time they joined their palms, bowed their heads at the Buddha’s two feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘Today our bodies and minds are bright and clear, and we have joyfully attained freedom from obstruction. Although we have further awakened to the meaning of the one and the six both gone, we have still not penetrated the root faculty of perfect penetration. World-Honored One! We have drifted and wandered, alone and destitute through many kalpas; what mind, what thought was it that let us come to be counted among the Buddha’s own kin, like an infant who has lost its milk suddenly meeting its loving mother! If through this meeting we accomplish the path, yet the secret words we obtain remain the same as our original understanding, would that not be no different from not having heard? I only ask that you bestow your great compassion and grant us the Dharma-gate of secret adornment, to complete the Tathāgata’s final instruction!’ Having said this, they cast their five limbs to the ground, withdrew, and hid deep their secret disposition, hoping that the Buddha would transmit it in the unseen.

〔10 · The Tathāgata Questions the Assembly of Sages〕（0125c07）At that time the World-Honored One addressed universally the great bodhisattvas in the assembly and the great arhats whose outflows were exhausted: ‘You bodhisattvas and arhats, born in my Dharma, have attained the stage beyond training. I now ask you: at your first resolve, when you awakened to the eighteen realms, which was perfectly penetrating? By what expedient did you enter samādhi?’

〔11 · The Sages Each Tell Their Gate of Realization · Realization by Extinguishing the Dusts and Joining Awakening〕（0125c11）Kauṇḍinya, with the five bhikṣus, rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘In the Deer Park and the Kukkuṭa Garden I saw the Tathāgata when he first attained the path, and in the Buddha’s voice I awakened to and understood the four truths. When the Buddha questioned the bhikṣus, I was the first to declare that I had understood; the Tathāgata certified me and named me Ājñāta. The wondrous sound, secret and complete: in sound I attained arhatship. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, sound is supreme.’

Upaniṣad rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I too saw the Buddha when he first attained the path. I contemplated the appearance of impurity and gave rise to great revulsion, and awakened to the nature of all forms: from impurity, white bones, and fine dust it returns to empty space; emptiness and form both being gone, I accomplished the path beyond training. The Tathāgata certified me and named me Niṣad. The dust of form having been extinguished, the wondrous form, secret and complete: from the appearance of form I attained arhatship. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, the cause that is form is supreme.’

The youth Fragrant Adornment rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I heard the Tathāgata teach me to contemplate carefully all conditioned appearances. At that time I took leave of the Buddha and kept a pure fast in a quiet place; I saw the bhikṣus burning aloeswood incense, and its fragrance came silently into my nostrils. I contemplated this scent: it is not wood, not space, not smoke, not fire; going, it has nowhere it settles; coming, it has nowhere it comes from. Because of this my intent dissolved and I brought to light what is without outflows; the Tathāgata certified me, and I received the name Fragrant Adornment. The dust of scent suddenly vanished, the wondrous fragrance, secret and complete: from fragrant adornment I attained arhatship. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, fragrant adornment is supreme.’

Bhaiṣajyarāja and Bhaiṣajyasamudgata, the two Dharma princes, together with the five hundred Brahmā-gods in the assembly, rose from their seats, bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘Since beginningless kalpas we have been good physicians of the world; with our mouths we have tasted the grasses and trees, metals and stones of this Sahā world, their names and numbers totaling one hundred and eight thousand kinds. In this way we fully know the flavors bitter, sour, salty, bland, sweet, and pungent, and all the flavors that are compounded, innate, and transformed, whether cold or hot, poisonous or not—we know them all. Serving the Tathāgata, we came to know that the nature of taste is neither empty nor existent, is not the body and mind, and is not apart from body and mind. Discerning the cause of taste, from this we awakened; the Buddha Tathāgata certified us brothers with the names of the two bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyarāja and Bhaiṣajyasamudgata, and now in the assembly we are Dharma princes. Through taste we awakened to brightness and ascended to the rank of bodhisattva. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, the cause that is taste is supreme.’

Bhadrapāla, with his companions, sixteen bodhisattvas, rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘Formerly, under the Buddha King of Majestic Sound, we heard the Dharma and left home; at the time of bathing the saṃgha, we entered the bathhouse according to custom. Suddenly we awakened to the cause that is water: it washes neither the dust nor the body; in between, at ease, we attained nothing whatever. The perfuming of past lives was never forgotten, and so on until now, following the Buddha and leaving home, we have attained the stage beyond training. That buddha named me Bhadrapāla; the wondrous touch made manifest, I accomplished abiding as a son of the Buddha. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, the cause that is touch is supreme.’

Mahākāśyapa, with the bhikṣuṇī Purple-Gold Light and the others, rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘In a past kalpa, in this world, a buddha appeared in the world named Sun-and-Moon Lamp, and I was able to draw near him, hear the Dharma, and practice and learn. After that buddha passed into extinction, I made offerings to his relics, kept lamps burning in unbroken succession, and adorned the buddha’s image with purple-light gold. From that time on, life after life, my body has always been perfectly suffused with a mass of purple-gold light; the bhikṣuṇī Purple-Gold Light and the others are my retinue, who brought forth the resolve at the same time as I. I contemplated the six dusts of the world changing and decaying, and only with emptiness and quiescence cultivated cessation; my body and mind were able to pass through a hundred thousand kalpas as if in a snap of the fingers. By the dharma of emptiness I accomplished arhatship, and the World-Honored One said that I was foremost in dhūta. The wondrous dharma opened and became clear, dissolving all outflows. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, the cause that is dharmas is supreme.’

〔12 · Realization by Turning the Faculties Back to the Nature〕（0126a27）Aniruddha rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘When I first left home I was always fond of sleep, and the Tathāgata rebuked me as of the kind of animals. Hearing the Buddha’s rebuke, I wept and reproached myself, and for seven days did not sleep, and lost both my eyes. The World-Honored One showed me the Vajra Samādhi of Delighting in Seeing and Illumination; not relying on the eyes I see the ten directions, the essential truth clear throughout, as if looking at a fruit in my palm; the Tathāgata certified me as having become an arhat. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, turning false seeing back to follow the origin—this is foremost!’

Cūḍapanthaka rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I lacked the power to recite and retain, and had no gift for much learning. When I first met the Buddha, heard the Dharma, and left home, I tried to retain a single gāthā of the Tathāgata; for a hundred days, remembering the beginning I forgot the end, and remembering the end I forgot the beginning. The Buddha pitied my dullness and taught me to dwell in retreat and regulate the breath going out and coming in. At that time I contemplated the breath, subtle to the utmost: arising, abiding, changing, and perishing—all formations are within an instant. My mind suddenly opened and I attained great freedom from obstruction, and so on until, my outflows exhausted, I became an arhat, and at the Buddha’s seat I received his certification as one beyond training. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, returning the breath to follow emptiness—this is foremost!’

Gavāṃpati rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I have an action of speech: in a past kalpa I slighted and mocked a śramaṇa, and life after life I have had the ailment of chewing like an ox. The Tathāgata showed me the Dharma-gate of the one-flavored pure mind-ground; I was able to extinguish the false mind and enter samādhi. I contemplated the knowing that tastes: it is neither the substance of the faculty nor an outer thing; in a single thought I passed beyond all the outflows of the world. Within, I shed body and mind; without, I left the world behind; far apart from the three existences, like a bird leaving its cage; apart from defilement and with the dusts dissolved, the dharma-eye pure, I became an arhat; the Tathāgata himself certified me, and I ascended the path beyond training. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, returning taste and turning back knowing—this is foremost!’

Pilindavatsa rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘When I first resolved to follow the Buddha and enter the path, I often heard the Tathāgata speak of the things in the world that give no joy. While begging for food in the city, my mind pondering the Dharma-gate, I did not notice a poisonous thorn on the road, which pierced my foot, and my whole body was in pain. I reflected that I have knowing, which knows this deep pain; although there is awareness of the pain, in the pure mind that is aware there is neither pain nor awareness of pain. I further reflected: “Can this one body have two awarenesses?” Gathering my thought, before long body and mind suddenly became empty; within three times seven days all outflows were emptied out and I became an arhat, receiving the Buddha’s own seal and bringing to light the stage beyond training. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, pure awareness leaving the body behind—this is foremost!’

Subhūti rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘Since vast kalpas my mind has been unobstructed; I myself remember receiving birth as many times as the sands of the Ganges. From the first, in my mother’s body, I knew emptiness and quiescence; and so on until the ten directions all became empty, and I also caused beings to realize the nature of emptiness. Receiving the Tathāgata’s disclosure of the nature of awakening as true emptiness, the nature of emptiness perfectly bright, I attained arhatship and suddenly entered the Tathāgata’s jeweled bright sea of emptiness. Sharing the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing, I was certified as having attained the stage beyond training; in the emptiness of the nature of release I am unsurpassed. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, all appearances entering into negation, and even the negating and what is negated exhausted, turning dharmas back to nothing—this is foremost!’

〔13 · Realization by Following the Profound Consciousness to Its Source〕（0126c06）Śāriputra rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘Since vast kalpas the seeing of my mind has been pure; receiving birth in this way as many times as the sands of the Ganges, all the transformations worldly and world-transcending I penetrated at a single seeing and obtained freedom from obstruction. On the road I met the Kāśyapa brothers walking together, speaking of causes and conditions; I awakened to the boundlessness of the mind, and followed the Buddha and left home. Seeing and awareness bright and complete, I attained great fearlessness and became an arhat, the Buddha’s eldest son: born from the Buddha’s mouth, born by transformation from the Dharma. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I have realized it, the mind’s seeing emits light, and light at its utmost is knowing-and-seeing—this is foremost!’

The bodhisattva Samantabhadra rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I have already been a Dharma prince for tathāgatas as many as the sands of the Ganges; the tathāgatas of the ten directions teach those of their disciples who have the faculty of a bodhisattva to cultivate the practice of Samantabhadra, which is named after me. World-Honored One! With the mind’s hearing I discern the knowing-and-seeing of all beings; if, in another region beyond worlds as many as the sands of the Ganges, a single being brings to light in his mind the practice of Samantabhadra, at that moment I ride the six-tusked elephant, divide my body into hundreds of thousands, and all go to where he is. Even if that person’s obstruction of action is heavy and he cannot see me, I, in the unseen, stroke that person’s crown, protect and comfort him, and enable him to accomplish it. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I speak of the original cause: the mind’s hearing bringing to light, discerning with mastery—this is foremost!’

Sundarananda rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘When I first left home and followed the Buddha into the path, although I was complete in the precepts, in samādhi my mind was always scattered and agitated, and I had not attained what is without outflows. The World-Honored One taught me and Kauṣṭhila to contemplate the white at the tip of the nose. At first I contemplated carefully; after three times seven days I saw the breath in the nose going out and coming in like smoke; body and mind were bright within, perfectly penetrating the world, all becoming empty and pure, like beryl. The appearance of smoke gradually vanished and the breath of the nose became white; my mind opened and my outflows were exhausted; all the breaths going out and coming in transformed into light, illuminating the worlds of the ten directions; I attained arhatship, and the World-Honored One gave me a prediction that in the future I shall attain bodhi. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by dissolving the breath, the breath long continued bringing forth brightness, the brightness complete extinguishing the outflows—this is foremost!’

Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘Since vast kalpas my eloquence has been unobstructed; I have proclaimed suffering and emptiness and deeply penetrated true reality; and so on to the secret Dharma-gates of tathāgatas as many as the sands of the Ganges, which I have subtly and wondrously disclosed in the great assembly, attaining fearlessness. The World-Honored One knew that I had great eloquence, and with the wheel of sound taught me to proclaim it. Before the Buddha I helped the Buddha turn the wheel. Through the lion’s roar I became an arhat, and the World-Honored One certified my teaching of the Dharma as unsurpassed. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by the sound of the Dharma subduing the demonic enemies and dissolving all outflows—this is foremost!’

Upāli rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I myself followed the Buddha over the city wall to leave home; I personally saw the Tathāgata’s six years of diligent austerity, and personally saw the Tathāgata subdue the demons, overcome the outsiders, and be released from the outflows of worldly greed and desire. Receiving the Buddha’s precepts, and so on to the three thousand deportments and the eighty thousand subtle actions wrong by nature and actions wrong by prohibition, all became pure. Body and mind quiescent and extinct, I became an arhat. I am the one who keeps order in the Tathāgata’s assembly; the Buddha himself certified my mind; in keeping the precepts and cultivating the body, the assembly esteems me as unsurpassed. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by holding the body, the body attaining mastery, and next by holding the mind, the mind attaining penetration, and then body and mind all penetrating freely—this is foremost!’

Mahāmaudgalyāyana rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘At first, begging for food on the road, I met the three Kāśyapas, Uruvilvā, Gayā, and Nadī, who proclaimed the profound meaning of the Tathāgata’s causes and conditions. At once I brought forth the resolve and attained great penetration. The Tathāgata bestowed a kāṣāya upon my body, and my beard and hair fell away of themselves. I traveled through the ten directions without hindrance; spiritual powers came to light, I was esteemed as unsurpassed, and I became an arhat. Not only the World-Honored One—the tathāgatas of the ten directions all praise my spiritual power as perfectly bright and pure, masterful and fearless. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by turning back to the profound and sending forth the mind’s light, as when a turbid stream is clarified and in time becomes clear and lustrous—this is foremost!’

〔14 · Realization by Returning the Elements to Their Common Origin〕（0127a26）Ucchuṣma, before the Tathāgata, joined his palms, bowed his head at the Buddha’s two feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I often first recall that long kalpas ago my nature was much given to greed and desire. A buddha appeared in the world named King of Emptiness, who said that those much given to lust become a mass of raging fire. He taught me to contemplate everywhere the hundred bones and four limbs of the whole body, and all its cold and warm breaths; the spiritual light gathered within and transformed the mind much given to lust into the fire of wisdom. From then on all the buddhas called me by the name Fire-Head. By the power of the samādhi of fire-light I became an arhat. In my mind I made a great vow: when the buddhas attain the path, I shall be their strongman, myself subduing the demonic enemies. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by carefully contemplating the warm touch of body and mind flowing through without obstruction, all outflows having dissolved, producing a great jeweled flame, and ascending to unsurpassed awakening—this is foremost!’

The bodhisattva Earth-Holder rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I remember that formerly, when the Tathāgata Universal Light appeared in the world, I was a bhikṣu. Constantly, at all the main roads and ferry crossings, wherever the ground was dangerous and narrow, not as it should be, harming and injuring carts and horses, I leveled and filled it all. Sometimes I built bridges, sometimes I carried sand and earth on my back. Laboring diligently like this, I passed through the appearing in the world of immeasurable buddhas. Sometimes a being in the marketplace wanted someone to carry things for him; I would carry them for him first, and on reaching where he was going, put the things down and leave, taking no payment. When the Buddha Viśvabhū dwelt in the world, the world was much afflicted with famine; I carried loads for people, no matter far or near, taking only a single coin. Sometimes an ox-cart sank in the mud; having spiritual power, I pushed its wheels for them and pulled them out of their distress. At that time the great king of the country invited the Buddha to a feast; at that time I leveled the road and waited for the Buddha. The Tathāgata Viśva stroked my crown and said to me: “You should level the ground of your mind; then the ground of the world will all be level!” At once my mind opened, and I saw that the fine dust of the body and all the fine dust that makes up the world are equal and without difference; the nature of fine dust does not touch or rub against itself, and so on until even swords and weapons touch nothing. In the nature of dharmas I awakened to the acceptance of non-arising and became an arhat; now, turning my mind, I have entered the ranks of the bodhisattvas, and hearing the tathāgatas proclaim the wondrous lotus, the ground of the Buddha’s knowing-and-seeing, I was the first to bear witness and became the leader. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by carefully contemplating the two dusts of body and world as equal and without difference—originally the tathāgatagarbha falsely giving forth dust; the dust dissolved and wisdom complete, I accomplished the unsurpassed path—this is foremost!’

The youth Moonlight rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I remember that formerly, kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges ago, a buddha appeared in the world named Water-Deva, who taught the bodhisattvas to cultivate the essence of water and enter samādhi. I contemplated the nature of water in the body as not contending: beginning from tears and spittle, and so on through saliva and fluids, semen and blood, urine and excrement—the nature of water circling back and forth in the body is one and the same; I saw that the water in my body and the fragrant seas of all the lands of the Floating Banner King beyond the world are equal and without difference. At that time I had first accomplished this contemplation; I saw only its water and had not yet attained being without a body. At that time I was a bhikṣu, sitting in dhyāna in my room. I had a disciple who peeped through the window into the room and saw only clear water filling the room, and saw nothing else. The child, knowing nothing, took a tile-shard and threw it into the water; it struck the water and made a sound, and he looked around and left. After I came out of samādhi, I suddenly felt pain in my heart, like Śāriputra struck by the harming ghost. I thought to myself: “Now I have attained the path of arhatship and have long been far from the conditions of illness; why today do I suddenly feel pain in my heart? Could it be that I have regressed?” At that time the youth quickly came before me and told me what had happened above. I then told him: “If you see the water again, you may at once open the door, enter this water, and remove the tile-shard.” The youth received the teaching; later, when I entered samādhi, he again saw the water, with the tile-shard plainly there, and opened the door and took it out. Afterward I came out of samādhi, and my body was as before. I met immeasurable buddhas, and so on until the Tathāgata King of Mastery and Penetration over Mountains and Seas, and only then did I attain the vanishing of the body; with the fragrant seas of the worlds of the ten directions, my nature joined with true emptiness, not two and without difference. Now, with the Tathāgata, I have obtained the name of youthful truth, and have entered the assembly of bodhisattvas. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by the nature of water, one in flavor, flowing through, attained the acceptance of non-arising and perfected bodhi—this is foremost!’

The Dharma prince Beryl Light rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I remember that formerly, passing kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges, a buddha appeared in the world named Immeasurable Sound, who disclosed to the bodhisattvas the original awakening, wondrous and bright, and had them contemplate this world and the bodies of beings as all turned by the power of the wind of false conditions. At that time I contemplated the setting-up of the world, contemplated the time of the world’s shifting and moving, contemplated the body’s moving and stopping, contemplated the mind’s moving thoughts: all movements are not two, equal and without difference. At that time I clearly knew the nature of this whole mass of movement: coming, it comes from nowhere; going, it goes nowhere; the inverted beings of the ten directions, as many as fine dust-motes, are one and the same falsity. And so on until all the beings within a single three-thousand great-thousand world are like a hundred mosquitoes stored in one vessel, buzzing in confusion, clamoring wildly within a fraction of an inch. Not long after meeting that buddha I attained the acceptance of non-arising; at that time my mind opened and I saw the land of the Buddha Akṣobhya in the east, became a Dharma prince, and served the buddhas of the ten directions. Body and mind emitted light, penetrating through without obstruction. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by contemplating that the power of wind has nothing to rest on, awakened to the bodhi-mind, entered samādhi, joined with the buddhas of the ten directions, and transmitted the one wondrous mind—this is foremost!’

The bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘With the Tathāgata, at the place of the Buddha Fixed Light, I attained the boundless body. At that time I held in my hands four great jewel-pearls, illuminating buddha-lands of the ten directions as many as fine dust-motes, transforming them into empty space. Further, in my own mind there appeared a great round mirror, from within which I emitted ten kinds of subtle and wondrous jeweled light. It flowed and poured out over the ten directions, to the very bounds of empty space; all the banner-king lands came into the mirror and entered my body. My body was the same as empty space, without obstructing anything; my body could skillfully enter lands as many as fine dust-motes, widely carrying out the Buddha’s work and attaining great accordance. This great spiritual power comes from my carefully contemplating that the four elements have nothing to rely on, that false thought arises and perishes, that empty space is not two, and that the buddha-lands are originally the same. Bringing to light within sameness, I attained the acceptance of non-arising. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by contemplating space without bound, entered samādhi, the wondrous power perfectly bright—this is foremost!’

The bodhisattva Maitreya rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I remember that formerly, passing kalpas as many as fine dust-motes, a buddha appeared in the world named Sun-and-Moon Lamp Brightness. I followed that buddha and left home, but my mind valued worldly fame, and I liked to go back and forth among the households of noble clans. At that time the World-Honored One taught me to cultivate the samādhi of mind-only consciousness and enter samādhi. Through the kalpas since, with this samādhi I have served buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges, and the mind that sought worldly fame ceased and was gone. When the Buddha Dīpaṃkara appeared in the world, I then attained the unsurpassed, wondrous, perfect samādhi of the cognizing mind; and so on until, throughout the tathāgatas’ lands to the ends of space, the pure and the defiled, the existent and the nonexistent, all are what my mind transforms and manifests. World-Honored One! Because I understand such mind-only consciousness, from the nature of consciousness flow forth immeasurable tathāgatas. Now I have received the prediction, next to fill the Buddha’s place. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, by carefully contemplating that the ten directions are consciousness only, the cognizing mind perfectly bright, entered the perfected real, far apart from the other-dependent and from pervasive discrimination and attachment, and attained the acceptance of non-arising—this is foremost!’

The Dharma prince Mahāsthāmaprāpta, with his companions, fifty-two bodhisattvas, rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘I remember that formerly, kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges ago, a buddha appeared in the world named Immeasurable Light; twelve tathāgatas appeared in succession within one kalpa, the last buddha being named Light Surpassing Sun and Moon. That buddha taught me the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha: “Suppose there are two people: one single-mindedly remembers, the other single-mindedly forgets; such two people, if they meet, it is as if they did not meet; if they see each other, it is as if they did not see. If the two remember each other, and both their rememberings are deep, and so on from this life to that life, they are like form and shadow, never parting or diverging. The tathāgatas of the ten directions think with pity of beings as a mother remembers her child; if the child runs away, what use is the mother’s remembering! If the child remembers the mother as the mother remembers him, mother and child through many lives will not be far apart. If beings in their minds remember the Buddha and recollect the Buddha, now or in the future they will surely see the Buddha; they are not far from the Buddha, and without relying on expedients, their minds will open of themselves. It is like a person who has been perfumed with incense: his body has the fragrance; this is called adornment of fragrance and light.” I, originally at the stage of cause, entered the acceptance of non-arising with the mind of recollecting the Buddha. Now in this world I gather in those who recollect the Buddha and bring them back to the pure land. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; I, without choosing, gathering in all six faculties, with pure recollection continuing unbroken, attained samādhi—this is foremost!’

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Five’.

Fascicle Six of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara tells of perfect penetration by the ear gate: from hearing, reflection, and cultivation he entered samādhi, and from entering the stream and letting the object vanish he came to the point where stillness-and-extinction appears; he gained the two excellences, manifests the thirty-two response-bodies, bestows the fourteen fearlessnesses, and is endowed with the four inconceivable wondrous virtues without contrivance; with this the twenty-five perfect penetrations are complete. The World-Honored One emits light and the buddhas bear witness together; he commands Mañjuśrī to select, and Mañjuśrī in verse assesses the twenty-five gates one by one and chooses the ear faculty alone: “the true substance of teaching in this land is pure in sound and hearing.” Ānanda awakens and asks about gathering in the mind, and the Buddha teaches him the three trainings without outflows and the four decisive pure and clear instructions on lust, killing, stealing, and great false speech, which close the fascicle. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0128b10）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Six [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Six; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation notes on either the fascicle title or the attribution line.

〔1 · Narrating the Cause and the Cultivation〕（0128b15）Then the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! I remember that long ago, countless kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges before now, there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Avalokiteśvara. Before that buddha I gave rise to the bodhi-mind.

〔1 · Narrating the Cause and the Cultivation〕（0128b18）‘That buddha taught me to enter samādhi from hearing, reflection, and cultivation. 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. Advancing gradually in this way, hearing and what is heard were both exhausted; not dwelling even where hearing was exhausted, awareness and what it is aware of were both empty; when emptiness and awareness reached their utmost completeness, the emptying and what is emptied were also both extinguished.

〔2 · Attaining the Fruit and Its Merits〕（0128b21）‘Arising and ceasing having ceased, stillness-and-extinction appeared before me; suddenly I went beyond the worldly and the world-transcending, the ten directions perfectly bright, and I gained two excellences: first, above, joining the fundamental wondrous awakened mind of all the buddhas of the ten directions, I have the same power of kindness as the buddhas, the tathāgatas; second, below, joining all beings of the six destinies in the ten directions, I have the same yearning compassion as all beings.

〔3 · The Thirty-Two Responses〕（0128b26）‘World-Honored One! Because I made offerings to the Tathāgata Avalokiteśvara, that tathāgata transmitted to me the illusion-like Vajra Samādhi of hearing-permeation and hearing-cultivation; and because I have the same power of kindness as the buddhas, the tathāgatas, my body accomplishes thirty-two kinds of response and enters all lands. World-Honored One!

‘If bodhisattvas enter samādhi and advance in cultivating what is without outflows, and their excellent understanding appears complete, I manifest the body of a buddha and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are liberated.

‘If those still at the stage of learning are still and wondrously bright, and the excellent and wondrous appears complete, I manifest before them the body of a solitary awakened one and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are liberated.

‘If those still at the stage of learning cut off the twelve links of conditions, and, the conditions cut off, the excellent nature is disclosed, and the excellent and wondrous appears complete, I manifest before them the body of one awakened through conditions and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are liberated.

‘If those still at the stage of learning attain the emptiness of the four truths, cultivate the path and enter extinction, and the excellent nature appears complete, I manifest before them the body of a śrāvaka and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are liberated.

‘If beings, their minds of desire clearly awakened, do not commit the dust of desire and wish their bodies to be pure, I manifest before them the body of the Brahmā king and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are liberated.

‘If beings wish to be lord of the devas, ruling over all the devas, I manifest before them the body of Śakra and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings wish their bodies to be at ease, roaming the ten directions, I manifest before them the body of the Īśvara deva and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings wish their bodies to be at ease, flying through space, I manifest before them the body of the Maheśvara deva and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love to command ghosts and spirits and to rescue and protect their lands, I manifest before them the body of the great heavenly general and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love to rule the world and to protect beings, I manifest before them the body of the four heavenly kings and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love to be born in heavenly palaces and to command ghosts and spirits, I manifest before them the body of a prince of the four heavenly kings’ realms and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings delight in being lords among humans, I manifest before them the body of a human king and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love to head a clan and to be deferred to by the world, I manifest before them the body of an elder and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love to discuss names, principles, and speech, and to dwell in purity, I manifest before them the body of a householder and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love to govern the land and to adjudicate the affairs of states and towns, I manifest before them the body of a magistrate and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings love the various arts of numbers and divination, and dwell in guarding and protecting their own lives, I manifest before them the body of a brahmin and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are men who love to learn and leave home, keeping the precepts and rules, I manifest before them the body of a bhikṣu and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are women who love to learn and leave home, keeping the prohibitive precepts, I manifest before them the body of a bhikṣuṇī and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are men who delight in keeping the five precepts, I manifest before them the body of an upāsaka and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘Again, if there are women who dwell in the five precepts, I manifest before them the body of an upāsikā and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are women who establish themselves by governing the household within, and by this cultivate and order family and state, I manifest before them the body of a sovereign lady, and the bodies of a lady of the state, a titled lady, and a great lady, and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are beings who have not impaired their male faculty, I manifest before them the body of a young boy and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are maidens who love to keep their maidenhood and do not seek to be violated, I manifest before them the body of a young girl and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are devas who delight in leaving the class of devas, I manifest the body of a deva and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are dragons who delight in leaving the class of dragons, I manifest the body of a dragon and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If there are yakṣas who delight in being delivered from their own class, I manifest before them the body of a yakṣa and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If gandharvas delight in escaping their class, I manifest before them the body of a gandharva and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If asuras delight in escaping their class, I manifest before them the body of an asura and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If kiṃnaras delight in escaping their class, I manifest before them the body of a kiṃnara and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If mahoragas delight in escaping their class, I manifest before them the body of a mahoraga and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If beings delight in being human and cultivating the human way, I manifest the body of a human and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘If non-humans of every kind—with form or without form, with perception or without perception—delight in being delivered from their class, I manifest before them their bodies in every case and speak the Dharma for them, so that they are brought to accomplishment.

‘These are called the wondrous, pure thirty-two response-bodies that enter the lands; all are accomplished at ease by the wondrous power without contrivance of samādhi, of hearing-permeation and hearing-cultivation.

〔4 · The Fourteen Fearlessnesses〕（0129a25）‘World-Honored One! Further, by the wondrous power without contrivance of this Vajra Samādhi of hearing-permeation and hearing-cultivation, because I have the same yearning compassion as all beings of the six destinies in the ten directions and the three times, I enable beings to obtain, in my body and mind, the merit and virtue of fourteen kinds of fearlessness:

‘First: because I do not observe sound itself but observe the one who observes, I enable the suffering and afflicted beings of the ten directions, observing their voices, to be liberated at once.

‘Second: with knowing-and-seeing turned back, I enable beings, even if they enter a great fire, not to be burned by the fire.

‘Third: with observing-and-listening turned back, I enable beings, when swept away by great waters, not to be drowned by the water.

‘Fourth: with false thinking cut off and the mind free of killing and harm, I enable beings who enter the lands of ghosts not to be harmed by the ghosts.

‘Fifth: permeating hearing becomes the nature of hearing, the six faculties dissolved and restored, the same as hearing sound; I can enable beings who are about to be killed to have the blades break piece by piece, making the weapons like cutting water, or like blowing on light, their nature not shaken at all.

‘Sixth: hearing-permeation becomes essential brightness, the brightness pervading the dharma-realm, so that no nature of darkness can remain; I can enable beings who meet yakṣas, rākṣasas, kumbhāṇḍa ghosts, piśācas, pūtanas, and the like, to be such that though these come close beside them, their eyes cannot see them.

‘Seventh: the nature of sound perfectly dissolved, observing and listening turned back inward, apart from the false dusts; I can enable beings so that bonds, cangues, and locks cannot hold onto them.

‘Eighth: sound extinguished, hearing perfected, the power of kindness arising everywhere; I can enable beings who pass along dangerous roads not to be robbed by thieves.

‘Ninth: permeating hearing, apart from dust, not plundered by form; I can enable all beings much given to lust to leave greed and desire far behind.

‘Tenth: pure sound without dust, faculty and object perfectly fused, with nothing confronting and nothing confronted; I can enable all beings full of resentment to leave all anger.

‘Eleventh: dusts dissolved, brightness turned back, the dharma-realm and body and mind like beryl, clear through and unobstructed; I can enable all the dull and obtuse icchantikas whose nature is obstructed to leave the darkness of delusion forever.

‘Twelfth: form fused and hearing restored, not moving from the bodhimaṇḍa yet entering the world, not destroying the world, I can make offerings throughout the ten directions to buddhas, tathāgatas, as many as fine dust-motes, and at the side of each buddha be a Dharma prince; I can enable childless beings in the dharma-realm who wish for a son to give birth to a son of blessing, virtue, and wisdom.

‘Thirteenth: the six faculties perfectly penetrating, the brightness illuminating without duality, containing the worlds of the ten directions, I establish the great round mirror, the empty tathāgatagarbha, and, in accord with the secret Dharma-gates of the tathāgatas of the ten directions, as many as fine dust-motes, receive them without loss; I can enable childless beings in the dharma-realm who wish for a daughter to give birth to a daughter upright, blessed and virtuous, gentle and compliant, loved and respected by all, and possessed of fine marks.

‘Fourteenth: in this three-thousand-great-thousand world there are a hundred koṭis of suns and moons; the Dharma princes now dwelling in the world number sixty-two Ganges-sands; they cultivate the Dharma and set an example, teach and transform beings, accord with beings, and their expedient means and wisdom each differ. Because of the root of perfect penetration that I attained, I brought forth the wondrous ear gate, and then body and mind became subtle and wondrous, containing and pervading the dharma-realm; I can enable a being who receives and holds my name, compared with one who receives and holds the names of those sixty-two Ganges-sands of Dharma princes, to have blessing and virtue exactly equal, without difference. World-Honored One! My one name is no different from those many names because I cultivated and attained true perfect penetration.

‘These are called the power of the fourteen bestowals of fearlessness, blessing and virtue provided to beings.

〔5 · The Four Inconceivables〕（0129c04）‘World-Honored One! Further, because I attained this perfect penetration and cultivated and realized the unsurpassed path, I can also skillfully attain four inconceivable wondrous virtues without contrivance:

〔5 · The Four Inconceivables〕（0129c05）‘First: because I first attained the wondrous, wondrous hearing-mind, the mind’s essence left hearing behind, and seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing could no longer be separated; it became one perfectly fused pure jeweled awakening. Therefore I can manifest many wondrous forms and can speak boundless secret divine spells. Among them I may manifest one head, three heads, five heads, seven heads, nine heads, eleven heads, and so on up to a hundred and eight heads, a thousand heads, ten thousand heads, eighty-four thousand cakra-heads; two arms, four arms, six arms, eight arms, ten arms, twelve arms, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, up to twenty-four, and so on up to a hundred and eight arms, a thousand arms, ten thousand arms, eighty-four thousand mudrā-arms; two eyes, three eyes, four eyes, nine eyes, and so on up to a hundred and eight eyes, a thousand eyes, ten thousand eyes, eighty-four thousand pure jeweled eyes. Now kind, now majestic, now in concentration, now in wisdom, I rescue and protect beings, attaining great mastery.

〔5 · The Four Inconceivables〕（0129c15）‘Second: because by hearing and reflection I escaped the six dusts, as sound passes over a wall and the wall cannot obstruct it, I can wondrously manifest each form and recite each divine spell, and those forms and those spells can bestow fearlessness on beings. Therefore in all the lands of the ten directions, as many as fine dust-motes, I am called the bestower of fearlessness.

〔5 · The Four Inconceivables〕（0129c19）‘Third: because I cultivated the fundamentally wondrous, perfectly penetrating pure root faculty, in the worlds I travel through I cause beings to give up the treasures of their bodies and seek my compassion.

〔5 · The Four Inconceivables〕（0129c20）‘Fourth: I attained the Buddha’s mind and realized the ultimate; I can make offerings of treasures of every kind to the tathāgatas of the ten directions, extending to the beings of the six destinies in the dharma-realm: those who seek a wife obtain a wife, those who seek a child obtain a child, those who seek samādhi obtain samādhi, those who seek long life obtain long life, and so on up to those who seek great nirvāṇa obtaining great nirvāṇa.

〔6 · Concluding and Explaining the Attainment〕（0129c24）‘The Buddha asks about the gate of perfect penetration; I, from the ear gate, by the samādhi of perfect illumination, the conditioning mind at ease, through the appearance of entering the stream attained samādhi and accomplished bodhi—this is foremost!

〔6 · Concluding and Explaining the Attainment〕（0129c26）‘World-Honored One! That buddha, the tathāgata, praised me for skillfully attaining the Dharma-gate of perfect penetration, and in the great assembly predicted for me the name Avalokiteśvara. Because my observing and listening are perfectly bright throughout the ten directions, the name Avalokiteśvara pervades the worlds of the ten directions.’

〔7 · Celebration of What Is Hard to Conceive〕（0129c29）At that time the World-Honored One, on the lion seat, sent forth jeweled light together from the five parts of his body, pouring from afar upon the crowns of the tathāgatas of the ten directions, as many as fine dust-motes, and of the Dharma princes and bodhisattvas. Those tathāgatas also sent forth jeweled light together from the five parts of their bodies, coming from places as many as fine dust-motes to pour upon the Buddha’s crown, and also upon the great bodhisattvas and arhats in the assembly. Groves and trees, ponds and pools all proclaimed the sound of the Dharma; light and light crossing and interlacing were like a net of jeweled threads.

〔7 · Celebration of What Is Hard to Conceive〕（0130a04）All in this great assembly gained a sense of the rare such as they had never had before, and all universally attained the Vajra Samādhi. At that time the heavens rained down lotus flowers of a hundred jewels, blue, yellow, red, and white mingled together, and the space of the ten directions became the color of the seven jewels. The great earth, mountains, and rivers of this Sahā world were for a time no longer seen; only the lands of the ten directions, as many as fine dust-motes, were seen merging into one realm, and Brahmā chanting and songs of praise arose of themselves.

〔8 · The Buddha Commands Mañjuśrī to Select〕（0130a08）Then the Tathāgata said to the Dharma prince Mañjuśrī: ‘You now observe these twenty-five great bodhisattvas and arhats beyond training: each has told the expedient means by which he first attained the path, and all say that they cultivated true perfect penetration; their practices truly have no difference of superior and inferior, or of before and after. Now I wish to cause Ānanda to awaken: of these twenty-five practices, which suits his faculty? Moreover, after my extinction, for beings of this world who enter the bodhisattva vehicle and seek the unsurpassed path, through which gate of expedient means will accomplishment be easy?’

〔9 · Speaking the Verses of Selection · Praising the Twin Sources of True and False〕（0130a14）The Dharma prince Mañjuśrī, receiving the Buddha’s compassionate command, rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and, sustained by the Buddha’s majestic spirit, spoke verses to the Buddha:

〔9 · Speaking the Verses of Selection · Praising the Twin Sources of True and False〕（0130a17）

　　The nature of the sea of awakening is clear and perfect; perfect and clear, the origin of awakening is wondrous;
　　the original brightness, illuminating, gives rise to an object; once the object is set up, the illuminating nature is lost.
　　Through delusion there is empty space; relying on space, worlds are established.
　　False thinking, settling and congealing, becomes the lands; knowing and awareness become beings.
　　Space arises within the great awakening like one bubble rising in the sea;
　　the lands with outflows, as many as fine dust-motes, all arise from space.
　　When the bubble is extinguished, space is originally nonexistent—how much more so the three existences?
　　Returning to the source, the nature is not two, yet the expedient means have many gates.
　　The sagely nature penetrates everything; with or against the grain, all are expedients;
　　but when beginners enter samādhi, slow and fast are not the same:

〔10 · Selecting among the Sages〕（0130a27）

　　Form, by false thinking, congeals into dust; the essential brightness of discerning cannot see through it;
　　how, from what is not clear through, could one here attain perfect penetration?
　　Sound is mixed with words and speech, only those names, phrases, and syllables;
　　one cannot contain all—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Scent is known only in contact; apart from it, it is originally nonexistent;
　　what is sensed of it is not constant—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　The nature of taste is not inherently so; it must exist only at the time of tasting;
　　its awareness is not constantly one—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Touch becomes evident through what is touched; without what is touched, touch is not evident;
　　joined and parted, its nature is not fixed—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Dharmas are called the inner dust: relying on dust, there must be an object;
　　subject and object cannot pervade and enter everywhere—how could one attain perfect penetration?

　　Although the nature of seeing is clear through, it illumines what is in front, not what is behind;
　　of the four directions and four corners, half is lacking—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　The breath of the nose passes freely out and in, yet between going out and coming in there is no connecting breath;
　　scattered and divided, they do not enter into each other—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　The entrance of the tongue does not exist of itself without cause; through taste, awareness arises;
　　when taste is gone, awareness is gone—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　The body faculty is the same as the object touched; neither is a perfect awareness-and-contemplation;
　　having limits and measures, they cannot merge in silent accord—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　The knowing faculty of mind is mixed with confused thoughts; profound clarity is never seen in the end;
　　thinking cannot be escaped—how could one attain perfect penetration?

　　The consciousness of seeing is mixed within the union of the three; traced to its root, it cannot be called an appearance;
　　its own substance is from the first without a fixed standard—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　The mind’s hearing that sees through the ten directions is born of the power of a vast causal ground;
　　beginners cannot enter it—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Contemplating the tip of the nose is originally an expedient device, only to make one gather the mind and abide;
　　abiding then becomes a mind that dwells somewhere—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Speaking the Dharma uses sound and phrases; those who awaken are those already accomplished;
　　names and phrases are not without outflows—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Keeping and breaking the precepts only restrain the body; without a body there is nothing to restrain;
　　originally it cannot pervade everything—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　Spiritual powers are originally causes from past lives; what have they to do with the discernment of dharmas?
　　recollection clinging to conditions cannot leave things—how could one attain perfect penetration?

　　If one contemplates by the nature of earth, solid obstruction does not penetrate;
　　the conditioned is not the sagely nature—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　If one contemplates by the nature of water, thinking is not true and real;
　　suchness is not attained by awareness-and-contemplation—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　If one contemplates by the nature of fire, loathing existence is not true leaving;
　　it is not an expedient for the beginner’s mind—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　If one contemplates by the nature of wind, motion and stillness are not without opposition;
　　having opposition, it is not unsurpassed awakening—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　If one contemplates by the nature of space, dullness and obtuseness are from the first not awakening;
　　without awakening, it differs from bodhi—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　If one contemplates by the nature of consciousness, the consciousness contemplated is not constantly abiding;
　　to set the mind on consciousness is false—how could one attain perfect penetration?
　　All formations are impermanent; the nature of recollection is originally arising and ceasing;
　　cause and effect are now felt differently—how could one attain perfect penetration?

〔11 · Praising Avalokiteśvara’s Perfect Penetration〕（0130c17）

　　I now say to the World-Honored One: the Buddha appeared in the Sahā world;
　　the true substance of teaching in this land is pure in sound and hearing;
　　wishing to attain samādhi, one truly should enter through hearing.
　　Leaving suffering and attaining liberation—excellent indeed is Avalokiteśvara!
　　Through kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges, entering buddha-lands as many as fine dust-motes,
　　he attained the power of great mastery and bestows fearlessness on beings.
　　Wondrous Sound, Observer of the World’s Sounds, Brahmā Sound, the Voice like the Ocean Tide—
　　he rescues the world, so that all attain peace; leaving the world, they attain permanence.

　　I now report to the Tathāgata, just as Avalokiteśvara has said:
　　it is like a person dwelling quietly while drums are struck at once in the ten directions;
　　in all ten places at one time he hears them: this is what is truly complete.
　　The eye cannot see beyond an obstruction, and mouth and nose are also like this;
　　the body faculty knows only in contact; the mind’s thoughts are tangled without a thread;
　　hearing sounds through a wall, one can hear both far and near;
　　what the other five faculties cannot reach: this is what is truly penetrating.
　　The nature of sound has motion and stillness; in hearing it becomes existence and nonexistence;
　　when there is no sound it is called not hearing, but it is not that hearing truly lacks its nature.
　　When sound is absent, hearing does not cease; when sound is present, hearing does not arise;
　　arising and ceasing are both perfectly left behind: this is what is truly constant.

　　Even in sleep and dreams, it does not cease to exist because one is not thinking;
　　awareness-and-contemplation goes beyond thinking, where body and mind cannot reach.
　　Now in this Sahā land, the teaching is made clear through discourse in sound;
　　beings lose their original hearing and, following sound, therefore turn in the round.
　　Even though Ānanda has a strong memory, he does not escape falling into deviant thinking;
　　is it not that, right where he is sinking, by turning the flow back he could attain freedom from falsity?

　　Ānanda, listen carefully: I, sustained by the Buddha’s majestic power,
　　proclaim the Vajra King, illusion-like and inconceivable,
　　the true samādhi, mother of the buddhas. You have heard, of buddhas as many as fine dust-motes,
　　all the secret Dharma-gates; if the outflow of desire is not first removed,
　　hoarding much hearing turns into an error. You use hearing to hold the Dharma-gates of buddha after buddha;
　　why not hear for yourself the nature that hears? Hearing does not arise of itself;
　　it has its name because of sound. Turn the nature of hearing back so that it slips free of sound,
　　and what is it that slips free—what would it be called? Once one faculty has returned to its source,
　　the six faculties all become liberated. Seeing and hearing are like an illusory film on the eye;
　　the three realms are like flowers in the sky. When the nature of hearing is restored, the film on the faculty is removed;
　　the dusts dissolve and awakening is perfect and pure; purity at its utmost, the light penetrates everywhere;
　　still yet illuminating, it contains empty space. Coming back again to look at the world,
　　it is like things in a dream. Mātaṅgī too is in a dream;
　　who could detain your body? It is like a skillful illusionist in the world
　　who conjures up many men and women: although one sees their faculties moving,
　　they depend on one mechanism pulling them. When the mechanism stops, they return to stillness,
　　and all the illusions become without nature. The six faculties are also like this:
　　originally relying on one essential brightness, divided into six composites;
　　when one place is brought to rest and restored, the six functions all cease.
　　Dust and defilement dissolve in response to the thought, accomplishing perfect brightness, pure and wondrous;
　　those with dust and defilement remaining are still at the stage of learning; brightness at its utmost is the Tathāgata.

　　Great assembly and Ānanda! Turn back your inverted hearing-mechanism,
　　and turn hearing back to hear the self-nature that hears; the self-nature accomplishes the unsurpassed path;
　　perfect penetration truly is like this. This is, for buddhas as many as fine dust-motes,
　　the one road, the gate of nirvāṇa. The tathāgatas of the past
　　have already accomplished it through this gate; the bodhisattvas of the present
　　now each enter perfect brightness; those who cultivate and learn in the future
　　should rely on such a Dharma. I too realized it through this;
　　it is not Avalokiteśvara alone. Truly, as the Buddha, the World-Honored One,
　　has asked me about the various expedient means, in order to rescue, in the final kalpa,
　　those who seek to leave the world: to accomplish the mind of nirvāṇa,
　　Avalokiteśvara is supreme. All the other expedient means
　　are the Buddha’s majestic spirit; those that cast off the toils of the dusts in the matter at hand
　　are not a teaching that can be long cultivated and learned, practiced alike by the shallow and the deep.

　　I bow my head to the tathāgatagarbha, without outflows and inconceivable;
　　may it sustain beings of the future so that they have no doubt about this gate.
　　This expedient is easy to accomplish and fit to be used to teach Ānanda
　　and those sinking in the final kalpa; only by cultivating with this one faculty,
　　perfect penetration surpasses the rest: the true and real mind is like this.

〔12 · The Assembly Gains Benefit〕（0131b23）Then Ānanda and the great assembly, clear in body and mind, gained the great disclosure and saw the Buddha’s bodhi and great nirvāṇa, like a person who has traveled far on some business and has not yet been able to return, yet already clearly knows the road by which he will return home. The whole assembly—the eight classes of devas, dragons, and the rest, those still at the stage of learning of the two vehicles, and all the newly resolved bodhisattvas, in number ten Ganges-sands in all—all obtained the original mind, far from dust, apart from defilement, and gained purity of the dharma-eye. The bhikṣuṇī Prakṛti, having heard the verses spoken, became an arhat. Immeasurable beings all gave rise to the unequaled-equal mind of anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi.

〔13 · Ānanda Sees the Occasion and Asks〕（0131c01）Ānanda straightened his robes, and in the midst of the great assembly joined his palms and bowed his head, the traces of his mind’s practice perfectly bright.

〔13 · Ānanda Sees the Occasion and Asks〕（0131c02）Ānanda, sorrow and joy mingling, for the benefit of all beings of the future, bowed his head and said to the Buddha: ‘Greatly compassionate World-Honored One! I have now awakened to the Dharma-gate of becoming a buddha, and in practicing it I have no more doubt. I have often heard the Tathāgata speak these words: “One not yet delivered who first delivers others: that is the bodhisattva’s resolve; one whose own awakening is complete and who can awaken others: that is the Tathāgata’s appearing in the world.” Although I am not yet delivered, I vow to deliver all beings of the final kalpa. World-Honored One! These beings are gradually farther from the Buddha, and deviant teachers who speak the Dharma are as many as the sands of the Ganges; if they wish to gather in their minds and enter samādhi, how are they to establish the bodhimaṇḍa, keep far from the doings of Māra, and not fall back or shrink from the bodhi-mind?’

〔14 · Praise, Request, and Permission to Speak · The Three Studies in General〕（0131c10）At that time the World-Honored One, in the midst of the great assembly, praised Ānanda: ‘Excellent! Excellent! As you have asked about establishing the bodhimaṇḍa, to rescue and protect the beings drowning in the final kalpa: now listen carefully, and I shall speak it for you.’ Ānanda and the assembly said, “Yes,” and received the teaching.

〔14 · Praise, Request, and Permission to Speak · The Three Studies in General〕（0131c13）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘You have often heard me proclaim in the vinaya the three decisive meanings of cultivation: that is, gathering in the mind is precept, from precept arises concentration, from concentration wisdom is brought forth; this is called the three trainings without outflows.

〔15 · The Cause of Leaving Desire〕（0131c15）‘Ānanda! What is gathering in the mind that I call precept? If the beings of the six destinies in all worlds have minds that do not lust, they do not follow the continuity of birth and death. You cultivate samādhi originally to leave the toils of the dusts; if the lustful mind is not removed, the toils of the dusts cannot be left. Even if one has much wisdom and dhyāna appears before one, if lust is not cut off one will surely fall into the way of Māra: the superior grade become Māra kings, the middle grade Māra people, the lower grade Māra women. Those Māras also have followers, and each claims to have accomplished the unsurpassed path.

〔15 · The Cause of Leaving Desire〕（0131c20）‘After my extinction, in the Dharma-ending age there will be many of these Māra people, flourishing in the world, widely practicing greed and lust, posing as good spiritual friends, causing beings to fall into the pit of love and views and lose the road to bodhi.

〔15 · The Cause of Leaving Desire〕（0131c22）‘When you teach the people of the world to cultivate samādhi, they must first cut off the lust of the mind: this is called the first decisive pure and clear instruction of the Tathāgata and the former buddhas, the World-Honored Ones.

〔15 · The Cause of Leaving Desire〕（0131c24）‘Therefore, Ānanda! If one cultivates dhyāna without cutting off lust, it is like steaming sand and stones wishing them to become rice: after a hundred thousand kalpas, they can only be called hot sand. Why? Because this was never the stuff of rice; it is made of sand and stones. If you seek the Buddha’s wondrous fruit with a lustful body, even if you attain wondrous awakening, all of it is the root of lust; the root having become lust, you will turn in the three paths and surely cannot get out. By what road would you cultivate and realize the Tathāgata’s nirvāṇa? You must cause the mechanism of lust to be cut off in both body and mind, and even the nature of cutting off to be gone; then the Buddha’s bodhi can be hoped for. What I say thus is called the Buddha’s word; what is not said thus is the word of Pāpīyān.

〔16 · The Cause of Leaving Killing〕（0132a03）‘Ānanda! Again, if the beings of the six destinies in all worlds have minds that do not kill, they do not follow the continuity of birth and death. You cultivate samādhi originally to leave the toils of the dusts; if the killing mind is not removed, the toils of the dusts cannot be left. Even if one has much wisdom and dhyāna appears before one, if killing is not cut off one will surely fall into the way of spirits: those of the superior grade become ghosts of great power; those of the middle grade become flying yakṣas, ghost commanders, and the like; those of the lower grade become earth-walking rākṣasas. Those ghosts and spirits also have followers, and each claims to have accomplished the unsurpassed path.

〔16 · The Cause of Leaving Killing〕（0132a08）‘After my extinction, in the Dharma-ending age there will be many of these spirits and ghosts flourishing in the world, claiming that eating meat can attain the road to bodhi. Ānanda! I allow the bhikṣus to eat the five kinds of pure meat; this meat is all produced by transformation through my spiritual power and originally has no life-faculty. Your land of brahmins is mostly steamy and damp, and moreover sandy and stony, so that grasses and vegetables do not grow; sustained by my spiritual power of great compassion, and because of great kindness and compassion, it is provisionally named meat, and so you obtain its taste. How is it that after the Tathāgata’s extinction, those who eat the flesh of beings are still called sons of the Śākya? You should know that these meat-eaters, even if they attain an opening of the mind that resembles samādhi, are all great rākṣasas; when their reward is exhausted they will surely sink into the bitter sea of birth and death; they are not the Buddha’s disciples. Such people kill one another, swallow one another, and eat one another without end; how could such people get out of the three realms?

〔16 · The Cause of Leaving Killing〕（0132a17）‘When you teach the people of the world to cultivate samādhi, next they must cut off killing: this is called the second decisive pure and clear instruction of the Tathāgata and the former buddhas, the World-Honored Ones.

〔16 · The Cause of Leaving Killing〕（0132a19）‘Therefore, Ānanda! If one cultivates dhyāna without cutting off killing, it is like a person who stops up his own ears and shouts loudly, hoping that others will not hear: this is called wishing to hide, all the more exposed. Pure bhikṣus and bodhisattvas, walking on forked paths, do not tread on living grass—how much less pull it up with their hands? How can one speak of great compassion while taking the blood and flesh of beings as one’s food? If bhikṣus do not wear or use the silk floss and silk cloth of the East, nor the boots, shoes, furs, and down, nor the milk, curds, and ghee of this land, such bhikṣus are truly liberated in the world; they repay their old debts and do not wander in the three realms. Why? To wear and use parts of their bodies all becomes a condition with them; it is like a person who eats the hundred grains of the earth: his feet do not leave the earth. One must, with regard to the bodies and the parts of the bodies of beings, in body and mind, by both paths, neither wear nor eat them; I say that such a person is truly liberated. What I say thus is called the Buddha’s word; what is not said thus is the word of Pāpīyān.

〔17 · The Cause of Leaving Stealing〕（0132b01）‘Ānanda! Again, if the beings of the six destinies in the world have minds that do not steal, they do not follow the continuity of birth and death. You cultivate samādhi originally to leave the toils of the dusts; if the stealing mind is not removed, the toils of the dusts cannot be left. Even if one has much wisdom and dhyāna appears before one, if stealing is not cut off one will surely fall into the way of the deviant: the superior grade become sprites, the middle grade bewitching spirits, the lower grade deviant people possessed by the bewitching spirits. Those deviant hosts also have followers, and each claims to have accomplished the unsurpassed path. After my extinction, in the Dharma-ending age there will be many of these bewitching and deviant ones flourishing in the world, hiding their treachery and deceit, calling themselves good spiritual friends, and each saying that he has attained the dharma of a superior person; they deceive and delude the ignorant, frighten them so that they lose their minds, and wherever they pass, those families are ruined.

〔17 · The Cause of Leaving Stealing〕（0132b08）‘I teach the bhikṣus to beg food in due order, so that they give up the greedy mind and accomplish the bodhisattva path. These bhikṣus do not cook for themselves; they entrust the rest of their lives to others, lodging as travelers in the three realms, showing a single going and returning: once gone, they do not come back. How is it that thieves borrow my robes and peddle the Tathāgata, creating all kinds of actions, all the while saying it is the Buddha’s Dharma? Instead they disparage the bhikṣus who have left home and are fully ordained, calling theirs the way of the Lesser Vehicle. Because of this they cause immeasurable beings to doubt and err, and to fall into the Avīci hell. If after my extinction there is a bhikṣu who resolves decisively to cultivate samādhi, and before an image of the Tathāgata can light a lamp with his body, burn a finger-joint, or burn one stick of incense on his body, I say that this person’s old debts from beginningless time are repaid at once; he takes leave of the world for good and escapes all outflows forever. Although he has not yet at once understood the road of unsurpassed awakening, this person already has a decisive mind toward the Dharma. If one does not make this small cause of giving up the body, even if one accomplishes the unconditioned, one must still be born as a human to repay one’s old debts, just as I ate the horse-fodder barley, exactly equal, without difference.

〔17 · The Cause of Leaving Stealing〕（0132b20）‘When you teach the people of the world to cultivate samādhi, after that they must cut off stealing: this is called the third decisive pure and clear instruction of the Tathāgata and the former buddhas, the World-Honored Ones.

〔17 · The Cause of Leaving Stealing〕（0132b21）‘Therefore, Ānanda! If one cultivates dhyāna without cutting off stealing, it is like a person pouring water into a leaking vessel, hoping to fill it: even after kalpas as many as dust-motes, it will never be full and level. If bhikṣus, apart from their robes and bowls, store up not the least thing, give what is left from their begged food to hungry beings, join their palms and bow to the assembly in great gatherings, and treat those who beat and abuse them as equal to those who praise them; if they must give up both body and mind, sharing their body’s flesh, bones, and blood with beings; if they do not take the Tathāgata’s teachings of incomplete meaning and turn them into their own understanding, misleading beginning learners—the Buddha certifies that such a person attains true samādhi. What I say thus is called the Buddha’s word; what is not said thus is the word of Pāpīyān.

〔18 · The Cause of Leaving False Speech〕（0132b29）‘Ānanda! Such beings of the six destinies in the world, even if in body and mind they are free of killing, stealing, and lust, the three practices being complete, if they commit great false speech, their samādhi cannot be pure; they become the Māra of love and views and lose the seed of the Tathāgata. That is, claiming to have attained what one has not attained, claiming to have realized what one has not realized; or, seeking to be honored as foremost in the world, saying to the person before one: “I have now attained the fruit of srota-āpanna, the fruit of sakṛdāgāmin, the fruit of anāgāmin, the path of the arhat, the vehicle of the pratyekabuddha, the ten grounds and the bodhisattvas of the stages before the grounds”; seeking people’s bows and repentance, greedy for their offerings—this is an icchantika, who extinguishes the buddha-seed. It is like a person who cuts down a tāla tree with a knife: the Buddha predicts that such a person loses his roots of goodness forever, has no more knowing and seeing, sinks in the sea of the three sufferings, and cannot accomplish samādhi.

〔18 · The Cause of Leaving False Speech〕（0132c08）‘After my extinction, I command the bodhisattvas and arhats to be born in response-bodies in that Dharma-ending age, taking all kinds of forms to deliver those revolving in the round—whether as śramaṇas, white-robed householders, human kings, magistrates, young boys, young girls, and so on up to prostitutes, widows, adulterers and thieves, butchers and peddlers—working alongside them and praising the Buddha vehicle, causing them in body and mind to enter samādhi; yet they never say of themselves, “I am a true bodhisattva, a true arhat,” leaking the Buddha’s secret cause by speaking lightly to those not yet learned; except only at the end of their lives, when there is a hidden bequest.

〔18 · The Cause of Leaving False Speech〕（0132c14）‘How could such people confuse beings and commit great false speech? When you teach the people of the world to cultivate samādhi, after that they must also cut off all great false speech: this is called the fourth decisive pure and clear instruction of the Tathāgata and the former buddhas, the World-Honored Ones.

〔18 · The Cause of Leaving False Speech〕（0132c16）‘Therefore, Ānanda! If one does not cut off great false speech, it is like carving human excrement into the form of sandalwood and hoping for fragrance: there is no such possibility. I teach the bhikṣus that the straight mind is the bodhimaṇḍa; in all actions of the four deportments there is still no falsity—how could they claim to have attained the dharma of a superior person? It is like a poor man who falsely calls himself an emperor and brings execution on himself; how much less may the Dharma King be falsely usurped? When the ground of the cause is not straight, the fruit invites crookedness. Seeking the Buddha’s bodhi this way is like a person wishing to bite his own navel: whom can he hope will accomplish it? If bhikṣus have minds like a straight bowstring, true in everything, they enter samādhi and are forever without the doings of Māra. I certify that such a person accomplishes the bodhisattva’s unsurpassed knowing-awareness. What I say thus is called the Buddha’s word; what is not said thus is the word of Pāpīyān.’

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Six’.

Fascicle Seven of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the Dhāraṇī appended at the end of the fascicle. Continuing from the four pure and clear instructions of Fascicle Six, the Buddha teaches those whose habits from former lives are hard to remove the method of reciting and upholding the divine spell and of establishing a bodhimaṇḍa: the white ox of the Snow Mountains, the eight-cornered altar, the eight mirrors and sixteen lotuses, and three sevens of days of walking the path. Ānanda asks for the spell; the World-Honored One emits light from his fleshy crown-knot, and the transformation Tathāgata proclaims the divine spell of the Buddha-Crown Gathering of Light, Sitātapatra (the spell is a transcription of Sanskrit sounds; following the example of the ancient masters it is not translated). The Buddha tells of the merit of upholding the spell, and the vajra beings and devas of the ten directions vow to protect and uphold those who keep it. Ānanda asks about the stages of cultivation, and the Buddha first teaches the two causes of inversion, the inversion of beings and the inversion of the world, and opens the twelve classes of beings to close the fascicle; the Dhāraṇī of the Ming recension is appended at the end of the fascicle. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0133a02）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Seven [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Seven; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation notes on either the fascicle title or the attribution line.

〔1 · Summing Up the Foregoing〕（0133a07）The Buddha went on to say to Ānanda: ‘Ānanda! You asked about gathering in the mind; I now first speak of the wondrous gate of entering samādhi and of cultivation and learning. Those who seek the bodhisattva path must first uphold these four rules of discipline, pure and bright as ice and frost, so that of themselves they cannot put forth any branches or leaves; then the three of mind and four of speech will certainly have no cause from which to arise. Ānanda! If these four matters are not lost or forgotten, the mind does not even climb after forms, smells, tastes, and touches—from where, then, would any of the doings of Māra arise?

〔2 · Exhorting the Recitation of the Divine Spell〕（0133a11）‘If there are habits from former lives that cannot be extinguished, teach that person to recite and uphold with a single mind my Buddha-Crown Light, the Mahā-sitātapatra, the unsurpassed divine spell. 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.

〔2 · Exhorting the Recitation of the Divine Spell〕（0133a14）‘Moreover, between you and Mātaṅgī in former lives there were causes and conditions running through kalpas and the habit-energy of love and affection, not for one life only, nor for one kalpa only; yet as soon as I proclaimed this spell, her loving mind fell away forever and she became an arhat. She was a woman of lust, with no mind to cultivate, and yet, aided in secret by its divine power, she quickly realized the state beyond training; how much less difficult, then, for you śrāvakas in this assembly, who seek the supreme vehicle, to be certain of becoming buddhas? It is like tossing dust into a following wind—what hardship or danger is there?

〔3 · Briefly Showing the Method of Upholding〕（0133a19）‘If in the final age there are those who wish to sit in a bodhimaṇḍa, they must first uphold the pure prohibitive precepts of a bhikṣu, and must choose as their teacher a śramaṇa foremost in the purity of the precepts. If they do not meet a truly pure monk, their precepts and rules of discipline certainly cannot be accomplished. Once the precepts are accomplished, they put on new and clean robes, burn incense and dwell at leisure, and recite this divine spell spoken by the mind-buddha one hundred and eight times; after that they bind the boundary and establish the bodhimaṇḍa, and ask the unsurpassed tathāgatas now dwelling in the lands of the ten directions to emit the light of great compassion and pour it upon their crowns.

〔3 · Briefly Showing the Method of Upholding〕（0133a25）‘Ānanda! Such pure bhikṣus of the final age, or bhikṣuṇīs, or white-robed donors, extinguishing greed and lust in their minds and upholding the Buddha’s pure precepts, make the bodhisattva vows in the bodhimaṇḍa, bathe whenever they go out or come in, and walk the path in the six periods of the day and night. If they go without sleep in this way through three sevens of days, I myself appear before such a person, stroke the crown, comfort, and cause the person to awaken.’

〔4 · Answering the Request with a Full Exposition · The Question〕（0133b01）Ānanda said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Having received the Tathāgata’s instruction from unsurpassed compassion, my mind has already awakened, and I know for myself that the path of cultivating and realizing the state beyond training can surely be accomplished. For those who cultivate and establish a bodhimaṇḍa in the Dharma-ending age, how should the boundary be bound so as to accord with the pure rules of the Buddha, the World-Honored One?’

〔5 · The Ground and Measure of the Altar〕（0133b04）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘If people of the final age wish to establish a bodhimaṇḍa, they first take a white ox of great strength from the Snow Mountains—it eats the rich, fragrant grasses of those mountains, this ox drinks only the clear water of the Snow Mountains, and its dung is very fine—and they may take its dung, mix it with sandalwood, and use it to plaster the ground.

‘If it is not an ox of the Snow Mountains, that ox is foul and unfit for plastering the ground.

‘Otherwise, on level ground, they dig away the surface of the earth and take the yellow earth from five feet down, and mix it with sandalwood, aloeswood, storax, frankincense, turmeric, white gum, costus, lingling herb, spikenard, and clove; these ten are finely sifted into powder, combined with the earth to make a paste, and used to plaster the ground of the bodhimaṇḍa.

‘Sixteen feet across, an eight-cornered altar is built.

〔6 · The Rites of Offering〕（0133b11）‘At the heart of the altar is set a lotus flower made of gold, silver, copper, or wood; in the flower is placed a bowl, the bowl is first filled with the dew of the eighth month, and in the water are placed whatever flowers and leaves are at hand.

‘Eight round mirrors are taken and each is set in its direction, surrounding the flower and the bowl.

‘Outside the mirrors are set up sixteen lotuses, with sixteen censers laid out among the flowers.

‘The censers are adorned, and only aloeswood is burned, without letting the fire be seen.

‘White ox milk is taken and filled into sixteen vessels; cakes are fried with the milk, and these, together with the various sugars, oil cakes, milk gruel, ghee mixtures, honeyed ginger, pure ghee, and pure honey, and the various fruits, foods and drinks, grapes, and rock candy—all kinds of the finest foods—are set out in sixteen portions each outside the lotus flowers, surrounding the outside of the flowers, as offerings to the buddhas and the great bodhisattvas.

‘At each mealtime, or in the middle of the night, half a sheng of honey and three ge of ghee are taken; before the altar a separate small brazier is set, turuṣka incense is boiled to make fragrant water, the charcoal is bathed in it, and it is lit until it blazes fiercely; this ghee and honey are cast into the blazing brazier and burned until the smoke is gone, as an offering to the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

‘All around the outside of the altar banners and flowers are hung everywhere.

‘In the altar chamber, on the four walls are arranged all the images of the tathāgatas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions.

‘In the main place facing the sun are hung the images of Locana, Śākya, Maitreya, Akṣobhya, and Amitābha, together with the images of the great transformations of Avalokiteśvara, and also Vajragarbha, placed to their left and right.

‘Śakra, the Brahmā king, Ucchuṣma, and Nīlakaṇṭha, the Kuṇḍalīs, Bhṛkuṭī, the four heavenly kings, and the rest, and also Vina and Yaka, are hung beside the doors, placed to the left and right.

‘Again eight mirrors are taken and hung upside down in the empty air.

‘They face the mirrors set in the altar-ground, face to face, so that their forms and reflections interpenetrate layer upon layer.

〔7 · Cultivating the Auxiliary Practices〕（0133c01）‘In the first seven days, they bow their heads with utmost sincerity to the tathāgatas of the ten directions, the great bodhisattvas, and the arhats, and constantly, in the six periods, recite the spell while circling the altar, walking the path with the whole mind.

‘In each period they constantly walk it one hundred and eight times.

‘In the second seven days, they single-mindedly make the bodhisattva vows, with no break in the mind.

‘In my vinaya there is already earlier instruction on making vows.

‘In the third seven days, through the twelve hours they single-mindedly recite and uphold the Buddha’s Ātapatra spell.

‘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.

‘Then they cultivate samādhi in the bodhimaṇḍa, and can make such learners of the final age bright and pure in body and mind, like beryl.

‘Ānanda! If, of this bhikṣu’s original preceptor and the ten bhikṣus and others of the same assembly, even one is not pure, such a bodhimaṇḍa for the most part cannot be accomplished.

〔8 · Showing the Fruit Attained〕（0133c10）‘After the three sevens of days, they sit upright in retreat; when a hundred days have passed, those of sharp faculties, without rising from their seats, attain the state of srota-āpanna.

‘Even if the sagely fruit in their body and mind is not yet accomplished, they know for certain for themselves that they will become buddhas without error.

‘You asked about the bodhimaṇḍa; this is how it is established.’

〔9 · Properly Speaking the Divine Spell · The Question〕（0133c13）Ānanda bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet and said to the Buddha: ‘Since I left the household life, relying on the Buddha’s loving care, for the sake of seeking much learning I have not yet realized the unconditioned; I was bound by the deviant art of Brahmā, and though my mind was clear, my strength was not my own to command, and fortunately I met Mañjuśrī, who brought about my release. Though I received the Tathāgata’s Buddha-Crown divine spell and secretly gained its power, I have not yet heard it with my own ears. I only hope that the Great Compassionate One will proclaim it again, in pity rescuing those in this assembly who cultivate, and those who in the final age and in the time to come are within the round, so that receiving the Buddha’s secret sounds they may be liberated in body and mind!’

〔9 · Properly Speaking the Divine Spell · The Question〕（0133c19）Then the whole great assembly bowed together, waiting to hear the Tathāgata’s secret phrases.

〔10 · The Transformation Buddha Appears〕（0133c21）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, and from his crown emitted ten rays of hundred-jeweled light; in each ray there appeared everywhere Vajra Secret-Trace spirits as many as the sands of ten Ganges, bearing mountains and holding vajra-clubs, filling the whole realm of empty space. The great assembly looked up, holding both fear and love, seeking the Buddha as their refuge, and listened with a single mind as that tathāgata of the invisible crown-mark, emitting light, proclaimed the divine spell.

〔11 · Speaking the Words of the Spell〕（0133c27）The title of the spell: the Great Buddha-Crown Tathāgata’s Emitted Light, Sitātapatra, the Chapter on the Myriad Practices of the Bodhisattvas, copied out from the Consecration Section; also called the Divine Spell of the Great Vajra Bodhimaṇḍa of the Consecration Maṇḍala of Nālandā in Central India. The divine spell below is spoken by the transformation Tathāgata.

〔11 · Speaking the Words of the Spell〕（0134a01）The spell is a transcription of Sanskrit sounds; following the example of the ancient masters it is not translated, and it is not rendered word by word in the Plain Reading.

〔11 · Speaking the Words of the Spell〕（0136c15）These phrases of the spell above number four hundred and thirty-nine in all.

〔12 · Showing That the Buddhas Uphold It〕（0136c16）The Buddha said: ‘Ānanda! These wondrous phrases of the secret gāthā of the Buddha-Crown Gathering of Light, Sitātapatra, give birth to all the buddhas of the ten directions. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, by this heart of the spell, attain unsurpassed Right and Universal Knowledge and awakening. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, holding this heart of the spell, subdue the Māras and overcome the outside paths. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, riding this heart of the spell, sit upon jeweled lotus flowers and appear in response in lands as many as fine dust motes. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, holding this heart of the spell within, turn the great Dharma wheel in lands as many as fine dust motes. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, upholding this heart of the spell, can in the ten directions stroke people’s crowns and confer predictions; and when their own fruit was not yet accomplished, they too received predictions from the buddhas in the ten directions. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, relying on this heart of the spell, can in the ten directions rescue beings from the many sufferings—the hells, the hungry ghosts, the animals; the blind, the deaf, the mute, the dumb; the suffering of meeting what one hates, the suffering of parting from what one loves, the suffering of not getting what one seeks, the blazing of the five aggregates; and all the great and small untimely calamities are liberated at once; the calamities of thieves, of soldiers, of kings, of prisons, of wind, water, and fire, hunger, thirst, and poverty, scatter as soon as they are thought of. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, following this heart of the spell, can in the ten directions serve good friends, and in the four deportments of walking, standing, sitting, and lying make offerings as they wish; in the Dharma assemblies of tathāgatas as many as the Ganges’ sands, they are put forward as great Dharma princes. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, practicing this heart of the spell, can in the ten directions gather in those with whom they have affinity, and cause those of the Lesser Vehicle to hear the secret repository without being alarmed. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, reciting this heart of the spell, accomplish unsurpassed awakening, sit beneath the bodhi tree, and enter great nirvāṇa. The tathāgatas of the ten directions, transmitting this heart of the spell, after their extinction entrust the matters of the Buddhadharma, uphold it to the very end, and strictly purify the precepts and the vinaya, so that all may be pure.

〔12 · Showing That the Buddhas Uphold It〕（0137a06）‘If I were to proclaim this Buddha-Crown Gathering of Light Ātapatra spell from morning to evening, sound following sound, with no phrase repeated in between, through kalpas as many as the Ganges’ sands, I could still never finish.

〔12 · Showing That the Buddhas Uphold It〕（0137a08）‘This spell is also called the Tathāgata’s crown. You who are still in training, who have not yet wholly left the round, and who have set your minds with utmost sincerity on the fruit of arhatship—if you do not uphold this spell and yet sit in a bodhimaṇḍa, and wish your body and mind to be far from the doings of Māra, there is no such possibility.

〔13 · Exhorting Beings to Uphold It〕（0137a12）‘Ānanda! If, in the worlds, all the beings of whatever land, using the birch bark, palm leaves, paper and silk, or white cotton that their land produces, write out this spell and keep it in a sachet of incense, then even if this person’s mind is dull and cannot recite or memorize it, so long as it is carried on the body or written in the house, know that in this person’s whole life no poison of any kind can harm them.

〔13 · Exhorting Beings to Uphold It〕（0137a16）‘Ānanda! I now speak this spell again for you: it rescues and protects the world, lets people gain great fearlessness, and accomplishes the world-transcending wisdom of beings.

‘If after my extinction there are beings in the final age who can recite it themselves or teach others to recite it, know that such beings who recite and uphold it cannot be burned by fire or drowned by water, nor harmed by great poisons or small; even all the evil spells of nāgas and devas, ghosts and spirits, sprites, and demons cannot attach to them, and their minds attain right reception. All curses, sorcery and poison-charms, poisonous drugs, gold poison, silver poison, and the poisonous vapors of grasses, trees, insects, snakes, and the myriad things, on entering this person’s mouth, all become the taste of nectar. All evil stars, and those ghosts and spirits whose minds are cruel and bent on harming people, cannot work evil upon such a person. Vināyaka and the evil ghost kings and their retinues all receive deep kindness and constantly guard them.

‘Ānanda! Know that this spell is constantly attended day and night by the clans of the bodhisattva Vajragarbha King, eighty-four thousand nayutas of koṭis as many as the Ganges’ sands, each with hosts of vajra beings as retinue. Even if beings, with scattered minds and not in samādhi, recall it in the mind and recite it with the mouth, these vajra kings constantly follow those sons of good family—how much more those who have decisively set forth the bodhi-mind? These Vajra Bodhisattva Garbha Kings, with sincere minds, secretly and swiftly open up their spirit and consciousness, so that this person’s mind at once can remember the events of eighty-four thousand kalpas as many as the Ganges’ sands, knowing them all everywhere, and gains freedom from doubt.

‘From the first kalpa to the last body, life after life, they are not born among yakṣas or rākṣasas, nor among pūtanas, kaṭapūtanas, kumbhāṇḍas, piśācas, and the like, nor among the hungry ghosts, beings with form or without form, with perception or without perception—such evil places. If these sons of good family read it or recite it, copy it or write it, carry it or keep it, and make offerings with all kinds of things, kalpa after kalpa they are not born into poverty and low station or places that bring no joy.

‘Even if these beings themselves do no meritorious deeds, all the merit of the tathāgatas of the ten directions is given to this person. Because of this they can, through kalpas as many as the Ganges’ sands, asaṃkhyeya, inexpressible, inexpressible, always be born in one place together with the buddhas; their measureless merits gather together like a cluster of akṣa seeds, permeated and cultivated in the same place, never scattering.

‘Therefore it can make the precept-roots of those who have broken the precepts pure; those who have not received the precepts receive them; those who are not diligent become diligent; those without wisdom gain wisdom; those who are not pure quickly become pure; those who do not keep the fasts and precepts of themselves accomplish the fasts and precepts.

‘Ānanda! When these sons of good family uphold this spell, even if before they received and upheld it they had violated the prohibitive precepts, after they uphold the spell the many offenses of breaking the precepts, whether light or heavy, are extinguished at once. Even if they have drunk wine and eaten the five pungent plants and all sorts of impure things, all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, vajra beings, devas and immortals, ghosts and spirits do not count it as a fault. Even if they wear impure and worn-out robes, in every walking and every standing they are the same as the pure. 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. If they have committed the grave offenses of the five rebellious acts that lead to the uninterrupted hell, or if bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs have committed the four or the eight expulsion offenses, after reciting this spell such heavy deeds are all extinguished, like a fierce wind blowing away a heap of sand, without a hair’s breadth remaining.

‘Ānanda! If there are beings who, from measureless and countless kalpas until now, have all kinds of light and heavy obstructions of offense that from former lives until now they have not had time to repent, if they can read and recite this spell, copy it, carry it on the body, or keep it in their dwelling, manor, garden, or lodge, then such accumulated deeds are like snow melted by hot water, and before long they will all awaken to the acceptance of non-arising.

‘Further, Ānanda! If there is a woman who has not borne sons or daughters and wishes to bear children, if with her whole mind she can recall this spell, or can carry this Sitātapatra on her body, she will give birth to sons or daughters of merit and wisdom. Those who seek long life quickly gain long life; those who wish to seek the swift completion of their rewards quickly gain completion. Body, life, appearance, and strength are likewise. After the end of life, according to their vows they are reborn in the lands of the ten directions, and certainly are not born in the border regions or in low station—how much less in a body of mixed form?

‘Ānanda! If the provinces, counties, and villages of the lands meet with famine and pestilence, or with war, thieves, and strife, and any other place of hardship, write out this divine spell and set it at the four gates of the city, and on the caityas or dhvajas, and have all the beings of that land receive this spell with welcome, bow to it with reverence, and make offerings with a single mind; have the people each wear it on the body or each keep it in the place where they dwell, and all disasters and hardships will be extinguished.

‘Ānanda! For the beings of every land, wherever this spell is, the devas and nāgas rejoice, wind and rain come in season, the five grains are abundant, and the myriad people are at peace and joy. It can also suppress the strange portents that all the evil stars show in their quarters, so that disasters and obstructions do not arise and people do not die untimely or young; fetters, shackles, cangues, and chains do not touch their bodies; day and night they sleep in peace and never have evil dreams.

‘Ānanda! In this Sahā world there are eighty-four thousand evil stars of disaster and change, with twenty-eight great evil stars at their head; there are also eight great evil stars as their lords, and when they appear in the world in all kinds of forms they can cause beings to give rise to all kinds of disasters and portents; wherever this spell is, they are all extinguished. Twelve yojanas become a ground where the boundary is bound, which all evil disasters and ill omens can never enter.

〔14 · Concluding by Showing the Marks of Benefit〕（0137c19）‘Therefore the Tathāgata proclaims this spell to protect, in ages to come, the beginners among those who cultivate as they enter samādhi, so that their body and mind are at ease and they gain great peace and security, and there are no longer any Māras, ghosts, or spirits, nor any grievances and calamities, old misfortunes, former deeds, and long-standing debts from beginningless time, to come and trouble them.

〔14 · Concluding by Showing the Marks of Benefit〕（0137c22）‘You and those in the assembly who are still in training, and those who cultivate in ages to come, if according to the altar-ground I have described you keep the precepts as the Dharma prescribes, and the preceptor from whom you received the precepts is a pure monk, and you uphold this heart of the spell without doubt or regret—if such sons of good family do not attain penetration of the mind in this body born of father and mother, the tathāgatas of the ten directions would be speaking falsely.’

〔15 · Protection〕（0137c26）When these words had been spoken, measureless hundreds of thousands of vajra beings in the assembly at once joined their palms before the Buddha, bowed their heads, and said to the Buddha: ‘As the Buddha has said, we shall with sincere minds protect those who cultivate bodhi in this way.’

〔15 · Protection〕（0137c29）Then the Brahmā king, Śakra the lord of the devas, and the four great heavenly kings likewise bowed their heads together before the Buddha and said to the Buddha: ‘If there truly are good people who cultivate and learn in this way, we shall protect them with all our minds and utmost sincerity, so that all they do in their whole life may be as they wish.’

〔15 · Protection〕（0138a02）Again, measureless great yakṣa generals, the rākṣasa kings, the pūtana kings, the kumbhāṇḍa kings, the piśāca kings, Vināyaka and the great ghost kings, and the ghost commanders likewise joined their palms before the Buddha, bowed their heads, and said: ‘We too vow to protect and uphold this person, so that the bodhi-mind may quickly be complete.’

〔15 · Protection〕（0138a06）Again, measureless devas of sun and moon, the master of wind, the master of rain, the master of clouds, the master of thunder, the lord of lightning, and the rest, the inspecting officials of the year, and the retinues of the stars likewise bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet in the assembly and said to the Buddha: ‘We too protect this person who cultivates, so that the bodhimaṇḍa is securely established and they gain fearlessness.’

〔15 · Protection〕（0138a09）Again, measureless mountain spirits, sea spirits, the sprites of the myriad things that move in water, on land, and through the air in all the soil, and the wind-spirit kings and the devas of the formless realm, together bowed to the ground before the Tathāgata and said to the Buddha: ‘We too protect this person who cultivates, so that bodhi is attained and there are never any doings of Māra.’

〔15 · Protection〕（0138a12）Then the bodhisattvas Vajragarbha King, eighty-four thousand nayutas of koṭis as many as the Ganges’ sands, rose from their seats in the great assembly, bowed their heads at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘World-Honored One! Such as we, by the merit-work we have cultivated, long ago accomplished bodhi yet do not take nirvāṇa; we constantly follow this spell, rescuing and protecting those of the final age who cultivate samādhi and practice rightly.

〔15 · Protection〕（0138a17）‘World-Honored One! Such people who cultivate the mind and seek right concentration, whether in a bodhimaṇḍa or in other places where they walk, even when with a scattered mind they roam and play in the villages—we and our followers shall constantly follow and guard this person. Even if the Māra king, the Maheśvara deva, seeks an opening on them, in the end he can find none. The lesser ghosts and spirits must all stay ten yojanas away from these good people, except those who have set their minds on delighting in the cultivation of dhyāna. World-Honored One! Should such evil Māras or Māra’s retinue wish to come and harass these good people, I shall strike their heads to pieces with my jeweled club, like fine dust. I shall always make all that this person does be as they wish.’

〔16 · Ānanda Asks〕（0138a24）Ānanda then rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘We are dull and foolish, fond of much learning, and have never sought to leave the minds with outflows; receiving the Buddha’s compassionate instruction, we have been able to be rightly permeated and to cultivate, our body and mind are joyful, and we have gained great benefit.

〔16 · Ānanda Asks〕（0138a26）‘World-Honored One! In cultivating and realizing the Buddha’s samādhi in this way, before reaching nirvāṇa, 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? To what place do they come that is called entering the grounds? What is called the bodhisattva of equal awakening?’ When he had spoken these words, he cast the five parts of his body to the ground. The great assembly waited with a single mind for the Buddha’s compassionate voice, gazing up with unmoving eyes.

〔17 · Praise, Request, and Permission to Speak〕（0138b02）Then the World-Honored One praised Ānanda, saying: ‘Excellent! Excellent! You are able, for the sake of the whole great assembly and of all beings in the final age who cultivate samādhi and seek the Great Vehicle, to have the unsurpassed path of right cultivation, from ordinary person to great nirvāṇa, shown in advance. Now listen carefully! I shall tell it to you.’ Ānanda and the great assembly joined their palms, emptied their minds of thought, and silently received the teaching.

〔18 · Showing Delusion and Awakening in General〕（0138b07）The Buddha said: ‘Ānanda, you should know! The wondrous nature is perfectly bright, apart from all names and marks; from the beginning there are no worlds and no beings.

〔18 · Showing Delusion and Awakening in General〕（0138b08）‘Because of falsity there is arising; because of arising there is ceasing. Arising and ceasing are called false; the extinction of falsity is called true. These are called the two names of the transformed basis, the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed bodhi and great nirvāṇa.

〔19 · Exhorting Recognition of the Cause of Falsity〕（0138b10）‘Ānanda! You now wish to cultivate true samādhi and go straight to the Tathāgata’s great nirvāṇa; 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.

〔20 · Narrating the Cause of Inversion in General〕（0138b12）‘Ānanda! What is called the inversion of beings? Ānanda! Because of the mind whose nature is bright, the nature’s brightness being complete, from brightness the nature is put forth; the nature being false, seeing arises; from ultimate nonexistence comes final existence. This that has and what is had have no real causing and caused; the marks of what abides and what is abided in are wholly without root. With this non-abiding as the basis, the world and beings are established.

〔21 · The Inversion of Beings〕（0138b16）‘Deluded about the original perfect brightness, falsity arises; the nature of falsity has no substance and is not something with a support. Wishing to return to the true, this wishing for the true is already not the truly true suchness-nature; not being the true yet seeking to return, it plainly becomes what is not a mark. So there is non-arising, non-abiding, non-mind, and non-dharma.

〔21 · The Inversion of Beings〕（0138b19）‘Arising in turn, the power of arising is put forth and made manifest, and permeation becomes deeds; the same deeds call forth one another, and because there are deeds that call forth one another, there is mutual ceasing and mutual arising; from this there is the inversion of beings.

〔22 · The Inversion of the World〕（0138b21）‘Ānanda! What is called the inversion of the world? This that has and what is had arise falsely in divided segments, and from this the realm is established; not being causing and caused, with no abiding and abided in, shifting and flowing without abiding, from this time is formed. The three times and the four directions combine and enter one another, transforming beings into twelve classes.

〔22 · The Inversion of the World〕（0138b24）‘So the world, because of movement, has sound; because of sound, form; because of form, smell; because of smell, touch; because of touch, taste; because of taste, it knows dharmas. The six kinds of confused false thinking accomplish the nature of deeds, and the twelve divisions turn on the wheel from this. So in the world, sound, smell, taste, and touch, exhausting the twelve changes, make one full revolution.

〔23 · Listing the Headings in General〕（0138b27）‘Riding on this mark of turning on the wheel and inversion, there are in the world the egg-born, the mother-born, the moisture-born, and the transformation-born; those with form and those without form; those with thought and those without thought; those not with form, those not without form; those not with thought, those not without thought.

〔24 · The Differences among the Classes of Birth · Separate Explanation〕（0138c02）‘Ānanda! Because of the world’s false turning in the round, the inversion of motion, it combines with breath and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of flying and sinking; from this there is the kalala of the egg-born, flowing and turning through the lands—fish, birds, turtles, and snakes; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s defiled and mixed turning in the round, the inversion of desire, it combines with moisture and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of horizontal and vertical; from this there is the arbuda of the mother-born, flowing and turning through the lands—humans, animals, nāgas, and immortals; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s clinging turning in the round, the inversion of inclination, it combines with warmth and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of overturning; from this there is the peśī of the moisture-born, flowing and turning through the lands—the wriggling and the crawling; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s changing turning in the round, the inversion of borrowing, it combines with touch and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of new and old; from this there is the ghana of the transformation-born, flowing and turning through the lands—those that shed their skins and those that fly; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s obstructed turning in the round, the inversion of obstruction, it combines with attachment and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of essence and radiance; from this there is the ghana of those with form, flowing and turning through the lands—the auspicious and the baleful, the essences and lights; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s dispersing turning in the round, the inversion of delusion, it combines with darkness and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of hidden obscurity; from this there is the ghana of those without form, flowing and turning through the lands—the empty and scattered, the dissolved and sunken; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s turning in the round among vague images, the inversion of shadow, it combines with recollection and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of hidden binding; from this there is the ghana of those with thought, flowing and turning through the lands—spirits, ghosts, and sprites; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s dull turning in the round, the inversion of stupidity, it combines with obstinacy and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of withering; from this there is the ghana of those without thought, flowing and turning through the lands—spirit transformed into earth, wood, metal, and stone; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s interdependent turning in the round, the inversion of falseness, it combines with defilement and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of dependence; from this there is the ghana of those not with form that take on form, flowing and turning through the lands—like the jellyfish, which take shrimps as their eyes; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s mutually drawing turning in the round, the inversion of nature, it combines with spells and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of calling and summoning; from this there is the ghana of those not without form that are without form, flowing and turning through the lands—born through curses and sorcery; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s turning in the round by joining with the false, the inversion of deception, it combines with the different and forms eighty-four thousand confused thoughts of mutual exchange; from this there is the ghana of those not with thought that take on thought, flowing and turning through the lands—like the sphex wasp, in which a different substance becomes its own; their kinds fill it.

‘Because of the world’s turning in the round through enmity and harm, the inversion of killing, it combines with the monstrous and forms eighty-four thousand thoughts of eating father and mother; from this there is the ghana of those not without thought that are without thought, flowing and turning through the lands—like the earth-owl, which clings to a clod of earth to make its young, and the mirror-breaker bird, which broods the fruit of a poison tree as its young; when the young are grown, father and mother are both eaten by them; their kinds fill it.

〔25 · Concluding with the Names of the Classes〕（0139a12）‘These are called the twelve kinds of classes of beings.’

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Seven’.

〔26 · Appendix · The Dhāraṇī of the Ming Recension〕（0139a14）At the end of the fascicle the Taishō appends the Dhāraṇī of the Ming recension, running to the end of the fascicle, its phrases numbered up to four hundred and twenty-seven. The spell is a transcription of Sanskrit sounds; following the example of the ancient masters it is not translated, and it is not rendered word by word in the Plain Reading.

Fascicle Eight of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. Continuing from the twelve classes of beings of Fascicle Seven, the Buddha teaches three gradual stages: removing the auxiliary causes, cutting out the proper nature, and going against the present deeds; from the ground of dry wisdom, passing through the ten faiths, the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the four applied practices, the ten grounds, and equal awakening, one reaches wondrous awakening—this is the true path of bodhi of the fifty-five stages. Mañjuśrī asks the name of the sūtra, and the Buddha gives five titles. Ānanda asks where the seven destinies come from, and the Buddha teaches the inner portion and the outer portion and rising and sinking by feeling and thought, and how the ten habit-causes and the six crossed retributions form the hells; next he teaches ghosts, animals, humans, immortals, and the six heavens of desire, closing the fascicle with the realm of desire. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0141b17）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Eight [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Eight; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation notes on either the fascicle title or the attribution line.

〔1 · Summing Up the Foregoing and Opening What Follows〕（0141b22）The Buddha went on to say to Ānanda: ‘Ānanda! Beings such as these, within each single class, are each also complete with twelve kinds of inversion; it is like pressing on one’s eyes, when confused flowers arise. Inverting the wondrous, perfect, true, and pure bright mind, one becomes complete with false and confused thoughts such as these. You now cultivate and realize the Buddha’s samādhi; for the confused thoughts that originally arose within this root cause, you must set up three gradual stages, and only then can they be removed and extinguished. It is like removing poisoned honey from a clean vessel: the vessel is washed with various hot waters mixed with ash and incense, and only afterward is nectar stored in it.

〔2 · Properly Distinguishing the Cultivation〕（0141b27）‘What are called the three gradual stages? The first is cultivation and practice, removing its auxiliary causes; the second is true cultivation, cutting out its proper nature; the third is advancement, going against its present deeds.

〔3 · Removing the Auxiliary Causes〕（0141c01）‘What are the auxiliary causes? Ānanda! The twelve classes of beings in such a world cannot keep themselves whole, and abide by relying on four kinds of food, namely food in morsels, food of contact, food of intention, and food of consciousness; therefore the Buddha says that all beings abide by relying on food. Ānanda! All beings live when they eat what is sweet and die when they eat what is poisonous. These beings, seeking samādhi, should cut off the five pungent plants of the world. These five pungent plants, eaten cooked, give rise to lust; eaten raw, they increase anger. People in such a world who eat the pungent plants, even if they can expound the twelve divisions of the scriptures, are found foul and filthy by the devas and immortals of the ten directions, who all keep far away from them; the hungry ghosts and others, taking the moment when they eat, lick their lips. They constantly dwell together with ghosts, their merit and virtue dwindle day by day, and for a long time there is no benefit.

〔3 · Removing the Auxiliary Causes〕（0141c09）‘When such a person who eats the pungent plants cultivates samādhi, the bodhisattvas, the devas and immortals, and the good spirits of the ten directions do not come to guard and protect them. A Māra king of great power gets his opportunity, appears in the body of a buddha, and speaks the Dharma to them, disparaging the prohibitive precepts and praising lust, anger, and stupidity; after the end of life they themselves become members of the Māra king’s retinue, and when the merit of Māra they enjoy is used up, they fall into the Avīci hell. Ānanda! Those who cultivate bodhi cut off the five pungent plants forever; this is called the first gradual stage of advancing cultivation.

〔4 · Cutting Out the Proper Nature〕（0141c14）‘What is the proper nature? Ānanda! When such beings enter samādhi, they must first strictly uphold the pure precepts, cut off the mind of lust forever, take neither wine nor meat, eat food purified by fire, and not eat anything that still bears the breath of life. Ānanda! If this practitioner does not cut off lust and the killing of living beings, yet wishes to leave the three realms, it is impossible. One should regard lust as a poisonous snake, as if seeing a hated bandit. First one upholds the śrāvakas’ four and eight expulsion offenses, holding the body so that it does not move; afterward one practices the pure rules of discipline of the bodhisattvas, holding the mind so that it does not arise.

〔4 · Cutting Out the Proper Nature〕（0141c20）‘When the prohibitive precepts are accomplished, then in the world there are forever no deeds of giving birth to one another and killing one another; when stealing and robbery are not practiced, there is no entanglement of mutual debts, nor need one repay old debts in the world. When this pure person cultivates samādhi, the physical body born of father and mother, without needing the deva eye, naturally sees the worlds of the ten directions, beholds the buddhas and hears the Dharma, personally receives the sagely commands, gains great spiritual powers, and travels through the worlds of the ten directions, with past lives pure and without hardship or danger. This is called the second gradual stage of advancing cultivation.

〔5 · Going Against the Present Deeds〕（0141c26）‘What are the present deeds? Ānanda! Such a person, purely keeping the prohibitive precepts, has no greed or lust in the mind and does not much flow out toward the six external objects; because there is no flowing out, it turns back to the source and returns of itself. Once the objects are no longer clung to, the faculties have nothing to pair with; reversing the flow, it returns to the whole and the one, the functions of the six faculties no longer operate, and the lands of the ten directions are brilliantly clear and pure, like a bright moon hanging within beryl.

〔5 · Going Against the Present Deeds〕（0141c29）‘Body and mind are joyful, wondrous, perfect, and equal, and one gains great peace and security. The secret, perfect, pure wonder of all the tathāgatas all appears within it, and this person then gains patient acceptance of the unborn. From here gradually cultivating, according to the practices that are set forth, the sagely stages are established. This is called the third gradual stage of advancing cultivation.

〔6 · The Ground of Dry Wisdom〕（0142a05）‘Ānanda! For this good man, the love of desire has dried up, faculties and objects no longer pair together, and the remaining substance before him no longer continues to be born. The grasping mind is empty and bright, purely wisdom; the nature of wisdom is bright and perfect, illuminating the worlds of the ten directions. Dry, having only its wisdom, it is called the ground of dry wisdom.

〔7 · The Stage of the Ten Faiths〕（0142a07）‘The habit of desire has first dried up, and has not yet joined with the Dharma-stream of the Tathāgata. Then with this mind it flows into the middle of the middle, opening and unfolding perfect and wondrous; from the true, wondrous, and perfect it again puts forth the true and wondrous; wondrous faith abides permanently, all false thinking is wholly extinguished without remainder, and the middle way is pure and true; this is called the abode of the mind of faith.

‘True faith is clear and bright, all is perfectly penetrated, and the three—aggregates, bases, and realms—cannot be obstructions; and so on, through countless kalpas past and future, all the habit-energy of casting off bodies and receiving bodies appears before one, and this good man can remember it all without forgetting; this is called the abode of the mind of mindfulness.

‘Wondrous, perfect, pure, and true, the true essence puts forth transformation, and the habit-energy since beginningless time all penetrates into one essential brightness; solely with essential brightness one advances toward the true and pure; this is called the mind of vigor.

‘The essence of the mind appears before one, purely as wisdom; this is called the abode of the mind of wisdom.

‘Holding the brightness of wisdom, pervading everywhere, still and clear, the stillness and wonder constantly congealed; this is called the abode of the mind of concentration.

‘The light of concentration shines forth, the bright nature enters deeply, there is only advance and no retreat; this is called the mind of non-retreat.

‘The mind advances in peace, keeps it without losing it, and joins with the breath of the tathāgatas of the ten directions; this is called the mind of protecting the Dharma.

‘Keeping the brightness of awakening, one can with wondrous power turn back the Buddha’s light of compassion, facing the Buddha and abiding; like two mirrors with their lights facing each other, the wondrous images within them enter one another layer upon layer; this is called the mind of dedication.

‘The light of the mind turns back in secret, gains the Buddha’s constantly congealed, unsurpassed, wondrous purity, abides in the unconditioned, and has nothing lost; this is called the abode of the mind of precepts.

‘Abiding in the precepts at ease, one can roam the ten directions, going wherever one vows; this is called the abode of the mind of vows.

〔8 · The Ten Abodes〕（0142a25）‘Ānanda! This good man, by true skillful means, sets forth these ten minds; the essence of the mind shines forth, the ten functions enter into one another, and they are perfectly accomplished as one mind; this is called the abode of generating the mind.

‘Within the mind brightness shines forth, like pure gold appearing within pure beryl; treading on the foregoing wondrous mind, it becomes a ground; this is called the abode of preparing the ground.

‘The ground of the mind comes into contact with knowing, and all becomes clear; roaming and treading the ten directions, there is no hindrance; this is called the abode of cultivation.

‘Practice is the same as the Buddha’s, receiving the Buddha’s breath; like a body in the intermediate state seeking its own father and mother, the hidden faith secretly penetrates, and one enters the lineage of the Tathāgata; this is called the abode of noble birth.

‘Having entered the embryo of the path, one personally receives the heirship of awakening; like an embryo already formed, the human features are not lacking; this is called the abode of complete skillful means.

‘The appearance is like the Buddha’s, and the marks of the mind are also the same; this is called the abode of the right mind.

‘Body and mind join and form, growing day by day; this is called the abode of non-retreat.

‘The numinous marks of the ten bodies are complete all at once; this is called the abode of youthful truth.

‘The form is complete and is born, and one becomes personally a child of the Buddha; this is called the abode of the Dharma prince.

‘Showing that one has come of age, as the great king of a country entrusts the various affairs of state to the crown prince; when that kṣatriya king’s heir is grown, the rite of consecration is set out; this is called the abode of consecration.

〔9 · The Stage of the Ten Practices〕（0142b09）‘Ānanda! This good man, having become a child of the Buddha, is complete with the measureless wondrous virtues of the tathāgatas and accords with the ten directions; this is called the practice of joy.

‘Being well able to benefit all beings; this is called the practice of benefiting.

‘Awakening oneself and awakening others, without opposing or refusing; this is called the practice of no anger or resentment.

‘Being born among the kinds to the end of the limit of the future, the three times equal, penetrating the ten directions; this is called the practice without end.

‘All joining as one, the various Dharma gates without error; this is called the practice apart from stupidity and confusion.

‘Then within the same manifesting the many differences, and in each different mark again each seeing the same; this is called the practice of good manifestation.

‘And so on until the empty space of the ten directions is filled with fine dust, and in each mote of dust the worlds of the ten directions appear; manifesting dust and manifesting worlds do not hinder each other; this is called the practice of non-attachment.

‘Whatever appears before one is all the foremost pāramitā; this is called the practice of veneration.

‘Perfectly interfused in this way, one can accomplish the norms of all the buddhas of the ten directions; this is called the practice of good dharmas.

‘Each and every one is pure and without outflows, the one true unconditioned, because the nature is originally so; this is called the practice of truth.

〔10 · The Stage of the Ten Dedications〕（0142b21）‘Ānanda! This good man, having fulfilled the spiritual powers and accomplished the Buddha’s work, is pure, clean, essential, and true, far from all lingering faults; as one delivers beings, one also extinguishes the mark of delivering, turns back the unconditioned mind, and goes toward the road of nirvāṇa; this is called the dedication of saving and protecting all beings apart from the mark of beings.

‘Destroying what can be destroyed, and far from all departures; this is called the indestructible dedication.

‘Original awakening is clear and still, awakening level with the Buddha’s awakening; this is called the dedication equal to all buddhas.

‘The essential and true shines forth, the ground like the Buddha’s ground; this is called the dedication reaching all places.

‘The worlds and the tathāgatas enter one another, without hindrance; this is called the dedication of the inexhaustible store of merit.

‘Within what is the same as the Buddha’s ground, in each ground pure causes arise, and relying on the causes shining forth, one takes up the path of nirvāṇa; this is called the dedication following equal good roots.

‘The true root being accomplished, the beings of the ten directions are all my own nature; the nature is perfectly accomplished without losing beings; this is called the dedication following the equal contemplation of all beings.

‘Being one with all dharmas yet apart from all marks, attaching to neither being one with nor being apart; this is called the dedication of the mark of suchness.

‘Truly attaining what is so, unobstructed in the ten directions; this is called the dedication of unbound liberation.

‘The virtue of the nature is perfectly accomplished, and the measure of the Dharma-realm is extinguished; this is called the dedication of the measureless Dharma-realm.

〔11 · The Stage of the Four Applied Practices〕（0142c05）‘Ānanda! This good man, having fully exhausted these pure forty-one minds, next accomplishes four kinds of wondrous and perfect applied practice.

‘Taking the Buddha’s awakening as one’s own mind, as if emerging yet not yet emerging, like drilling for fire about to set the wood alight, it is called the ground of warmth.

‘Again, with one’s own mind accomplishing what the Buddha treads, as if relying yet not relying, like climbing a high mountain, the body entering empty space, with a subtle obstruction still below, it is called the ground of the summit.

‘The mind and the Buddha, the two, are the same, well attaining the middle way, like a person who bears a matter patiently, neither holding it in nor letting it out, it is called the ground of acceptance.

‘Number and measure dissolve, and delusion, awakening, and the middle way all have nothing by which to be named; it is called the ground of foremost in the world.

〔12 · Showing the Ten Grounds〕（0142c12）‘Ānanda! This good man well penetrates great bodhi, his awakening penetrates the Tathāgata’s, and he exhausts the Buddha’s realm; this is called the ground of joy.

‘The different nature enters the same, and the nature of sameness also is extinguished; this is called the ground of leaving defilement.

‘Purity reaches its extreme and brightness is born; this is called the ground of emitting light.

‘Brightness reaches its extreme and awakening is full; this is called the ground of flaming wisdom.

‘No sameness or difference of any kind can reach it; this is called the ground hard to conquer.

‘Unconditioned suchness, the nature pure and its brightness revealed; this is called the ground of manifestation.

‘Exhausting the limit of suchness; this is called the far-going ground.

‘The one mind of suchness; this is called the ground of immovability.

‘Putting forth the function of suchness; this is called the ground of good wisdom.

‘Ānanda! These bodhisattvas, from here on, complete their cultivation and practice, and their merit and virtue are full; this ground is also called the stage of cultivation and practice; the wondrous cloud of the shade of compassion covers the ocean of nirvāṇa; this is called the ground of the Dharma-cloud.

〔13 · The Stage of Equal Awakening〕（0142c20）‘The Tathāgata goes against the stream and comes forth; such a bodhisattva goes along with it and arrives; where the limits of awakening meet and enter, it is called equal awakening.

〔14 · The Stage of Wondrous Awakening〕（0142c21）‘Ānanda! From the mind of dry wisdom to after equal awakening, this awakening first gains the first ground of dry wisdom within the vajra mind. Thus, layer upon layer, twelve, single and compound, one at last exhausts wondrous awakening and accomplishes the unsurpassed path.

〔15 · Concluding: The Stages Rest upon Practice〕（0142c23）‘All these various grounds, by vajra contemplation of the ten profound similes of illusion, within śamatha, using the pure cultivation and realization of the vipaśyanā of the tathāgatas, gradually go deeper.

〔15 · Concluding: The Stages Rest upon Practice〕（0142c25）‘Ānanda! All these, because of the three advancements, can well accomplish the true path of bodhi of the fifty-five stages.

〔15 · Concluding: The Stages Rest upon Practice〕（0142c27）‘Contemplating in this way is called right contemplation; contemplating otherwise is called wrong contemplation.’

〔16 · Mañjuśrī Asks〕（0142c29）Then the Dharma prince Mañjuśrī, in the great assembly, rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, and said to the Buddha: ‘What should this sūtra be called? How should I and beings uphold it?’

〔17 · The Tathāgata Answers〕（0143a02）The Buddha said to Mañjuśrī: ‘This sūtra is called The Great Buddha-Crown, the Sitātapatra Unsurpassed Jeweled Seal, the Pure Ocean-Eye of the Tathāgatas of the Ten Directions;

‘It is also called Saving and Protecting the Close Kin, Delivering Ānanda and the Bhikṣuṇī Prakṛti of This Assembly, Attaining the Bodhi-Mind and Entering the Ocean of Universal Knowledge;

‘It is also called The Tathāgata’s Secret Cause, Cultivation and Realization of the Complete Meaning;

‘It is also called The Great, Vast, and Extensive Wondrous Lotus-King, the Dhāraṇī Spell That Is Mother of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions;

‘It is also called The Consecration Phrases, the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, Śūraṅgama. You should uphold it.’

〔18 · Ānanda Asks〕（0143a09）When these words had been spoken, Ānanda and the great assembly at that time, having received the Tathāgata’s disclosure of the meaning of the secret seal, the Sitātapatra, and having also heard the name of the complete meaning of this sūtra, suddenly awakened to the superior wondrous principle of dhyāna and of cultivating and advancing through the sagely stages; their minds and thoughts were empty and still, and they cut off the six grades of subtle afflictions of the cultivating mind in the three realms. Ānanda then rose from his seat, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, joined his palms respectfully, and said to the Buddha:

〔18 · Ānanda Asks〕（0143a13）‘World-Honored One of great majestic virtue! Your compassionate voice is without obstruction, well able to open and resolve the subtle, sunken delusions of beings, making my body and mind joyful today and bringing great benefit. World-Honored One! If this wondrous, bright, true, and pure wondrous mind is originally pervasive and perfect, and so on to the great earth, grasses, and trees, the wriggling creatures and all that hold spirit, all originally suchness, which is the true substance of the Tathāgata’s becoming a buddha—since the Buddha’s substance is real, why are there further the paths of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, devas, and the rest? World-Honored One! Do these paths exist of themselves from the beginning, or are they produced by the false habits of beings? World-Honored One! For instance, the bhikṣuṇī Baolianxiang received and upheld the bodhisattva precepts, yet secretly indulged in lust, and falsely said that indulging in lust is not killing and not stealing, and has no retribution of deeds; after she had said this, a great fierce fire first arose in her female organ, and afterward fierce fire burned in every joint, and she fell into the Avīci hell. King Virūḍhaka and the bhikṣu Sunakṣatra: Virūḍhaka, for exterminating the clan of Gautama, and Sunakṣatra, for falsely saying that all dharmas are empty, both fell alive into the Avīci hell. These hells—do they have fixed places, or are they so of themselves, each one setting forth deeds and each privately receiving? I only pray that you will let down your great compassion and enlighten the young and ignorant, so that all beings who keep the precepts, hearing the decisive meaning, will joyfully receive it upon their heads, be careful and pure, and not violate the prohibitive precepts!’

〔19 · Praise, Request, and Permission to Speak〕（0143a28）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘Excellent is this question! It can keep beings from entering wrong views. Now listen carefully; I shall tell it to you.

〔20 · Explaining in General by Feeling and Thought〕（0143a29）‘Ānanda! All beings are truly originally true and pure; because of their false views, false habits arise, and for this reason they are divided into the inner portion and the outer portion. Ānanda! The inner portion is what lies within beings’ own portion. Because of various loves and defilements, false feeling is set forth; feeling accumulates without ceasing and can produce the water of love. Therefore when beings recall delicacies in the mind, water comes forth in the mouth; when they recall a person of the past in the mind, whether with tenderness or with resentment, tears fill the eyes; when they greedily seek wealth and treasure, a saliva of love comes forth in the mind and the whole body is glossy; when the mind is attached to indulging in lust, fluids flow of themselves from the organs of man and woman. Ānanda! Though the various loves differ, their flowing and congealing are the same; moist and not rising, they naturally sink down with it; this is called the inner portion.

〔20 · Explaining in General by Feeling and Thought〕（0143b08）‘Ānanda! The outer portion is what lies outside beings’ own portion. Because of various thirsts and longings, empty thought is set forth; thought accumulates without ceasing and can produce the superior vapor. Therefore when beings uphold the prohibitive precepts in the mind, the whole body is light and clear; when they uphold spells and seals in the mind, their glances are heroic and resolute; when they think in the mind of being born in heaven, in dreams they think of flying up; when the mind dwells on a buddha-land, sagely realms appear in secret; when they serve good friends, they themselves make light of body and life. Ānanda! Though the various thoughts differ, their lightness and rising are the same; flying and moving and not sinking, they naturally go beyond; this is called the outer portion.

〔20 · Explaining in General by Feeling and Thought〕（0143b14）‘Ānanda! All the births and deaths of the world follow one another continuously; birth comes from following habit, death from a changing current. At the time of approaching the end of life, before the touch of warmth has been given up, the good and evil of a whole life appear together all at once; death is going against, birth is going along, and the two habits meet. Pure thought then flies, and is certainly born in the heavens; if within the flying mind there is also merit, also wisdom, and pure vows as well, the mind naturally opens, sees the buddhas of the ten directions, and is reborn in any pure land according to its vow. With little feeling and much thought, rising lightly but not far, one becomes a flying immortal, a ghost-king of great power, a flying yakṣa, or an earth-walking rākṣasa, roaming the four heavens and going without hindrance; among them, if there are good vows and good minds that protect my Dharma—whether protecting the prohibitive precepts and following those who keep the precepts, or protecting the divine spells and following those who uphold the spells, or protecting dhyāna concentration and safeguarding the acceptance of dharmas—these all dwell close beneath the Tathāgata’s seat. With feeling and thought equal, neither flying nor falling, one is born in the human world; when thought is bright one is intelligent, when feeling is dark one is dull. With much feeling and little thought, one flows into the horizontally born: the heavier become the furred herds, the lighter the feathered tribes. With seven parts feeling and three parts thought, one sinks below the water-wheel and is born at the edge of fire, receiving its vapor from the fierce fire, the body a hungry ghost, constantly burned; water can harm it, it has no food and no drink, through hundreds of thousands of kalpas. With nine parts feeling and one part thought, one passes down through the fire-wheel, and the body enters the place where wind and fire meet; the lighter are born in the hells with interval, the heavier in the hells without interval—these are the two kinds of hells.

〔20 · Explaining in General by Feeling and Thought〕（0143b29）‘Pure feeling then sinks, entering the Avīci hell. If within the sinking mind there is slandering of the Great Vehicle, destroying the Buddha’s prohibitive precepts, deceptively and falsely speaking the Dharma, emptily coveting the offerings of the faithful, wrongly receiving respect, the five rebellious acts and the ten grave offenses, one is further born in the Avīci hells of the ten directions. According to the evil deeds one has done, though one calls them forth oneself, within the common lot one also has one’s original ground.

〔21 · The Hells · Summing Up the Foregoing and Opening What Follows〕（0143c04）‘Ānanda! These are all called forth by those beings’ own deeds: making the ten habit-causes, they receive the six crossed retributions.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0143c05）‘What are the ten causes? Ānanda! First, the habit of lust meets in intercourse, setting forth from rubbing against each other; when the grinding does not cease, there is a great fierce blaze of fire stirring within, as when a person rubs his hands against each other and the appearance of warmth comes before him. Because the two habits set each other alight, there are such things as the iron bed and the copper pillar. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name the practice of lust, all alike, ‘the fire of desire’; bodhisattvas see desire as if avoiding a pit of fire.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0143c10）‘Second, the habit of greed meets in calculation, setting forth from drawing in toward each other; when the drawing in does not stop, there is accumulated cold and hard ice freezing within, as when a person draws in wind through the mouth and a cold touch arises. Because the two habits press upon each other, there are such things as zhazha, bobo, and luoluo, the blue, red, and white lotuses, and cold ice. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name much seeking, all alike, ‘the water of greed’; bodhisattvas see greed as if avoiding a miasmic sea.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0143c15）‘Third, the habit of arrogance meets in overbearing, setting forth from relying on oneself against each other; when the rushing flow does not rest, there is leaping and surging, waves piling up into water, as when a person savors with mouth and tongue and water thereby comes forth. Because the two habits drum against each other, there are such things as the river of blood, the river of ash, the hot sand, the poison sea, molten copper, and the pouring down the throat. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name self-arrogance ‘drinking the water of stupidity’; bodhisattvas see arrogance as if avoiding a great drowning.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0143c20）‘Fourth, the habit of anger meets in clashing, setting forth from opposing each other; when the opposition knots without rest, the mind grows hot and sends forth fire, casting its vapor into metal, and so there are the mountain of knives, the iron stakes, the sword trees, the sword wheels, axes and halberds, spears and saws, as when a person harbors a grievance and the vapor of killing flies up. Because the two habits strike each other, there are such things as castration, cutting, beheading, hacking, chopping, piercing, beating, and striking. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name anger ‘sharp knives and swords’; bodhisattvas see anger as if avoiding execution.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0143c26）‘Fifth, the habit of deceit meets in enticing, setting forth from luring each other; when the drawing on does not stop, there are ropes and wood, strangling and binding, as when water soaks a field and grasses and trees grow. Because the two habits draw each other on, there are such things as handcuffs and fetters, cangues and locks, whips and staves, cudgels and clubs. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name treachery and falsehood, all alike, ‘slandering bandits’; bodhisattvas see deceit as if fearing jackals and wolves.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0144a02）‘Sixth, the habit of fraud meets in cheating, setting forth from deluding each other; when the falsifying and deluding does not stop, the flying mind contrives treachery, and so there are dust and earth, excrement and urine, filth and impurity, as when dust follows the wind and no one can see anything. Because the two habits pile upon each other, there are such things as sinking and drowning, being tossed up, flying and falling, drifting and sinking. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name cheating and fraud, all alike, ‘robbery and murder’; bodhisattvas see fraud as if treading on snakes and vipers.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0144a07）‘Seventh, the habit of enmity meets in resentment, setting forth from harboring hatred, and so there are flying stones and hurled pebbles, caskets and cages, carts and pens, jars and sacks for beating, as when a person of hidden venom harbors and nurses evil. Because the two habits swallow each other, there are such things as hurling, seizing, striking and shooting, and grabbing. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name the enemy ‘the harming ghost’; bodhisattvas see enmity as if drinking poisoned wine.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0144a12）‘Eighth, the habit of views meets in display, such as the satkāya view, the grasping of precepts and prohibitions, and the deeds of wrong awakening, setting forth from opposing and refusing and giving rise to contradiction, and so there are the king’s envoys and officials, witnesses holding documents and registers, as when travelers on a road see one another coming and going. Because the two habits meet each other, there are such things as interrogation, trickery, examination under torture, investigation, inspection, scrutiny, and exposure, and the good and evil youths holding records in their hands to argue and dispute. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name evil views, all alike, ‘the pit of views’; bodhisattvas see the various false and pervasive graspings as if entering a poisonous ravine.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0144a19）‘Ninth, the habit of wronging meets in imposing, setting forth from false accusation, and so there are the closing mountains, the closing stones, grinding rollers and millstones, plowing and grinding, as when slanderous bandits oppress and wrong the good. Because the two habits push each other, there are such things as pressing down, pounding and holding, squeezing and straining, and weighing and measuring. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name resentful slander, all alike, ‘the slandering tiger’; bodhisattvas see wronging as if struck by a thunderbolt.

〔22 · The Ten Habit-Causes〕（0144a24）‘Tenth, the habit of litigation meets in clamor, setting forth from concealment, and so there are mirrors that reveal and torches that illuminate, as when in the midst of the sun one cannot hide one’s shadow; therefore there are such things as evil friends, the mirror of deeds, and the fire pearl, exposing former deeds and confronting the evidence. Therefore all the tathāgatas of the ten directions name concealment, all alike, ‘the hidden bandit’; bodhisattvas regard concealment as if carrying a high mountain on their heads and walking upon the great sea.

〔23 · The Six Crossed Retributions〕（0144a28）‘What are the six retributions? Ānanda! All beings make deeds with the six consciousnesses, and the evil retributions they call forth come out from the six faculties. How do evil retributions come out from the six faculties? First is the retribution of seeing, which draws on evil fruits. When these deeds of seeing meet, at the time of approaching the end of life, one first sees fierce fire filling the worlds of the ten directions; the spirit-consciousness of the dead one flies and falls, rides on the smoke, and enters the Avīci hell. Two aspects become manifest: one is bright seeing, in which one can see all kinds of evil things everywhere and gives rise to measureless fear; the other is dark seeing, silent and seeing nothing, giving rise to measureless terror.

‘Such a fire of seeing, burning hearing, can become cauldrons of boiling water and molten copper; burning breath, it can become black smoke and purple flames; burning taste, it can become scorched pellets and iron gruel; burning touch, it can become hot ashes and coals of the brazier; burning the mind, it can give rise to sparks of fire scattering and fanning the realm of space.

〔23 · The Six Crossed Retributions〕（0144b09）‘Second is the retribution of hearing, which draws on evil fruits. When these deeds of hearing meet, at the time of approaching the end of life, one first sees great waves drowning heaven and earth; the spirit-consciousness of the dead one descends and pours down, rides on the current, and enters the Avīci hell. Two aspects become manifest: one is open hearing, hearing all kinds of clamor, so that the spirit is confused; the other is closed hearing, silent with nothing heard, so that the dark soul sinks.

‘Such waves of hearing, pouring into hearing, can become reproach and interrogation; pouring into seeing, they can become thunder, roaring, and evil poisonous vapor; pouring into breath, they can become rain and fog, sprinkling all kinds of poisonous insects that fill the body; pouring into taste, they can become pus and blood and all kinds of filth; pouring into touch, they can become animals, ghosts, excrement, and urine; pouring into the mind, they can become lightning and hail, crushing heart and soul.

〔23 · The Six Crossed Retributions〕（0144b18）‘Third is the retribution of smelling, which draws on evil fruits. When these deeds of smelling meet, at the time of approaching the end of life, one first sees poisonous vapor filling near and far; the spirit-consciousness of the dead one gushes out from the earth and enters the Avīci hell. Two aspects become manifest: one is unobstructed smelling, in which, steeped to the extreme by all kinds of evil vapors, the mind is disturbed; the other is blocked smelling, the breath stopped and not passing, so that one swoons upon the ground.

‘Such vapor of smelling, assailing the breath, can become confrontation and treading; assailing seeing, it can become fire and torches; assailing hearing, it can become sinking, drowning, the ocean, and boiling; assailing taste, it can become rotting and spoiling; assailing touch, it can become splitting, rotting, and a great mountain of flesh with hundreds of thousands of eyes, sucked and eaten by measureless creatures; assailing thought, it can become ashes, miasma, and flying sand and gravel that smash the body.

〔23 · The Six Crossed Retributions〕（0144b27）‘Fourth is the retribution of tasting, which draws on evil fruits. When these deeds of tasting meet, at the time of approaching the end of life, one first sees an iron net, its fierce flames blazing, covering the world all around; the spirit-consciousness of the dead one passes down, is caught on the net, hangs head downward, and enters the Avīci hell. Two aspects become manifest: one is drawing in the breath, which binds into cold ice and freezes and splits the flesh; the other is spitting out the breath, which flies forth as fierce fire and scorches the bones and marrow.

‘Such tasting of flavors, passing through tasting, can become receiving and enduring; passing through seeing, it can become burning metal and stone; passing through hearing, it can become sharp weapons and blades; passing through breath, it can become a great iron cage covering the whole land; passing through touch, it can become bows, arrows, crossbows, and shooting; passing through thought, it can become flying hot iron raining down from the sky.

〔23 · The Six Crossed Retributions〕（0144c07）‘Fifth is the retribution of touching, which draws on evil fruits. When these deeds of touching meet, at the time of approaching the end of life, one first sees great mountains closing in from the four sides, with no way out; the spirit-consciousness of the dead one sees a great iron city, with fire snakes, fire dogs, tigers, wolves, and lions, and ox-headed hell guards and horse-headed rākṣasas holding spears and lances, driving it in through the city gate toward the Avīci hell. Two aspects become manifest: one is touching in union, mountains closing in and pressing the body, so that bone, flesh, and blood burst; the other is touching in separation, knives and swords touching the body, so that heart and liver are slaughtered and torn.

‘Such touching in union, passing through touch, can become roads, watchtowers, halls, and judgment desks; passing through seeing, it can become burning and scorching; passing through hearing, it can become ramming, striking, stabbing, and shooting; passing through breath, it can become binding, bagging, beating, and tying; passing through tasting, it can become plowing, pincers, beheading, and severing; passing through thought, it can become falling, flying, frying, and roasting.

〔23 · The Six Crossed Retributions〕（0144c17）‘Sixth is the retribution of thinking, which draws on evil fruits. When these deeds of thinking meet, at the time of approaching the end of life, one first sees an evil wind blowing and destroying the land; the spirit-consciousness of the dead one is blown up into the sky, spins around and comes down, rides on the wind, and falls into the Avīci hell. Two aspects become manifest: one is non-awareness, in which delusion at its extreme becomes wild confusion, running about without rest; the other is non-delusion, in which awareness is suffering, measureless frying and burning, the pain deep and hard to bear.

‘Such wrong thinking, binding thought, can become places and locations; binding seeing, it can become mirrors and witnesses; binding hearing, it can become great closing stones, ice, frost, earth, and fog; binding breath, it can become great fire carts, fire boats, and fire cages; binding tasting, it can become great crying out, remorse, and weeping; binding touch, it can become great and small, ten thousand births and ten thousand deaths within a single day, lying face down and lying face up.

〔24 · Concluding and Showing Again〕（0144c26）‘Ānanda! These are called the ten causes and six fruits of the hells, all made by the delusion and falsity of beings. If the evil deeds of beings are made completely, one enters the Avīci hell, receiving measureless suffering through measureless kalpas. If each of the six faculties makes deeds, together with what they do involving both objects and faculties, this person enters the eight hells without interval. If body, speech, and mind, the three deeds, commit killing, stealing, and lust, this person enters the eighteen hells. If the three deeds are not combined, and among them one commits a single killing or a single stealing, this person enters the thirty-six hells. If, as seeing seeing, a single faculty alone commits a single deed, this person enters the one hundred and eight hells.

〔24 · Concluding and Showing Again〕（0145a03）‘Because of this, beings make deeds separately and create separately, and in the world enter the ground of the common lot; this arises from false thinking and is not originally there.

〔25 · The Destiny of Ghosts〕（0145a05）‘Further, Ānanda! These beings, who disparage and destroy the rules of discipline, violate the bodhisattva precepts, slander the Buddha’s nirvāṇa, and commit all kinds of other mixed deeds, are burned through kalpas; afterward, when the retribution for their offenses is finished, they receive various ghostly forms.

‘If in the original cause greed for things was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with things and takes form, and is called a strange ghost.

‘If greed for beauty was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with wind and takes form, and is called a drought ghost.

‘If greed for deluding was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with animals and takes form, and is called a bewitching ghost.

‘If greed for resentment was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with insects and takes form, and is called a poison-sorcery ghost.

‘If greed for recollection was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with decline and takes form, and is called a plague ghost.

‘If greed for pride was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with vapor and takes form, and is called a hungry ghost.

‘If greed for deception was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with darkness and becomes a form, and is called a nightmare ghost.

‘If greed for cleverness was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with essences and becomes a form, and is called a wangliang ghost.

‘If greed for accomplishment was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with brightness and becomes a form, and is called a servant ghost.

‘If greed for faction was the offense, this person, when the offense is finished, meets with people and becomes a form, and is called a messenger ghost.

‘Ānanda! These people all fall through pure feeling, and after the fire of deeds has burned them dry, they come up and become ghosts. These are all called forth by the deeds of their own false thinking; if they awaken to bodhi, then within the wondrous, perfect brightness there is originally nothing at all.

〔26 · The Destiny of Animals〕（0145a20）‘Further, Ānanda! When the deeds of ghosts are exhausted, and feeling and thought both become empty, then in the world they meet face to face with those to whom they were originally indebted as enemies, and with bodies as animals they repay their former debts.

‘The ghost of strange things, when the things dissolve and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the owl kind.

‘The ghost of wind and drought, when the wind dissolves and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes all the strange kinds of ill omens.

‘The ghost of animal bewitchment, when the animal dies and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the fox kind.

‘The ghost of insect sorcery, when the insects perish and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the poisonous kind.

‘The ghost of decline and plague, when the decline is exhausted and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the worm kind.

‘The ghost that receives vapor, when the vapor dissolves and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the food kind.

‘The ghost of lingering darkness, when the darkness dissolves and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the clothing kind.

‘The ghost joined with essences, when the joining dissolves and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the responsive kind.

‘The ghost of bright spirits, when the brightness is extinguished and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes all the various kinds of good omens.

‘The ghost that depends on people, when the people perish and the retribution is finished, is born in the world and mostly becomes the compliant kind.

‘Ānanda! These all, because the fire of deeds has dried them up, repay their former debts and are born going sideways as animals; these too are all called forth by their own false deeds. If they awaken to bodhi, these false conditions are originally nothing at all. Such as Baolianxiang and the others you spoke of, and King Virūḍhaka and the bhikṣu Sunakṣatra—such evil deeds are originally set forth by oneself; they do not fall from heaven, nor come out of the earth, nor are they given by others; they are called forth by one’s own false mind, and one comes oneself to receive them. Within the bodhi-mind, they are all congealed from floating, empty false thinking.

〔27 · The Destiny of Humans〕（0145b09）‘Further, Ānanda! From these animal bodies they repay their former debts; if the one repaying has gone beyond the amount owed, these beings return again as humans and in turn reclaim the excess. If that person has strength and also merit and virtue, then among humans, without giving up the human body, he repays that strength; if there is no merit and virtue, he again becomes an animal and repays the remaining value. Ānanda, you should know! If money or goods were used, or their strength was employed, when it is repaid in full it stops of itself; if in between their life was killed or their flesh eaten, then in this way, even through kalpas as many as fine dust motes, they eat one another and kill one another, like a turning wheel, rising and falling in turn, without rest; apart from śamatha and the Buddha’s appearing in the world, it cannot stop.

‘You should now know: those of the owl kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the obstinate kind.

‘Those of ill omens, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the foolish kind.

‘Those of the fox kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join the perverse kind.

‘Those of the poisonous kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the mediocre kind.

‘Those of the worm kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the lowly kind.

‘Those of the food kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the pliant kind.

‘Those of the clothing kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the toiling kind.

‘Those of the responsive kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join the cultured kind.

‘Those of good omens, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join with the clear-sighted kind.

‘Those of the compliant kind, when their repayment is complete and they regain form, are born in the human path and join the accomplished kind.

‘Ānanda! These all, when their former debts are repaid, regain form as humans; all, since beginningless time, with the calculations of deeds inverted, give birth to one another and kill one another. Not meeting the Tathāgata and not hearing the right Dharma, they turn in the wheel as a matter of course amid the dust and toil; this group is called the pitiable ones!

〔28 · The Destiny of Immortals〕（0145c01）‘Ānanda! Further, there are those who come from human bodies, who do not rely on right awakening to cultivate samādhi but separately cultivate false thoughts, holding to thoughts to make their physical form firm, and roam in mountain forests where no human footprints reach; there are ten kinds of immortals.

‘Ānanda! Those beings who firmly take medicinal foods without rest, when the way of eating is perfectly accomplished, are called earth-walking immortals.

‘Those who firmly take grasses and trees without rest, when the way of medicine is perfectly accomplished, are called flying immortals.

‘Those who firmly take metals and stones without rest, when the way of transformation is perfectly accomplished, are called roaming immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice movement and stillness without rest, when breath and essence are perfectly accomplished, are called sky-walking immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice with saliva and fluids without rest, when the virtue of moisture is perfectly accomplished, are called heaven-walking immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice with essences and colors without rest, when the absorbing of the pure is perfectly accomplished, are called penetrating immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice spells and prohibitions without rest, when the methods of the art are perfectly accomplished, are called way-walking immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice thought and mindfulness without rest, when thought and recollection are perfectly accomplished, are called illuminating immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice intercourse without rest, when stimulus and response are perfectly accomplished, are called essence immortals.

‘Those who firmly practice transformation without rest, when awakening is perfectly accomplished, are called immortals of the cut-off practice.

‘Ānanda! These all refine the mind among humans, do not follow right awakening, and separately gain a principle of living, with lifespans of thousands and tens of thousands of years, resting in deep mountains or on islands in the great sea, cut off from the realm of humans. This too is the turning in the round, the flowing on of false thinking; not cultivating samādhi, when the retribution is finished they come back again and scatter into the various destinies.

〔29 · The Destiny of Devas〕（0145c16）‘Ānanda! People of the world who do not seek the permanent and cannot yet give up the loving affection of wives and concubines, yet whose minds do not flow out into wrong lust, become clear and lustrous and give rise to light; after the end of life they are near the sun and moon; this class is called the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings.

‘Those whose lustful love toward their own wives is slight, and who in pure dwelling do not get its full savor, after the end of life go beyond the light of sun and moon and dwell at the summit of the human world; this class is called the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven.

‘Those who, meeting desire, join briefly and afterward have no thought or recollection of it, and in the human world move little and are still much, after the end of life dwell brightly in empty space, where the light of sun and moon does not reach above; these people have their own light; this class is called the Suyāma Heaven.

‘Those who are still at all times, and when touch comes in response cannot yet refuse it, after the end of life rise up to the subtle and fine, not touching the realms of humans and devas below, so that even when the kalpa is destroyed the three calamities cannot reach them; this class is called the Tuṣita Heaven.

‘Those who themselves have no mind of desire but act in response to the other, and at the time of lying together find its taste like chewing wax, after the end of life are born in a place beyond transformation; this class is called the Nirmāṇarati Heaven.

‘Those who have no worldly mind yet act along with the world, and at the time of acting and joining are clearly beyond it, after the end of life can go everywhere beyond the realms of transformation and non-transformation; this class is called the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven.

‘Ānanda! These six heavens, though in form they have left movement, the traces of the mind still meet; from here downward, it is called the realm of desire.’

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Eight’.

Fascicle Nine of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. Continuing from the six heavens of desire of Fascicle Eight, the Buddha goes on to teach the eighteen heavens of the realm of form and the four heavens of formlessness of the formless realm, sums up that the three realms and the seven destinies are all born of accumulated falsity, next teaches the four kinds of asura, and concludes with the three deeds of killing, stealing, and lust, urging the removal of the three delusions. As the Tathāgata is about to leave the Dharma seat, he speaks again to the great assembly, unasked, of the subtle doings of Māra within dhyāna: first he clarifies the principles of the true and the false, of how the demons come to rise, and of how they are subdued; next he teaches the domains of the three aggregates of form, feeling, and perception and the marks of their ending, setting out ten states appearing in dhyāna for each, judging each state as deviant or right, and enjoining that this be proclaimed in the final Dharma. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translator’s Attribution〕（0146a07）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Nine [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Nine; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translator’s attribution is a single line, “Translated by the śramaṇa Pramiti of India, of the Tang.”—Pramiti, a śramaṇa of India in the Tang dynasty, translated it. In the Taishō text, the head of the fascicle has no collation notes on either the fascicle title or the attribution line.

〔1 · The First Dhyāna〕（0146a12）The Buddha went on to say to Ānanda: ‘Ānanda! Of all the people in the world who cultivate the mind, without relying on dhyāna there is no wisdom.

〔1 · The First Dhyāna〕（0146a13）‘If one can only hold the body so as not to practice lust and desire, whether walking or sitting, thoughts of it are already gone, love and defilement do not arise, and one no longer lingers in the realm of desire; at the moment of the thought this person’s body becomes a companion of Brahmā; this class is called the heaven of Brahma’s Assembly.

‘The habit-energy of desire already removed, the mind apart from desire appears, and one delights in and accords with all the rules of discipline; this person then at that time can practice the virtue of Brahmā; this class is called the heaven of Brahma’s Ministers.

‘Body and mind wondrously perfect, deportment without lack, purely keeping the prohibitive precepts, and with bright awakening added to this; this person then at that time can rule the assembly of Brahmā and become a great Brahmā king; this class is called the heaven of Great Brahmā.

‘Ānanda! These three superior streams of devas no suffering or vexation can oppress. Though this is not the true samādhi of right cultivation, within the pure mind the outflows are no longer stirred; this is called the first dhyāna.

〔2 · The Second Dhyāna〕（0146a22）‘Ānanda! Next are the Brahmā devas who govern the people of Brahmā and fulfill the pure practice; the mind clarified and unmoving, still and limpid, gives rise to light; this class is called the heaven of Lesser Light.

‘Light and light set each other alight, shining without end, illuminating the worlds of the ten directions, which all become beryl; this class is called the heaven of Measureless Light.

‘Drawing in and holding the perfect light, they accomplish the substance of teaching, setting forth transformation in purity, responding and functioning without end; this class is called the heaven of Light-Sound.

‘Ānanda! These three superior streams of devas no worry or anxiety can oppress. Though this is not the true samādhi of right cultivation, within the pure mind the coarse outflows are already subdued; this is called the second dhyāna.

〔3 · The Third Dhyāna〕（0146a29）‘Ānanda! Devas such as these, their perfect light becoming sound, open the sound to disclose the wondrous, set it forth as diligent practice, and penetrate the bliss of still extinction; this class is called the heaven of Lesser Purity.

‘The mark of pure emptiness appears before them, drawing forth without limit; body and mind light and at ease, they accomplish the bliss of still extinction; this class is called the heaven of Measureless Purity.

‘The world and body and mind are all perfectly pure, the virtue of purity accomplished, a superior support appearing before them, they return to the bliss of still extinction; this class is called the heaven of Pervasive Purity.

‘Ānanda! These three superior streams of devas are complete with great accordance; body and mind at peace, they gain measureless bliss. Though this is not the true samādhi rightly attained, within the peaceful mind joy is wholly complete; this is called the third dhyāna.

〔4 · The Fourth Dhyāna〕（0146b08）‘Ānanda! Further, the devas are not oppressed in body and mind, and the cause of suffering is already exhausted; yet bliss is not permanent, and in time it will surely decay and give rise to suffering, so the two minds of suffering and bliss are given up all at once together. The coarse marks extinguished, the pure nature of merit arises; this class is called the heaven of Merit-Born.

‘The mind of equanimity perfectly fused, its superior understanding pure, within merit without obstruction they gain a wondrous accordance, to the end of the limit of the future; this class is called the heaven of Merit-Love.

‘Ānanda! From this heaven there are two forking paths: if, following the former mind, with measureless pure light and merit perfect and bright, one cultivates, realizes, and abides, this class is called the heaven of Vast Fruit.

‘If, following the former mind, one loathes both suffering and bliss together, finely grinds the mind of equanimity, continuing without break, perfectly exhausts the path of equanimity, body and mind both extinguished, the mind’s thoughts and deliberations congealed like ashes, through five hundred kalpas—since this person takes arising and ceasing as the cause, he cannot bring to light the nature that neither arises nor ceases; in the first half-kalpa it is extinguished, and in the last half-kalpa it arises; this class is called the heaven of No-Thought.

‘Ānanda! These four superior streams of devas no realm of suffering or bliss in all the world can move. Though this is not the true ground of immovability of the unconditioned, the effort of a mind that has something attained is already ripe; this is called the fourth dhyāna.

〔5 · The Five Heavens of No Return〕（0146b21）‘Ānanda! Within this there are further the five heavens of no return. The habit-energy of the nine grades within the lower realm is extinguished all at once, suffering and bliss both lost; there is no place for them to settle in the lower realm, and so within the common lot of the mind of equanimity they set up their dwelling.

‘Ānanda! Suffering and bliss both extinguished, the contending mind no longer meets; this class is called the heaven of No-Vexation.

‘Like the trigger and the notch of a crossbow moving alone, grinding and meeting with nowhere to lodge; this class is called the heaven of No-Heat.

‘In the worlds of the ten directions, wondrous seeing is perfectly clear, with no more images of dust or any sunken grime; this class is called the heaven of Good Seeing.

‘Essential and wondrous seeing appears before them, sovereign and unobstructed like smelting and casting; this class is called the heaven of Good Manifestation.

‘Exhausting the subtle beginnings of all existence, exhausting the nature of the nature of form, they enter what is without limit; this class is called the heaven of Ultimate Form.

‘Ānanda! These five heavens of no return the heavenly kings of the four dhyānas can only revere and hear of, but cannot know or see. It is like the wilderness, the deep mountains, and the holy bodhimaṇḍas of the present world, which are all places dwelt in and kept by arhats, yet the coarse people of the world cannot see them.

〔6 · The Realm of Form · Summing Up〕（0146c03）‘Ānanda! These eighteen heavens practice alone without meeting, yet have not exhausted the encumbrance of physical form. From here downward, it is called the realm of form.

〔7 · The Formless Realm〕（0146c06）‘Further, Ānanda! From this summit of existence, at the edge of the realm of form, there are again two forking paths: if within the mind of equanimity one brings forth wisdom, and the light of wisdom perfectly penetrates, one then leaves the realm of dust, becomes an arhat, and enters the bodhisattva vehicle; this class is called the great arhats who turn their minds.

〔7 · The Formless Realm〕（0146c09）‘If within the mind of equanimity, giving up and loathing are accomplished, and one feels the body to be an obstruction, one dissolves the obstruction and enters emptiness; this class is called the station of space.

‘The obstructions already dissolved, even the unobstructed is extinguished; within it there remain only the ālaya consciousness, together with the whole of manas and the subtle half-portion; this class is called the station of consciousness.

‘Emptiness and form already lost, the conscious mind too wholly extinguished, the ten directions still and silent, far off with nowhere to go; this class is called the station of nothing whatever.

‘The nature of consciousness unmoving, one exhaustively grinds it by extinction, and within the inexhaustible sets forth the nature of exhaustion, as if existing yet not existing, as if exhausted yet not exhausted; this class is called the station of neither perception nor non-perception.

〔7 · The Formless Realm〕（0146c16）‘These all exhaust the mark of emptiness, yet have not exhausted the principle of emptiness. Those who come to the end from the holy path of the heavens of no return, this class is called the dull arhats who do not turn their minds. Those who, from the heaven of No-Thought and the other heavens of the outer paths, exhaust the mark of emptiness and do not know to turn back, deluded about outflows and without much learning, then enter the turning round.

‘Ānanda! The devas in each of these heavens are the requital of the fruits of the deeds of ordinary beings; when the requital is exhausted they enter the cycle of rebirth. Those heavenly kings, however, are bodhisattvas roaming in samādhi, gradually advancing, on the path of practice they cultivate in dedicating themselves toward the company of sages.

‘Ānanda! In these four heavens of formlessness, body and mind are extinguished, the nature of concentration appears before them, and there is no form of the fruits of deeds; from here to the very end, it is called the formless realm.

〔8 · Summing Up the Falsity〕（0146c23）‘These all, not understanding the wondrous awakened bright mind, arise from accumulating falsity; falsely there are the three realms, and within them they falsely follow the seven destinies and sink; the pudgalas each follow their own kinds.

〔9 · The Destiny of the Asuras〕（0146c25）‘Further, Ānanda! Within these three realms there are again four kinds of asura: if in the path of ghosts, by the power of protecting the Buddha’s Dharma, one accomplishes spiritual penetrations and enters into space, this asura is born from an egg and belongs to the destiny of ghosts.

〔9 · The Destiny of the Asuras〕（0146c27）‘If among the devas, through a decline in virtue, one is demoted and falls, the place where he settles is near the sun and moon; this asura comes forth from a mother and belongs to the destiny of humans.

〔9 · The Destiny of the Asuras〕（0146c29）‘There is a kind of asura king who holds up the world, his power penetrating and without fear, able to contend for power with the Brahmā king, with Śakra, lord of the devas, and with the four heavenly kings; this asura comes into being through transformation and belongs to the destiny of devas.

〔9 · The Destiny of the Asuras〕（0147a02）‘Ānanda! There is separately a portion of inferior asuras, born in the heart of the great sea and sunk at the mouths of water caves, roaming in empty space by morning and returning to lodge in the water by evening; this asura comes into being through moisture and belongs to the destiny of animals.

〔10 · Concluding on the False Cause to Warn Them to Leave It〕（0147a05）‘Ānanda! Such hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, and spirit-immortals and devas, up to the asuras—when these seven destinies are finely investigated, they are all the various conditioned thoughts of dullness and sinking. By false thought they receive birth, by false thought they follow deeds; within the wondrous, perfect, bright original mind that does nothing, they are all like flowers in the sky, originally nothing at all. There is only one falsity, with no further root or thread.

〔10 · Concluding on the False Cause to Warn Them to Leave It〕（0147a08）‘Ānanda! These beings do not recognize the original mind and undergo this cycle of rebirth; through measureless kalpas they do not attain true purity, all because they follow killing, stealing, and lust; turning against these three, they again give rise to no killing, no stealing, and no lust. Those with killing, stealing, and lust are named the ghostly kind; those without killing, stealing, and lust are named the destiny of devas; existence and nonexistence overturn each other, and so the nature of the cycle of rebirth arises. If one can wondrously set forth samādhi, then it is wondrous, permanent, and still. Existence and nonexistence are both gone, and even “non-duality” is extinguished; there is not even non-killing, non-stealing, and non-lust—how then could one still follow the affairs of killing, stealing, and lust? Ānanda! If the three deeds are not cut off, each has private deeds; because of each one’s private deeds, the common lot of the many private deeds is not without a fixed place. These all arise from one’s own falsity; the falsity that arises has no cause and cannot be traced to the end.

〔11 · Urging to Remove and Cut Off〕（0147a16）‘You who exert yourself in practice and wish to attain bodhi must remove the three delusions. If the three delusions are not wholly removed, even if you gain spiritual penetrations, it is all the conditioned effort of the world; if habit-energy is not extinguished, you fall into the way of Māra. Though you wish to remove falsity, you double the falsehood instead; the Tathāgata says this is a pitiable person. This is made by your own falsity; it is not the fault of bodhi. To speak in this way is called right speaking; to speak otherwise is the speaking of the Māra kings.’

〔12 · The Tathāgata’s Address〕（0147a21）At that time the Tathāgata, about to leave the Dharma seat, drew the table of seven jewels toward him on the lion couch, turned his body like a mountain of purple gold, leaned on it once again, and announced to the great assembly and to Ānanda:

〔12 · The Tathāgata’s Address〕（0147a22）‘You those awakened through conditions and śrāvakas still at the stage of learning, who today turn your minds toward great bodhi, unsurpassed wondrous awakening—I have now spoken the true method of cultivation. You do not yet recognize the subtle doings of Māra at the time of cultivating śamatha and vipaśyanā; when demonic states appear before you, you cannot discern them, the washing of your minds is not right, and you fall into wrong views. It may be the demons of your own aggregates, or the Māra of the heavens, or possession by ghosts and spirits, or an encounter with mountain-demons; if the mind is not clear, you take a thief for your son. Or within it you are content with little, like the unlearned bhikṣu of the fourth dhyāna, who falsely claimed to have realized the holy fruit; when his heavenly retribution was finished and the marks of decline appeared, he slandered the arhats, his body met a further existence, and he fell into the Avīci hell. Listen carefully! I shall now make careful distinctions for you.’

〔13 · Ānanda Waits to Hear〕（0147b01）Ānanda rose, and together with those in the assembly who were likewise still at the stage of learning, joyfully bowed, and respectfully prostrated themselves to listen to the Buddha’s compassionate instruction.

〔14 · Clarifying the True and the False Together〕（0147b04）The Buddha said to Ānanda and the great assembly: ‘You should know: for the twelve classes of beings of the world with outflows, the substance of the mind—original awakening, wondrously bright, awakening perfect—is not two and not different from that of the buddhas of the ten directions.

〔14 · Clarifying the True and the False Together〕（0147b06）‘Because your false thinking is deluded about the principle and becomes a fault, stupidity and love arise; once arisen they become delusion everywhere, and so there is the nature of emptiness; transforming delusion without ceasing, worlds arise. Thus these lands of the ten directions, as many as fine motes of dust, insofar as they are not without outflows, are all set up by deluded, obstinate false thinking. You should know that empty space is born within your mind like a wisp of cloud dotting the clear sky—how much more the worlds that lie within empty space! If among you only one person sets forth the true and returns to the source, the empty space of the ten directions will wholly vanish; how could the lands within space not shake and split apart?

〔15 · How the Demons Come to Rise〕（0147b12）‘You cultivate dhyāna, adorning samādhi, and the essence of your minds penetrates and joins with the bodhisattvas of the ten directions and all the great arhats without outflows, and right where you are it is limpid and still. All the Māra kings, and the ghosts and spirits, and the devas of ordinary beings see their palaces split apart for no reason, the great earth shaking and cracking, the creatures of water and land flying up, and none is not alarmed and afraid. Ordinary beings, in their darkness, do not perceive this change. They have all gained five kinds of spiritual penetration, all but the exhaustion of outflows, and they covet this toil of dust—how would they let you smash their dwellings? Therefore the spirits and ghosts and all the Māras of the heavens, the wangliang, and uncanny sprites all come to trouble you at the time you enter samādhi.

〔16 · Discerning How They Are Subdued〕（0147b18）‘Yet though those demons have great wrath, they are within the toil of dust and you are within wondrous awakening; like wind blowing on light, like a knife cutting water, they do not touch you in the least. You are like boiling water, they are like solid ice; as the warm air gradually draws near, before many days they will melt away. They rely in vain on their spiritual power and are only guests; whether they accomplish their breaking and disturbing rests on the master of the five aggregates within your mind. If the master is deluded, the guest gets its chance. Right where you are in dhyāna, awakened and without delusion, those doings of Māra can do nothing to you. When the aggregates dissolve and you enter brightness, that host of deviants all receive a dark vapor; brightness can break darkness, and as they draw near they melt away of themselves—how would they dare stay to disturb your concentration? If you cannot brightly awaken and are deluded by the aggregates, then you, Ānanda, will surely become a son of Māra and be made a person of Māra.

〔17 · Illustration by an Instance〕（0147b26）‘That Mātaṅgī was truly most slight and inferior; though by her spell she made you break the Buddha’s rules of discipline, among the eighty thousand fine practices she destroyed only one precept, and because your mind was pure you did not yet sink. But these demons would destroy the whole body of your jeweled awakening, like the household of a chief minister suddenly meeting confiscation, scattered and ruined in turn, with no one to pity and save it.

〔18 · The Aggregate of Form · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0147c01）‘Ānanda, you should know: you sit in the bodhimaṇḍa and let all thoughts fall away; if those thoughts are ended, then in all the essential brightness apart from thought, movement and stillness do not shift, and remembering and forgetting are as one. When one abides here and enters samādhi, it is like a person with clear eyes in great darkness: the essential nature is wondrously pure, but the mind has not yet sent forth light; this is called the domain of the aggregate of form.

〔18 · The Aggregate of Form · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0147c04）‘If the eyes are bright and the ten directions open clear, with no more darkness, this is called the state in which the aggregate of form is ended; this person can then pass beyond the turbidity of the kalpa. Contemplating its origin, solidified false thought is its root.

〔19 · The Body Able to Pass through Obstructions〕（0147c07）‘Ānanda! Within this one investigates wondrous brightness with essential effort; the four great elements no longer interweave, and in a short while the body can pass out through obstructions. This is called essential brightness overflowing into the present realm; it is only the effort being so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔20 · Picking Worms out of the Body〕（0147c11）‘Ānanda! Again, with this mind one investigates wondrous brightness with essential effort, and the body is penetrated through inside and out; this person suddenly picks pinworms and roundworms out of his own body, the body’s form intact, and without injury. This is called essential brightness overflowing into the bodily form; it is only diligent practice being so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔21 · Hearing Secret Meanings in Space〕（0147c16）‘Again, with this mind one investigates inside and out with essential effort; at this time the souls, the will, and the spirit, apart from the body that is held and received, all enter into one another, each serving as guest and host to the other; suddenly one hears the voice of the Dharma being spoken in space, or hears secret meanings being expounded together throughout the ten directions. This is called the essence and the soul alternately parting and joining, accomplishing the seeds of good roots; it is so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔22 · The Buddha Seated on a Flower Terrace〕（0147c21）‘Again, with this mind clear and revealed, bright and penetrating, the inner light shines forth, the ten directions all become the color of jambūnada gold, and all kinds of beings are transformed into tathāgatas. At this time one suddenly sees the Buddha Vairocana seated on a terrace of heavenly light, surrounded by a thousand buddhas, and ten billion lands and lotus flowers appear all at once. This is called the mind and soul imbued by numinous awakening, the light of the mind investigating brightness and illuminating all the worlds; it is so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔23 · Space Displaying Jeweled Colors〕（0147c27）‘Again, with this mind one investigates wondrous brightness with essential effort, contemplating without stopping, restraining and subduing, holding back and going beyond; at this time suddenly the empty space of the ten directions becomes the color of the seven jewels, or the color of a hundred jewels, all filling it at once without hindering one another, blue, yellow, red, and white each appearing pure. This is called the power of restraint exceeding its bounds; it is so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔24 · Seeing Things in the Dark〕（0148a03）‘Again, with this mind one investigates clear and limpid, the essential light unscattered; suddenly at night, within a dark room, one sees all kinds of things no different from daytime, and the things in the dark room are not removed either. This is called the mind, fine and close, clarifying its seeing, so that what is seen penetrates the darkness; it is so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔25 · The Body Wounded without Knowing〕（0148a08）‘Again, with this mind perfectly entering empty fusion, the four limbs suddenly become like grass and trees, and one feels nothing at all when burned by fire or cut by knives. Moreover, the light of fire cannot burn him, and even if his flesh is cut it is like whittling wood. This is called the marks of dust merging, expelling the nature of the four great elements, and entering wholly into the pure and single; it is so for a time, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔26 · Viewing All Realms〕（0148a13）‘Again, with this mind accomplishing purity, the effort of the pure mind having reached its utmost, one suddenly sees the great earth and the mountains and rivers of the ten directions all becoming buddha-lands, complete with the seven jewels, light filling them everywhere. One also sees buddhas, tathāgatas, as many as the sands of the Ganges filling the realm of space, with towers and halls splendid and beautiful. Looking down one sees the hells, looking up one beholds the palaces of the devas, all without obstruction. This is called delighting in the pure and loathing the defiled, congealing thought growing deeper day by day; when thought is long it transforms into this, and it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔27 · Seeing Distant Places by Night〕（0148a19）‘Again, with this mind investigating deep and far, suddenly in the middle of the night one sees from afar the markets, wells, streets, and lanes of distant places, and one’s relatives and kin, or hears their words. This is called the mind pressed to its utmost and flying out, so that one can often see across obstructions; it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, it is called a good state; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔28 · The Teacher’s Body Changing〕（0148a23）‘Again, with this mind investigating to the utmost of essence, one sees the form of the good friend shifting and changing, in a short while altering in all kinds of ways without cause. This is called the deviant mind harboring a mountain-demon, or meeting the Māra of the heavens entering his heart and belly, speaking the Dharma without cause and penetrating wondrous meanings; it is not holy realization. Not taking it for a holy mind, the doings of Māra cease of themselves; if one takes it for sagehood, one will receive the host of deviants.

〔29 · The Aggregate of Form · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0148a27）‘Ānanda! These ten kinds of states appearing in dhyāna all come from the aggregate of form and the use of the mind interacting, and so these things appear. Beings, obstinate and deluded, do not measure themselves; meeting these causes and conditions, they are deluded and cannot recognize them themselves, and say that they have ascended to the sagely stages; their great false speech accomplished, they fall into the Avīci hell. You should follow the Tathāgata and, after my extinction, proclaim this meaning in the final Dharma; do not let the Māra of the heavens get its opportunity; keep and protect it, and accomplish the unsurpassed path.

〔30 · The Aggregate of Feeling · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0148b03）‘Ānanda! When that good man cultivating samādhi has ended the aggregate of form within śamatha, he sees the mind of the buddhas like an image appearing in a bright mirror. It is as if he had gained something but cannot yet use it, like a person oppressed by a nightmare: hands and feet intact, seeing and hearing undeluded, yet the mind, touched by a guest-deviant, cannot move; this is called the domain of the aggregate of feeling.

〔30 · The Aggregate of Feeling · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0148b06）‘If the fault of the nightmare ceases, his mind leaves the body and turns back to look upon his own face, going and staying freely with no more hindrance; this is called the state in which the aggregate of feeling is ended; this person can then pass beyond the turbidity of views. Contemplating its origin, empty-bright false thought is its root.

〔31 · Grief Arising at the Sight of Beings〕（0148b10）‘Ānanda! That good man, just within this, gains great radiance; his mind shines forth, and restraining himself inwardly beyond measure, he suddenly gives rise there to boundless sorrow, and so on until he sees mosquitoes and gadflies as his own infants, his mind filled with pity, and tears flow without his knowing. This is called the effort of restraint and suppression going too far; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization; awakened and not deluded, in time it ceases of itself. If one takes it for sagehood, a demon of sorrow enters his heart and vitals; seeing people he grieves, weeping without limit; losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔32 · Valor That Would Equal the Sages〕（0148b17）‘Ānanda! Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, a superior mark appearing before them, are moved beyond measure, and suddenly within it give rise to boundless valor. Their minds fierce and keen, their resolve equal to that of the buddhas, they say that three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas can be passed over in a single thought. This is called the effort overreaching and rash beyond measure; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization; awakened and not deluded, in time it ceases of itself. If one takes it for sagehood, a demon of madness enters his heart and vitals; seeing people he boasts, his pride of self without equal, his mind such that above he sees no Buddha and below he sees no people; losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔33 · A Thirsting Mind Sunk in Recollection〕（0148b24）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, have before them no new realization, and turning back they have lost their old dwelling; their power of wisdom weakens, they enter the ground of falling in between, and see nothing at all. In the mind there suddenly arises a great parching thirst; at all times they sink into recollection without dispersing, and take this for the mark of diligent vigor. This is called cultivating the mind without wisdom and losing oneself; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a demon of recollection enters his heart and vitals, morning and evening holding his mind suspended in one place; losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔34 · Suspecting Oneself to Have Attained the Fruit〕（0148c02）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, their power of wisdom exceeding their power of concentration, err in fierceness and keenness; holding all kinds of superior natures in their minds, they already suspect in their own minds that they are the Buddha Locana, and are content with little. This is called the use of the mind losing its constant examination, sunk in knowing and seeing; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a demon of low and easy contentment enters his heart and vitals; seeing people he declares of himself, “I have attained the unsurpassed foremost meaning.” Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔35 · The Mind Pressed into Sorrow〕（0148c08）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, the new realization not gained and the old mind already lost, surveying these two limits, themselves give rise to a sense of hardship and danger; in the mind there suddenly arises endless sorrow, as if sitting on an iron bed, as if drinking poison; the mind does not wish to live, constantly asking others to take its life, to gain liberation early. This is called cultivation lacking skillful means; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a portion of a demon of constant sorrow enters his heart and vitals; holding knife and sword he cuts his own flesh, gladly giving up his life; or, constantly sorrowful, he goes into the mountain forests and cannot bear to see people. Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔36 · Joy Arising in the Mind〕（0148c16）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, dwelling in purity, after the mind is at peace, suddenly give rise of themselves to boundless joy, the gladness in the mind unable to stop itself. This is called lightness and ease without wisdom to restrain oneself; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a portion of a demon fond of joy enters his heart and vitals; seeing people he laughs, singing and dancing by himself beside the crossroads, declaring that he has gained unobstructed liberation. Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔37 · Pride of Self without Cause〕（0148c22）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, considering themselves already fulfilled, suddenly without cause give rise to great pride of self, and so on—pride and excessive pride, and pride beyond excess, or overweening pride, or the pride of inferiority—all arising at once. In the mind one still looks down on the tathāgatas of the ten directions, how much more the śrāvakas and those awakened through conditions of the lower stages. This is called seeing superiority without wisdom to save oneself; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a portion of a demon of great pride of self enters his heart and vitals; he does not bow to stupas and temples, and destroys scriptures and images. He says to the donors, “These are only gold and copper, or earth and wood; the scriptures are tree leaves, or cotton blossoms. The flesh body is the truly permanent; you do not revere yourselves but worship earth and wood—this is truly inverted.” Those who deeply believe him follow him in destroying and smashing scriptures and images and burying them in the ground; he leads beings astray with doubt, and enters the Avīci hell. Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔38 · Suddenly Obtaining Lightness and Ease〕（0149a04）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, within essential brightness perfectly awakening to the essential principle, gain great accordance; their minds suddenly give rise to measureless lightness and ease, and they say of themselves that they have become sages and gained great sovereignty. This is called gaining all kinds of lightness and clarity through wisdom; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a portion of a demon fond of lightness and clarity enters his heart and vitals; considering himself already fulfilled, he seeks no further advance. These people mostly become unlearned bhikṣus, leading beings astray with doubt, and fall into the Avīci hell. Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔39 · Straying into the Mind of Emptiness〕（0149a11）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, within bright awakening gain the nature of empty brightness; within it they suddenly turn toward eternal extinction, deny cause and effect, and enter wholly into emptiness. When the mind of emptiness appears before them, and so on until in the mind arises an understanding of lasting annihilation. If one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a demon of emptiness enters his heart and vitals, and so he slanders keeping the precepts as the Lesser Vehicle, saying that bodhisattvas have awakened to emptiness—what keeping or violating is there! This person constantly drinks wine and eats meat in the homes of faithful donors, widely practicing lust and filth. Through the power of the demon he holds those before him, so that they do not give rise to doubt or censure. When the ghostly mind has entered for long, he may eat excrement and urine along with wine and meat and the like, saying that all are equally empty. He breaks the Buddha’s rules of discipline and leads people mistakenly into offense. Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔40 · Madness Becoming Craving and Desire〕（0149a20）‘Further, the good men in that concentration, seeing the aggregate of form dissolve and the aggregate of feeling become clear, crave the savor of that empty brightness, and it enters deep into their minds and bones; their minds suddenly give rise to boundless love, and love at its extreme turns to madness and becomes greed and desire. This is called the realm of concentration entering the mind with ease and accord, without wisdom to hold oneself, mistakenly entering the desires; if one awakens to it there is no fault, and it is not holy realization. If one takes it for sagehood, a demon of desire enters his heart and vitals; he says wholly that desire is the path of bodhi, teaches the white-robed laypeople to practice desire equally, and calls those who practice lust sons who uphold the Dharma. Through the power of spirits and ghosts, in the last age he gathers those ordinary and foolish people, their number reaching one hundred, and so on—one hundred, two hundred, or five or six hundred, as many as thousands and tens of thousands. When the demon’s mind grows sated, it leaves his body; his majestic virtue gone, he falls into the troubles of the king; he leads beings astray with doubt, and enters the Avīci hell. Losing right reception, he will thereby sink and fall.

〔41 · The Aggregate of Feeling · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0149b01）‘Ānanda! These ten kinds of states appearing in dhyāna all come from the aggregate of feeling and the use of the mind interacting, and so these things appear. Beings, obstinate and deluded, do not measure themselves; meeting these causes and conditions, they are deluded and cannot recognize them themselves, and say that they have ascended to the sagely stages; their great false speech accomplished, they fall into the Avīci hell. You too should transmit the Tathāgata’s words to the final Dharma after my extinction, causing beings everywhere to awaken to this meaning. Do not let the Māra of the heavens get its opportunity; keep and protect it, and accomplish the unsurpassed path.

〔42 · The Aggregate of Perception · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0149b07）‘Ānanda! When that good man cultivating samādhi has ended the aggregate of feeling, though he has not yet exhausted outflows, his mind has left its form, like a bird out of a cage; he is already able to accomplish ascending from this ordinary body through the bodhisattvas’ sixty sagely stages, gaining the mind-made body, going and coming at will without hindrance. It is like a person sound asleep talking in his sleep: though this person knows nothing else, his words already have sound, rhythm, and order, so that those not asleep all understand his words. This is called the domain of the aggregate of perception.

〔42 · The Aggregate of Perception · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0149b12）‘If stirring thoughts are ended and floating thoughts dissolve, then for the awakened bright mind it is like removing dust and grime; one class of death and birth is perfectly seen from beginning to end; this is called the state in which the aggregate of perception is ended; this person can then pass beyond the turbidity of afflictions. Contemplating its origin, fusing-and-penetrating false thought is its root.

〔43 · Craving Skill〕（0149b16）‘Ānanda! That good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves perfect brightness, sharpens his essential thinking, and craves skill. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person does not perceive that he is possessed by a demon, and declares that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking skill, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. In a short while his form appears as a bhikṣu, letting that person see him, or as Śakra, or as a woman, or as a bhikṣuṇī; or he sleeps in a dark room with light upon his body. This person, foolish and deluded, mistakes him for a bodhisattva. Believing and receiving his teaching, he shakes his own mind, breaks the Buddha’s rules of discipline, and secretly practices greed and desire.

〔43 · Craving Skill〕（0149b23）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to speak of calamities, omens, and strange changes, or says that a Tathāgata has appeared in the world in such-and-such a place, or speaks of the fire of the kalpa, or of war, frightening people so that their family property is used up for no reason. This is called a strange ghost, grown old and become a demon, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher both fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔44 · Desiring to Roam〕（0149b29）‘Ānanda! Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves to roam, lets his essential thinking fly, and craves wandering experience. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person also does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking to roam, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. His own form does not change, but those listening to the Dharma suddenly see themselves seated on jeweled lotus flowers, their whole bodies transformed into masses of purple-gold light. Everyone in the listening crowd, each one so, gains what had never been. This person, foolish and deluded, mistakes him for a bodhisattva, lets his mind run loose, breaks the Buddha’s rules of discipline, and secretly practices greed and desire.

〔44 · Desiring to Roam〕（0149c07）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to speak of buddhas appearing in the world in response: that such-and-such a person in such-and-such a place ought to be the transformation body of such-and-such a buddha come here, that such-and-such a person is such-and-such a bodhisattva or the like come to teach the human world. That person, seeing this, gives rise to longing and thirsting admiration in his mind; wrong views secretly arise, and the wisdom of all modes is extinguished. This is called a drought ghost, grown old and become a demon, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher both fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔45 · Wishing for Union〕（0149c14）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves close joining, clarifies and congeals his essential thinking, and craves union. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person truly does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking union, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. His form and those listening to the Dharma show no outward change, yet he makes the listeners, before they hear the Dharma, awaken naturally in their minds, thought after thought shifting: some gain knowledge of past lives, some have knowledge of others’ minds, some see the hells, some know the good and evil affairs of the human world, some speak verses with their mouths, some recite scriptures by themselves. Each is joyful, gaining what had never been. This person, foolish and deluded, mistakes him for a bodhisattva, his mind clinging in lingering love, breaks the Buddha’s rules of discipline, and secretly practices greed and desire.

〔45 · Wishing for Union〕（0149c23）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to say that buddhas are great and small: that such-and-such a buddha is a former buddha and such-and-such a buddha a later buddha, and that among them there are also true buddhas and false buddhas, male buddhas and female buddhas, and that bodhisattvas are likewise. That person, seeing this, washes away his original mind and easily enters deviant awakening. This is called a bewitching ghost, grown old and become a demon, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher both fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔46 · Delighting in Analysis〕（0149c29）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves the root, exhaustively surveying the end and the beginning of the nature of the transformation and birth of things, making his mind essential, bright, and keen, and craves analysis. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person at first does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking the root source, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. His body has majestic spiritual power, subduing those who seek the Dharma, so that those beneath his seat, though they have not yet heard the Dharma, are naturally won over in their minds. These people take the Buddha’s nirvāṇa, bodhi, and Dharma-body to be right here upon this present flesh body of mine; fathers being fathers and sons being sons, giving birth to one another generation after generation—this is the Dharma-body permanently abiding without end; they point wholly to the present as the buddha-land, and say there is no separate pure abode or golden-colored marks. Those people believe and receive it, forget their former minds, take refuge with body and life, and gain what had never been. These people, foolish and deluded, mistake him for a bodhisattva, pursue his mind, break the Buddha’s rules of discipline, and secretly practice greed and desire.

〔46 · Delighting in Analysis〕（0150a11）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to say that eye, ear, nose, and tongue are all pure lands, and that the two organs of man and woman are the true place of bodhi and nirvāṇa. Those without knowledge believe these filthy words. This is called the poisoning, nightmare-overpowering evil ghost, grown old and become a demon, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher both fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔47 · Hoping for Hidden Response〕（0150a17）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves distant response, investigates with essential effort circling everywhere, and craves hidden response. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person originally does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking response, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. He can make the listeners for a time see his body like an old man of a hundred thousand years; their minds give rise to love and attachment and cannot leave him; they willingly become his slaves and servants and make the four kinds of offerings without feeling weary. He also makes each one beneath his seat recognize him in their minds as a teacher of a former life, an original good friend; they separately give rise to love of the Dharma, sticking like glue and lacquer, and gain what had never been. This person, foolish and deluded, mistakes him for a bodhisattva, draws close to him in his mind, breaks the Buddha’s rules of discipline, and secretly practices greed and desire.

〔47 · Hoping for Hidden Response〕（0150a26）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to say: “In a former life, in a certain birth, I first delivered a certain person, who at that time was my wife, concubine, or brother, and now I have come to deliver him again; you and I follow each other and will return to a certain world and make offerings to a certain buddha.” Or he says: “There is separately a great heaven of light where the Buddha dwells; it is the place where all the tathāgatas rest and dwell.” Those without knowledge believe these empty, deceitful words and lose their original minds. This is called a pestilence ghost, grown old and become a demon, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher both fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔48 · Longing for Quietude〕（0150b04）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves going deep, restraining himself with toil and diligence, delighting to dwell in hidden and still places, and craves quietude. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person originally does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking hidden stillness, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. He makes those listening to the Dharma each know their original deeds; or there he says to one person, “You are not yet dead, yet you have already become an animal.” He orders another person to tread on that one’s tail from behind, and at once that person cannot stand up. Thereupon the whole crowd is won over in heart and reveres him. If someone gives rise to a thought in his mind, he already knows its beginning. Beyond the Buddha’s rules of discipline, he practices with still greater austerity. He slanders the bhikṣus, scolds and curses the followers, exposes others’ secrets, and does not avoid censure.

〔48 · Longing for Quietude〕（0150b13）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to speak of future misfortune and fortune, and when the time comes, not a hair is off. This is a ghost of great power, grown old and become a demon, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher mostly fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔49 · Praying for Knowledge of Past Lives〕（0150b18）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves knowing and seeing, searching with toil and diligence, and craves knowledge of past lives. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person wholly does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking knowing and seeing, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. This person, without cause, gains a great jeweled pearl at the place where the Dharma is spoken. That demon at times transforms into an animal, holding in its mouth a jeweled pearl together with treasures of various colors, bamboo slips, tallies and documents, and other strange things, first giving them to that person and afterward possessing his body. Or he entices those listening to the Dharma to hide their bodies under the ground, where a bright-moon pearl illuminates the place. Those listening to the Dharma gain what had never been. He eats mostly medicinal herbs and not fine food, sometimes eating only one sesame seed and one grain of wheat a day, yet his body is plump and full, because the power of the demon sustains it. He slanders the bhikṣus, scolds and curses the followers, and does not avoid censure.

〔49 · Praying for Knowledge of Past Lives〕（0150b28）‘That person possessed by the demon likes to speak of treasure stores in other places and of the places where the sages and worthies of the ten directions lie hidden and concealed; those who follow him often see strange people. This is called the ghosts and spirits of the mountain forests, the land, the city walls and moats, the rivers and peaks, grown old and become demons. Some proclaim lust, break the Buddha’s precepts, and secretly practice the five desires with those who serve them; some display vigor, eating only grasses and trees, their conduct without fixed rule, troubling that person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher mostly fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔50 · Seeking Spiritual Power〕（0150c07）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves all the transformations of spiritual penetrations, investigates the source of transformation, and craves to seize spiritual power. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person truly does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking spiritual penetrations, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. This person sometimes holds the light of fire in his hand, takes up that light with his hand, and divides it upon the heads of the fourfold assembly listening to the Dharma; on the crowns of the heads of those listening, the light of fire is several feet long, yet it has no nature of heat and never burns. Or he walks upon water as if treading on level ground, or sits motionless in the air, or enters into a bottle, or dwells within a bag, passing through windows and walls without any obstruction; only toward knives and weapons is he not at ease. He calls himself a buddha, wears white clothes, and receives the bows of bhikṣus; he slanders dhyāna and discipline, scolds and curses the followers, exposes others’ secrets, and does not avoid censure.

〔50 · Seeking Spiritual Power〕（0150c18）‘That person possessed by the demon constantly speaks of spiritual penetrations and sovereign mastery, or again makes people see buddha-lands beside them; this is ghostly power deluding people, and not real. He praises the practice of lust and does not condemn coarse conduct, taking all kinds of obscene things as transmitting the Dharma. This is called the great-powered mountain essences, sea essences, wind essences, river essences, and earth essences of heaven and earth, and the sprites and goblins formed from all grasses and trees through accumulated kalpas; or dragon goblins; or immortals whose lives have ended and who have come back to life as goblins; or immortals whose term has ended, who by the count of years ought to die but whose forms do not transform, and who are possessed by other strange beings—grown old and become demons, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher mostly fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔51 · Loving Deep Emptiness〕（0150c26）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves entering extinction, finely investigates the nature of transformation, and craves deep emptiness. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person to the end does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking emptiness, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. Within the great assembly his body suddenly becomes empty, and the crowd sees nothing at all; again he emerges suddenly from empty space, appearing and vanishing at will. Or he shows his body clear through like beryl, or lets down his hands and feet giving off the fragrance of sandalwood, or his excrement and urine are like thick rock candy. He slanders and destroys the precepts and discipline and looks down on those who have left the household life.

〔51 · Loving Deep Emptiness〕（0151a04）‘That person possessed by the demon constantly says that there is no cause and no effect, that once dead one is annihilated forever, with no later body, and neither ordinary beings nor sages. Though he has gained empty stillness, he secretly practices greed and desire, and those who receive his desire also gain the mind of emptiness and deny cause and effect. This is called the essences of the eclipsing of sun and moon, and gold and jade, magic fungus, the qilin and the phoenix, the tortoise and the crane, which through thousands and tens of thousands of years without dying become numinous and are born in the lands, grown old and become demons, troubling this person. When its satiety arises, it leaves that person’s body; disciple and teacher mostly fall into the troubles of the king. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔52 · Fond of Long Years〕（0151a12）‘Further, a good man, the aggregate of feeling empty and wondrous, meets no deviant thoughts, and perfect concentration shines forth; within samādhi his mind loves long life, investigates the subtle with toil and hardship, and craves lasting years, wishing to give up the birth and death of divided segments and suddenly hoping for the birth and death of transformation, so that the subtle marks may abide permanently. At this time the Māra of the heavens, watching, gets its chance, sends its essence to possess a person, and through his mouth speaks sūtras and Dharma. That person in the end does not know that he is possessed by a demon, and also says that he has attained unsurpassed nirvāṇa. He comes to that good man seeking long life, spreads a seat, and speaks the Dharma. He likes to say that he goes to and returns from other places without hindrance, or that across ten thousand li he returns in the blink of an eye, each time bringing back things from those places. Or within one place, within a few paces in one house, he makes a person walk from the east to the west wall, and that person, walking fast for years, cannot reach it. Because of this they believe in their minds and suspect that a buddha has appeared before them.

〔52 · Fond of Long Years〕（0151a20）‘That person possessed by the demon constantly says: “The beings of the ten directions are all my sons; I gave birth to the buddhas, I brought forth the worlds; I am the original buddha, who came into the world naturally, not gained through cultivation.” This is called the Māra of the heavens, sovereign and dwelling in the world, which sends its retinue, such as the cāmuṇḍās, and those among the piśāca youths of the four heavenly kings who have not yet set forth the mind, who covet that person’s empty brightness and feed on his essence and breath. Or without passing through a teacher, the practitioner himself sees them, calling themselves vajra-holding spirits who will give you long life. They appear in the bodies of beautiful women and practice greed and desire intensely; before a year has passed, his liver and brain are dried up. His mouth constantly talks to itself, sounding like uncanny goblins. Those before him do not understand fully, and mostly fall into the troubles of the king; before meeting punishment, he has already withered and died. It troubles that person until his death. You should perceive it first, and then you will not enter the cycle of rebirth; deluded and unknowing, you will fall into the Avīci hell.

〔53 · The Aggregate of Perception · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0151b01）‘Ānanda, you should know: these ten kinds of demons, in the last age, leave the household life and cultivate the path within my Dharma, either possessing human bodies or appearing in forms of their own, all saying that they have already accomplished Right and Universal Knowledge and awakening; they praise lust and desire and break the Buddha’s rules of discipline. The former evil demon-teachers and demon-disciples transmit lust to lust. Such deviant essences bewitch people’s hearts and vitals, for as few as nine lives and as many as more than a hundred generations, making those who cultivate with true minds all become the retinue of Māra. After the end of life they will surely become Māra people, losing Right and Universal Knowledge, and fall into the Avīci hell.

‘You now need not first take up still extinction; even if you attain the stage beyond training, you should keep your vow, enter into that final Dharma, give rise to great kindness and compassion, and save beings of right mind and deep faith, so that they are not possessed by demons and gain right knowledge and views. I have now delivered you out of birth and death; that you follow the Buddha’s words—this is called repaying the Buddha’s kindness.

‘Ānanda! These ten kinds of states appearing in dhyāna all come from the aggregate of perception and the use of the mind interacting, and so these things appear. Beings, obstinate and deluded, do not measure themselves; meeting these causes and conditions, they are deluded and cannot recognize them themselves, and say that they have ascended to the sagely stages; their great false speech accomplished, they fall into the Avīci hell.

〔54 · Renewed Urging to Spread It〕（0151b12）‘You must transmit the Tathāgata’s words to the final Dharma after my extinction, causing beings everywhere to awaken to this meaning. Do not let the Māra of the heavens get its opportunity; keep and protect it, and accomplish the unsurpassed path.’

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Nine’.

Fascicle Ten of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, translated by Pramiti of the Tang, from the fascicle title to the closing title of the fascicle. In this fascicle the speaker, from the head of the fascicle until Ānanda raises his question, is the Buddha throughout. Continuing the meaning of the ten states of the aggregate of perception of Fascicle Nine, he goes on to teach the domains and the marks of ending of the two aggregates of formation and consciousness, setting out ten states appearing in dhyāna for each—the theories of the ten non-Buddhist paths within the aggregate of formation and the ten kinds of grasping within the aggregate of consciousness—judging state by state into what each falls, and enjoining that this be proclaimed in the final Dharma; the fifty layers of demonic states spoken of in Fascicle One come to an end here with the ten states of the aggregate of consciousness. Next Ānanda asks about the root of the false thoughts of the five aggregates, whether their removal is sudden or gradual, and the boundaries of the five aggregates; the Buddha answers with the five kinds of false thought, the boundaries of the five aggregates, and the meaning of sudden in principle and gradual in fact; it ends with the merit of upholding the sūtra and upholding the spell surpassing the giving of the seven jewels, and the great assembly, rejoicing, bows and withdraws. The whole sūtra of ten fascicles ends here. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔0 · Title and Translators’ Attribution〕（0151b19）The head of the fascicle bears the title “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 Ten [also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, copied out from the Consecration Section to circulate separately]”: the name of the sūtra is 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, and this is Fascicle Ten; the interlinear note beneath the title says that this sūtra is also called the Great Bodhimaṇḍa Sūtra of Nālandā in Central India, and that it was copied out from the Consecration Section and circulates on its own. The translators’ attribution runs to three lines. The first line: “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.”—in the first year of Shenlong of the Great Tang, the year being yisi, with the first day of the fifth month falling on jimao, on the twenty-third day, xinchou, the śramaṇa Pramiti of Central India translated it at the Zhizhi Monastery in Guangzhou. The second line: “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.”—Fang Rong of Qinghe, a disciple who had received the bodhisattva precepts, formerly Grand Master of Remonstrance and Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery, took down the text in writing. The third line: “Rendered into Chinese by the śramaṇa Meghaśikha of the kingdom of Uḍḍiyāna.”—Meghaśikha, a śramaṇa of the kingdom of Uḍḍiyāna, interpreted the language. In the Song, Yuan, and Ming recensions these three lines differ in wording and in order; see the apparatus.

〔1 · The Aggregate of Formation · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0151b29）The Buddha went on to say to Ānanda: ‘Ānanda! When that good man cultivating samādhi has ended the aggregate of perception, this person’s ordinary dreams and thoughts are all extinguished, and waking and sleeping are constantly one. The awakened bright mind is empty and still, like a clear sky, with no more coarse shadow-matter of the dusts before it; he looks upon the great earth, mountains, and rivers of all the world as a bright mirror reflects things: coming, they leave nothing stuck to it; passing, they leave no trace; it receives the reflection with an empty mind and appears in response to conditions, and plainly no old stale habit-energy is to be seen—there is only the one essential truth.

〔1 · The Aggregate of Formation · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0151c04）‘The root source of arising and ceasing is from this laid bare. He sees the twelve classes of beings of the ten directions, exhausting their kinds. Though he has not yet penetrated the thread by which each kind receives its life, he sees the common basis of their arising, like the wild horses of a heat haze, shimmering and flashing, clear yet disturbed, the ultimate pivot and cave of the floating faculties and the dusts; this is called the domain of the aggregate of formation.

〔1 · The Aggregate of Formation · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0151c07）‘If the nature of this clear, disturbed, shimmering source enters into the original clarity, and once the original habit-energy is clarified, like waves extinguished and transformed into clear water, this is called the state in which the aggregate of formation is ended; this person can then pass beyond the turbidity of living beings. Contemplating its origin, hidden-and-obscure false thought is its root.

〔2 · The Two Theories of No Cause〕（0151c11）‘Ānanda, you should know: these good men who have gained concentration within right-knowing śamatha, their minds congealed, bright, and right, the ten kinds of Māra of the heavens cannot get their chance; only then can they finely investigate and exhaust the root of the kinds of beings. Within their own kind the source of birth is revealed; they contemplate that dark, clear, perfect, disturbed moving source, and within the perfect source they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into the two theories of no cause:

‘First, this person sees that the beginning has no cause. Why? Since this person has gained the complete breaking of the workings of birth, relying on the eight hundred merits of the eye faculty, he sees all the beings within eighty thousand kalpas, the stream of their deeds bending and circling, dying here and being born there; he sees only beings revolving in the cycle of rebirth there; beyond eighty thousand kalpas all is dark and nothing is seen. He then forms this understanding: “All these beings of the ten directions in the world have, for eighty thousand kalpas, existed of themselves without cause.” Through this calculation he loses Right and Universal Knowledge, falls into the non-Buddhist paths, and is deluded about the nature of bodhi.

‘Second, this person sees that the end has no cause. Why? Since this person has seen the root of birth, he knows that humans give birth to humans and realizes that birds give birth to birds; crows have always been black and swans have always been white; humans and devas are by nature upright and animals by nature go horizontally; the white is not made so by washing and the black is not made so by dyeing, and for eighty thousand kalpas there has been no change. He then thinks: “When this present form comes to its end, it will still be so. And I have never seen bodhi at all—how could there be any matter of accomplishing bodhi! You should know that all the forms of things today are originally without cause.” Through this calculation he loses Right and Universal Knowledge, falls into the non-Buddhist paths, and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the first non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of no cause.

〔3 · The Four Theories of Pervasive Permanence〕（0151c28）‘Ānanda! These good men in samādhi, their minds congealed, bright, and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within perfect permanence they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into the four theories of pervasive permanence:

‘First, this person exhausts the nature of mind and of objects and sees that both places are without cause; in his practice he can know that the arising and ceasing of all the beings of the ten directions within twenty thousand kalpas all revolve in cycles and are never lost, and so he reckons it to be permanent.

‘Second, this person exhausts the source of the four great elements and sees that the nature of the four great elements abides permanently; in his practice he can know that in the arising and ceasing of all the beings of the ten directions within forty thousand kalpas, their substance always remains and is never lost, and so he reckons it to be permanent.

‘Third, this person exhausts the grasping and receiving of the six faculties and manas, and the place from which the original source arises in mind, intellect, and consciousness, and sees that its nature is constant and permanent; in his practice he can know that all beings within eighty thousand kalpas revolve in cycles without being lost and originally abide permanently; exhausting this nature that is not lost, he reckons it to be permanent.

‘Fourth, since this person has exhausted the source of perception, the workings of birth no longer flow, stop, or revolve, and the perceiving mind of arising and ceasing is now forever extinguished, so that in principle it naturally becomes what neither arises nor ceases; because of what is surmised in his mind, he reckons it to be permanent.

‘Through this reckoning of permanence he loses Right and Universal Knowledge, falls into the non-Buddhist paths, and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the second non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of perfect permanence.

〔4 · The Four Theories of Partial Permanence〕（0152a14）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within self and other they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into four kinds of inverted views, the theory of partial impermanence and partial permanence:

‘First, this person contemplates the wondrous bright mind pervading the worlds of the ten directions, limpid and unmoving, and takes this to be the ultimate spiritual self. From this he calculates: “I pervade the ten directions, congealed, bright, and unmoving; all beings are born of themselves and die of themselves within my mind.” Thus the nature of his own mind he names permanent, while those that arise and cease are truly of an impermanent nature.

‘Second, this person does not contemplate his own mind but contemplates throughout lands as many as the sands of the Ganges in the ten directions; places where the kalpa is destroyed he names the seed-nature of ultimate impermanence, and places where the kalpa is not destroyed he names ultimately permanent.

‘Third, this person separately contemplates his own mind, fine and subtle like a fine mote of dust, flowing through the ten directions while its nature neither shifts nor changes; it can make this body be born and at once perish; that indestructible nature he names the permanence of the nature of self, and all death and birth flowing out from him he names the impermanent nature.

‘Fourth, this person knows that the aggregate of perception is ended and sees the aggregate of formation flowing; the constant flow of the aggregate of formation he reckons to be a permanent nature, and form, feeling, perception, and the rest, which are now already extinguished, he names impermanent.

‘Because of this calculation of partial impermanence and partial permanence, he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the third non-Buddhist path, the theory of partial permanence.

〔5 · The Four Theories of Limits〕（0152b01）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within divisions and positions they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into the four theories of limits:

‘First, this person in his mind reckons that the source of birth flows and functions without ceasing; what he calculates as past and future he names limited, and the mind he calculates as continuing he names limitless.

‘Second, this person contemplates eighty thousand kalpas and sees that there are beings; before eighty thousand kalpas all is still, with nothing heard or seen. Where nothing is heard or seen he names limitless, and where there are beings he names limited.

‘Third, this person calculates that he has universal knowledge and has gained a limitless nature; all those other people appear within his knowing, yet he has never known their nature of knowing, and so he says that they have not gained the limitless mind, but have only a limited nature.

‘Fourth, this person exhausts the emptiness of the aggregate of formation and measures by the path of mind he sees: within the single body of every being, he reckons that each is half born and half perished; and inferring from this all that exists in the world, he holds that half is limited and half limitless.

‘Through this calculation of limited and limitless he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the fourth non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of limits.

〔6 · The Four Theories of Deathless Confusion〕（0152b15）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within knowing and seeing they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into four kinds of inverted, deathless confusion, the empty theories of universal reckoning:

‘First, this person contemplates the source of change and transformation: where he sees shifting flow he names it change; where he sees continuity he names it constancy; where he sees what is seen he names it arising; where he does not see the place of seeing he names it ceasing; where the cause of continuity has a nature that does not break he names it increase; where, right in the midst of continuity, something is parted in between, he names it decrease; where each arises he names it existence, and where they mutually disappear he names it nonexistence. Contemplating all of it by principle, he nonetheless sees it with a discriminating mind. When someone seeking the Dharma comes to ask its meaning, he answers: “I now both arise and cease, both exist and do not exist, both increase and decrease.” At all times he speaks confusedly, so that those who come lose the thread of what is said.

‘Second, this person carefully contemplates his mind, and everywhere things are mutually non-existent; through nonexistence he gains realization. When someone comes to ask, he answers with only one word, saying only “No”; apart from “No” there is nothing he says.

‘Third, this person carefully contemplates his mind, and each thing has its place; through existence he gains realization. When someone comes to ask, he answers with only one word, saying only “Yes”; apart from “Yes” there is nothing he says.

‘Fourth, this person sees both existence and nonexistence; his objects branch in two, and so his mind too is confused. When someone comes to ask, he answers: “Both existing is just both not existing; within both not existing it is not both existing.” All is confused evasion, and there is no way to question him to the end.

‘Through this calculation of confused evasion and empty nothingness, he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the fifth non-Buddhist path, the four inverted natures, the empty theory of universal reckoning of deathless confusion.

〔7 · The Sixteen Theories of Existence〕（0152c06）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within the endless flow they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into existence after death, an inversion arising in the mind: either he himself firmly grasps this body and says that form is the self; or he sees the self as perfect, containing and pervading the lands, and says that the self has form; or those former conditions follow the self and come back around, and he says that form belongs to the self; or again, relying on the continuity within the aggregate of formation, he says that the self is within form. In all of these he calculates and says that there is existence after death; revolving thus, there are sixteen marks. From this he is deluded and reckons: ultimately it is affliction, ultimately it is bodhi, the two natures running side by side, neither touching the other.

‘Because of this calculation of existence after death, he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the sixth non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of the mental inversion of existence after death within the five aggregates.

〔8 · The Eight Theories of Nonexistence〕（0152c16）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within form, feeling, and perception, which were extinguished before, they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into nonexistence after death, an inversion arising in the mind: seeing his form extinguished, the body has nothing on which to rely; contemplating his perception extinguished, the mind has nothing to which it is tied; knowing his feeling extinguished, there is no more linking; the nature of the aggregates has already dispersed. Even if there is still the working of life, there is no feeling or perception, the same as grass and trees. Since this form and substance cannot be found even now, how could there still be marks after death? Examining in this way, he concludes that after death there are no marks. Revolving thus, there are eight kinds of nonexistence of marks. From this he may reckon: nirvāṇa and cause and effect are all empty, mere names, ultimately annihilated.

‘Because of this calculation of nonexistence after death, he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the seventh non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of the mental inversion of nonexistence after death within the five aggregates.

〔9 · The Eight Theories of Neither〕（0152c27）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and where the aggregate of formation still remains, seeing too that feeling and perception are extinguished, they reckon both existence and nonexistence, the substance of each refuting the other; this person then falls into neither after death, a theory of arising inversion: within form, feeling, and perception he sees existence and yet not existence; within the shifting flow of formation he contemplates nonexistence and yet not nonexistence. Revolving thus, exhausting the aggregates and the realms, there are eight marks of neither; whichever condition he takes up, he says that after death there is existence and there is nonexistence. Further, calculating that the nature of all formations is shifting and false, a penetrating awakening arises in his mind; existence and nonexistence are both denied, and he is at a loss between the empty and the real.

‘Because of this calculation of neither after death, the later limit is dark and dim and nothing can be said of it; he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the eighth non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of the mental inversion of neither after death within the five aggregates.

〔10 · The Seven Theories of Annihilation〕（0153a08）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within later and later nonexistence they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into the seven theories of annihilation: some reckon the body extinguished, some reckon extinction when desire is exhausted, some extinction when suffering is exhausted, some extinction in utmost bliss, some extinction in utmost equanimity. Revolving thus, exhausting the seven limits, what is present is extinguished, and once extinguished it is no more.

‘Because of this calculation of annihilation after death, he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the ninth non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of the mental inversion of annihilation after death within the five aggregates.

〔11 · The Five Theories of Present Nirvāṇa〕（0153a15）‘Further, the good men in samādhi, their minds firmly congealed and right, Māra cannot get its chance; exhausting the root of the kinds of beings, they contemplate that dark, clear, constantly disturbed moving source, and within later and later existence they give rise to calculation; this person then falls into the five theories of nirvāṇa: some take the realm of desire as the true turning of the basis, because they see perfect brightness and give rise to love and longing; some take the first dhyāna, because its nature is without sorrow; some the second dhyāna, because the mind is without suffering; some the third dhyāna, because utmost delight accompanies it; some the fourth dhyāna, because suffering and bliss are both gone and they no longer undergo the nature of arising and ceasing in the cycle of rebirth. Deluded about heavens with outflows, they form an understanding of the unconditioned, taking these five places of peace as the superior pure refuge. Revolving thus, they take the five places as ultimate.

‘Because of this calculation of the five present nirvāṇas, he falls into the non-Buddhist paths and is deluded about the nature of bodhi. This is called the tenth non-Buddhist path, setting up the theory of the mental inversion of the five present nirvāṇas within the five aggregates.

〔12 · The Aggregate of Formation · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0153a25）‘Ānanda! These ten kinds of mad interpretations in dhyāna all come from the aggregate of formation and the use of the mind interacting, and so these awakenings appear. Beings, obstinate and deluded, do not measure themselves; meeting these as they appear before them, they take delusion for understanding and say of themselves that they have ascended to sagehood; their great false speech accomplished, they fall into the Avīci hell. You must take the Tathāgata’s words and, after my extinction, transmit them to the final Dharma, causing beings everywhere to awaken to this meaning; do not let the demon of the mind give rise of itself to deep calamity; keep and protect them, quell wrong views, and teach them so that their bodies and minds awaken to the true meaning and they do not meet forking byways on the unsurpassed path; do not let them, seeking in their minds, be content with gaining little; be the pure signpost of the great king of awakening.

〔13 · The Aggregate of Consciousness · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0153b04）‘Ānanda! When that good man cultivating samādhi has ended the aggregate of formation, the nature of all the worlds—the dark, clear, disturbed and moving workings of life of the common lot—suddenly collapses and splits apart, and the deep, fine net-cords, the deep pulse of the pudgala’s requital of deeds, are severed from their response. On the point of a great bright awakening in the heaven of nirvāṇa, it is like the cock’s last crow: looking toward the east, there is already an essential color. The six faculties are empty and still, no longer racing off; inside and outside are limpid and bright; he enters where there is nothing to enter, and deeply reaches the original source from which the twelve kinds of the ten directions receive their lives; contemplating its source and grasping its origin, the kinds no longer summon one another, and in the realms of the ten directions he has already gained their sameness; the essential color does not sink, and the hidden and secret are disclosed; this is called the domain of the aggregate of consciousness.

〔13 · The Aggregate of Consciousness · The Marks of Ended and Not Yet Ended〕（0153b11）‘If, within the sameness already gained among the summoned multitudes, he wears away the six gates so that joining and opening are accomplished, seeing and hearing adjacent and interpenetrating, functioning for one another in purity; and the worlds of the ten directions and body and mind are like beryl, bright and clear inside and out, this is called the state in which the aggregate of consciousness is ended; this person can then pass beyond the turbidity of life. Contemplating its origin, the inverted false thought of shadowy emptiness is its root.

〔14 · The Grasping at What Is Caused as the Cause〕（0153b16）‘Ānanda, you should know: this good man has exhausted the emptiness of all formations and in consciousness returns to the origin; arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. He can make the barriers among the faculties of his own body join and open, and also penetrate with awareness the kinds of the ten directions; awareness and knowing penetrate and join, and he can enter the perfect origin. If, in the place returned to, he sets up a cause of true permanence and gives rise to a superior understanding, this person then falls into the grasping at what is caused as the cause, and becomes a companion of the dark principle to which Kapila returns; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the first, setting up a mind of what is attained, accomplishing the fruit of what is returned to; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of the non-Buddhist paths.

〔15 · The Grasping at the Incapable as Capable〕（0153b23）‘Ānanda! Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If he regards the place returned to as his own substance, holding that all the beings within the twelve classes throughout the realm of space flow out as one kind from within his body, and gives rise to a superior understanding, this person then falls into the grasping at the incapable as capable, and becomes a companion of Maheśvara, who manifests a boundless body; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the second, setting up a mind of capable action, accomplishing the fruit of capable deeds; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of the heaven of great pride, where the self pervades perfectly.

〔16 · The Grasping at the Impermanent as Permanent〕（0153c01）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If he takes refuge in the place returned to, suspecting of himself that his body and mind flow out from it and that the empty space of the ten directions all arises from it; and right in that ground from which all arises and flows forth, he forms an understanding of a true and permanent body without arising and ceasing, and within arising and ceasing reckons too early that it abides permanently; deluded about non-arising and deluded too about arising and ceasing, he dwells in sunken delusion and gives rise to a superior understanding; this person then falls into the grasping at the impermanent as permanent, and becomes a companion of those who cling to the Īśvara deva; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the third, setting up a mind of causal reliance, accomplishing the fruit of false reckoning; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of inverted perfection.

〔17 · The Grasping at the Unknowing as Knowing〕（0153c09）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If, within what is known, because knowing is pervasive and perfect, he sets up an understanding on the basis of knowing: that the grasses and trees of the ten directions are all called sentient, no different from humans; that grasses and trees become humans, and humans when they die become grasses and trees of the ten directions again; and without discrimination he universally reckons that all have knowing, and gives rise to a superior understanding, this person then falls into the grasping at the unknowing as knowing, and becomes a companion of Vasiṣṭha and Senika, who cling to all things having awareness; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the fourth, reckoning a mind of perfect knowing, accomplishing the fruit of empty error; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of inverted knowing.

〔18 · The Grasping at the Unproductive as Productive〕（0153c16）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If, within the perfect fusion of the faculties and their functioning for one another, he has already gained accordance, then within the perfect transformation from which all things are produced, he seeks the light of fire, delights in the purity of water, loves the pervasive flow of wind, and contemplates the accomplishment of dust, revering and serving each of them; taking these many dusts as the original cause of production, he sets up an understanding of permanent abiding; this person then falls into the grasping at the unproductive as productive, and becomes a companion of the Kāśyapas and the brahmins, who diligently labor their minds and toil their bodies, serving fire and revering water, seeking to leave birth and death; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the fifth, reckoning and clinging to reverent service, deluding the mind to follow things, setting up a false cause of seeking and seeking a false hoped-for fruit; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of inverted transformation.

〔19 · The Grasping at No Refuge as Refuge〕（0153c25）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If, within perfect brightness, he calculates that within the brightness it is empty and void, denies and extinguishes all transformations, and takes the reliance on eternal extinction as his refuge, and gives rise to a superior understanding, this person then falls into the grasping at no refuge as refuge, and becomes a companion of the Śūnyatā devas in the heaven of No-Thought; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the sixth, a mind of perfect emptiness and nothingness, accomplishing the fruit of empty loss; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of annihilation.

〔20 · The Grasping with Craving at What Is Not to Be Craved〕（0154a02）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If, within perfect permanence, he makes this body firm, seeking to have it abide permanently, the same as the essential perfection, long without collapsing or passing away, and gives rise to a superior understanding, this person then falls into the grasping with craving at what is not to be craved, and becomes a companion of the Asitas, who seek long life; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the seventh, clinging to the source of life, setting up a cause of firm falsity, heading toward the fruit of long toil; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of false prolonging.

〔21 · The Grasping at the Untrue as True〕（0154a08）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. Seeing the sources of life interpenetrating, he yet holds back the toil of dust, fearing that it will be exhausted, and at this point he sits in a palace of lotus flowers, transforms the seven treasures in abundance, multiplies jeweled maidens, and gives free rein to his mind, and gives rise to a superior understanding; this person then falls into the grasping at the true where nothing is true, and becomes a companion of Zhazhi-jialuo; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the eighth, setting forth a cause of deviant thought, setting up the fruit of blazing dust; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of the Māra of the heavens.

〔22 · The Fixed-Nature Śrāvakas〕（0154a15）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. Within the brightness of life he distinguishes the fine and the coarse and discerns the true and the false, cause and effect requiting each other, seeking only response, and turns his back on the path of purity—namely what is called seeing suffering, cutting off accumulation, realizing extinction, and cultivating the path; dwelling in extinction he stops and goes no further, and gives rise to a superior understanding; this person then falls among the fixed-nature śrāvakas, and becomes a companion of the unlearned bhikṣus of overweening pride; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the ninth, a mind of perfect essential response, accomplishing the fruit of heading toward stillness; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of being bound in emptiness.

〔23 · The Fixed-Nature Pratyekabuddhas〕（0154a22）‘Further, a good man who has exhausted the emptiness of all formations: arising and ceasing are already extinguished, yet in the essential wonder of still extinction he is not yet perfect. If within the perfectly fused, pure, awakened brightness he sets forth an investigation of the deep and wondrous, and then sets it up as nirvāṇa and goes no further, and gives rise to a superior understanding, this person then falls among the fixed-nature pratyekabuddhas, and becomes a companion of those of the kind of the solitary awakened by conditions who do not turn their minds; deluded about the Buddha’s bodhi, he loses knowing and seeing. This is called the tenth, a mind of perfect awakening joined, accomplishing the fruit of limpid brightness; it turns away from perfect penetration and turns its back on the city of nirvāṇa, and gives birth to the seed of perfection in which awakening is perfect and bright yet does not transform.

〔24 · The Aggregate of Consciousness · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0154a28）‘Ānanda! These ten kinds of dhyāna, going mad midway, deluded by what they rely on, give rise to a realization of fulfillment within what is not yet fulfilled; all come from the aggregate of consciousness and the use of the mind interacting, and so these stages arise. Beings, obstinate and deluded, do not measure themselves; meeting these as they appear before them, each by the former habit he loves deludes his mind and rests there, taking it as the peaceful ground of ultimate refuge, and says of himself that he has fulfilled unsurpassed bodhi; their great false speech accomplished, when the deeds called forth by the non-Buddhist paths and deviant demons are finished, they fall into the Avīci hell; the śrāvakas and those awakened through conditions do not accomplish further advance.

〔24 · The Aggregate of Consciousness · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0154b04）‘You who keep the Tathāgata’s path in mind, transmit this Dharma gate to the last age after my extinction, causing beings everywhere to awaken to this meaning; do not let the demon of views make of itself a sinking calamity; keep them safe with compassion and rescue them, quell deviant conditions, and cause their bodies and minds to enter the knowing and seeing of the Buddha, accomplishing it from the very beginning and not meeting forking paths.

〔24 · The Aggregate of Consciousness · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0154b08）‘Such a Dharma gate as this—the tathāgatas of past ages, as many as fine motes of dust through kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges, riding on it, their minds opened, attained the unsurpassed path.

〔24 · The Aggregate of Consciousness · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0154b09）‘If the aggregate of consciousness is ended, then your present faculties function for one another; from functioning for one another, you can enter the bodhisattvas’ vajra dry wisdom; the perfectly bright essential mind sets forth transformation within it, like pure beryl containing a jeweled moon within. Thus you pass beyond the ten faiths, the ten abodes, the ten practices, the ten dedications, the minds of the four applied practices, the vajra ten grounds practiced by bodhisattvas, and the perfect brightness of equal awakening, and enter the sea of the wondrous adornment of the Tathāgata; bodhi perfected, you return to nothing attained.

〔25 · Concluding Exhortation〕（0154b14）‘These are the subtle doings of Māra that the buddhas, World-Honored Ones of the past, analyzed with bright awareness within śamatha and within vipaśyanā.

〔25 · Concluding Exhortation〕（0154b16）‘When demonic states appear before you, you can recognize them, the grime of the mind washed away, and you do not fall into wrong views; the demons of the aggregates are extinguished, the Māra of the heavens is shattered, the mighty ghosts and spirits, their souls stripped away, flee, and the mountain-demons and the wangliang no longer arise; right up to bodhi there is no lack at all; the inferior gain advance, and in great nirvāṇa the mind is not confused or dull.

〔25 · Concluding Exhortation〕（0154b19）‘If the dull beings of the last age, not recognizing dhyāna and not knowing how the Dharma is taught, yet delight in cultivating samādhi, and you fear that they will become like those of wrong views, you should single-mindedly urge them to uphold my Buddha-Crown dhāraṇī spell; if they still cannot recite it, let it be written in the dhyāna hall, or worn on the body, and no demon at all can move them.

〔25 · Concluding Exhortation〕（0154b23）‘You should reverently uphold this final model of cultivation and progress, ultimate for the tathāgatas of the ten directions!’

〔26 · Ānanda’s Question〕（0154b24）Ānanda then rose from his seat, and hearing the Buddha’s instruction and teaching, bowed his head and reverently received it, remembering and holding it without loss.

〔26 · Ānanda’s Question〕（0154b25）In the great assembly he again said to the Buddha: ‘As the Buddha has said, “Within the marks of the five aggregates, five kinds of falsity make up the root thinking mind,” we have never before received the Tathāgata’s subtle instruction on this. Further, are these five aggregates removed all together? Or are they ended in order? And these five layers—where are their boundaries?

〔26 · Ānanda’s Question〕（0154b28）‘I only pray that the Tathāgata will set forth great kindness, and for this great assembly clarify the eyes of their minds, to be the eye of the future for all beings of the last age!’

〔27 · The Five False Thoughts · General Statement〕（0154c01）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘The original awakening, essential, true, wondrous, and bright, is perfect and pure, and does not retain death and birth or any of the defilements of the dusts; even empty space all arises through false thought. This original awakening of the source, wondrous, bright, true, and essential, falsely gives rise to all the vessel-worlds, like Yajñadatta, deluded about his head and recognizing his reflection.

〔27 · The Five False Thoughts · General Statement〕（0154c04）‘The source of falsity originally has no cause, yet within false thought the nature of causes and conditions is set up; those deluded about causes and conditions call it, further, naturalness. Even the nature of empty space is truly born of illusion; causes and conditions and naturalness are both the calculations of beings’ false minds. Ānanda! Knowing where falsity arises, one may speak of the causes and conditions of falsity; if the source of falsity is originally non-existent, then speaking of the causes and conditions of falsity is originally nothing at all—how much more so for those who, not knowing its source, infer that it is natural! Therefore the Tathāgata discloses to you that the root cause of the five aggregates is equally false thought.

〔28 · The Five False Thoughts · Form〕（0154c09）‘Your body was first born because of the thought of your father and mother; if your mind were not thought, it could not come into thought to pass on life. As I said before: “When the mind thinks of the taste of vinegar, saliva arises in the mouth; when the mind thinks of climbing a height, a tingling arises in the soles of the feet.” The cliff does not exist, the vinegar has not come; if your body were not of the same kind as falsity and in communication with it, how would saliva come out of your mouth from talk of vinegar? Therefore you should know that your present body of form is called solidified false thought, the first.

〔29 · The Five False Thoughts · Feeling〕（0154c14）‘Just as with the mind of thought of approaching a height spoken of here, it can make your body truly feel a sour tingling; because it arises from feeling, it can move the body of form. Your present driving between the two kinds, the agreeable and beneficial and the contrary and harmful, is called empty-bright false thought, the second.

〔30 · The Five False Thoughts · Perception〕（0154c16）‘Since your thoughts and deliberations direct your body of form, and the body is not of the same kind as thought, why does your body follow the bidding of thought, grasping images of all kinds? When the mind arises the body grasps, in accord with thought; waking, it is the thinking mind; sleeping, it becomes dreams. Then your thoughts stir false feelings, and this is called fusing-and-penetrating false thought, the third.

〔31 · The Five False Thoughts · Formation〕（0154c20）‘The principle of transformation does not stay; moving on and on, it shifts in secret: the nails grow, the hair grows, the vital breath wanes and the face wrinkles, day and night succeed each other, and yet one never awakens to it. Ānanda! If this is not you, why does your body shift and change? If it is surely the real you, why are you unaware of it? Then your formations, thought after thought without stopping, are called hidden-and-obscure false thought, the fourth.

〔32 · The Five False Thoughts · Consciousness〕（0154c23）‘Further, that place of yours which is essential, bright, limpid, and unshaking, called constant, does not go beyond seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing in the body. If it were truly the essential truth, it would not admit the imprinting of falsity; why is it that you once, in years gone by, saw some rare thing, and after the passing of years both remembering and forgetting were gone, and later, suddenly seeing again that former rare thing, the memory is clear as ever and never lost! Then within this essential, clear, limpid, unshaking state, the imprinting received thought after thought—how could it be counted! Ānanda, you should know: this limpidity is not real; it is like rapidly flowing water, which looks calm, only because it flows so fast that the flow is not seen; it is not that it does not flow. If it were not the source of thought, how would it receive the imprinting of thought? If your six faculties do not function for one another and join and open, this false thought will never be extinguished. Therefore the subtle traces of habit within your present seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are, within the limpid clarity, the fifth: the subtle, fine, essential thought of inverted shadowy emptiness.

〔33 · Answering on the Boundaries〕（0155a04）‘Ānanda! These five received aggregates are formed by five kinds of false thought.

〔33 · Answering on the Boundaries〕（0155a04）‘You now wish to know the depth and shallowness of their causes and boundaries:

‘Only form and emptiness are the boundary of form;

‘Only contact and separation are the boundary of feeling;

‘Only remembering and forgetting are the boundary of perception;

‘Only extinction and arising are the boundary of formation;

‘The limpid entering and merging with the limpid returns to the boundary of consciousness.

〔34 · Answering on Sudden and Gradual〕（0155a07）‘The sources of these five aggregates arise layer upon layer: arising comes about from consciousness, and removal begins from form. In principle, sudden awakening: riding on the awakening, they are all dissolved together; in fact, not sudden removal: they are ended in sequence. I have already shown you the knots of the kerchief of the Kapāla deva; what is there still unclear, that you ask again in this way?

〔35 · The Tathāgata’s Answer · Concluding Exhortation to Proclaim〕（0155a10）‘You should, once this root source of false thought has been opened through in your mind, transmit it to the practitioners in the final Dharma of the future, so that they may recognize falsity, a deep loathing arises of itself, and knowing that there is nirvāṇa, they do not cling to the three realms.

〔36 · Setting Forth the Boundless Merit of Giving〕（0155a13）‘Ānanda! If, further, someone were to fill all the space pervading the ten directions with the seven jewels and offer them to buddhas as many as fine motes of dust, serving and making offerings, with not a moment of the mind spent in vain—what do you think? Through the cause and condition of giving to the buddhas, would this person gain much merit or not?’

〔36 · Setting Forth the Boundless Merit of Giving〕（0155a15）Ānanda answered: ‘Space is endless and the jewels are boundless. In the past there was a being who gave the Buddha seven coins, and after giving up his body he still gained the position of a wheel-turning king; how much more now, when the space before us is exhausted and the buddha-lands are filled throughout, all given with jewels? Even thinking and discussing through kalpas could not reach it—how could this merit have any limit!’

〔37 · Showing the Surpassing Benefit of the Sūtra〕（0155a20）The Buddha said to Ānanda: ‘The words of the buddhas, the tathāgatas, are without falsehood. If, further, there is someone who has committed in his own person the four grave and the ten pārājika offenses, who in an instant passes through the Avīci hells of this world and other worlds, and so on until he has passed through every hell without interval in the ten directions, none left unpassed; if he can with a single thought reveal this Dharma gate in the final kalpa to those who have not yet learned, this person’s obstructions of offense will be extinguished in response to that thought, and the causes of the suffering of the hells he was to undergo will be transformed into the Land of Peace and Bliss; the merit he gains will surpass that of the former person who gave jewels a hundredfold, a thousandfold, a thousand-myriad-millionfold, and so on, until neither calculation nor simile can reach it.

〔37 · Showing the Surpassing Benefit of the Sūtra〕（0155a26）‘Ānanda! If there are beings who can recite this sūtra and can uphold this spell, their merit, were I to describe it at length, could not be fully told even to the end of kalpas. Relying on my teaching and practicing the path as taught, they will directly accomplish bodhi, with no more deeds of Māra.’

〔38 · The Assembly Hears with Reverence, Bows, and Withdraws〕（0155a29）When the Buddha had finished speaking this sūtra, the bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and upāsikās, all the devas, humans, and asuras of the world, the bodhisattvas of other directions, those of the two vehicles, the holy immortal youths, together with the mighty ghosts and spirits who had just set forth the mind, all greatly rejoiced, bowed, and departed.

The closing title of the fascicle: ‘The Great Buddha-Crown Sūtra of the Myriad Practices, Śūraṅgama, Fascicle Ten’.