The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Falsity of the Eye Faculty and Form Sense-Object Base (cakṣur-āyatana)

Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 复次阿难。云何十二处。本如来藏。妙真如性。阿难。汝且观此。祇陀树林。及诸泉池。于意云何。此等为是。色生眼见。眼生色相。阿难。若复眼根。生色相者。见空非色。色性应销。销则显发。一切都无。色相既无。谁明空质。空亦如是。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: Ānanda, why are the twelve sense bases originally the wondrous true suchness nature of the tathāgatagarbha? Ānanda, for now just look at this Jeta Grove and all the springs and ponds. What do you think? How does the phenomenon of seeing form come about? Is it that form itself produces the seeing of the eye consciousness, or is the form-appearance produced by the eye faculty? Ānanda, if the eye faculty could produce form-appearances, then when seeing empty space, since space has no form-appearance, the nature of form should vanish. Once it vanishes, it is revealed that everything is nothing. Since the form-appearance no longer exists, who would make clear the substance of space? The same applies to space as well.

Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 若复色尘。生眼见者。观空非色。见即销亡。亡则都无。谁明空色。是故当知。见与色空。俱无处所。即色与见。二处虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

If it were the form sense-object that produced the eye's seeing, then when seeing empty space, since space has no form-appearance, space could not produce the eye's seeing, and at that time the faculty of seeing would cease to exist; then all perception would be nothing. In that case, who would it be that knows and makes clear that space is without form? Therefore it should be known that the faculty of seeing, empty space, and the form sense-object all have no location; the form sense-object and the seeing faculty are both illusory—neither of the nature of causes and conditions nor of the nature of spontaneity. Of course, they are of the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.

Here the Buddha subtly implies that the tathāgatagarbha produces the form-appearance, and this form-appearance is the inner representation, a shadow of the external form, a secondary manifestation by the tathāgatagarbha, or what may be called its revelation. If the form-appearance produced the seeing of the eye consciousness, then since empty space is not a form-appearance, it could not produce seeing. When seeing empty space, there would be no seeing; and since there is no seeing, how could one see empty space and know it to be empty space?

Therefore it should be known that the seeing of the eye consciousness, form-appearances, and empty space all have no location; the form-appearance and the seeing of the eye consciousness are both illusory—neither of the nature of causes and conditions nor of the nature of spontaneity, but rather the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, all coming from the tathāgatagarbha. Thus the thesis that the tathāgatagarbha produces all dharmas is established. So the World-Honored One arrives at a substantive conclusion: all dharmas are born from the tathāgatagarbha and are manifested solely by the mind of the tathāgatagarbha.

As for the twelve sense bases—the six faculties and six consciousnesses—the World-Honored One informs sentient beings that they are all of the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, all born from the tathāgatagarbha. The six faculties and six consciousnesses have no self-nature or reality of their own; they are dharmas that have been produced, illusory and unreal. The form-appearance and the seeing of the eye consciousness have no location and no self-nature; they do not exist inherently, and therefore the World-Honored One calls them illusory.

If you understand the faculties, sense-objects, and consciousnesses in the Āgama sūtras, it becomes easier to read the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. The six faculties contact the six sense-objects, and then the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the six consciousnesses; the six consciousnesses then contact the six sense-objects, and seeing arises. In fact, it is the continual combined contact of the three that makes seeing continuous and unbroken. The six faculties have already been born, and the external six sense-objects have already been produced; the tathāgatagarbha then transforms the external six sense-objects into the inner six sense-objects, the supreme faculties then contact the inner six sense-objects, and when the six consciousnesses emerge, they discriminate the inner six sense-objects. Viewed this way, are not the six faculties and six sense-objects—the twelve sense bases—very illusory? And from this one also knows from where they are born.