阿難白佛言 世尊 我今聞佛摩訶薩埵 妙明見性 見非是見 又此見精 非我與彼 如何非彼 世尊 若離外見 見無有體 今我此見 豈非我心 佛言 阿難 汝今所言 見在前境 若果然者 汝身汝心 各在何處 今汝諦觀 吾今問汝 汝今以何 爲見 見是何物 若以眼見 汝之眼根 今在何處
ā nán bái fó yán shì zūn wǒ jīn wén fó mó hē sà duǒ miào míng jiàn xìng jiàn fēi shì jiàn yòu cǐ jiàn jīng fēi wǒ yǔ bǐ rú hé fēi bǐ shì zūn ruò lí wài jiàn jiàn wú yǒu tǐ jīn wǒ cǐ jiàn qǐ fēi wǒ xīn fó yán ā nán rǔ jīn suǒ yán jiàn zài qián jìng ruò guǒ rán zhě rǔ shēn rǔ xīn gè zài hé chù jīn rǔ dì guān wú jīn wèn rǔ rǔ jīn yǐ hé wéi jiàn jiàn shì hé wù ruò yǐ yǎn jiàn rǔ zhī yǎn gēn jīn zài hé chù
Key Message
Every attempt to find the mind at a particular location fails. The mind is already present at the very place where one is searching.
▸Volume Two contains the 'Seven Investigations of the Mind' (七處徵心), the most philosophically rigorous section of the Śūraṃgama Sūtra.
Volume Two contains the 'Seven Investigations of the Mind' (七處徵心), the most philosophically rigorous section of the Śūraṃgama Sūtra. The Buddha interrogates Ānanda about 'where is the mind?' and successively refutes through logic each of the seven answers Ānanda proposes. Ānanda asserts in turn that the mind is inside the body; outside the body; hidden within the eye; between inside and outside; wherever a thought arises; in the middle of the sense organs; and where there is no attachment whatsoever — but the Buddha refutes each in turn. This repeated refutation is a methodological dialogue designed to elicit the insight that 'the mind cannot be fixed at any particular location.' The mind is neither within, nor without, nor in between, and what seeks it is itself the mind — this is the implication.