The Door Best Suited to This World
Avalokiteśvara describes the ear-faculty method that made them who they are — thirty-two manifested bodies, fourteen kinds of fearlessness, four inconceivable virtues. Mañjuśrī then judges among all twenty-five accounts and names this one best for beings here. The fascicle closes with the four precepts — against sexual misconduct, killing, stealing, and false claims of attainment — that the Buddha insists must ground any real practice at all.
About This Fascicle
Fascicle 5 closed with twenty-four disciples' testimonies. Fascicle 6 opens with the twenty-fifth and, by the sūtra's own verdict, the best-suited: Avalokiteśvara's method of entering through the ear-faculty. The Buddha then has Mañjuśrī judge among all twenty-five, in a long verse that is itself one of the most frequently chanted passages in Chinese Buddhism. The fascicle's second half turns entirely practical: Ānanda, now understanding the theory, asks how to actually set up a place of practice safe from demonic interference — and the Buddha's answer is that no method of concentration matters at all without four prior, non-negotiable commitments.
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, and the companion Jiǎngyì project for Master Yuanying's commentary.
Avalokiteśvara's Method: Entering Through Hearing 觀世音菩薩耳根圓通
爾時，觀世音菩薩即從座起，頂禮佛足而白佛言：「世尊！憶念我昔無數恒河沙劫，於時有佛出現於世，名觀世音。我於彼佛發菩提心，彼佛教我從聞思修入三摩地。初於聞中入流亡所；所入既寂，動靜二相了然不生。如是漸增，聞所聞盡；盡聞不住，覺所覺空；空覺極圓，空所空滅。生滅既滅，寂滅現前，忽然超越世出世間，十方圓明，獲二殊勝：一者、上合十方諸佛本妙覺心，與佛如來同一慈力。二者、下合十方一切六道眾生，與諸眾生同一悲仰。」
At that time Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva rose from their seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I recall that in ages past, numberless as the sands of the Ganges, a buddha appeared in the world named Avalokiteśvara. Under that buddha I resolved on bodhi, and that buddha taught me to enter samādhi through hearing, reflecting, and cultivating.
"At first, within hearing itself, I entered the stream and let go of what was heard; once what was entered into grew still, the two marks of motion and stillness became utterly unarisen. Increasing this gradually, both the hearing and what is heard were exhausted; even this exhaustion of hearing did not become a resting place, and the awareness and what it was aware of became empty as well; once this emptiness and awareness reached their utmost fullness, even emptiness and what was emptied were extinguished. Once arising and ceasing were themselves extinguished, still cessation appeared of itself, and I suddenly transcended both the worldly and the transcendent, becoming perfectly bright throughout the ten directions, and gained two supreme qualities: first, above, according with the wondrous, enlightened mind original to all buddhas of the ten directions, sharing the very same power of compassion as the Tathāgatas; second, below, according with every sentient being of the six destinies throughout the ten directions, sharing the very same sorrowful yearning as all beings themselves."
Reading note: This compressed sequence — entering the stream and losing the object of hearing, then the hearing itself, then even the awareness of that loss, then even emptiness itself — is the single most influential meditation instruction in the whole sūtra, studied on its own throughout the Chan tradition as "反聞聞自性," turning hearing back to hear one's own nature rather than outward sound. Each stage doesn't reject the previous one so much as stop clinging to it as a resting place, all the way down to the point where even "emptiness" can no longer be held onto as an achievement.
Thirty-Two Manifested Bodies 三十二應身
Having attained this samādhi, Avalokiteśvara can manifest in whatever form best reaches a given being — thirty-two are listed, from buddhas down to non-human spirits.
若諸菩薩入三摩地，進修無漏勝解現圓；我現佛身而為說法……若有眾生不壞男根；我於彼前，現童男身而為說法，令其成就。若有處女愛樂處身，不求侵暴；我於彼前，現童女身而為說法，令其成就。……是名妙淨三十二應入國土身，皆以三昧聞薰聞修無作妙力自在成就。
"If bodhisattvas enter samādhi, advancing to cultivate undefiled, supreme understanding until it appears perfectly complete, I manifest a Buddha's body and expound the Dharma to them ... If there are those who wish to preserve their innocence as a young man, I manifest before them the body of a youth and expound the Dharma, bringing about their success. If there are maidens who love their unmarried state and do not wish to be violated, I manifest before them the body of a maiden and expound the Dharma, bringing about their success. ... This is called the thirty-two wondrous, pure bodies I manifest to enter into every land, all accomplished freely through the effortless, wondrous power of the samādhi of hearing, its cultivation, and its habituation."
- To bodhisattvas nearing full realization: a Buddha's body. To advanced trainees settled in stillness: a pratyekabuddha's body. To those who have severed the twelve links: an independently-awakened being's body. To those who have realized the emptiness of the four truths: a śrāvaka's body.
- To beings seeking purity of desire: Brahmā's body. To those wishing lordship over the gods: Śakra's body. To those wishing freedom to roam the ten directions: the body of a self-mastery deva, or, for those wishing to fly through space as well, a great self-mastery deva's body.
- To those who love commanding spirits and protecting lands: a heavenly general's body. To those who love guarding the world and its beings: the body of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, or, for those who love being born into their halls, the body of one of their princes.
- To those who wish to be a human ruler: a king's body. To those who love heading a noble clan: an elder's body. To those who love discoursing on principles and living purely: a householder's body. To those who love governing lands: a minister's body. To those who love learning and discipline: a brahmin's body.
- To men or women wishing to leave home and keep the full precepts: a monk's or nun's body. To those wishing to keep the five lay precepts: a layman's or laywoman's body. To women managing a household with virtue: the body of a queen, noblewoman, or matron.
- To those wishing to preserve chastity: a youth's or maiden's body, as above.
- To devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, kiṃnaras, and mahoragas wishing release from their own kind: a body of that same kind, to teach them from within. To ordinary humans wishing to cultivate as humans: a human body. To every kind of non-human being, with or without form, with or without conception, wishing release: whatever body matches them.
Fourteen Kinds of Fearlessness 十四無畏
The same samādhi grants beings who call on Avalokiteśvara fourteen specific kinds of protection and fearlessness — a representative selection:
- 1. Because I do not turn my own hearing on sounds, but let the very one who observes be observed, suffering beings of the ten directions who observe [contemplate] this sound at once find release.
- 2. My knowledge and seeing turned back upon their source lets beings who fall into a great fire not be burned by it.
- 3. My hearing and seeing turned back lets beings swept away by a great flood not be drowned.
- 5. My hearing habituated into [true] hearing, the six sense-roots dissolved and returned to the single nature of hearing, lets beings facing execution find swords shattered piece by piece, as if cutting water or blowing on light.
- 7. The nature of sound entirely dissolved, hearing and seeing returned inward, free of every dust-born delusion, lets beings held in chains and shackles find them unable to bind them.
- 9. Habituated hearing free from the defilement of desire lets all lustful beings become free from craving.
- 10. Pure sound without any defiling object, root and object perfectly interfused with nothing set against anything, lets all resentful beings become free from anger.
- 12. ... lets beings throughout the Dharma-realm who wish for a son bear one endowed with merit and wisdom, and those who wish for a daughter bear one upright, virtuous, gentle, and beloved by all.
- 14. ... lets beings who hold my name receive the very same merit as those who hold the names of sixty-two Ganges-sands' worth of other Dharma-princes — since my name and theirs, though outwardly many and one, are, through my own genuine attainment of perfect penetration, without any real difference.
Four Inconceivable, Effortless Wondrous Virtues 四不思議無作妙德
一者、由我初獲妙妙聞心，心精遺聞，見、聞、覺、知不能分隔，成一圓融清淨寶覺。故我能現眾多妙容，能說無邊祕密神呪。……二者、由我聞思脫出六塵，如聲度垣不能為礙。……三者、由我修習本妙圓通清淨本根，所遊世界皆令眾生捨身珍寶求我哀愍。四者、我得佛心證於究竟，能以珍寶種種供養十方如來，傍及法界六道眾生：求妻得妻，求子得子，求三昧得三昧，求長壽得長壽，如是乃至求大涅槃得大涅槃。
First, since I first attained this wondrous, wondrous hearing-mind, its very essence transcending hearing itself, seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing can no longer be kept separate from one another, forming a single, perfectly interfused, pure, precious awareness — and so I am able to manifest countless wondrous forms and proclaim boundless sacred mantras [with multiple heads, arms, and eyes, as needed]. Second, since my hearing and reflection have escaped the six sense-objects entirely, like sound passing through a wall unobstructed, I can manifest any form and recite any mantra, bestowing fearlessness on beings, so that I am called, throughout countless lands, "the Giver of Fearlessness." Third, through cultivating this original, wondrous, perfect penetration and pure root-nature, wherever I travel, beings are moved to offer their own bodies and treasures, seeking my compassion. Fourth, having attained the Buddha's own mind and realized it to its very limit, I am able to make every kind of offering to the Tathāgatas of the ten directions and, at the same time, to every being of the six destinies throughout the Dharma-realm — those who seek a spouse obtain one, those who seek a child obtain one, those who seek samādhi obtain it, those who seek long life obtain it, and so on, up to those who seek great nirvāṇa, who obtain that as well.
佛問圓通，我從耳門圓照三昧緣心自在，因入流相得三摩提，成就菩提，斯為第一。
"Since you ask about perfect penetration: through the ear-faculty, by the perfectly illuminating samādhi, my conditioned mind became free, and, through the mark of entering the stream, I attained samādhi and accomplished bodhi. This is foremost."
Mañjuśrī's Judgment 文殊揀選偈
爾時，世尊……告文殊師利法王子：「汝今觀此二十五無學諸大菩薩及阿羅漢，各說最初成道方便，皆言修習真實圓通；彼等修行，實無優劣、前後差別。我今欲令阿難開悟，二十五行誰當其根？兼我滅後，此界眾生入菩薩乘求無上道，何方便門得易成就？」
At that time the World-Honored One ... said to Mañjuśrī, Dharma-Prince: "You have now heard these twenty-five great bodhisattvas and arhats, beyond further training, each describe the means by which they first attained the path — all of them cultivating genuine perfect penetration, their practices, in truth, without any real difference of superior or inferior, earlier or later. I now wish Ānanda to awaken clearly: among these twenty-five practices, which one best matches his own capacity? And, after I have passed away, for the beings of this world who enter the bodhisattva vehicle and seek the unsurpassed path, which gateway of skillful means will bring them to success most readily?"
Mañjuśrī's long reply, delivered in verse, briefly examines and sets aside each of the other twenty-four methods in turn (why sight is "blocked front to back," why smell "is not constant," why the body-faculty "has no fixed boundary," and so on) before arriving at its central recommendation:
I now say to the World-Honored One:
where the Buddha appears, in the Sahā world,
the true substance of teaching in this land
lies in purity found through sound and hearing.
To take hold of samādhi,
one truly enters through hearing itself.
Leaving suffering, attaining liberation —
how excellent is Avalokiteśvara!
Through kalpas numerous as the sands of the Ganges,
entering buddha-lands as many as dust motes,
gaining great, self-mastering power,
bestowing fearlessness on all beings.
The wondrous sound, the sound that observes the world,
the pure Brahmā-sound, the sound of the ocean tide —
bringing safety to a world in trouble,
bringing ever-abiding freedom beyond it.
It is like a person sitting quietly
while drums sound from all ten directions at once —
all ten are heard at exactly the same moment;
this alone is truly, perfectly real.
The eye cannot see through an obstruction;
neither can the mouth, nor the nose.
The body knows only by touching;
the mind's thoughts are scattered, without order.
But sound, heard through a wall,
near or far, can always be heard —
a thing the other five faculties cannot equally claim.
This alone is truly the real, all-penetrating one.
Ānanda, listen carefully:
I rely now on the Buddha's own power
to proclaim the vajra king,
the illusion-like, inconceivable
true samādhi, mother of all buddhas.
You have heard countless buddhas' secret gateways,
yet, if the outflow of desire is not cleared away first,
accumulated learning only becomes a further fault.
Why not turn that hearing which retains the Buddha's teaching
back upon your own hearing?
Hearing does not arise on its own —
it is given its very name because of sound.
Turn hearing back, and free it from sound;
once freed, what name would even apply to it?
Once a single sense-root returns to its source,
all six roots find liberation together.
Seeing and hearing are like an eye's illusion;
the three realms are like flowers conjured in the sky.
Once hearing is turned back and the illusion at the root removed,
the dust dissolves, and awareness becomes perfectly pure.
Purity brought to its utmost, light penetrates everywhere,
and stillness, luminous, contains the whole of empty space.
Looking back then upon the world,
it is exactly like something seen in a dream.
Mātaṅgī herself, within that dream —
who, then, could have held your form captive?
It is like a skilled illusionist in the world
conjuring men and women out of nothing:
though every limb appears to move,
a single mechanism pulls them all.
Still that mechanism, and stillness returns;
every illusion then has no nature of its own.
The six sense-roots are exactly the same:
originally relying on a single, bright essence,
divided into six that seem to work together.
Let just one place come to rest,
and all six functions likewise fail to arise.
Every trace of defilement dissolves at once,
becoming perfect, bright, pure, and wondrous.
Any remaining trace still marks one still in training;
brightness brought to its very limit is exactly the Tathāgata.
Great assembly, and you, Ānanda —
turn back your inverted mechanism of hearing;
hear your own nature by reverse-hearing,
and that nature becomes the unsurpassed path.
This, truly, is what perfect penetration is.
This is the one road to nirvāṇa
for buddhas numerous as dust motes.
Every Tathāgata of the past
has already accomplished this gate;
every bodhisattva now present
is, at this very moment, entering this perfect brightness;
and every practitioner still to come
should rely on exactly this same method.
I myself have realized it through this very gate —
not Avalokiteśvara alone.
It is truly as the World-Honored One has asked of me,
seeking the skillful means to save
those of this final age who seek to leave the world behind:
for accomplishing the mind of nirvāṇa,
Avalokiteśvara's way is best.
As for all the other skillful means,
these too are all the Buddha's own majestic power —
teachings given on the spot, to release beings from their immediate distress,
not methods meant for long, sustained cultivation;
taught, shallow or deep, according to the occasion.
I bow in homage to the tathāgatagarbha,
undefiled and inconceivable —
may it bless all beings yet to come,
free of doubt regarding this one gate.
It is an easy, ready means —
fit to teach Ānanda,
and all those, sunk in this final age,
who need only cultivate through this one faculty
to surpass every other approach.
Such, truly, is the real mind of the matter.
Reading note: Mañjuśrī's verse is careful to affirm that all twenty-five accounts are genuinely valid attainments — "without any real difference of superior or inferior" — before still ranking them for this specific, practical purpose: which door is easiest for beings born into this world to walk through. His reasoning is almost architectural: sight, smell, and touch each have a structural gap (blocked by walls, requiring direct contact, discontinuous), while sound passes through obstruction and reaches in every direction at once. The line "why not turn that hearing which retains the Buddha's teaching back upon your own hearing" directly answers Ānanda's original fault named all the way back in fascicle 1 — his reliance on broad learning, on hearing about the teaching, rather than turning that same faculty back to hear his own nature.
Ānanda's New Question: How to Set Up a Place of Practice 阿難請安立道場
……阿難整衣服，於大眾中合掌頂禮。心迹圓明，悲欣交集，欲益未來諸眾生故，稽首白佛：「大悲世尊！我今已悟成佛法門，是中修行得無疑惑，……我雖未度，願度末劫一切眾生。世尊！此諸眾生去佛漸遠，邪師說法如恒河沙，欲攝其心入三摩地，云何令其安立道場，遠諸魔事？於菩提心得無退屈？」
... Ānanda straightened his robes, and, in the midst of the assembly, joined his palms and bowed. His mind now perfectly clear, sorrow and joy mingling within him, wishing to benefit sentient beings still to come, he bowed his head and said to the Buddha: "Greatly compassionate World-Honored One, I have now awakened to the gateway of Buddhahood, and, in this matter of practice, am free of doubt. ... Though I myself am not yet fully liberated, I vow to liberate all beings of this final age. World-Honored One, as these beings grow further removed from the Buddha's own time, false teachers will proclaim their teachings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. If beings wish to gather their minds and enter samādhi, how should they set up a place of practice, so as to stay far from demonic interference and never retreat from the mind of bodhi?"
The Three Decisive Principles, and the Four Clear Instructions 三決定義 · 四種清淨明誨
佛告阿難：「汝常聞我毘奈耶中，宣說修行三決定義，所謂攝心為戒、因戒生定、因定發慧，是則名為三無漏學。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "You have often heard me teach, in the monastic discipline, the three decisive principles of practice — that gathering the mind is precepts; that from precepts, samādhi arises; and that from samādhi, wisdom is born. These are called the three undefiled trainings."
The Buddha then gives four specific, non-negotiable instructions — traditionally called the four clear teachings (四種清淨明誨) — each following the same pattern: the principle, a warning of what happens without it, and the consequence of ignoring it.
First: Sever Sexual Desire 斷婬
"If the beings of any world, in any of the six destinies, hold no lust in their minds, they will not follow the continuity of birth and death. Your cultivation of samādhi is meant, at root, to escape worldly affliction — but if the mind of lust is not removed, that affliction cannot be escaped. However much wisdom you may have, however much samādhi may appear before you, if lust is not severed, you will certainly fall into the way of demons ... Their followers, too, each claim to have attained the unsurpassed path. After I have passed away, in the age of the Dharma's decline, many such demonic followers will flourish in the world, indulging openly in lust while posing as spiritual guides, causing beings to fall into the pit of love and false view, losing the path to bodhi. In teaching people of the world to cultivate samādhi, first sever the mind's own lust — this is the Tathāgata's, and every past buddha's, first decisive and pure instruction.
"Therefore, Ānanda, cultivating meditative absorption without severing lust is like steaming sand and stone, hoping it will become rice — though a hundred thousand kalpas may pass, it remains nothing but hot sand, since sand and stone were never rice to begin with. ... As I have taught here, this is what the Buddha teaches; anyone who teaches otherwise is Māra's own teaching."
Second: Sever Killing 斷殺
"If the beings of any world hold no thought of killing, they will not follow the continuity of birth and death. ... However much wisdom or samādhi appears, if killing is not severed, one will certainly fall into the way of spirits [rākṣasas and the like] ... After my passing, many such spirits will flourish in the world, claiming that eating meat leads to bodhi. Ānanda, I permit monks to eat only the five kinds of pure meat [from animals not seen, heard, or suspected to have been killed for them], and even this meat is manifested by my own spiritual power, without any true life in it at all — a compassionate provision for lands where the soil is too wet and rocky to grow vegetables. How, after the Tathāgata's passing, could those who eat the flesh of living beings still be called disciples of the Buddha? Know that such people, even if they attain a state resembling samādhi, are all great rākṣasas, who, at the end of their retribution, must sink into the bitter sea of birth and death — they are not disciples of the Buddha at all. ... In teaching people of the world to cultivate samādhi, next sever killing — this is the second decisive and pure instruction.
"Therefore, Ānanda, cultivating meditation without severing killing is like a person who plugs their own ears and then shouts loudly, hoping others will not hear — trying to hide what only becomes more exposed. Pure monastics and bodhisattvas, walking a forest path, will not even step on living grass, much less pull it up by hand — how, then, could one of great compassion take the flesh and blood of sentient beings for food? ... As I have taught here, this is what the Buddha teaches; anyone who teaches otherwise is Māra's own teaching."
Third: Sever Stealing 斷偷
"If the beings of any world hold no thought of stealing, they will not follow the continuity of birth and death. ... If stealing is not severed, one will certainly fall into a deviant path [as a nature-spirit, a goblin, or a person possessed by such] ... After my passing, many such deviant spirits will flourish in the world, hiding their true nature, claiming to be spiritual guides, each declaring themselves to have attained a superior state, deceiving the ignorant, until, wherever they pass, the households they touch are ruined. I teach monks to beg for food from house to house without discrimination, precisely so as to let go of greed and accomplish the bodhisattva path. ... How can thieves, borrowing my very robes, peddle the Tathāgata's own teaching for profit, creating every kind of karma while claiming it to be the Buddha-dharma, and even denouncing properly ordained monks as merely following the Lesser Vehicle? By this they mislead countless beings into the Avīci hell. ... In teaching people of the world to cultivate samādhi, sever stealing next — this is the third decisive and pure instruction.
"Therefore, Ānanda, cultivating meditation without severing stealing is like a person trying to fill a leaking vessel by pouring water into it — though kalpas as numerous as dust motes may pass, it will never be filled. ... As I have taught here, this is what the Buddha teaches; anyone who teaches otherwise is Māra's own teaching."
Fourth: Sever False Claims of Attainment 斷大妄語
"Even if the beings of any world are already free of killing, stealing, and lust in body and mind, and these three practices are already complete — if they engage in great false speech, their samādhi cannot become pure; they become a demon of love and view, and lose their Buddha-heritage entirely. This means claiming attainment not yet attained, claiming realization not yet realized — sometimes seeking worldly renown and superiority, telling others, 'I have already attained the fruit of stream-entry, of once-returning, of non-returning, the path of arhatship, the vehicle of the pratyekabuddha, or one of the ten grounds or the stages before them,' seeking their worship and craving their offerings. Such a person is utterly cut off, extinguishing the very seed of Buddhahood in themselves — like a palm tree severed at the root, the Buddha has taught, never to grow again, its knowledge and vision lost, sunk forever in the threefold sea of suffering, never to attain samādhi.
"After my passing, I charge bodhisattvas and arhats to manifest bodies within this age of the Dharma's decline, taking on every kind of form to liberate beings caught in the wheel — sometimes as a monk, sometimes as a layperson, a king, a minister, a youth or maiden, even, at times, as a prostitute, a widow, a thief, or a butcher — living and working alongside such beings while praising the Buddha-vehicle, bringing their minds into samādhi, yet never once declaring, 'I am a true bodhisattva, a true arhat,' never revealing the Buddha's own hidden purpose or speaking carelessly to those not yet ready to hear it — except at the very moment of death, when a hidden final transmission may quietly be left behind. How, then, could such a person deceive and confuse beings through great false speech? In teaching people of the world to cultivate samādhi, sever great false speech last of all — this is the Tathāgata's fourth decisive and pure instruction.
"Therefore, Ānanda, anyone who does not sever great false speech is like someone carving a shape out of human excrement and calling it sandalwood, hoping it will smell fragrant — there is no such possibility. I teach monks to hold a straightforward mind as their very place of practice; in every posture, in every act, they should have no falseness in them at all — how, then, could they falsely claim attainment of a superior state? It is like a beggar falsely proclaiming himself emperor, bringing about his own execution — how much more so one who would falsely usurp the very throne of the Dharma-king! A crooked cause brings a twisted result; seeking the Buddha's bodhi this way is like a man trying to bite his own navel — who could ever succeed at that? But if monks keep their minds as straight as a taut string, entirely true and real in everything, they will enter samādhi forever free of demonic interference — I myself attest that such a person accomplishes the bodhisattva's unsurpassed knowledge and awareness. As I have taught here, this is what the Buddha teaches; anyone who teaches otherwise is Māra's own teaching."
大佛頂萬行首楞嚴經卷第六 — End of Fascicle Six
Reading note: These four instructions arrive right after the sūtra's most exalted material — the ear-faculty method, the thirty-two manifestations, Mañjuśrī's verse — as a deliberate corrective: none of that theoretical understanding matters at all if these four foundations are not kept. The pattern is consistent across all four: a stated principle, a description of the specific kind of false attainment that results from ignoring it (a demon-king, a rākṣasa, a nature-spirit, a "demon of love and view"), and a vivid, everyday analogy for why partial effort cannot work (steaming sand for rice, plugging one's own ears, filling a leaking vessel, sculpting excrement into sandalwood). The fourth instruction's closing exception — that a hidden teacher may reveal their true identity only "at the very moment of death" — reflects a real feature of the tradition: teaching stories in which a monk's advanced attainment is only disclosed as they are dying.