UnMind 46. Surangama Sutra Sextet 6: Further Instructions

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Further instruction
Is apparently called for —
Don’t eat those onions!

Immediately on the heels of the last sections we explored, “Instructions for Practice,” and the testimony of Buddha’s posse, the “Twenty-Five Sages,” comes an excruciatingly long and detailed examination of what seems to be the entire litany of Buddha’s teachings, some directly relevant to the focus of the Surangama, others seemingly thrown in just for good measure, or simply because they were available. This discursive digression, from one subject to another, and yet another — like the featured acts of a modern television talk- or talent-show — lends credence to the supposition by some scholars that the whole sutra amounts to a pastiche of relatively disconnected teachings. The Ananda-focused narrative provides the through-line, pulling the smorgasbord together.

The whole thing runs to about 550 pages, in the new translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society, Burlingame, California. We will squeeze a Reader’s Digest condensed version into this segment, suggesting that you follow up for detail.

Next on the program, we find two long solo performances from each of the guest stars, who need no introduction. First up, Avalokiteshvara, “The Bodhisattva Who Hears the Cries of the World,” testifies to the efficacy of the faculty of hearing, as the go-to gate to samadhi, running down all the major implications of audial insight. He famously vows to help all others in their quest, magically appearing in 32 various human and nonhuman forms suitable to their predispositions, and to provide protection to them in 14 kinds of dangerous situations, leading them to liberation. The original standup chameleon.

With no break, commercial or biological, Buddha cues up Manjusri to further explain, and expand upon, the limitations of the sense faculties and mind, hot buttons of the times. Manjusri dutifully heaps high praise on Avalokiteshvara’s method of relying solely on hearing, akin to promoting his fellow panelist’s latest book, or movie. One wonderful, circular question he asks of Ananda is, “Why haven’t you been hearing your own hearing?” Later declaring that “It is the easiest way to reach enlightenment.”

Both guest performers express gushing admiration for Buddha’s discourse — he is the star of the show, after all — along with some sympathy for the devil, in the person of Ananda, playing second banana to Shakyamuni. You can’t help listening for the laugh track. Or the theme song.

Occasionally, the unnamed master of ceremonies turns the camera on the live audience: Ananda and “all the others in the great assembly… were like someone who has traveled far from home on matters of business: although the traveler has not yet been able to return, he knows the road that will lead him home.” Rather than applause lines, Buddha’s intended effect on his audience is realization itself.

This rather modern analogy — being on the road — resonates with my coinage, “The Original Frontier.” Buddha was the historical discoverer, and explorer, of this strange realm of the mind itself. He blazed trails for the rest of us. During his time, he may have been the foremost inspirational speaker on the circuit, but would never have qualified for a TED Talk, let alone develop a following on Twitter.

Then, in what may be the earliest expressions of what later became Zen Buddhist precepts, Ananda receives “Four Clear and Definitive Instructions on Purity: On Sexual Desire, On Killing, On Stealing, and On Making False Claims.” These are four of the sixteen precepts that we receive yet today, as householders. We understand “purity,” however, as non-dual, not as a puritanical ideal of morality.

“Establishing a Place for Awakening,” follows, thoroughgoing instructions for how to set up an altar room for practice, detailing what kinds of statuary should be displayed. Of course, actual statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas would not put in an appearance for centuries after Buddha’s time.

Then comes the “The Śūraṅgama Mantra,” in phonetic Chinese. It is offered up for “people who cannot get rid of their stubborn habits.” A kind of catch-all cure-all, good-for-what-ails-you charm, talisman, or spell — if you will but recite it. To put a weird twist on it, a virtual “Buddha,” whom Buddha “makes appear” from his “unconditioned mind,” then recites all 554 lines.

This is followed by an effusive guarantee of the powers of the mantra to protect. Mantra magic. Your results may vary, of course.

Then follows yet another lengthy discourse, on the “Levels of Being.” The subtitle, “The Coming into Being of the World of Illusion,” reprises the title of a prior section. But this time, “coming into being” comprises a synopsis of the biology of the times. It details “Twelve Classes of Beings,” all of which are “bound to the cycle of death and rebirth in this world as a result of” various causes and conditions.

Next, for human beings only, a prescription for practicing and mastering “the samadhi of the Buddhas” is proffered. A formula of “Three Gradual Steps.” The first — I am not making this up — advocates:

A. Avoiding the Plants of the Onion Group

Aversion to the onion family (Vidalia onions excepted) is explained as a specific example of a general principle: that of avoiding, or eliminating, contributing factors. That is, factors that contribute to less desirable internal states and outflows, especially for the aspiring monastic. Onions were thought to arouse sexual desire when cooked, and anger when raw. Meat is included in this category, along with raw foods in general. This would constitute contemporary views on healthy diet and wellbeing, at that time. But modern attitudes toward nutrition are not all that much more sophisticated. See: obesity.

B. Ending Any Violation of the Fundamental Rules of Behavior

This second gradual step is another iteration on the precepts, as they were conceived at that time, focusing on celibacy, killing, stealing and lying. These evolved as rules for living together in the context of the Buddhist Order, called vinaya in Sanskrit. Both Dogen Zenji and Keizan Zenji produced voluminous monastic regulations, called shingi in Japanese, over three millennia later.

C. Avoiding Intentional Engagement with Perceived Objects

The third refers to the outflows through the six faculties of engagement — the intoxication of the senses and their objects — promising that eventually, no mental objects will arise, leading to “peaceful abiding.” Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

Next we are treated to another longish discourse on “The Fifty-Seven Stages of the Bodhisattva's Path,” detailing the stages of “Arid Wisdom, Ten Stages of Stabilizing the Mind, Ten Abodes, Ten Practices, Ten Dedications, Four Additional Practices, Ten Grounds” and finally, “Two Final Stages,” the first of which is called “Equivalent Enlightenment,” and concluding with the declaration:

Thus, having passed through these various stages — twelve stages in all, some counted singly, some in groups — they reach at last the stage of Wonderful Awakening, which is the unsurpassed enlightenment.

Here the numbering is getting a bit out of hand, but you can still count them on both hands, fingers and toes. Modern Zen teachers, such as Master Dogen, push back on this idea that zazen is “step-by-step meditation,” transpiring in clear, linear stages of development.

But it is clear that in Buddha’s time, breaking the path into digestible bites was an absolute necessity, especially when attending such a moveable feast as we are being served here. No one in the great assembly is taking notes on their mobile devices. They cannot get back to them later. But Buddha is merely pointing at the humble, homely truth — accessible to all, nothing hidden. However we slice and dice it, reality finally has to be holistic, both in the method of realizing it, and the resulting realization.

Now comes an interesting diversion: “Naming the Discourse.” This challenge to the host comes from the prompting of one of the guest celebrities, Manjusri. In design, we have a related exercise called “Name that Concept.” If an innovation is truly new, there will most likely be no phrase in the vernacular that adequately captures it. Thus, we must go to some absurd extremes in brainstorming:

The Sutra of the Supreme and Magnificent Dharma-Imprint of the Mantra of the White Canopy, Which Is Spoken above the Crown of the Great Buddha's Head, and Which Is the Serene and Pure Oceanic Eye of the Thus-Come Ones of the Ten Directions

This is the first mention, the longest and most unwieldy. The shortest entry in the contest is the last:

The Sutra of the Consecrating Mantra Phrases and the Myriad Śūraṅgama Practices of the Bodhisattvas

Which is pretty concise, and touches on most of the bases. Surangama means something like “heroic valor,” “heroic progress,” or “heroic march.” Reading it certainly requires a heroic effort.

Nowadays, you may have noticed that books, movies, television series, and other public media presentations, often have a one-word title, or at the most, a couple of words. This inevitable trend helps to cut through the clutter of competing offerings. The subtitle carries the load of explaining the title.

Then, just to set the proper tone for the warnings of the “Mara states” to come, what better than a trip to hell? Google “Mara,” and you find: “In Buddhist cosmology, Mara is associated with death, rebirth and desire. Thera has described Mara as ‘the personification of the forces antagonistic to enlightenment.’” Now, of course, we have to also Google “Thera.”

The subtitle gives us our first clue: “Ananda Requests Instruction.” The resultant title, “The Hells,” confirms our worst fears. Ananda asks how can there still be such destinies as hells, when “the essential nature of all Buddhas is the true reality?” and do they, the hells, conform to the formula of existing on their own, or are they based on the “deluded habits of living beings?” Graphic content alert: gory descriptions of hells, reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno, based on various bad behavior and judgment calls.

I would second Ananda’s disbelief. I have always considered the threat of hell to be the curse of theism. It is bad enough that we suffer so, during our lifetime. Do we really need the threat of eternal perdition on top of that, adding the demeaning insult of the blame game, to the agony of existential injury?

But it is clear that early Buddhism, at least, thought, and taught, the reality of the hells, long before Jesus Christ came on the scene. However, in Zen, these hells are considered to be the product of our own minds, and, like everything else in reality, impermanent. In one famous incident in the history of Zen, a monk goes into hell intentionally, to save his mother. How did he do that? I suppose it was in a dream within a dream. My mother appeared to me in a dream the night she died.

Next, in “The Roles of Emotion and Thought,” Buddha explains how internal, as well as outer-directed, deluded habit-patterns develop, how autonomic processes entangle with mental desires and emotions, including the impulse to shun death, and to embrace life. Alive, we follow natural inclinations; after death, the various currents of our karma. These lead to all kinds of karmic consequences, unintended and intended, including falling into various kinds of hells, based on the degree of emotional dysfunction.

“Ten Causes and Six Retributions” follow, developing Buddha’s point that karmic retribution is brought upon ourselves by our intentional actions. This indicates, as an aside, that some actions may not entail karmic consequences, as they are not exactly intentional. A ray of sunshine at the end of the tunnel.

Then comes the familiar lineup of the usual suspects: 1, Sexual desire, joined with physical contact, leading to intercourse; shout out to Schopenhauer. 2, Craving, with attraction, leads to plotting. 3, Arrogance and self-superiority, to competitiveness. Hilariously, Buddha points out that when the “Thus-Come-Ones” see this arrogance, they greet it with an expression, “taking a drink of stupidity.” 4, Hatred, with defiance, leads to confrontations. 5, Enticing others, plus conniving, to entrapment. 6, Falsehood, joined with deviousness, leads to insults. 7, Festering resentment, nursing a grudge, leads to vengeance. 8, Holding wrong views, joined to rejecting the opinions of others, leads to mistakes, such as that the self is real. 9, Blaming, joined to defamation, leads to false accusations. 10, Disputatiousness, joined to engagement, leads to vociferous court proceedings. Who would have thought that in Buddha’s time the “see you in court,” hurled as an expletive, would echo as it does today? All these egregious habit-patterns are accompanied by the gnarly details of their consequences, along with the admonition to avoid them assiduously.

Then a summary — of actions of the sense faculties — as the root causes of these consequences and retributions. “The Seven Destinies Are the Result of Karma” brings to a close this dystopian vision of all that can go wrong if only we follow our instinctual pursuit of pleasure. Buddha offers a bit of hope:

Ananda, such is a detailed explanation of the seven destinies — of beings in the hells and of ghosts, animals, humans, ascetic masters, gods, and asuras. In their confusion, all are submerged in the attributes of the conditioned world. Their deluded mental activity leads them into rebirth in accordance with their karma. Within the wondrous perfect understanding that is the fundamental unconditioned mind, these destinies are like mirages of flowers seen in the sky. These destinies do not actually occupy any location; they are simply illusions. Even less do they signify anything real.

Well, now you tell us! After scaring us half to death with apocalyptic visions of eternal suffering… it’s all just overactive imagination? We have to cut Buddha some slack here, understanding that his original compassionate teachings have been strained through the filter of centuries of social, cultural and economic evolution, before they were committed to paper. Who can know how he may have couched his terms?

This is the last of the Surangama Sextet. But we are not done yet. There is more — an appendix on the Fifty False states that may occur in each of the stages of meditation, through each of the aggregates of Form, Sensation, Perception, Formations, and Consciousness. Stay tuned. Don’t go anywhere.