The Shurangama Sutra, Volume 5: The Perfect Penetration Method of Gavampati among the Twenty-Five Sages

Original text:憍梵钵提。即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我有口业。于过去劫。轻弄沙门。世世生生。有牛齝病。如来示我一味清净。心地法门。我得灭心。入三摩地。观味之知。非体非物。应念得超世间诸漏。内脱身心。外遗世界。远离三有。如鸟出笼。离垢销尘。法眼清净。成阿罗汉。如来亲印。登无学道。佛问圆通。如我所证。还味旋知。斯为第一。

Explanation: Gavāṃpati rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and replied to the Buddha: "In the past I committed the karma of harsh speech; during a past kalpa I mocked a monastic, saying that he ate like an ox chewing grass. From then on, life after life, whenever I ate, it was like an ox chewing its cud. Later, when I encountered the Buddha, the Buddha taught me a practice method called the pure mind-ground dharma gate of single taste. Practicing according to the Buddha's instruction, I extinguished mental activities, seeing all dharmas as empty, with no thoughts arising. Thereupon I entered meditative absorption (samādhi), contemplating the knowing nature directed at the object of taste, which has no self-nature and is not any thing—it is empty. As soon as this thought arose, I transcended all the worldly defilements; my mind attained purity. Within the body of the five aggregates, both body and mind dropped away—there was no longer body and mind; toward the world outside the five-aggregate body, my mind also became empty—there was no longer any world. Thus my mind departed from the existence of the three realms, like a bird escaping from a cage. All afflictions and defilements were eliminated, all dust-objects vanished, my dharma eye became pure, and I became an arhat of the fourth fruit. The Tathāgata personally certified that I had reached the stage beyond training (aśaikṣa). The Buddha asks about the dharma gate of perfect penetration: just as I realized it—upon contacting the object of taste, I contemplated the knowing nature directed at the object of taste, and then contemplated that knowing nature as empty—I regard this dharma gate as the foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration." Everyone who has realized the fruits of the path has done so through deep, extremely subtle deliberation (manasikāra) and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration, realizing the emptiness of the five aggregates and the emptiness of the eighteen realms, thereby attaining emptiness of both body and mind and breaking through the four marks. It is only that the degree of emptiness differs, the levels of the marks broken through differ, and thus the fruits realized differ accordingly. There is absolutely no one who can realize the fruits without upholding precepts, without cultivating meditative concentration, and without contemplative practice. Those who have realized the fruits have fulfilled all the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment; none realized the fruit by relying on the mind consciousness's deliberation, inference, and analysis. None, after realizing the fruit, still have heavy afflictions and create evil karma everywhere like ordinary beings. A person whose mind is empty does not see dharmas, does not see any dharma worth committing evil karma for. Therefore, a person whose mind still grasps at marks and is not empty definitely has not eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)—they are not even a candidate for the srotāpanna fruit, let alone a srotāpanna. The verbal karma that Gavāṃpati created in the past—mocking a monastic—brought about such great retribution of evil karma. Now many people have heavy afflictions, and the evil karma they create toward monastics is far greater than mockery and sarcasm by many times over; their future retribution will certainly be far greater than Gavāṃpati's by many times over. What should these ignorant people do? They should consider and weigh this clearly themselves. But many people, out of ignorance, will not seriously consider and weigh it; they will only undergo the retribution of these evil karmas. And so the beings of the three evil paths follow one after another, never coming to an end.