The Shurangama Sutra - Volume Eight

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The Shurangama Sutra, Volume Eight: A Simple Explanation by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This is the eighth and last volume of the Shurangama Sutra, with commentaries from the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua.
      The Buddha appears to be finished with the sermon as he prepares to leave, but then a compassionate afterthought makes him resume his Dharma seat. Having given Ananda and the great assembly a precise and detailed account of the methods of cultivation, the Buddha was concerned that if cultivators were not equipped with the knowledge of spotting subtle demonic states that can happen during the cultivation of samadhi, they may be swayed and turned into demonic beings themselves.
       In "The Origin of Demonic States", the Buddha states clearly that samadhi is the main cause for the demons' unrest. The demons then will attempt to confuse the good cultivator. If the good cultivator recognizes the situation and remains unattached, then the cultivator has not erred. However, if the cultivator is confused by the state, he or she will then fall under the spell of the demons.
      The Buddha then proceeds to list and explain the ten demonic states that can occur for each skandhic realm: "The Form Skandha", "The Feeling Skandha", "The Thinking Skandha", "The Formations Skandha" and "The Consciousness Skandha", making fifty in all. The Buddha relates exactly what the cultivator might experience at each of these fifty states, and warns them to remain unattached and unconfused.
       In "Concluding Instructions", the Buddha tells that by relying on this dharma-door, Buddhas of the past have attained enlightenment. The Buddha again reiterates that if the cultivator recognizes a demonic-state and remains unconfused and unattached, then the demon will be powerless.
      In "The Arising and Cessation of the Five Skandhas", Ananda requests further explanation for the arisal and cessation of the five skandhas. The Buddha then instructs that the five skandhas arise solely from false thinking alone, and will also cessate with the ending of false thinking. The cessation of false thinking can only be achieved if the six sense faculties are united and function interchangeably.
      Finally, the Buddha exhorts all to propagate the teachings in "Exhortation to Propagate the Sutra", so that living beings of the present and future will derive limitless benefit. (Buddhist Text Translation Society, introduction, vi–vii)

Citation

Buddhist Text Translation Society, trans. The Shurangama Sutra, Volume Eight: A Simple Explanation by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. 2nd ed. Burlingame, CA: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2002. https://repstein.faculty.drbu.edu/Buddhism/Shurangama/ps.ss.02.v8.020526.screen.pdf.

Table of contents

Introductionvi
Forewordix
User's Guidexii
Exhortation to Protect and Propagatexiii
The Eight Guidelinesxvi
Outlinexvii

Chapter 1. The Origin of Demonic States1

Chapter 2. The Form Skandha25

Chapter 3. The Feeling Skandha51

Chapter 4. The Thinking Skandha83

Chapter 5. The Formations Skandha175

Chapter 6. The Consciousness Skandha239

Chapter 7. Concluding Instructions278

Chapter 8. The Arising and Cessation of the Five Skandhas288

Chapter 9. Exhortation to Propagate the Sutra321

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Bhagavaduṣṇīṣamahā [भगवदुष्णीषमहा]. bcom ldan 'das kyi gtsug tor chen po de bzhin gshegs pa'i gsang ba sgrub pa'i don mngon par thob pa'i rgyu byang chub sems dpa' thams cad kyi spyod pa dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo le'u stong phrag bcu pa las le'u bcu pa [བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ཏོར་ཆེན་པོ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསང་བ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་དོན་མངོན་པར་ཐོབ་པའི་རྒྱུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་དཔའ་བར་འགྲོ་བའི་མདོ་ལེའུ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བཅུ་པ་ལས་ལེའུ་བཅུ་པ།]. [The Tenth Chapter from Amongst the Ten Thousand Chapters of the Sūtra on the Heroic Way (84000)]. Translated by Pāramiti. Kangyur, RKTSK 236 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=236&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

Śūraṃgamasūtra. (T. Dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo; C. Shoulengyan jing; J. Shuryōgongyō; K. Sunǔngǒm kyǒng 首楞嚴經). A Chinese indigenous scripture (see apocrypha), usually known in the West by its reconstructed Sanskrit title Śūraṃgamasūtra, meaning "Heroic March Sūtra." Its full title is Dafoding rulai miyin xiuzheng liaoyi zhu pusa wanxing Shoulengyan jing, in ten rolls. (This indigenous scripture should be distinguished from an early-fifth century Chinese translation of the Śūraṃgamasamādhsūtra, attributed by Kumārajīva, in two rolls, for which Sanskrit fragments are extant.) According to the account in the Chinese cataloguer Zhisheng's Xu gujin yijing tuji, the Śūraṃgamasūtra was brought to China by a śramaṇa named Pāramiti. Because the Śūraṃgamasūtra had been proclaimed a national treasure, the Indian king had forbidden anyone to take the sūtra out of the country. In order to transmit this scripture to China, Pāramiti wrote the sūtra out in minute letters on extremely fine silk, then he cut open his arm and hid the small scroll inside his flesh. With the sūtra safely hidden away, Pāramiti set out for China and eventually arrived in Guangdong province. There, he happened to meet the exiled Prime Minister Fangrong, who invited him to reside at the monastery of Zhizhisi, where he translated the sūtra in 705 CE. Apart from Pāramiti's putative connection to the Śūraṃgamasūtra, however, nothing more is known about him and he has no biography in the Gaoseng zhuan ("Biographies of Eminent Monks"). Zhisheng also has an entry on the Śūraṃgamasūtra in his Kaiyuan Shijiao lu, but there are contradictions in these two extant catalogue accounts of the sūtra's transmission and translation. The Kaiyuan Shijiao lu merely records that the śramaņa Huidi encountered an unnamed Western monk at Guangdong, who had with him a copy of the Sanskrit recension of this sūtra, and Huidi invited him to translate the scripture together. Since the names of this Western monk and his patron Fangrong are not mentioned, the authenticity of the scripture has been called into question. Although Zhisheng assumed the Śūraṃgamasūtra was a genuine Indian scripture, the fact that no Sanskrit manuscript of the text is known to exist, as well as the inconsistencies in the stories about its transmission to China, have led scholiasts for centuries to questions the scripture's authenticity. There is also internal evidence of the scripture's Chinese provenance, such as the presence of such indigenous Chinese philosophical concepts as yin-yang cosmology and the five elements (wuxing) theory, the stylistic beauty of the literary Chinese in which the text is written, etc. For these and other reasons, the Śūraṃgamasūtra is now generally recognized to be a Chinese apocryphal composition. The sūtra opens with one of the most celebrated stories in East Asian Buddhist literature: the Buddha's attendant Ānanda’s near seduction by the harlot Mātaṅgī. With Ānanda close to being in flagrante delicto, the Buddha sends the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī to save him from a pārājika offense, by employing the śūraṃgama dhāraṇī to thwart Mātaṅgī's seductive magic. The Buddha uses the experience to teach to Ānanda and the congregation the śūraṃgamasamādhi, which counters the false views about the aggregates (skandha) and consciousness (vijñāna) and reveals the tathāgatagarbha that is inherent in all sentient beings. This tathāgatagarbha, or buddha-nature, is made manifest through the śūraṃgamasamādhi, which constitutes the "heroic march" forward toward enlightenment. The Śūraṃgamasūtra was especially influential in the Chan school during the Song and Ming dynasties, which used the text as the scriptural justification for the school's distinctive teaching that Chan "points directly to the human mind" (zhizhi renxin), so that one may "see the nature and achieve buddhahood" (jianxing chengfo). Several noted figures within the Chan school achieved their own awakenings through the influence of the Śūraṃgamasūtra, including the Ming-dynasty master Hanshan Deqing (1546–1623), and the sūtra was particularly important in the writings of such Ming-dynasty Chan masters as Yunqi Zhuhong (1535-1615). The leading Chan monk of modern Chinese Buddhism, Xuyun (1840-1959), advocated the practice of the Śūraṃgamasūtra throughout his life, and it was the only scripture that he ever annotated. As a mark of the sūtra's influence in East Asian Buddhism, the Śūraṃgamasūtra is one of the few apocryphal scriptures that receives its own mention in another indigenous sūtra: the apocryphal Foshuo fa miejin jing ("The Sūtra on the Extinction of the Dharma") states that the first sūtra to disappear from the world during the dharma-ending age (mofa) will in fact be the Śūraṃgamasūtra. The Tibetan translation of this Chinese apocryphon was produced during the Qianlong era (1735-1796) of the Qing dynasty; the scripture was apparently so important in contemporary Chinese Buddhism that it was deemed essential for it to be represented in the Tibetan canon as well. (Source: "*Śūraṃgamasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 873–74. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

1 Teaching based on

Bhagavaduṣṇīṣamahā [भगवदुष्णीषमहा]. bcom ldan 'das kyi gtsug tor chen po de bzhin gshegs pa'i gsang ba sgrub pa'i don mngon par thob pa'i rgyu byang chub sems dpa' thams cad kyi spyod pa dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo le'u stong phrag bcu pa las le'u bcu pa [བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ཏོར་ཆེན་པོ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསང་བ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་དོན་མངོན་པར་ཐོབ་པའི་རྒྱུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་དཔའ་བར་འགྲོ་བའི་མདོ་ལེའུ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བཅུ་པ་ལས་ལེའུ་བཅུ་པ།]. [The Tenth Chapter from Amongst the Ten Thousand Chapters of the Sūtra on the Heroic Way (84000)]. Translated by Pāramiti. Kangyur, RKTSK 236 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=236&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

Śūraṃgamasūtra. (T. Dpa' bar 'gro ba'i mdo; C. Shoulengyan jing; J. Shuryōgongyō; K. Sunǔngǒm kyǒng 首楞嚴經). A Chinese indigenous scripture (see apocrypha), usually known in the West by its reconstructed Sanskrit title Śūraṃgamasūtra, meaning "Heroic March Sūtra." Its full title is Dafoding rulai miyin xiuzheng liaoyi zhu pusa wanxing Shoulengyan jing, in ten rolls. (This indigenous scripture should be distinguished from an early-fifth century Chinese translation of the Śūraṃgamasamādhsūtra, attributed by Kumārajīva, in two rolls, for which Sanskrit fragments are extant.) According to the account in the Chinese cataloguer Zhisheng's Xu gujin yijing tuji, the Śūraṃgamasūtra was brought to China by a śramaṇa named Pāramiti. Because the Śūraṃgamasūtra had been proclaimed a national treasure, the Indian king had forbidden anyone to take the sūtra out of the country. In order to transmit this scripture to China, Pāramiti wrote the sūtra out in minute letters on extremely fine silk, then he cut open his arm and hid the small scroll inside his flesh. With the sūtra safely hidden away, Pāramiti set out for China and eventually arrived in Guangdong province. There, he happened to meet the exiled Prime Minister Fangrong, who invited him to reside at the monastery of Zhizhisi, where he translated the sūtra in 705 CE. Apart from Pāramiti's putative connection to the Śūraṃgamasūtra, however, nothing more is known about him and he has no biography in the Gaoseng zhuan ("Biographies of Eminent Monks"). Zhisheng also has an entry on the Śūraṃgamasūtra in his Kaiyuan Shijiao lu, but there are contradictions in these two extant catalogue accounts of the sūtra's transmission and translation. The Kaiyuan Shijiao lu merely records that the śramaņa Huidi encountered an unnamed Western monk at Guangdong, who had with him a copy of the Sanskrit recension of this sūtra, and Huidi invited him to translate the scripture together. Since the names of this Western monk and his patron Fangrong are not mentioned, the authenticity of the scripture has been called into question. Although Zhisheng assumed the Śūraṃgamasūtra was a genuine Indian scripture, the fact that no Sanskrit manuscript of the text is known to exist, as well as the inconsistencies in the stories about its transmission to China, have led scholiasts for centuries to questions the scripture's authenticity. There is also internal evidence of the scripture's Chinese provenance, such as the presence of such indigenous Chinese philosophical concepts as yin-yang cosmology and the five elements (wuxing) theory, the stylistic beauty of the literary Chinese in which the text is written, etc. For these and other reasons, the Śūraṃgamasūtra is now generally recognized to be a Chinese apocryphal composition. The sūtra opens with one of the most celebrated stories in East Asian Buddhist literature: the Buddha's attendant Ānanda’s near seduction by the harlot Mātaṅgī. With Ānanda close to being in flagrante delicto, the Buddha sends the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī to save him from a pārājika offense, by employing the śūraṃgama dhāraṇī to thwart Mātaṅgī's seductive magic. The Buddha uses the experience to teach to Ānanda and the congregation the śūraṃgamasamādhi, which counters the false views about the aggregates (skandha) and consciousness (vijñāna) and reveals the tathāgatagarbha that is inherent in all sentient beings. This tathāgatagarbha, or buddha-nature, is made manifest through the śūraṃgamasamādhi, which constitutes the "heroic march" forward toward enlightenment. The Śūraṃgamasūtra was especially influential in the Chan school during the Song and Ming dynasties, which used the text as the scriptural justification for the school's distinctive teaching that Chan "points directly to the human mind" (zhizhi renxin), so that one may "see the nature and achieve buddhahood" (jianxing chengfo). Several noted figures within the Chan school achieved their own awakenings through the influence of the Śūraṃgamasūtra, including the Ming-dynasty master Hanshan Deqing (1546–1623), and the sūtra was particularly important in the writings of such Ming-dynasty Chan masters as Yunqi Zhuhong (1535-1615). The leading Chan monk of modern Chinese Buddhism, Xuyun (1840-1959), advocated the practice of the Śūraṃgamasūtra throughout his life, and it was the only scripture that he ever annotated. As a mark of the sūtra's influence in East Asian Buddhism, the Śūraṃgamasūtra is one of the few apocryphal scriptures that receives its own mention in another indigenous sūtra: the apocryphal Foshuo fa miejin jing ("The Sūtra on the Extinction of the Dharma") states that the first sūtra to disappear from the world during the dharma-ending age (mofa) will in fact be the Śūraṃgamasūtra. The Tibetan translation of this Chinese apocryphon was produced during the Qianlong era (1735-1796) of the Qing dynasty; the scripture was apparently so important in contemporary Chinese Buddhism that it was deemed essential for it to be represented in the Tibetan canon as well. (Source: "*Śūraṃgamasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 873–74. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)