Issue 275

Therefore, you should know that you state the impossible when you say that the mind, which knows, understands, and is aware, is concealed in the vision organ in the same way when eyes are covered by crystal bowls. There is no such thing.

Therefore, through the principle explained above, you should know that you state the impossible when you say that the mind, which knows, understands, and is aware, is concealed in the vision organ in the same way when eyes are covered by crystal bowls. To say that the aware and knowing mind is hidden in the eye is incorrect. There is no such thing. Your principle is not right. You are wrong again!

Editor’s Note: The following is an except from the “Driving Force of Subjective Wisdom” seminar on July 11, 1988 and August 2, 1988.

The main purpose for today’s passage is to break down Ananda’s deluded view. Ananda employed the principle of covering the eyes with crystal bowls and said that the mind is concealed in the vision organ. He was probably referring to the pupil of the eye that enables one to see outside similar to a glass pane and felt his theory was so wonderful that not many people would understand. However, this theory was again shattered by the Buddha. This deviant knowledge and deviant view brought forth by Ananda is not the proper knowledge nor the proper view. On the surface, it might seem that it poses no harm to people; but it might mislead people’s minds and easily cause them to go astray.
Because the Buddha does not want us to go astray – at this point, using this perverse opinion to speculate the original wondrous bright mind, he therefore asked Ananda again: “If you say that it’s like concealing the eyes with crystal bowls, then you should be able to see these crystal bowls. Did you see it or not?” Ananda replied: “I see it!” Then, using Ananda’s notion, the Buddha shattered Ananda’s theory. If the Buddha had not asked this question, Ananda might have another debate to play out. Therefore, the Buddha used Ananda’s own contradiction to break his perverse argument. Why is it called ‘contradiction’? It is because if he says that it is concealed inside the organ like the eyes covered by crystal bowls and yet can still see the crystal bowls, then why can’t he see his own eyes? If he can see his own eyes, then those eyes would become external objects. They are subject to an external state that doesn’t belong to him. If he can’t see them, then where would they be concealed? Hence, the Buddha stated that there is no such thing as the ‘mind is like eyes covered by crystal bowls.’

This principle is very simple, very ordinary, and not mysterious at all. Everyone should know this. If you speak of it wonderfully and profoundly, you will never understand it. When the Buddha spoke this sutra, he was with his disciples and they discussed these principles with each other. After the disciples documented these principles, it became a sutra. Hence, with regard to this principle, you don’t need to think about how profound or mysterious it is!

This passage of the sutra text is part of ‘Seven Locations of Inquiring the Mind’. Although it is called ‘Inquiring the Mind’, it is in fact a ‘manifestation of Seeing.’ When our eyes see, this ‘seeing’, is eyesight. What enables them to see? How do our ears hear sounds? How does our noses smell fragrance? How does our tongues taste flavor? How do our bodies feel touch? How do our minds know about this dharma? Within all these includes the six functions of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and knowing. These six functions are called the ‘permanent dwelling of the True Mind with pure nature and bright substance’. It is also known as ‘Buddha-nature’. On the eyes, it’s called ‘seeing’, on the ears it’s called ‘hearing’, on the nose, it’s called ‘smelling’, on the tongue, it’s called ‘tasting’, on the body, it’s called ‘feeling’, on the mind, it’s called ‘knowing’. These are the transformations of the Buddha-nature (our true mind) and they’re not the original substance. Here the Buddha wanted Ananda to understand the original substance. If one recognizes the original substance, one will no longer seek from the outside! That’s all there is to it. Hence the same principle applies both to the ‘Seven Locations of Inquiring the Mind’, and the ‘Ten Manifestations of Seeing’.

End of the ‘Driving Force of Subjective Wisdom’ Seminar

Ananda said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, I now offer this ponderation: viscera and bowels lie inside the bodies of living beings, while the orifices are open to the exterior. There is darkness at the viscera and light at the orifices. Now, as I face the Buddha and open my eyes, I see light: that is to see outside. When I close my eyes and see darkness, that is to see within. How does that principle sound?”

Ananda said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, I now offer this ponderation.”Ananda was criticized by the Buddha and so he came up with another theory to answer the Buddha’s question. Now I think of it this way:

The bodies of living beings: Living beings are born from the mixing of a multitude of karmic conditions which result in birth. Each of you people are not engendered from one kind of karma but from many. Just as a field of crops requires many conditions beyond the simple planting of a seed – there must be earth, sunshine, and rain – we people are also born from a variety of causes and conditions.

Viscera and bowels lie inside the bodies of living beings: The “viscera and bowels”: the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are said to be the five viscera, and the six bowels are the large intestine, the small intestine, the “triple warmer,” the bladder, the gall bladder, and the stomach. The bowels can be said to be hidden because they are inside and they can also be called “filthy” because everything in them is either excrement or urine.

While the orifices are open to the exterior: As to the apertures and openings, the eyes, ears, and nose are apertures, and the eye-socket, the entrance to the inner ear, and the nostrils are openings. Then, of course, there is the mouth-opening, an opening which you never manage to fill up. Today you eat your fill, but tomorrow you are hungry again. So you eat again and fill up the opening but by the following day you’re hungry once more. Everything has moved out. Inside there is a constant assimilation of the new and elimination of the old (metabolism). This process causes people a lot of trouble.

Eating is a lot of trouble. Just think of it: if you didn’t spend three hours a day eating three meals, we could use the extra time to lecture sutras or sit in Ch’an. But because you eat three times a day, you’re kept extremely busy every day just filling up that mouth-opening. But in the end, you’ll never fill it up. Hence this is called a ‘bottomless pit’.

There is darkness at the viscera and light at the orifices. Since the bowels and viscera are hidden in the body, they are in darkness. How is it one knows external things? Because there are apertures, so there is light. Now Ananda isn’t referring to them as eyes in his analogy, but as apertures. Ananda is really smart. He’s extremely intelligent. Ha!

Ananda is more intelligent than we are. We couldn’t think of so many ways to answer. How many methods has he come up with already? He has one opinion after another. Whatever the Buddha asks, he has an answer for it. If the Buddha were to ask us now, I’m afraid that we won’t necessarily have such a clever answer. He always got something to say; he’s full of theories and arguments and thoughts and ponderations. He was, after all, foremost among the disciples in learning. Where there is no principle, he can expound a principle. He would have made a first-rate lawyer.

Viscera and bowels lie inside the bodies of living beings, while the orifices are open to the exterior. There is darkness at the viscera and light at the orifices. To simply reiterate the meaning of this passage: Ananda had said that living being’s body includes the five viscera and six bowels inside, and the orifices are open to the exterior. Because the viscera and bowels are hidden inside, there is no light but darkness. Since the orifices are on the outside, there is light.

Ananda then continued to say: Now, as I face the Buddha and open my eyes, I see light: that is to see outside. When I close my eyes and see darkness, that is to see within. When I see light, it is seeing outside; when I see darkness, it is seeing inside. How does that principle sound? What do you say to that?