The Shurangama Sutra The Shurangama Sutra Volume Three a simple explanation by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua English translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society Buddhist Text Translation Society Dharma Realm Buddhist University Dharma Realm Buddhist Association Burlingame, California U.S.A. The Shurangama Sutra - Volume Three Published and translated by: Buddhist Text Translation Society 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010-4504 © 2002 Buddhist Text Translation Society Dharma Realm Buddhist University Dharma Realm Buddhist Association First edition 1980 Second edition 2002 ISBN 0-88139-___-_ Printed in Malaysia. Addresses of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association branches are listed at the back of this book. Contents Introduction . vi User’s Guide . viii Exhortation to Protect and Propagate . ix The Eight Guidelines. xii Outline. xiii Chapter 1.False Is Just True . 1 Chapter 2.The Five Skandhas . 5 Chapter 3.The Six Entrances. 27 Chapter 4.The Twelve Places . 60 Chapter 5.The Eighteen Realms. 95 Chapter 6.The Seven Elements Are All-Pervasive. 138 Chapter 7.Ananda Gives Rise to Faith . 209 vi Introduction This is the third of eight volumes of the Shurangama Sutra, with commentaries from the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. In this volume, the Buddha continues his attempt to reveal to Ananda the true mind. In “False Is Just True”, the Buddha clarifies that the ‘false’ mind is also the ‘true’ mind. The true is hidden within the false, and vice versa. Thus, the search for the truth starts with recognizing that which is false. The Buddha then compassionately lists the ‘false’ realms (in which the ‘truth’ is to be found). They are: “The Five Skandhas”, which are form, feeling, thinking, activity and consciousness skandhas; “The Six Entrances”, which are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind entrances; “The Twelve Places”, which are eye and form, ear and sound, nose and smells, tongue and tastes, body and touches, and mind and dharmas; and finally, with the addition of conciousness to the above organ-object pairs, this makes up the “The Eighteen Realms”. Though the Buddha earlier chose the seeing nature, one can actually enter the true by using any of the above. Ananda, recollecting what the Buddha has said earlier, is puzzled about why the Buddha is now rejecting both causes & conditions and spontaneity. In “The Seven Elements Are All- vii Pervasive”, the Buddha explains how the elements of earth, fire, water, wind, emptiness, seeing and consciousness are beyond the confines of production and extinction, neither belonging to causes & conditions nor spontaneity. Their natures are originally the ever- lasting, true mind. Gaining from this, Ananda finally understands that ‘existence’ and his mind is fundamentally one, and not two. Because of this unity, he realizes that his true mind is without boundaries, is all- pervasive, is everlasting and is originally pure. He then praises the Buddha and affirms his faith in “Ananda Gives Rise to Faith”. viii User’s Guide to the Shurangama Sutra series Because of the length of the Shurangama Sutra, and the need to provide aid to various readers, the Sutra has been compiled into a series of 9 books: the “Sutra Text and Suppliments”, and the remaining Volumes one to eight. The “Sutra Text and Suppliments” contains: 1. the entire Sutra text, which is in excess of 2700 paragraphs; 2. the entire outline, which contains 1676 entries; 3. and a master index, which has index references for both the “Sutra Text and Suppliments” and the eight volumes. Volumes one to eight contain: 1. the Sutra text, with commentaries; 2. the local outline entries; 3. and a local index. Readers who wish to read or recite the Sutra in its entirety will find the “Sutra Text and Suppliments” very useful. Those who wish to deeply study the Sutra with its commen- taries will find volumes one to eight indispensable. ix Exhortation to Protect and Propagate by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua Within Buddhism, there are very many important sutras. However, the most important Sutra is the Shurangama Sutra. If there are places which have the Shurangama Sutra, then the Proper Dharma dwells in the world. If there is no Shurangama Sutra, then the Dharma Ending Age appears. Therefore, we Buddhist disciples, each and every one, must bring our strength, must bring our blood, and must bring our sweat to protect the Shurangama Sutra. In the Sutra of the Ultimate Extinction of the Dharma, it says very, very clearly that in the Dharma Ending Age, the Shurangama Sutra is the first to disappear, and the rest of the sutras disappear after it. If the Shurangama Sutra does not disappear, then the Proper Dharma Age is present. Because of that, we Buddhist disciples must use our lives to protect the Shurangama Sutra, must use vows and resolution to protect the Shurangama Sutra, and cause the Shurangama Sutra to be known far and wide, reaching every nook and cranny, reaching into each and every dust-mote, reaching out to the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm. If we can do that, then there will be a time of Proper Dharma radiating great light. Why would the Shurangama Sutra be destroyed? It is because it is too true. The Shurangama Sutra is the Buddha’s true body. The Shurangama Sutra is the Buddha’s sharira. The Shurangama Sutra is the Buddha’s true and actual stupa and shrine. Therefore, because x the Shurangama Sutra is so true, all the demon kings use all kinds of methods to destroy the Shurangama Sutra. They begin by starting rumors, saying that the Shurangama Sutra is phony. Why do they say the Shurangama Sutra is phony? It is because the Shurangama Sutra speaks too truly, especially in the sections on The Four Decisive Deeds, the Twenty-five Sages Describing Perfect Penetration, and the States of the Fifty Skandha Demons. Those of off-center persuasions and externally-oriented ways, weird demons and strange freaks, are unable to stand it. Conse- quently there are a good many senseless people who claim that the Shurangama Sutra is a forgery. Now, the principles set forth in the Shurangama Sutra are on the one hand proper, and on the other in accord with principle, and the weird demons and strange freaks, those in various cults and sects, all cannot hide away their forms. Most senseless people, in particular unwise scholars and garbage-collecting professors “Tread upon the holy writ.” With their extremely scant and partial understanding, they are confused and unclear, lacking real erudition and true and actual wisdom. That is why they falsely criticize. We who study the Buddhadharma should very deeply be aware of these circumstances. Therefore, wherever we go, we should bring up the Shurangama Sutra. Wherever we go, we should propagate the Shurangama Sutra. Wherever we go, we should introduce the Shurangama Sutra to people. Why is that? It is because we wish to cause the Proper Dharma long to dwell in the world. If the Shurangama Sutra is regarded as true, then there is no problem. To verify its truth, let me say that if the Shurangama Sutra were phony, then I would willingly fall into the hells forever through all eternity—for being unable to recognize the Buddhad- harma—for mistaking the false for true. If the Shurangama Sutra is true, then life after life in every time I make the vow to propagate the Great Dharma of the Shurangama, that I shall in every time and every place propagate the true principles of the Shurangama. xi Everyone should pay attention to the following point. How could the Shurangama Sutra not have been spoken by the Buddha? No one else could have spoken the Shurangama Sutra. And so I hope that all those people who make senseless accusations will wake up fast and stop creating the causes for suffering in the Hell of Pulling Out Tongues. No matter who the scholar is, no matter what country students of the Buddhadharma are from, all should quickly mend their ways, admit their mistakes, and manage to change. There is no greater good than that. I can then say that all who look at the Shurangama Sutra, all who listen to the Shurangama Sutra, and all who investigate the Shurangama Sutra, will very quickly accomplish Buddhahood. Composed by Gold Mountain Shramana Tripitaka Master Hua Translated by Bhikshuni Heng Hsien Reviewed by Shramanerika Heng Wen xii The Eight Guidelines of the Buddhist Text Translation Society 1. A volunteer must free him/herself from the motives of personal fame and profit. 2. A volunteer must cultivate a respectful and sincere attitude free from arrogance and conceit. 3. A volunteer must refrain from aggrandizing his/her work and denigrating that of others. 4. A volunteer must not establish him/herself as the standard of correctness and suppress the work of others with his or her fault-finding. 5. A volunteer must take the Buddha-mind as his/her own mind. 6. A volunteer must use the wisdom of Dharma-Selecting Vision to determine true principles. 7. A volunteer must request Virtuous Elders in the ten directions to certify his/her translations. 8. A volunteer must endeavour to propagate the teachings by printing Sutras, Shastra texts, and Vinaya texts when the translations are certified as being correct. xiii Outline of the Shurangama Sutra The outline for the Shurangama Sutra was compiled by Dharma Master Yuan Ying, which categorizes the various parts of the Sutra text consisting of over 2,700 paragraphs to 1,676 entries. These entries are presented in the form of a tree-like structure, dividing the various parts of the Sutra text into groups, those groupings being sub-divided further and further, thus providing a detailed break-down of the entire text.