Perception Without Perception, That Is Nirvana

The Surangama Sutra contains a passage: "When perception is established, that is the root of ignorance; when perception is without perception, that is Nirvana." "When perception is established, that is the root of ignorance" means that sentient beings all possess a mind capable of perceiving, hearing, feeling, and knowing—able to see, hear, feel, and know. However, if we take this knowing nature as real, establishing the knowing nature that perceives the six dust realms as true, as an eternal and indestructible self that can continue into future lives, then this view is a wrong view, the fundamental root of ignorance. Consequently, one will drift within the cycle of birth and death in the six realms, unable to attain liberation.

"When perception is without perception, that is Nirvana." If, through contemplative practice, we come to understand that these faculties of perception, hearing, feeling, and knowing are all illusory minds subject to birth, cessation, and change—impermanent, incapable of eternal existence, and not the true self—then the mind will no longer recognize the perceiving, hearing, feeling, and knowing nature as the self. Once such understanding is firmly established, the view of self is severed, and in the future, the attachment to self will be abandoned, leading to the realization of complete Nirvana. If, within perception, hearing, feeling, and knowing, one realizes that inherently pure mind which is devoid of the nature of perception, hearing, feeling, and knowing, then one attains the inherently pure Nirvana of the fundamental nature.

To explain this passage more precisely: "Perception is without perception" means that within the various perceptions of the six consciousnesses, there simultaneously exists the fundamental mind, the Tathagatagarbha, which is devoid of any perception or knowing. It operates ceaselessly in the background. "That is Nirvana" refers to this fundamental mind, the Tathagatagarbha, which is unborn and undying within the state of Nirvana—that is, the Nirvana mind.