Surangama Sutra: The Great Buddha's Crown, the Tathagata's Secret Cause, Cultivation and Realization of the Definitive Meaning, the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas

阿難言：「見。」

Ananda said: "I see it."

佛言：「汝何所見？」

The Buddha said: "What do you see?"

阿難言：「我見如來舉臂屈指為光明拳，曜我心目。」

Ananda said: "I see the Tathagata raise his arm and bend his fingers into a shining fist that lights up my mind and eyes."

佛言：「汝將誰見？」

The Buddha said: "With what do you see?"

阿難言：「我與大眾同將眼見。」

Ananda said: "The assembly and I all see with our eyes."

佛告阿難：「汝今答我：如來屈指為光明拳，耀汝心目，汝目可見，以何為心當我拳耀？」

The Buddha told Ananda: "Now answer me: the Tathagata bends his fingers into a shining fist that lights up your mind and eyes. Your eyes can see it; what do you take as the mind that receives the light of my fist?"

阿難言：「如來現今徵心所在，而我以心推窮尋逐，即能推者我將為心。」

Ananda said: "The Tathagata now questions where the mind is, and I use the mind to reason, probe, and track it down; that which can probe, I take to be the mind."

佛言：「咄！阿難！此非汝心！」

The Buddha said: "Hah! Ananda! This is not your mind!"

阿難矍然，避座、合掌，起立白佛：「此非我心，當名何等？」

Ananda was startled, left his seat, joined his palms, stood, and said to the Buddha: "If this is not my mind, what should it be called?"

佛告阿難：「此是前塵虛妄相想，惑汝真性！由汝無始至於今生，認賊為子，失汝元常，故受輪轉。」

The Buddha told Ananda: "This is the false imagining of the object before you, which deludes your true nature! From beginningless time until this life you have taken a thief for your son and lost your original constancy, and so you undergo the wheel of rebirth."

阿難白佛言：「世尊！我佛寵弟，心愛佛故，令我出家；我心何獨供養如來，乃至遍歷恆沙國土承事諸佛及善知識，發大勇猛行諸一切難行法事，皆用此心；縱令謗法永退善根，亦因此心。若此發明不是心者，我乃無心同諸土木，離此覺知更無所有，云何如來說此非心？我實驚怖，兼此大眾無不疑惑，唯垂大悲開示未悟！」

Ananda said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One! I am the Buddha's favored younger brother, and because my heart loved the Buddha I was made to leave home. This mind of mine has not only made offerings to the Tathagata but has traveled through lands as many as the sands of the Ganges to serve all Buddhas and good teachers, has given rise to great courage and carried out all the difficult practices, all with this mind; even if one were to slander the Dharma and forever lose roots of goodness, it too would be because of this mind. If this awareness is not the mind, then I am without a mind, the same as earth or wood, and apart from this awareness there is nothing at all; how can the Tathagata say this is not the mind? I am truly frightened, and everyone in this assembly is also confused. I only hope that, out of great compassion, you will teach those who have not yet awakened!"

爾時，世尊開示阿難及諸大眾，欲令心入無生法忍。於師子座摩阿難頂而告之言：「如來常說諸法所生，唯心所現。一切因果、世界、微塵，因心成體。阿難！若諸世界一切所有，其中乃至草葉縷結，詰其根元鹹有體性；縱令虛空亦有名貌；何況清淨妙淨明心、性一切心而自無體？若汝執悋分別覺觀所了知性必為心者，此心即應離諸一切色、香、味、觸諸塵事業別有全性。如汝今者承聽我法，此則因聲而有分別。縱滅一切見、聞、覺、知，內守幽閑，猶為法塵分別影事。我非勅汝執為非心，但汝於心微細揣摩，若離前塵有分別性，即真汝心；若分別性離塵無體，斯則前塵分別影事。塵非常住，若變滅時此心則同龜毛、兔角，則汝法身同於斷滅，其誰修證無生法忍？」即時阿難與諸大眾，默然自失。

At that time the World-Honored One, instructing Ananda and the great assembly and wishing to lead their minds into the forbearance of the non-arising of phenomena, stroked Ananda's head on the lion throne and told him: "The Tathagata has always said: whatever is born of phenomena is only manifested by the mind. All causes and effects, worlds, and dust motes take form because of the mind. Ananda! In all the worlds, even to a blade of grass or a knot of thread, if you trace its root it has a nature; even space has a name and appearance; how could the pure, wondrous, bright mind, the nature of all minds, itself have no substance? If you cling to the nature known through discrimination, perception and reflection and insist it is the mind, then this mind should have a whole nature of its own apart from all dusts of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch. For example, in hearing my Dharma now you discriminate because of sound. Even if you extinguished all seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing, and kept inwardly to quiet stillness, it would still be the shadowy business of discrimination by the dust of dharmas. I am not telling you to insist it is not the mind; I only want you to examine your mind minutely: if apart from the object before you there is still a discriminating nature, that is truly your mind; but if the discriminating nature has no substance apart from objects, then it is the shadowy business of discriminating the object before you. Objects are not permanent, and if they change and perish, this mind would be the same as tortoise hair and rabbit horns; then your dharma-body would be like annihilation, and who would practice and realize the forbearance of non-arising?" At once Ananda and the whole assembly fell silent, at a loss.

佛告阿難：「世間一切諸修學人，現前雖成九次第定，不得漏盡成阿羅漢，皆由執此生死妄想，誤為真實。是故汝今雖得多聞，不成聖果。」

The Buddha told Ananda: "All practitioners in the world, though they may attain the nine successive meditative absorptions, do not exhaust the outflows and become arhats, all because they cling to these false thoughts of birth and death and mistake them for the real. So although you have now heard much, you have not attained the holy fruit."

阿難聞已，重復悲淚，五體投地，長跪合掌而白佛言：「自我從佛發心出家，恃佛威神，常自思惟：『無勞我修，將謂如來惠我三昧，不知身心本不相代，失我本心；雖身出家，心不入道，譬如窮子捨父逃逝。今日乃知雖有多聞，若不修行與不聞等，如人說食終不能飽。』世尊！我等今者二障所纏，良由不知寂常心性，唯願如來哀愍窮露，發妙明心，開我道眼！」

Hearing this, Ananda again wept sorrowfully, prostrated with his five limbs to the ground, knelt with palms joined, and said to the Buddha: "Since I gave rise to the aspiration to leave home with the Buddha, relying on the Buddha's majestic spiritual power, I have often thought to myself: 'There is no need for me to toil at practice; the Tathagata will surely bestow samadhi (a state of concentration in which the mind is focused and undistracted) on me.' I did not know that body and mind cannot substitute for each other, and I lost my original mind; though my body left home, my mind did not enter the Way, like a poor son who leaves his father and runs away. Only today do I know that although I have heard much, if I do not practice it is the same as not having heard, like a person who speaks of food and can never be filled. World-Honored One! We are now bound by the two obstructions, truly because we do not know the still and constant nature of mind. I only wish that the Tathagata, out of compassion for our exposed poverty, would reveal the wondrous bright mind and open my eye of the Way!"

即時如來從胸卍字湧出寶光，其光晃昱有百千色。十方微塵普佛世界一時周遍，遍灌十方所有寶剎諸如來頂，旋至阿難及諸大眾。告阿難言：「吾今為汝建大法幢，亦令十方一切眾生獲妙微密性淨明心，得清淨眼。

At once the Tathagata sent forth precious light from the swastika on his chest, and the light shone dazzlingly in hundreds of thousands of colors. All the Buddha worlds in the ten directions, as many as dust motes, were filled at once, and the light poured over the crowns of all the Tathagatas in the jeweled lands of the ten directions, then wheeled back to Ananda and the great assembly. He told Ananda: "Now I establish the great Dharma banner for you, and also cause all beings of the ten directions to attain the wondrous, subtle, secret nature, the pure bright mind, and to gain the pure eye.

「阿難！汝先答我見光明拳，此拳光明因何所有？云何成拳？汝將誰見？」

(The Buddha continued:) "Ananda! You answered me earlier that you saw the shining fist. From what does this fist have its brightness? How does it become a fist? With what do you see it?"

阿難言：「由佛全體閻浮檀金，赩如寶山，清淨所生，故有光明；我實眼觀；五輪指端屈握示人，故有拳相。」

Ananda said: "Because the Buddha's whole body is Jambunada gold, with red light like a jeweled mountain, born of purity, there is brightness; I truly see with my eyes; the tips of the five wheel-marked fingers are bent and clasped to show people, so there is the appearance of a fist."

佛告阿難：「如來今日實言告汝：諸有智者要以譬喻而得開悟。阿難！譬如我拳，若無我手不成我拳，若無汝眼不成汝見；以汝眼根例我拳理，其義均不？」

The Buddha told Ananda: "Today the Tathagata tells you in true words: the wise can be enlightened only through analogy. Ananda! Take my fist: without my hand it cannot become my fist, and without your eyes it cannot become your seeing. If you compare your eye-faculty with the principle of my fist, are the meanings equivalent?"

阿難言：「唯然！世尊！既無我眼，不成我見；以我眼根例如來拳，事義相類。」

Ananda said: "Yes, World-Honored One! Since without my eyes there can be no seeing for me, comparing my eye-faculty with the Tathagata's fist, the matter and meaning are alike."

佛告阿難：「汝言相類，是義不然。何以故？如無手人，拳畢竟滅；彼無眼者，非見全無。所以者何？汝試於途詢問盲人：『汝何所見？』彼諸盲人必來答汝：『我今眼前唯見黑暗，更無他矚。』以是義觀，前塵自暗，見何虧損？」

The Buddha told Ananda: "You say they are alike, but this meaning is not so. Why? A person without a hand has a fist that is finally extinguished; but a person without eyes does not lack seeing entirely. Why? Try asking a blind man on the road: 'What do you see?' Those blind men will surely answer you: 'Now before my eyes I see only darkness and nothing else to see.' From this meaning, when the objects before them are themselves dark, what has seeing lost?"

阿難言：「諸盲眼前唯覩黑暗，云何成見？」

Ananda said: "The blind see only darkness before their eyes; how can that be seeing?"

佛告阿難：「諸盲無眼唯觀黑暗，與有眼人處於暗室，二黑有別、為無有別？」

The Buddha told Ananda: "The blind who have no eyes see only darkness; compared with a sighted person in a dark room, is there a difference between the two kinds of darkness, or not?"

「如是，世尊！此暗中人與彼群盲，二黑校量，曾無有異。」

(Ananda said:) "So it is, World-Honored One! Comparing the person in the dark with those blind men, the two kinds of darkness have never differed."

「阿難！若無眼人全見前黑，忽得眼光，還於前塵見種種色名眼見者；彼暗中人全見前黑，忽獲燈光，亦於前塵見種種色應名燈見。若燈見者，燈能有見，自不名燈。又則燈觀，何關汝事？是故當知，燈能顯色，如是見者是眼非燈；眼能顯色，如是見性是心非眼。」

(The Buddha continued:) "Ananda! If a man without eyes sees only darkness before him, and suddenly gains the light of eyes and sees various forms in the objects before him, it is called seeing by the eye. If the person in the dark, who sees only darkness before him, suddenly receives lamplight and also sees various forms before him, it should be called seeing by the lamp. If it is seeing by the lamp, then the lamp can see, and would not be called a lamp. Also, if the lamp is the one observing, what has that to do with you? So you should know that the lamp can reveal form, but such seeing belongs to the eye and not the lamp; the eye can reveal form, but such seeing-nature belongs to the mind and not the eye."

阿難雖復得聞是言，與諸大眾口已默然，心未開悟。猶冀如來慈音宣示，合掌清心佇佛悲誨。

Although Ananda had again heard these words, he and the whole assembly were silent, and their minds had not yet been opened. They still hoped for the Tathagata's compassionate voice to explain, and with palms joined and minds cleared they awaited the Buddha's compassionate instruction.

爾時，世尊舒兜羅綿網相光手，開五輪指，誨勅阿難及諸大眾：「我初成道，於鹿園中，為阿若多五比丘等及汝四眾言：『一切眾生不成菩提及阿羅漢，皆由客塵煩惱所誤。』汝等當時因何開悟，今成聖果？」

At that time the World-Honored One spread out his hand, with its webbed light like fine cotton, opened his five wheel-marked fingers, and instructed Ananda and the whole assembly: "When I first attained the Way, in the Deer Park, I told the five monks beginning with Ajnata Kaundinya and your four groups: 'All beings fail to attain bodhi or become arhats because they are misled by adventitious dust and afflictions.' By what were you enlightened at that time, so that you now attain the holy fruit?"

時憍陳那起立白佛：「我今長老，於大眾中獨得解名，因悟客塵二字成果。世尊！譬如行客投寄旅亭，或宿或食，食宿事畢，俶裝前途，不遑安住；若實主人，自無攸往。如是思惟：『不住名客，住名主人，以不住者名為客義。』又如新霽，清暘昇天，光入隙中，發明空中諸有塵相；塵質搖動，虛空寂然。如是思惟：『澄寂名空，搖動名塵，以搖動者名為塵義。』」

At that time Kaundinya rose and said to the Buddha: "I am now an elder, and in this assembly I alone am called the one who 'understands,' because I awakened to the two words 'guest' and 'dust' and attained the fruit. World-Honored One! Take a traveling guest who stops at a roadside inn, either to lodge or to eat; when the matter of food and lodging is done, he packs and goes on, with no time to settle; but a true host has nowhere to go. Reflecting like this: 'What does not abide is called a guest, what abides is called a host, and the meaning of guest is that which does not abide.' Again, take a newly cleared sky when the clear sun rises, and the light enters through a crack and reveals the dust motes in the air; the dust motes move, and the space is still. Reflecting like this: 'What is clear and still is called space, what moves is called dust, and the meaning of dust is that which moves.'"

佛言：「如是。」

The Buddha said: "So it is."

即時如來於大眾中，屈五輪指，屈已復開、開已又屈，謂阿難言：「汝今何見？」

At once the Tathagata, in the midst of the assembly, bent his five wheel-marked fingers, and having bent them opened them, and having opened them bent them again, and said to Ananda: "What do you see now?"

阿難言：「我見如來百寶輪掌，眾中開合。」

Ananda said: "I see the Tathagata's hand with its wheel of a hundred jewels opening and closing in the assembly."

佛告阿難：「汝見我手眾中開合，為是我手有開有合？為復汝見有開有合？」

The Buddha told Ananda: "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?"

阿難言：「世尊寶手眾中開合，我見如來手自開合，非我見性自開自合。」

Ananda said: "The World-Honored One's precious hand opens and closes in the assembly, and I see the Tathagata's hand itself open and close; it is not that my seeing-nature itself opens and itself closes."

佛言：「誰動誰靜？」

The Buddha said: "Which moves and which is still?"

阿難言：「佛手不住，而我見性尚無有靜，誰為無住！」

Ananda said: "The Buddha's hand does not abide, and my seeing-nature does not even have stillness; who then is without abiding!"

佛言：「如是。」

The Buddha said: "So it is."

如來於是從輪掌中，飛一寶光在阿難右，即時阿難迴首右𥌊；又放一光在阿難左，阿難又則迴首左𥌊。佛告阿難：「汝頭今日何因搖動？」

The Tathagata then sent out a precious light from his wheeled palm to Ananda's right, and at once Ananda turned his head to look right (the original has a rare character here, to be read as "look"); he sent another light to Ananda's left, and Ananda turned his head to look left. The Buddha told Ananda: "Why does your head move today?"

阿難言：「我見如來出妙寶光來我左右，故左右觀，頭自搖動。」

Ananda said: "I saw the Tathagata send out a wondrous precious light to my left and right, so I looked left and right, and my head moved of itself."

「阿難！汝𥌊佛光左右動頭，為汝頭動？為復見動？」

(The Buddha asked:) "Ananda! You look at the Buddha's light and turn your head left and right; is it your head that moves, or is it the seeing that moves?"

「世尊！我頭自動，而我見性尚無有止，誰為搖動！」

(Ananda said:) "World-Honored One! My head moves of itself, but my seeing-nature does not even stop; who then is it that sways!"

佛言：「如是。」

The Buddha said: "So it is."

於是如來普告大眾：「若復眾生，以搖動者名之為塵，以不住者名之為客；汝觀阿難頭自動搖，見無所動。又汝觀我手自開合，見無舒捲。云何汝今以動為身？以動為境？從始洎終念念生滅遺失真性，顛倒行事，性心失真，認物為己；輪迴是中，自取流轉！」

Then the Tathagata told the whole assembly: "If there are still beings who call that which moves dust and call that which does not abide a guest, look at Ananda's head moving of itself, while the seeing does not move. Look too at my hand opening and closing of itself, while the seeing has neither extending nor rolling up. Why then do you now take movement as the body? Take movement as the realm? From beginning to end, thought after thought arises and ceases, you lose your true nature, act in inverted ways, your nature and mind lose the truth, and you take things as yourself; in this cycle of rebirth you yourselves take flowing and changing!"