[And so on for all the six senses.]
Ananda said to the Buddha, World Honored One, as the Buddha has
said, The resolve for enlightenment on the causeground which seeks
the eternal must be in mutual accord with the ground of
fruition.
World Honored One, the ground of fruition is Bodhi; Nirvana; true
suchness; the Buddha-nature; the Amala- Consciousness; the Empty
Treasury of the Thus Come One; the great, Perfect Mirror-Wisdom.
But although it is called by these seven names, it is pure and
perfect, its substance is durable, like royal vajra, everlasting
and indestructible.
If the seeing and hearing are apart from light and darkness,
movement and stillness, and penetration and obstruction and are
ultimately devoid of substance, they are then like thoughts apart
from sense-objects: they do not exist at all.
How can what is ultimately destroyed be a cause by which one
cultivates in the hope of obtaining the fruition of the Thus Come
Ones sevenfold permanent abode?
World Honored One, when it is apart from light and darkness, the
seeing is ultimately empty, just as when there is no sense-object,
the essence of thought is extinguished.
I go back and forth in circles, minutely searching, and basically
there is no such thing as my mind or its objects. Just what should
be used to seek the Unsurpassed Enlightenment?
The Thus Come One previously said it was a tranquil essence,
perfect and eternal. His present contradiction defies belief and is
a resort to idle theorizing. How can the Thus Come Ones words be
true and actual?
I only hope the Buddha will let fall his great compassion and will
instruct us who do not understand and who are holding on
tightly.
The Buddha told Ananda, You study and learn much, but you have not
yet extinguished outflows. In your mind you know only the causes of
being upside down. But when the true inversion manifests, you
really cannot recognize it yet.
Lest your sincerity and faith remain insufficient, I will try to
make use of an ordinary happening to dispel your doubts."
Then the Thus Come One instructed Rahula to strike the bell
once, and he asked Ananda, Did you hear that?
Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said, We heard
it.
The bell ceased to sound, and the Buddha again asked, Do you hear
it now?
Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said, We do not
hear it.
Then Rahula struck the bell once again. The Buddha again asked, Do
you hear it now?
Ananda and the Great Assembly again said, We hear it.
The Buddha asked Ananda, What do you hear and what do you not
hear?
Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said to the
Buddha, When the bell is rung, we hear it. Once the sound of the
bell ceases, so that even its echo fades away, we do not hear
it.
The Thus Come One again instructed Rahula to strike the bell, and
he asked Ananda, Is there sound now?
Ananda and the members of the Great Assembly all said, There is a
sound.
After a short time the sound ceased, and the Buddha again asked,
Is there a sound now?
Ananda and the Great Assembly answered, There is no sound.
After a moment, Rahula again struck the bell, and the Buddha again
asked, Is there sound now?
Ananda and the Great Assembly said together, There is
sound.
The Buddha asked Ananda, What is meant by sound, and what is
meant by no sound?
Ananda and the Great Assembly told the Buddha, When the bell is
struck there is sound. Once the sound ceases and even the echo
fades away, there is said to be no sound.
The Buddha said to Ananda and the Great Assembly, Why are you
inconsistent in what you say?
The Great Assembly and Ananda then asked the Buddha, In what way
have we been inconsistent?
The Buddha said, When I asked you if it was your hearing, you said
it was your hearing. Then, when I asked you if it was sound, you
said it was sound. I cannot ascertain from your answers if it is
hearing or if it is sound. How can you not say this
is inconsistent?
Ananda, when the sound is gone without an echo, you say there is
no hearing. If there were really no hearing, the hearing nature
would be extinguished. It would be just like dead wood. If then the
bell were sounded again, how would you know?
What you know to be there or not there is the defiling object of
sound. But could the hearing nature be there or not be there
depending on your perception of its being there or not? If the
hearing could really not be there, what would perceive that it was
not?
And so, Ananda, the sounds that you hear are what are subject to
production and extinction, not your hearing. The arising and
cessation of sounds cause your hearing-nature to be as if there or
not there.
You are so upside-down that you mistake sound for hearing. No
wonder you are so confused that you take what is everlasting for
what is annihilated. Ultimately, you cannot say that there is no
hearing nature apart from movement and stillness and from
obstruction and penetration."
http://online.sfsu.edu/%7Erone/Buddhism/Sh...0526.screen.pdf
