阿難是善男子 欲愛乾枯 根境不偶 現前殘質 不復續生 執心虛明 純是智慧 慧性明圓 蓥十方界 乾有其慧 名乾慧地 性覺必明 妄爲明覺 覺非所明 因明立所 所旣妄立 生汝妄能 無同異中 熾然成異 異彼所異 因異立同 同異發明 因此復立 無同無異 如是擾亂 相待生勞 勞久發塵 自相渾濁 由是引起 塵勞煩惱
ā nán shì shàn nán zǐ yù ài gān kū gēn jìng bù ǒu xiàn qián cán zhì bù fù xù shēng zhí xīn xū míng chún shì zhì huì huì xìng míng yuán yíng shí fāng jiè gān yǒu qí huì míng gān huì dì xìng jué bì míng wàng wéi míng jué jué fēi suǒ míng yīn míng lì suǒ suǒ jì wàng lì shēng rǔ wàng néng wú tóng yì zhōng chì rán chéng yì yì bǐ suǒ yì yīn yì lì tóng tóng yì fā míng yīn cǐ fù lì wú tóng wú yì rú shì rǎo luàn xiāng dài shēng láo láo jiǔ fā chén zì xiāng hún zhuó yóu shì yǐn qǐ chén láo fán nǎo
Key Message
Practice is not a matter of accumulating something new — it is the process of clearing away, one by one, the ignorance that veils the originally luminous nature.
▸Volume Eight sets forth in detail the specific stages of practice — the fifty-five stages (五十五位).
Volume Eight sets forth in detail the specific stages of practice — the fifty-five stages (五十五位). Beginning from the 'dry wisdom stage' (乾慧地), where desire and craving have completely dried up, it traces the entire journey of the bodhisattva path through the ten faiths (十信), ten dwellings (十住), ten practices (十行), ten dedications (十廻向), four augmentations (四加行), and ten stages (十地), arriving at equal enlightenment (等覺) and wondrous enlightenment (妙覺). The crucial passage 'the awakening of nature must be luminous, yet falsely taken as the luminous awakening' (性覺必明 妄爲明覺) is the philosophical core of the Śūraṃgama Sūtra, meaning: 'the awakening inherent in nature must be luminous, yet [ignorance] falsely regards the luminosity as the awakening.' This is the philosophical explanation of the process by which ignorance (無明) veils the originally luminous self-nature. Each stage of practice is presented as the process of recovering this original luminosity.