Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Ear Faculty and Sound-Objects Are Illusory

Original text: 阿难。汝更听此祇陀园中。食办击鼓。众集撞钟。钟鼓音声。前后相续。于意云何。此等为是声来耳边。耳往声处。阿难。若复此声。来于耳边。如我乞食室罗筏城。在只陀林。则无有我。此声必来阿难耳处。目连迦叶。应不俱闻。何况其中一千二百五十沙门。一闻钟声。同来食处。

Explanation: Ānanda, listen again in this Jetṛvana park: when the meal is ready, the drum is struck; when the assembly gathers, the bell is struck. The sounds of the bell and drum follow one after another without cease. What do you think? When you hear these sounds, is it that the sounds come to your ear, or that your ear goes to where the sounds are? Ānanda, if these sounds came to your ear, then just as when I go begging for food in Śrāvastī, there is no "me" in the Jetṛvana grove—likewise, if the sound came to your ear, Ānanda, then there would be no sound at the places of Maudgalyāyana and Mahākāśyapa, and they would not be able to hear the sound at the same time. How much less could the twelve hundred fifty bhikṣus hear it—how could they all arrive at the eating place simultaneously upon hearing the sound of the bell?

Original text: 若复汝耳。往彼声边。如我归住只陀林中。在室罗城。则无有我。汝闻鼓声。其耳已往击鼓之处。钟声齐出。应不俱闻。何况其中象马牛羊。种种音响。若无来往。亦复无闻。是故当知听与音声。俱无处所。即听与声。二处虚妄。本非因缘。非自然性。

Explanation: If it were your ear going to where the sound is, then just as when I return to dwell in the Jetṛvana grove, there is no "me" in Śrāvastī—when you hear the sound of the drum, your ear has already gone to where the drum was struck, so when the sound of the bell rings out at the same time, you should not be able to hear both simultaneously. How much less could you hear the sounds of elephants, horses, cattle, and sheep, and all kinds of other sounds. If your ear and the sound do not reach each other, then you would hear nothing at all. Therefore you should know that hearing and sound, these two bases, are both illusory; they are fundamentally neither of the nature of dependent arising nor of the nature of natural existence—both are the wondrous true suchlike nature of the tathāgatagarbha.