REVIEW OF SESSIONS 1 - 5
Session One - Ānanda gives seven locations for the mind, which are refuted by the Buddha.
Session Two - The Buddha and Ājñāta-kāuṇḍinya explain that the conditional mind is like ‘transient dust’ which moves, whereas the bright, original Mind is like a ‘host’ who has nowhere to go.
Session Three - The Buddha explains the ‘Ground of Mind’ and ‘true seeing’ which does not age or die. The Buddha then points his finger down and then points up at the Moon, but Ānanda does not understand how the ‘external world’ can be his true Mind. The Buddha explains,
“Sentient beings are confused about things, being turned around by external objects they lose their original Mind, and as a consequence they see large and they see small. If they are able to turn objects around, they will be the same as the Thus Come One, body and mind perfectly bright at the immovable site of enlightenment, the tip of each hair containing worlds of the Ten Directions.”
Session Four - Mañjuśrī and the Buddha explain that the True Mind neither arises nor ceases and therefore beyond ‘is’ and ‘is not’.
“When one sees seeing, one sees what is not seeing. Seeing free of seeing, seeing cannot reach.”
Session Five - The Buddha explains how the Five Aggregates, Six Senses, Twelve Bases, Eighteen Realms, and Seven Elements are but creation and destruction appearing and vanishing within the permanent, wonderfully bright, immutable, all-embracing and profound nature of True Suchness (bhūtatathatā) of the Womb of Thus Come Ones (Tathāgatagarbha), and how they are completely interfused with one another (圓融) and extend throughout the Dharmadhātu.
Pūrṇa inquires about the nature of the Dharmadhātu
Pūrṇa asks:
- “If the aggregates, senses, bases, realms of consciousness and elements are all the tathāgatagarbha, how is it that suddenly there came into being the mountains, the rivers, and all else on this earth that exists subject to conditions?”
- “If the primary elements earth extends everywhere throughout the dharmadhātu, how could it coexist with water? And if the primary element water extends everywhere throughout the dharmadhātu, the primary element fire could not come into being…. The nature of the primary element earth is that it is solid, while the nature of the primary element space is that it is a transparent void. How could they both exist everywhere throughout the dharmadhātu?”
The Buddha responds by describing Three Continuities 相續
- Continuity of the world 世界相續
- Continuity of (the realm of) living beings 眾生相續
- Continuity of karmic retribution 業果相續
Pūrṇa asks:
- Do mountains, rivers, and all other conditioned phenomena, as well as the habits and outflows of beings, ever arise in a Thus-Come One after having realized wondrous emptiness and understanding?”
The Buddha answers with examples such as, “Will wood that has been burned to ash ever become wood again?”
“Amidst the stress of beings’ entanglement with perceived objects, the world of conditioned phenomena appears. With my wondrous, luminous understanding that neither comes into being nor ceases to be, I am identical to the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is itself the wondrous, enlightened, luminous understanding, which illuminates the entire Dharmadhātu. Within it, therefore, the one is infinitely many and the infinitely many are one. The great appears within the small, just as the small appears within the great. I sit unmoving in this still place of awakening, and my body extends everywhere and encompasses the infinity of space in all ten directions. On the tip of a fine hair, magnificent Buddha-lands appear. Seated within each mote of dust, I turn the great Wheel of the Dharma. Because I have freed myself from the world of perceived objects, I have become one with enlightenment.”
“Thus the tathāgatagarbha — the fundamental, wondrous, perfect Mind — is not the distinction-making mind, nor is it space, nor is it earth, etc…It is not any of these things, be they mundane or world-transcending. To be none of these is what the tathāgatagarbha is. That is the wondrousness of the inherently luminous mind that understands. Yet, it is the distinction-making mind, it is space, it is earth, etc. It is the permanence, bliss, true self, and purity of the great nirvana. It is every one of these, be they mundane or world-transcending. To be all of these is what the tathāgatagarbha is. That is the wondrousness of the inherent luminous mind that understands. It is apart from ‘is’ and ‘is not’ and yet both is and is not.”
The Parable of Yajñadatta
From the end of Chapter Five
Pūrṇa asks, “Why do all beings suffer from delusion? Why do they keep covered their wondrous, luminous understanding so that they continue to be submerged in saṁsāra?”
The Buddha replies with the story of Yajñadatta who looked into a mirror and, seeing his face, assumed he lost his head. Confusion is based only on confusion, hence confusion persists. You need merely to realize that confusion has no ultimate basis, and the basis of deluded thoughts will disappear. There is no need to wish that the cause of confusion would disappear, because no cause existed in the first place.
“Or like a person who does not know that a wish-fulfilling pearl is sewn into their coat.”
The Mātaṅga woman becomes an arhat
She becomes a bhikṣuṇī named Prakṛti, aware of her previous lives and receives the prediction of enlightenment.
This session covers:
Hsuan Hua translation, “The Coming into Being of the World of Illusion” p. 141-166 of the book (p. 197-222 of the pdf)
Luk translation, p. 84-102 of the book (p. 124-146 of the pdf)
Goddard translation, p.179-