-Volume4(Part1)
Author: Fafu
Translator : Gemini
Hello, Dharma Friends! Welcome to this podcast episode provided by the Buddha’s Practice Association of Australia.
Today, we delve into the fourth volume of The Shurangama Sutra, exploring the questions raised by Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra and how the Buddha, with the subtle sound of the Dharma, resolves his conflicting doubts regarding the intrinsic purity of the Self-Nature and the conditioned phenomena of mountains, rivers, and the great earth. The Buddha dissects the illusory nature of the Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind Elements, revealing that everything is the “Tathagata-garbha, the Wondrous True Suchness Nature,” manifesting according to karma.
1. Pūrṇa’s Doubts: The Conflict Between Intrinsic Purity and Conditioned Phenomena
Venerable Pūrṇa, despite being praised by the Buddha as the “Foremost among those who preach the Dharma,” still harbored doubts about the ultimate truth after hearing the subtle Dharma sounds of the Tathagata. His doubts primarily involved three aspects:
- The Conflict between Intrinsic Purity and Conditioned Phenomena: If all Roots, Objects, Aggregates, Entrances, and Realms are the Tathagata-garbha, intrinsically pure and fundamentally existing, why do conditioned phenomena like mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly arise, flowing continuously, only to begin again?
- The Perplexity of the Pervasiveness and Non-Mutual Annihilation of the Four Great Elements: If the nature of Earth is pervasive, how can the nature of Water exist? If the nature of Water is pervasive, how can Fire arise? How can Water and Fire both pervade empty space without mutually destroying each other? If the nature of Earth is obstructive, and the nature of Space is unimpeded, how can both pervade the Dharma Realm?
- Doubt Regarding His Own Practice: Even though an Arhat has eradicated all outflows, hearing the Buddha’s Dharma still brings doubt, showing that the Śrāvaka Vehicle (Hearer’s Vehicle) has not reached the ultimate meaning.
The Buddha responded with compassion, expounding the “Truly Ultimate Nature within the Ultimate Meaning,” opening the gate to the One Vehicle’s Place of Tranquility and Extinction for Arhats who were fixed in their position, had not yet attained the Two Voids (Self and Dharma), and wished to turn toward the Mahāyāna. The Buddha analyzed Pūrṇa’s doubts one by one, revealing that all phenomena in the world are born from illusory thoughts, and their fundamental essence is the Wondrous True Suchness Nature of the Tathagata-garbha.
2. The Wondrous Brightness of Nature’s Awareness and the Illusory Brightness of Awareness: Refuting the Root of the Single Illusory Thought
Pūrṇa asked: Why does the intrinsically pure Self-Nature suddenly give rise to mountains, rivers, and the great earth? The Buddha pointed out that the Self-Nature is originally “Wondrously Bright in its Nature of Awareness,” spiritually knowing and spiritually aware, pure and clear. However, what sentient beings perceive as “Awareness and Brightness” is actually “Illusory Awareness becoming Brightness,” which is the ignorance of establishing knowledge upon knowledge.
- Establishing the Object Due to Brightness: Sentient beings’ “Awareness and Brightness” are not an awareness due to something being brightened, but the illusory establishment of an object due to illusory brightness. When you perceive something clearly (e.g., recognizing a man as a man), you spuriously establish a “What” (object), believing it truly exists, such as: “This is John, that is Peter.”
- Since the Object is Illusory, It Gives Rise to Your Illusory Ability: Once the “What” (object) is spuriously established, it gives rise to the “Illusory Ability,” which are afflictions and delusions such as greed and hatred.
- Fervently Forming Difference within Non-Difference: The Self-Nature is fundamentally without difference or non-difference. But due to the spurious establishment of the object and the generation of the illusory ability, sentient beings forcibly differentiate illusory forms within the non-differentiated Self-Nature, such as male/female, tall/short. The more they differentiate, the more inverted they become.
- Establishing Sameness Due to Difference, Then Establishing Neither Sameness Nor Difference: Due to the different illusory forms (e.g., male/female being different), they establish a sameness (e.g., both are human), and then establish neither sameness nor difference (e.g., differences even among men). Delusions pile up layer upon layer, leading to “such disturbance, labor arising from mutual dependence,” self-confusion, mutual antagonism, and the production of weariness.
- Long-Term Labor Generates Dust, Mutually Turbid: The accumulation of long-term illusory thoughts, like straining the eyes to the point of exhaustion, generates the dust of phenomena—the turbid illusions of mountains, rivers, the great earth, men, and women.
The Buddha emphasized that these dust-like afflictions, when “arising,” form the world (the material world accomplished by solid delusion); when “calm,” they form empty space. Empty space is the sameness; the world is the difference. But the Self-Nature has no sameness or difference. These are all “Truly Conditioned Dharmas,” born from illusory thoughts.
3. The Formation of the Four Great Elements and the World’s Continuity: Illusions Manifesting According to Karma
The Buddha further explained the formation of the Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind Elements, revealing them to be the karmic manifestations of “straining the eyes until weary,” possessing no true reality:
- The Wind Wheel (Motion): Produced by “the awareness becoming empty and dull, and mutual dependence forming shaking.” Inner shaking arises, illusory thoughts are produced, like the wind in empty space—it has the appearance of motion but no substance—and it holds up the world.
- The Gold Wheel (Earth Element): Due to the arising of shaking from space, firm brightness establishes obstruction. Long-term shaking of illusory thoughts forms a solid delusion, increasing density, which becomes the Gold Wheel, sustaining the countries, representing the obstructive nature of the material world.
- The Fire Light (Change): The Wind and Gold mutually rub against each other, like a meteor striking and generating fire, producing the Fire Light, which represents changeability.
- The Water Wheel (Moisture and Containment): The bright preciousness generates moisture, and the Fire Light steams upwards. Just as moisture in empty space turns to gas when meeting heat and water when meeting cold, the Water Wheel is formed, containing the ten directions of the world.
Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind “arise through mutual delusion, becoming seeds for each other.” Illusory forms blend together, mutually serving as causes and seeds. When meeting conditions, they produce results, and the world continues.
4. The Truth of the Four Great Elements’ Pervasiveness and Non-Mutual Annihilation
Addressing Pūrṇa’s doubt about the pervasiveness of the Four Great Elements, the Buddha revealed that the Four Great Elements are all the Tathagata-garbha, the Wondrous True Suchness Nature. Their nature is truly perfected and fused, pervading the Dharma Realm, and fundamentally pure. Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind appear different, but they all arise from the Wondrous Bright True Mind and do not mutually destroy each other.
The pervading nature of Earth, Water, and Fire are all the Wondrous Function of the Self-Nature. They have no fixed location, responding to the minds of sentient beings, manifesting according to what is known by them, and are all illusions that manifest according to karma, like dreams, bubbles, and shadows.
5. Conclusion:
The Buddha’s discourse resolved Pūrṇa’s doubts regarding intrinsic purity and conditioned phenomena, revealing that mountains, rivers, the Four Great Elements, and all phenomena arise from a “single illusory thought.” This proceeds from establishing the object due to brightness, generating the illusory ability, long-term labor generating dust, mutual turbidity, and rising through mutual delusion, leading to the world’s continuity. Only by awakening the Self-Nature can one attain the One Vehicle’s Place of Tranquility and Extinction and achieve the True Place of Practice.
Thank you!
