Where, Exactly, Is the Mind?
Fascicle 1 opens the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: Ānanda's fall to Mātaṅgī's spell, the Buddha's rescue, and the long dialogue in which the Buddha asks Ānanda, again and again, to say exactly where his mind is — and refutes every answer he gives.
About This Fascicle
The Śūraṅgama Sūtra (楞嚴經) was translated into Chinese in 705 CE by Paramiti (般剌蜜帝), a monk from central India who — according to the traditional account — smuggled the text out of a country that forbade its export by writing it in miniature script on fine silk and hiding it in an incision in his own arm. Meghaśikha (彌伽釋迦) rendered the oral translation into Chinese, and the exiled statesman Fang Rong (房融) took it down and polished the prose — which is why this sūtra is often praised for having some of the most literary Chinese of any scripture in the canon.
This page is Ru-Yi's own translation, made directly from the Chinese text preserved by CBETA (public domain). It does not reproduce or paraphrase the Buddhist Text Translation Society's existing English edition; see the translation notes for terminology choices, and the companion Jiǎngyì project for Master Yuanying's classical commentary on this same material.
The Assembly at Śrāvastī 如是我聞
如是我聞：一時，佛在室羅筏城祇桓精舍，與大比丘眾千二百五十人俱，皆是無漏大阿羅漢——佛子住持，善超諸有，能於國土成就威儀；從佛轉輪，妙堪遺囑，嚴淨毘尼，弘範三界；應身無量，度脫眾生，拔濟未來，越諸塵累。——其名曰大智舍利弗、摩訶目犍連、摩訶拘絺羅、富樓那彌多羅尼子、須菩提、優波尼沙陀等而為上首。復有無量辟支無學，并其初心同來佛所。屬諸比丘休夏自恣，十方菩薩諮決心疑，欽奉慈嚴，將求密義。即時如來敷座宴安，為諸會中宣示深奧。法筵清眾得未曾有，迦陵仙音遍十方界。恒沙菩薩來聚道場，文殊師利而為上首。
Thus have I heard: at one time the Buddha was staying at Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada's Grove, in the city of Śrāvastī, together with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks — all of them great arhats free of outflows: sons of the Buddha who upheld his teaching, who had thoroughly transcended all states of existence, and who were able to display right conduct throughout the land; who, carrying on the Buddha's turning of the Dharma wheel, were fit to receive his final trust; who kept the monastic discipline pure and strict, and stood as models for the three realms; whose manifested bodies were beyond number, freeing beings and reaching into the future to rescue them, having gone beyond every worldly entanglement. Foremost among them were Śāriputra of great wisdom, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Mahākauṣṭhila, Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra, Subhūti, and Aupanishada.
There were also, along with them, countless pratyekabuddhas beyond further training, and those still in training, come together to the Buddha's place. As it was the day the monks concluded their rains-retreat and made their confession of faults, bodhisattvas from the ten directions also came to resolve doubts in their minds, reverently attending the Buddha's compassionate solemnity, hoping to seek his hidden meaning. At that very time the Tathāgata arranged his seat and sat in peaceful stillness, expounding what was deep and profound to the whole assembly. The pure congregation at this Dharma feast obtained what they had never had before, as the Buddha's voice, like the call of the kalaviṅka bird, resounded through the worlds of the ten directions. Bodhisattvas numerous as the sands of the Ganges gathered at the place of practice, with Mañjuśrī foremost among them.
King Prasenajit's Memorial Feast 波斯匿王營齋
時波斯匿王為其父王諱日營齋，請佛宮掖。自迎如來，廣設珍羞無上妙味，兼復親延諸大菩薩。城中復有長者、居士，同時飯僧，佇佛來應。佛勅文殊，分領菩薩及阿羅漢，應諸齋主。
At that time King Prasenajit, it being the anniversary of his late father's death, was holding a memorial feast, and had invited the Buddha to the palace. He went in person to receive the Tathāgata, laying out a lavish spread of the finest delicacies, and personally invited the great bodhisattvas as well. Elders and householders throughout the city likewise prepared meals for the monks at the same time, waiting for the Buddha's assembly to respond to their invitations. The Buddha commanded Mañjuśrī to divide the bodhisattvas and arhats into groups and lead them to the various donors' feasts.
Ānanda Alone, Begging on His Own 阿難獨歸，次第循乞
唯有阿難，先受別請，遠遊未還，不遑僧次。既無上座及阿闍黎，途中獨歸，其日無供，即時阿難執持應器，於所遊城次第循乞。心中初求最後檀越以為齋主，無問淨穢、剎利尊姓及旃陀羅。方行等慈，不擇微賤，發意圓成一切眾生無量功德，阿難已知如來世尊訶須菩提及大迦葉，為阿羅漢心不均平。欽仰如來，開闡無遮，度諸疑謗。經彼城隍，徐步郭門，嚴整威儀，肅恭齋法。
Only Ānanda, having previously accepted a separate invitation elsewhere, was away on a distant journey and had not yet returned, so he missed his place in the monks' order. With no senior monk or preceptor beside him, he made his own way back alone, and, having no meal arranged for that day, took up his begging bowl and went from house to house through the city he was passing through, begging in due order.
In his mind he resolved to seek out whoever the very last donor might be to serve as the host of his meal, without asking whether the household was pure or humble, of noble kṣatriya lineage or of the outcast caṇḍāla. He meant to practice impartial compassion, not picking and choosing among the lowly, so as to perfect the boundless merit of all sentient beings without exception. Ānanda already knew that the World-Honored One had once reproached both Subhūti and Mahākāśyapa — arhats though they were — for not begging with an even mind, and, reverencing the Tathāgata's teaching of unobstructed openness, he wished by this practice to put doubt and reproach to rest. So he passed through the city moat, walked slowly toward the outer gate, and kept his bearing solemn and correct, respectfully observing the proper conduct for begging.
Reading note: The sūtra takes care to explain why Ānanda — usually surrounded by companions — was alone and vulnerable that day: a chain of small, ordinary circumstances (a separate invitation, a late return, no senior monk to accompany him) that leaves him exposed to what follows. Nothing supernatural sets up his fall; only carelessness and a well-intentioned but unescorted decision to beg with strict impartiality.
Ensnared by Mātaṅgī's Spell 遭摩登伽女幻術
爾時，阿難因乞食次，經歷婬室，遭大幻術摩登伽女，以娑毘迦羅先梵天呪攝入婬席，婬躬撫摩，將毀戒體。
Just then, as Ānanda continued begging in order, his path took him past a house of ill repute, where he was caught by the great sorcery of Mātaṅgī. Using the ancient Brahmā-heaven spell of Kapila, she drew him onto her own bed and pressed her body against him, on the verge of destroying the substance of his precepts.
The Buddha's Rescue 如來說咒，遣文殊往護
如來知彼婬術所加，齋畢旋歸，王及大臣、長者、居士，俱來隨佛，願聞法要。于時世尊頂放百寶無畏光明，光中出生千葉寶蓮，有佛化身結跏趺坐，宣說神呪。勅文殊師利將呪往護，惡呪銷滅，提㢡阿難及摩登伽歸來佛所。阿難見佛，頂禮悲泣，恨無始來一向多聞未全道力，殷勤啟請十方如來得成菩提、妙奢摩他、三摩、禪那最初方便。於時復有恒沙菩薩，及諸十方大阿羅漢、辟支佛等，俱願樂聞。退坐默然，承受聖旨。
The Tathāgata, knowing that Ānanda had been caught by this sorcery, returned to Jetavana as soon as the meal was over, and the king, his ministers, elders, and householders all came following the Buddha, eager to hear the essentials of the Dharma. At that moment the World-Honored One sent forth from the crown of his head a hundred-jeweled light of fearlessness, and within that light appeared a thousand-petaled jeweled lotus, upon which sat a manifestation-body of the Buddha, cross-legged, proclaiming a sacred spell.
He commanded Mañjuśrī to take the spell and go to Ānanda's protection. The evil spell was dissolved, and Mañjuśrī brought Ānanda and Mātaṅgī back together to where the Buddha was. Ānanda, on seeing the Buddha, bowed at his feet and wept in sorrow, regretting that through beginningless time he had devoted himself only to broad learning and had never fully cultivated the power of the path. He earnestly begged the Buddha to explain the very first steps by which the Tathāgatas of the ten directions attain bodhi through wondrous śamatha, samādhi, and dhyāna. At that time bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, along with great arhats and pratyekabuddhas from every direction, all wished to hear the same teaching, and withdrew to sit in silence, ready to receive the sacred instruction.
Reading note: Ānanda's request names three specific practices — śamatha (calm-abiding), samādhi, and dhyāna — each already a familiar term in his own Buddhist education. The Buddha's answer, which occupies the rest of the sūtra, does not simply describe these three separately. It reveals a single underlying samādhi, named Śūraṅgama, of which all three are aspects — the whole point being that Ānanda does not yet know what he is really asking for.
Why Did You Leave Home? 佛告阿難：汝我同氣
佛告阿難：「汝我同氣，情均天倫，當初發心，於我法中見何勝相？頓捨世間深重恩愛！」
阿難白佛：「我見如來三十二相勝妙殊絕，形體映徹猶如瑠璃。常自思惟：『此相非是欲愛所生。何以故？欲氣麁濁，腥臊交遘，膿血雜亂，不能發生勝淨妙明紫金光聚。』是以渴仰，從佛剃落。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You and I are of one blood, bound as brothers by nature. When you first resolved on the path, what excellent mark did you see in my teaching, that made you cast aside all at once the deep bonds of worldly love and affection?"
Ānanda answered the Buddha: "I saw that the Tathāgata's thirty-two marks were so surpassingly fine that his very form seemed translucent, like lapis lazuli. I often reflected: 'Such a form could not have arisen from desire and lust. Why? Because the energy of desire is coarse and turbid — a tangle of foul odors, blood, and pus — and could never give rise to something so pure, wondrous, bright, and radiant as purple-gold light.' It was out of this longing admiration that I followed the Buddha and shaved my head."
The Two Roots 辨明二種根本
佛言：「善哉！阿難！汝等當知：一切眾生從無始來生死相續，皆由不知常住真心性淨明體，用諸妄想，此想不真故有輪轉。汝今欲研無上菩提真發明性，應當直心詶我所問。十方如來同一道故出離生死，皆以直心！心言直故，如是乃至終始地位，中間永無諸委曲相。」
The Buddha said: "Good, Ānanda! You should all know that every sentient being, from beginningless time, has continued through birth and death solely because it does not recognize the ever-abiding true mind, whose nature is pure and bright, and instead makes use of false thinking. Because such thinking is not true, one keeps turning in the wheel of transmigration. Now that you wish to investigate the true nature that reveals unsurpassed bodhi, you must answer my questions with a straightforward mind. The Tathāgatas of the ten directions leave birth and death behind by this same one path — all of them by a straightforward mind. Because mind and word are both straightforward in this way, from beginning to end, through every stage, there is never, in between, any crooked or evasive appearance."
The Seven Locations Where Mind Is Sought 七處徵心
The Buddha now asks Ānanda, again and again, exactly where the mind that loved the Buddha's form — the mind that made him leave home — actually is. Ānanda offers seven answers in turn; each is examined and found untenable.
First: Inside the Body 執心在身內
阿難！我今問汝，當汝發心緣於如來三十二相，將何所見？誰為愛樂？」
阿難白佛言：「世尊！如是愛樂，用我心目。由目觀見如來勝相，心生愛樂，故我發心，願捨生死。」
佛告阿難：「如汝所說真所愛樂因于心目，若不識知心目所在，則不能得降伏塵勞。譬如國王為賊所侵，發兵討除，是兵要當知賊所在。使汝流轉，心目為咎；吾今問汝，唯心與目，今何所在？」
阿難白佛言：「世尊！一切世間十種異生，同將識心居在身內；縱觀如來青蓮花眼，亦在佛面。我今觀此浮根四塵，秖在我面；如是識心，實居身內。」
"Ānanda, I now ask you: when you first resolved on the path, taking the Tathāgata's thirty-two marks as your object, what did you see with, and what loved and delighted in them?"
Ānanda answered the Buddha: "World-Honored One, this love and delight came about through my mind and my eyes. Seeing the Tathāgata's excellent marks with my eyes, my mind gave rise to love and delight, and so I resolved on the path, wishing to leave birth and death behind."
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "As you have said, this love and delight truly arises from mind and eyes; but if you do not know where mind and eyes actually are, you cannot subdue the dust of worldly affliction. It is as when a king, invaded by bandits, sends out troops to drive them off: those troops must know where the bandits are. What makes you turn in the round is a fault of mind and eye. I now ask you: where, exactly, are this mind and these eyes now?"
Ānanda answered the Buddha: "World-Honored One, all the ten kinds of beings in the world alike hold that the discriminating mind dwells inside the body. Even looking at the Tathāgata's own blue-lotus eyes, I see they are set in his face. And looking now at these four dust-elements floating upon my own faculties, they are simply set in my face — so this discriminating mind of mine truly dwells within my body."
佛告阿難：「汝今現坐如來講堂，觀祇陀林今何所在？」「世尊！此大重閣清淨講堂在給孤園，今祇陀林實在堂外。」「阿難！汝今堂中先何所見？」「世尊！我在堂中先見如來，次觀大眾，如是外望方矚林園。」「阿難！汝矚林園因何有見？」「世尊！此大講堂戶牖開豁，故我在堂得遠瞻見。」
爾時，世尊在大眾中，舒金色臂摩阿難頂，告示阿難及諸大眾：「有三摩提，名大佛頂首楞嚴王具足萬行、十方如來一門超出妙莊嚴路，汝今諦聽！」阿難頂禮，伏受慈旨。
佛告阿難：「如汝所言『身在講堂，戶牖開豁，遠矚林園』，亦有眾生在此堂中，不見如來見堂外者？」阿難答言：「世尊！在堂不見如來，能見林泉，無有是處。」「阿難！汝亦如是。汝之心靈一切明了，若汝現前所明了心實在身內，爾時先合了知內身；頗有眾生先見身中，後觀外物？縱不能見心、肝、脾、胃、爪生、髮長、筋轉、脈搖、誠合明了，如何不知？必不內知，云何知外？是故應知，汝言『覺了能知之心住在身內』，無有是處。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You are now sitting in the Tathāgata's lecture hall — where, then, is the Jeta Grove?" "World-Honored One, this great two-storied hall of pure teaching stands within Anāthapiṇḍada's park, and the Jeta Grove is actually outside the hall." "Ānanda, what did you see first, inside the hall?" "World-Honored One, inside the hall I first saw the Tathāgata, then the assembly; only on looking outward did I see the grove and the park." "Ānanda, when you looked at the grove and the park, on what account was there seeing?" "World-Honored One, this great lecture hall has its doors and windows thrown open, and so, being in the hall, I could gaze far off and see."
Then the World-Honored One, in the midst of the assembly, stretched out his golden arm, stroked Ānanda's head, and declared to Ānanda and to the whole assembly: "There is a samādhi called the Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama King, furnished with the ten thousand practices — the one gateway by which the Tathāgatas of the ten directions go beyond, the road of wondrous adornment. Listen closely now!" Ānanda bowed his head and received the compassionate instruction in submission.
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "As you have said — 'the body is in the lecture hall, the doors and windows are thrown open, and so I gaze far off at the grove and the park' — is there anyone in this hall who does not see the Tathāgata and yet sees what is outside the hall?" Ānanda answered: "World-Honored One, to be in the hall and not see the Tathāgata, and yet be able to see the grove and the spring — there is no such case." "Ānanda, it is just the same with you. Your mind is said to understand all things clearly — if the mind that presently understands so clearly is truly inside your body, then it ought first to know what is inside that body. Yet has any being ever first seen what is inside the body, and only afterward observed things outside it? Even granting that one cannot see the heart, liver, spleen, or stomach, still the growing of nails, the lengthening of hair, the turning of sinews, the pulsing of veins — these at least ought to be plainly known. Why, then, are they not known at all? If what is within is not known, how could what is without be known? You should therefore know that your claim — that the mind which is aware and able to know dwells inside the body — does not hold up."
Second: Outside the Body 執心在身外
阿難稽首而白佛言：「我聞如來如是法音，悟知我心實居身外。所以者何？譬如燈光然於室中，是燈必能先照室內，從其室門後及庭際。一切眾生不見身中獨見身外，亦如燈光居在室外，不能照室。是義必明，將無所惑；同佛了義，得無妄耶？」
佛告阿難：「是諸比丘，適來從我室羅筏城循乞摶食，歸祇陀林，我已宿齋。汝觀比丘一人食時，諸人飽不？」阿難答言：「不也，世尊！何以故？是諸比丘雖阿羅漢，軀命不同，云何一人能令眾飽？」佛告阿難：「若汝覺了知見之心，實在身外，身心相外，自不相干。則心所知，身不能覺，覺在身際，心不能知。我今示汝兜羅綿手，汝眼見時，心分別不？」阿難答言：「如是，世尊！」佛告阿難：「若相知者，云何在外？是故應知，汝言『覺了能知之心住在身外』，無有是處。」
Ānanda bowed his head and said to the Buddha: "Hearing the Tathāgata's teaching, I now realize that my mind must actually dwell outside the body. Why? It is like a lamp lit within a room: such a lamp must first light the inside of the room, and only then, through the door, reach the courtyard beyond. That all beings do not see what is inside the body but see only what is outside it is just so — as a lamp set outside a room cannot light the room within. This meaning must surely be clear and free of confusion; agreeing with the Buddha's settled meaning, might it not be free of error?"
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "These monks have just now been begging their food with me in the city of Śrāvastī and have returned to the Jeta Grove; I have already taken my meal. Observe: when one monk eats, are the rest filled?" Ānanda answered: "No, World-Honored One. And why? These monks, though arhats, have separate bodies and lives — how could one person make a multitude full?" The Buddha said to Ānanda: "If the mind in you that is aware and knows and sees were really outside the body, then body and mind would lie outside each other and have nothing to do with each other: what the mind knew, the body could not feel, and what feeling lay in the body, the mind could not know. I now show you my hand, soft as tulā cotton: when your eye sees it, does your mind discriminate?" Ānanda answered: "It does, World-Honored One." The Buddha said to Ānanda: "If they know each other in this way, how could the mind be outside? You should therefore know that your claim — that the mind which is aware and able to know dwells outside the body — does not hold up either."
Third: Hidden in the Sense Faculty 執心潛根裏
阿難白佛言：「世尊！如佛所言『不見內故，不居身內；身心相知，不相離故，不在身外』，我今思惟，知在一處。」佛言：「處今何在？」阿難言：「此了知心既不知內而能見外，如我思忖，潛伏根裏。猶如有人取瑠璃椀，合其兩眼，雖有物合而不留礙，彼根隨見隨即分別。然我覺了能知之心不見內者，為在根故；分明矚外無障礙者，潛根內故。」
佛告阿難：「如汝所言『潛根內者猶如瑠璃』，彼人當以瑠璃籠眼，當見山河，見瑠璃不？」「如是，世尊！是人當以瑠璃籠眼，實見瑠璃。」佛告阿難：「汝心若同瑠璃合者，當見山河，何不見眼？若見眼者，眼即同境，不得成隨；若不能見，云何說言『此了知心潛在根內如瑠璃合』？是故應知，汝言『覺了能知之心潛伏根裏如瑠璃合』，無有是處。」
Ānanda said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, as the Buddha has said — 'because it does not see within, it does not dwell inside the body; because body and mind know each other and are not apart, it is not outside the body' — I have now considered it, and I know it is in one place." The Buddha said: "And where is that place now?" Ānanda said: "Since this knowing mind does not know what is within and yet can see what is without, I reckon that it lies hidden inside the faculty. It is like a man who takes a pair of crystal bowls and fits them over his eyes: though something covers them, it leaves no obstruction, and the faculty, as it sees, discriminates at once. So this mind of mine that is aware and able to know does not see within because it is in the faculty; and it looks outward clearly, without obstruction, because it is hidden inside the faculty."
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "By your account — 'hidden inside the faculty, as with crystal' — when that man has crystal covering his eyes and sees the mountains and rivers, does he see the crystal too?" "He does, World-Honored One. With crystal covering his eyes, that man really does see the crystal." The Buddha said to Ānanda: "If your mind is like something fitted over with crystal, then when it sees the mountains and rivers, why does it not see the eye? And if it did see the eye, the eye would be the same as an object, and there could be no 'discriminating as it sees'; while if it cannot see the eye, how can you say that this knowing mind lies hidden inside the faculty, fitted over as with crystal? You should therefore know that your claim — that the mind which is aware and able to know lies hidden in the faculty, fitted over as with crystal — does not hold up."
Fourth: Darkness Within, Light Without 執見暗名見內
阿難白佛言：「世尊！我今又作如是思惟：『是眾生身，府藏在中，竅穴居外；有藏則暗，有竅則明。』今我對佛，開眼見明，名為見外；閉眼見暗，名為見內。是義云何？」
佛告阿難：「汝當閉眼見暗之時，此暗境界為與眼對，為不對眼？若與眼對，暗在眼前，云何成內？若成內者，居暗室中無日月燈，此室暗中皆汝焦府？若不對者，云何成見？若離外見，內對所成，合眼見暗，名為身中；開眼見明，何不見面？若不見面，內對不成。見面若成，此了知心及與眼根，乃在虛空，何成在內？若在虛空，自非汝體，即應如來今見汝面，亦是汝身。汝眼已知，身合非覺。必汝執言身，眼兩覺，應有二知，即汝一身應成兩佛！是故應知，汝言『見暗名見內』者，無有是處。」
Ānanda said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I now think of it in this way as well: the body of a living being has its organs stored within and its openings set without; where there is storing there is darkness, and where there is an opening there is light. Now, facing the Buddha, when I open my eyes and see light, that is called seeing what is outside; and when I close my eyes and see darkness, that is called seeing what is inside. How is this meaning?"
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "When you close your eyes and see darkness, does that field of darkness face the eye, or does it not face the eye? If it faces the eye, then the darkness is in front of the eye — how is that 'inside'? And if it were inside, then when you are in a dark room with no sun, moon, or lamp, all the darkness of that room would be your own inner organs. And if it does not face the eye, how is there seeing at all? If, setting aside outward seeing, an inward facing brought it about, so that closing the eyes and seeing darkness is called 'within the body', then when you open your eyes and see light, why is the face not seen? And if the face is not seen, the inward facing does not hold. And if seeing the face did hold, then this knowing mind, together with the eye-faculty, would be out in empty space — how would that be 'inside'? And if it were in empty space, it would not be your own substance; in which case the Tathāgata, who now sees your face, would also be your body. Your eye would already know, and your body accordingly would not feel. And if you insist that body and eye each have their own awareness, then you should have two knowings, and this one body of yours should become two buddhas. You should therefore know that your claim — that seeing darkness is called seeing what is inside — does not hold up."
Fifth: Wherever Mind Joins Its Object 執心隨有
阿難言：「我常聞佛開示四眾：『由心生故種種法生，由法生故種種心生。』我今思惟：『即思惟體實我心性。隨所合處，心則隨有；亦非內、外、中間三處。』」
佛告阿難：「汝今說言『由法生故種種心生，隨所合處心隨有』者，是心無體則無所合；若無有體而能合者，則十九界因七塵合，是義不然。若有體者，如汝以手自挃其體，汝所知心為復內出、為從外入？若復內出，還見身中；若從外來，先合見面？」阿難言：「見是其眼，心知非眼，為見非義。」佛言：「若眼能見，汝在室中門能見不？則諸已死尚有眼存，應皆見物。若見物者，云何名死？
阿難！又汝覺了能知之心，若必有體，為復一體？為有多體？今在汝身，為復遍體？為不遍體？若一體者，則汝以手挃一肢時，四肢應覺；若咸覺者，挃應無在。若挃有所，則汝一體自不能成。若多體者，則成多人。何體為汝？若遍體者，同前所挃！若不遍者，當汝觸頭亦觸其足，頭有所覺，足應無知。今汝不然。是故應知，隨所合處心則隨有，無有是處。」
Ānanda said: "I have often heard the Buddha teach the fourfold assembly: 'Because mind arises, all kinds of phenomena arise; because phenomena arise, all kinds of mind arise.' I now consider it thus: this very substance of thinking is truly the nature of my mind. Wherever it joins with something, there the mind accordingly is; and it is not in any of the three places — inside, outside, or in between."
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You now say that because phenomena arise all kinds of mind arise, and that wherever it joins, there the mind accordingly is. But if this mind has no substance, there is nothing that can join; and if something without substance could nevertheless join, then a nineteenth element would exist by joining with a seventh object — and that meaning does not stand. And if it does have substance, then when you prod your own body with your hand, does that knowing mind of yours come out from within, or enter from without? If it comes out from within, it should first see inside the body; and if it comes in from without, it should first see the face." Ānanda said: "Seeing belongs to the eye; the mind knows, but is not the eye. To call it seeing is not the right sense." The Buddha said: "If the eye can see, then when you are in a room, can the door see? Moreover the dead still have their eyes, and ought all to see things — and if they see things, in what sense are they dead?
"Ānanda, again: if this mind of yours which is aware and able to know must have a substance, is that substance one, or are there many? And present now in your body, does it pervade the body, or not pervade it? If it is one substance, then when you prod one limb with your hand, all four limbs should feel it; and if all felt it, the prodding would have no location. And if the prodding does have a location, then your 'one substance' cannot stand. If there are many substances, then you are many people — and which substance is you? If it pervades the body, it is the same as the prodding just discussed; and if it does not pervade, then when you touch your head and also touch your foot, the head having a feeling, the foot should have no knowledge of it. But this is not how it is with you. You should therefore know that 'wherever it joins, there the mind accordingly is' does not hold up."
Sixth: Between Faculty and Object 執心在根塵之中
阿難白佛言：「世尊！我亦聞佛與文殊等諸法王子談實相時，世尊亦言：『心不在內，亦不在外。』如我思惟：『內無所見，外不相知。內無知故，在內不成；身心相知，在外非義。今相知故，復內無見，當在中間。』」
佛言：「汝言中間，中必不迷，非無所在。今汝推中，中何為在？為復在處？為當在身？若在身者，在邊非中，在中同內。若在處者，為有所表？為無所表？無表同無，表則無定。何以故？如人以表表為中時，東看則西，南觀成北；表體既混，心應雜亂？」
阿難言：「我所說中，非此二種。如世尊言『眼、色為緣生於眼識』，眼有分別，色塵無知，識生其中則為心在。」佛言：「汝心若在根、塵之中，此之心體為復兼二？為不兼二？若兼二者，物體雜亂。物非體知，成敵兩立，云何為中？兼二不成。非知不知，即無體性，中何為相？是故應知，當在中間，無有是處。」
Ānanda said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I have also heard the Buddha, when discussing the real aspect with Mañjuśrī and the other princes of the Dharma, say: 'Mind is not inside, nor is it outside.' As I consider it: since nothing is seen within, being inside does not hold; and since body and mind know each other, being outside is not the right sense. Now, because they know each other, and because nothing is seen within, it must be in between."
The Buddha said: "You say 'in between'. That middle must not be vague; it cannot be nowhere. Where, then, is the middle you propose? Is it in a place, or is it in the body? If it is in the body, then at the edge it is not the middle, and in the middle it is the same as 'inside'. If it is in a place, is that place marked, or unmarked? What is unmarked is the same as nothing; and a mark has nothing fixed about it. Why? Because when a man sets up a marker to mark a middle, seen from the east it is west, and observed from the south it becomes north; and the marker's own substance being confused, the mind would be correspondingly jumbled."
Ānanda said: "The middle I speak of is neither of these two. As the World-Honored One has said, 'eye and form as conditions give rise to eye-consciousness': the eye has discrimination, the object of form has no knowing, and consciousness arises between them — that is where mind is." The Buddha said: "If your mind is in between faculty and object, does this substance of mind include them both, or not include them both? If it includes them both, then thing and substance are thrown into confusion: the thing is not a substance that knows, and so the two stand opposed as enemies — how would that be a middle? Including them both does not hold. And being neither what knows nor what does not know, it has no substance or nature at all — what then would be the aspect of such a middle? You should therefore know that 'it must be in between' does not hold up."
Seventh: Attached to Nothing At All 執一切無著
阿難白佛言：「世尊！我昔見佛與大目連、須菩提、富樓那、舍利弗四大弟子共轉法輪，常言『覺知分別心性，既不在內，亦不在外，不在中間，俱無所在；一切無著，名之為心』，則我無著，名為心不？」
佛告阿難：「汝言『覺知分別心性俱無在』者，世間虛空、水、陸、飛行諸所物象，名為一切。汝不著者，為在為無？無則同於龜毛、兔角，云何不著？有不著者，不可名無。無相則無，非無則相；相有則在，云何無著？是故應知『一切無著名覺知心』，無有是處。」
Ānanda said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I once heard the Buddha, together with the four great disciples Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Subhūti, Pūrṇa, and Śāriputra, turning the Dharma wheel, say that the nature of the mind that is aware and discriminates is nowhere at all — not within, not without, not in between — and that attachment to nothing whatsoever is what is called mind. Would my own being attached to nothing, then, count as mind?"
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You say that the nature of the mind that is aware and discriminates is nowhere at all. Everything in the world — empty space, and every creature of water, land, and air — is called 'everything.' Now, this 'nothing you are attached to' — does it exist, or not? If it does not exist, it is exactly like the fur of a tortoise or the horns of a rabbit — how could there be any attachment to speak of at all? But if there is a 'nothing' that you are not attached to, it cannot then be called nonexistent. What has no characteristic at all is nonexistent; what is not nonexistent must have some characteristic; and whatever has a characteristic must exist somewhere — so how could it be called 'attached to nothing'? You should therefore know that the claim 'the mind that is aware and knows is what is attached to nothing at all' does not hold up either."
Reading note: The seven locations, taken together, exhaust every place ordinary thinking could imagine putting the mind: inside the body, outside it, hidden in the sense organs, correlated with inner darkness and outer light, wherever it happens to touch something, suspended between faculty and object, or nowhere at all as a kind of non-attachment. Each answer is refuted on its own terms, not dismissed by authority — a method that leaves Ānanda (and the reader) with no ordinary place left to look. That is the point: the search is not building toward an eighth location. It is clearing the ground so the Buddha can point at something the seven locations all failed to capture — a theme this sūtra develops at length starting in fascicle 2.
Ānanda Asks for the Road of Śamatha 阿難請示奢摩他路
爾時，阿難在大眾中，即從座起，偏袒右肩，右膝著地，合掌恭敬而白佛言：「我是如來最小之弟，蒙佛慈愛，雖今出家，猶恃憍憐，所以多聞未得無漏；不能折伏娑毘羅呪，為彼所轉，溺於婬舍，當由不知真際所詣。唯願世尊大慈哀愍，開示我等奢摩他路，令諸闡提隳彌戾車！」作是語已，五體投地。及諸大眾，傾渴翹佇，欽聞示誨。
At that time Ānanda rose from his seat in the midst of the assembly, bared his right shoulder, knelt with his right knee on the ground, and, joining his palms in reverence, said to the Buddha: "I am the Tathāgata's youngest cousin, and, favored with his kind affection, I left home relying still on his fondness for me — and so, although I have heard much, I have not attained freedom from outflows. I could not overcome the Kapila spell; I was carried off by it and nearly drowned in that house of ill repute, all because I did not know where true reality is actually to be found. I beg only that the World-Honored One, in his great compassion, take pity on us and reveal the path of śamatha, so that even the most incorrigible may be freed from base and mistaken views." Having said this, he prostrated himself fully on the ground, and the whole assembly, likewise longing and expectant, waited reverently to hear the teaching.
Reading note: This is the same request Ānanda made just after his rescue, now repeated with a sharper edge: he explicitly names his own fault as not knowing "where true reality is actually to be found" (不知真際所詣) — exactly the failure the seven-location search has just put on display for the whole assembly.
Light from the Face, and the Two Roots
The seven locations are exhausted. What follows is not an eighth answer but a change of register: light from the Buddha’s face, the worlds shaken and merged into one, and then the naming of the two roots that the whole dialogue has been circling.
爾時，世尊從其面門放種種光，其光晃耀如百千日，普佛世界六種震動。如是十方微塵國土一時開現，佛之威神，令諸世界合成一界。其世界中，所有一切諸大菩薩，皆住本國合掌承聽。
佛告阿難：「一切眾生，從無始來種種顛倒，業種自然如惡叉聚。諸修行人，不能得成無上菩提乃至別成聲聞、緣覺，及成外道、諸天魔王及魔眷屬，皆由不知二種根本錯亂修習；猶如煮沙欲成嘉饌，縱經塵劫終不能得。云何二種？阿難！一者、無始生死根本，則汝今者與諸眾生用攀緣心為自性者。二者、無始菩提、涅槃元清淨體，則汝今者識精元明，能生諸緣緣所遺者。由諸眾生遺此本明，雖終日行而不自覺，枉入諸趣。
「阿難！汝今欲知奢摩他路，願出生死，今復問汝！」
Then the World-Honored One emitted light of every kind from his face, and that light blazed like a hundred thousand suns; the buddha-worlds everywhere quaked in six ways; and the lands of the ten directions, numberless as dust-motes, were all at once revealed. By the Buddha's majestic power the worlds were made to merge into a single realm; and within that realm, all the great bodhisattvas, each abiding in his own land, joined their palms and listened.
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "All living beings, from beginningless time, have been inverted in every kind of way, and the seeds of their karma cluster of themselves like akṣa fruit. Those who practice cannot accomplish unsurpassed awakening, and instead become hearers, or solitary awakened ones, or non-buddhists, or gods and Māra-kings and Māra's retinue — all because they do not know the two roots and so cultivate in confusion, as one who boils sand hoping to make fine food: though kalpas as many as dust-motes pass, he will never get it. What are the two? Ānanda! The first is the beginningless root of birth and death — which is that you, and all living beings, take the mind that seizes upon conditions to be your own nature. The second is the beginningless, originally pure substance of awakening and nirvāṇa — which is that in you now the essence of consciousness, originally luminous, can give rise to all conditions, and is what those conditions leave behind. Because living beings have lost this original luminosity, though they act all day long they are not aware of it, and enter the destinies for nothing.
"Ānanda, you now wish to know the road of śamatha, hoping to escape birth and death — and so I shall question you again!"
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
“What those conditions leave behind” （緣所遺者） renders 緒所遗者, and it is the hinge of the whole sūtra. The second root is not something other than the conditioned mind; it is what remains unaccounted for when everything conditioned has been accounted for. The dialogue of seven locations was an exercise in accounting, and the residue is the point of it.
The Analogy of the Fist 舉拳曜心
即時如來舉金色臂，屈五輪指，語阿難言：「汝今見不？」阿難言：「見。」佛言：「汝何所見？」阿難言：「我見如來舉臂屈指為光明拳，曜我心目。」佛言：「汝將誰見？」阿難言：「我與大眾同將眼見。」
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？」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。」佛言：「咄！阿難！此非汝心！」阿難矍然，避座、合掌，起立白佛：「此非我心，當名何等？」佛告阿難：「此是前塵虛妄相想，惑汝真性！由汝無始至于今生，認賊為子，失汝元常，故受輪轉。」
At once the Tathāgata raised his golden-hued arm, curled his five fingers into a fist, and said to Ānanda: "Do you see this?" Ānanda said: "I see it." The Buddha said: "What do you see?" Ānanda said: "I see the Tathāgata raise his arm and curl his fingers into a fist of light, dazzling my mind and eyes." The Buddha said: "What did you see it with?" Ānanda said: "I, together with the whole assembly, saw it with the eyes."
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You have just answered me that the Tathāgata's curled fingers, a fist of light, dazzled your mind and eyes — the eyes, one grants, can see; but what did you take as the mind, that it should be dazzled by my fist?" Ānanda said: "The Tathāgata is now asking me where the mind is to be found; and since it is by mind that I search everywhere for it, whatever it is in me that is doing the searching — that, I take to be my mind." The Buddha said: "Enough, Ānanda! That is not your mind!" Startled, Ānanda rose from his seat, joined his palms, stood, and said to the Buddha: "If that is not my mind, then what should it be called?" The Buddha said to Ānanda: "This is nothing but the false, insubstantial appearance of thought conditioned by what is in front of you, and it is deluding your true nature. Ever since beginningless time and continuing into this very life, you have mistaken a thief for your own son, losing your own original, ever-abiding nature — and so you have undergone this turning in the wheel."
Reading note: This is the sūtra's second and sharper turn: not just refuting where the mind is, but exposing what Ānanda has been calling "mind" all along — the very faculty of discriminating thought that just now searched for the answer. The Buddha calls it "a thief mistaken for a son": a usurper mind that has stood in for the true mind so long, and so convincingly, that Ānanda cannot tell the difference without being shown directly.
“This Is Not Your Mind”
Ānanda’s reply to being told that what he has been calling his mind is not it. His protest is the most human moment in the fascicle, and the Buddha’s answer does not withdraw the claim.
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，乃至遍歷恒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！」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，詰其根元咸有體性；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？」
Ānanda said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! I am the Buddha’s favored younger brother; because my mind loved the Buddha, it made me leave home. And my mind has not only made offerings to the Tathāgata — it has passed through lands as numerous as the Ganges’ sands serving the buddhas and good friends, and roused great courage to perform every difficult practice of the Dharma, all with this mind; and even were I to slander the Dharma and fall back from my roots of goodness forever, it would also be because of this mind. If what has become evident is not the mind, then I am mindless, the same as earth and wood; apart from this awareness and knowing there is nothing at all. Why does the Tathāgata say this is not the mind? I am truly frightened, and this whole assembly is without exception in doubt. I beg you, let down your great compassion and instruct the unawakened!”
Then the World-Honored One instructed Ānanda and the great assembly, wishing to make their minds enter the forbearance of non-arising. From the lion-throne he stroked Ānanda’s head and said to him: “The Tathāgata has always said that the arising of dharmas is the manifestation of mind alone; that every cause and fruit, every world and dust-mote, takes on substance because of mind. Ānanda! If among all that is in all the worlds, down to a blade of grass or a knot of thread, you examine the root of it, each has a substantial nature — even empty space has a name and a look. How much more so the pure and exquisite luminous mind, the nature of every mind: how should it alone be without substance? If you insist that the discriminating awareness by which you know is necessarily the mind, then this mind should have a complete nature of its own, apart from all the activities of form, scent, taste and touch. As you now listen to my Dharma, this is discrimination occurring because of sound. Even were you to extinguish every seeing, hearing, sensing and knowing, and guard an inward stillness, that too would be the shadow-work of discriminating dharma-objects. I am not ordering you to hold it to be not-mind; but examine your mind finely: if apart from the objects before you there is a discriminating nature, that is truly your mind; and if the discriminating nature has no substance apart from the objects, then it is the shadow-work of discriminating those objects. Objects do not abide; and when they alter and vanish, this mind is the same as a tortoise's hair or a rabbit's horn — and your dharma-body would be the same as annihilation. Who, then, would cultivate and realize the forbearance in which nothing arises?”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The test the Buddha gives is one the reader can apply and is meant to: subtract the object and see whether the awareness survives. “Guarding an inward stillness” is named as a failure case — it is discrimination with the dharma-object of stillness, not the absence of discrimination — which forecloses the most obvious meditative escape before the sūtra has properly begun.
Hearing Is Not Practice, and the Fist Without a Hand 多聞無功 · 拳喻辨見
Ānanda has just been told that the mind he has used all his life is a shadow. This is the passage in which that lands: the assembly falls silent, he weeps a second time, and the analogy of the fist is taken up again — this time to separate the eye from seeing.
即時阿難與諸大眾，默然自失。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。」
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！」
即時如來從胸卍字涌出寶光，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。
「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？」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。」
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？」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。」
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？」
At that, Ānanda and the whole assembly were silent, at a loss. The Buddha said to Ānanda: "All those in the world who practice and study, though they may presently accomplish the nine successive absorptions, do not exhaust their outflows and become arhats — and all because they cling to this delusive thinking of birth and death and mistake it for the real. This is why you, for all the learning you have gained, have not accomplished the holy fruit."
Hearing this, Ānanda wept again, cast his five limbs to the ground, knelt long with palms joined, and said to the Buddha: "Ever since I resolved on the path and left home under the Buddha, I have relied on the Buddha's majestic power and constantly thought to myself: 'I need not labor to cultivate; surely the Tathāgata will bestow samādhi upon me.' I did not know that body and mind cannot stand in for one another, and so I lost my own original mind: though my body had left home, my mind had not entered the path — like a destitute son who abandons his father and runs away. Only today do I know that for all my learning, if I do not practice I am no better than one who has never heard: like a man who talks of food and is never filled. World-Honored One, we are now bound by the two obstructions, and it is truly because we do not know the still and constant nature of mind. I beg the Tathāgata to pity our destitution, to bring forth the wondrous luminous mind, and to open the eye of the path in us!"
Then the Tathāgata sent forth a jeweled light from the svastika at his breast, and that light shone dazzling with a hundred thousand colors. It pervaded all the buddha-worlds of the ten directions, numberless as dust-motes, at once, anointing the crowns of all the Tathāgatas in every jeweled land of the ten directions, and then circled back to Ānanda and the whole assembly. He said to Ānanda: "I now raise for you a great banner of the Dharma, and cause all living beings of the ten directions to obtain the wondrous, subtle, secret mind whose nature is pure and bright, and to gain the pure eye.
"Ānanda, you answered me earlier that you saw a fist of light. What made this fist bright? How did it come to be a fist? And with what did you see it?" Ānanda said: "Because the Buddha's whole body is like Jambū-river gold, glowing red as a jeweled mountain, born of purity, there was light; and I really did look with my eyes; and the tips of the five wheel-marked fingers were bent and closed to show us, and so there was the aspect of a fist."
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "The Tathāgata tells you truly today: those who have wisdom need a simile if they are to be awakened. Ānanda, take my fist: without my hand there would be no fist of mine, and without your eyes there would be no seeing of yours. Set your eye-faculty beside the principle of my fist — is the sense of them the same, or not?" Ānanda said: "It is indeed so, World-Honored One. Without my eyes there is no seeing of mine; and setting my eye-faculty beside the Tathāgata's fist, the matter and its sense are of a kind."
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You say they are of a kind, but that meaning does not hold. Why? Because for a man with no hands the fist is finally gone; whereas for one who has no eyes, seeing is not wholly absent. Why is that? Try asking a blind man on the road, 'What do you see?' Those blind men will surely answer you, 'Now there is only blackness before my eyes, and nothing else to look upon.' Viewed in this sense, it is the objects in front that are dark — what has been lost in the seeing?"
Reading note: “A man who talks of food and is never filled” is Ānanda’s own verdict on his reputation. He is the disciple famous for having heard everything the Buddha said and being able to repeat it — and the sūtra makes that reputation the problem rather than the credential. The fist analogy then does the technical work: remove the hand and the fist is simply gone, but remove the eyes and seeing is not gone, because the blind still see blackness. Seeing is therefore not the eye. Fascicles 2 and 3 are built on this single wedge.
The Blind Man and the Lamp 盲人矚暗，喻見非眼
阿難言：「諸盲眼前唯覩黑暗，云何成見？」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？」「如是，世尊！此暗中人與彼群盲，二黑校量，曾無有異。」
「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。」
Ānanda said: "But those who are blind see only darkness before their eyes — how can that be called seeing?" The Buddha said to Ānanda: "Those who are blind, having no eyes, perceive only blackness — is that blackness any different from the blackness perceived by a sighted person sitting in a dark room, or is it not different at all?" "It is not different at all, World-Honored One. Comparing the two kinds of blackness, that of the man in the dark room and that of the blind, there is truly no difference between them."
"Ānanda, suppose a person with no eyes, who has always perceived only blackness before him, suddenly gains his eyesight and once again sees all the various colors of what is in front of him — this we would call 'seeing with the eyes.' Now suppose the person sitting in the dark room, who has likewise been perceiving only blackness, suddenly obtains a lit lamp, and likewise sees all the various colors of what is in front of him — by the same logic, this should be called 'seeing with the lamp.' But if it is the lamp that sees, then the lamp itself has seeing, and could no longer be called a mere lamp; and besides, if it is the lamp doing the seeing, what would that have to do with you at all? You should therefore know: a lamp can reveal colors, but what actually does the seeing is the eye, not the lamp; in just the same way, the eye can reveal colors, but what actually has the nature of seeing is the mind, not the eye."
Reading note: The lamp only makes color visible; it is the eye that sees. By the same logic, the eye only makes color visible; it is something else — the true seeing-nature the Buddha spends fascicle 2 uncovering — that actually sees. Fascicle 1 ends exactly here, with Ānanda still without an answer, but with the terms of the real question now sharply drawn: not where is the mind, but what, underneath the borrowed, false mind of discrimination, is actually doing the seeing.
大佛頂萬行首楞嚴經卷第一 — End of Fascicle One