Visual Awareness Does Not Perish
Having heard the Buddha’s teachings, Ānanda and the great assembly all felt calm and serene, their bodies at ease and their minds in peace. They realized that since beginningless time they had strayed from the primordial mind. They had been mistaken about conditioned objects, and they had made distinctions about mental formations, which are empty in essence. Now they all had awakened, and each was like a lost infant suddenly reunited with its loving mother. Putting their palms together, they bowed to the Buddha. They couldn’t wait to hear the Buddha reveal the contrasting qualities of body and mind — what is true and what is false, what is real and what is insubstantial, what comes into being and then ceases to be, and what neither comes into being nor perishes.
爾時阿難，及諸大眾。聞佛示誨，身心泰然。念無始來，失卻本心。妄認緣塵，分別影事。今日開悟，如失乳兒，忽遇慈母。合掌禮佛。願聞如來，顯出身心，真妄虛實，現前生滅與不生滅，二發明性。
Then King Prasenajit stood up and said to the Buddha, “Before I became a disciple of the Buddha, I met Kātyāyana and Vairāṭiputra, both of whom said that when this body dies, we cease to exist and become nothing. That very nothingness itself is what they called nirvana. Now, though I have met the Buddha, I am still wondering about what they said. How can I come to realize the true and fundamental mind that neither comes into being nor perishes? All others in this great assembly who still have outflows wish to hear the answer too.”
時波斯匿王，起立白佛。我昔未承諸佛誨敕。見迦旃延毗羅胝子。咸言此身死後斷滅，名為涅槃。我雖值佛，今猶狐疑。云何發揮證知此心，不生滅地。今此大眾，諸有漏者，咸皆願聞。
The Buddha said to the king, “Now I ask you, is your body as indestructible as vajra, or is it subject to decay?”
The king answered, “Your Holiness, this body of mine will keep on changing till it perishes in the end.”
The Buddha said, “Great King, you have not perished yet. How is it that you know you will perish?”
“Your Holiness, my body is impermanent and subject to decay, although it has not perished yet.” The king said, “But now, upon reflection, I can see that each one of my thoughts just fades away, followed by a new thought which also does not last, like fire turning into ash, constantly dying away, forever perishing. By this I am convinced that my body, too, must perish.”
The Buddha said, “So it is, you are in your declining years. How do you look now, compared to when you were a boy?”
“When I was a child, my skin was firm and smooth, and I was full of vital energy in my prime. But now in my later years, as old age presses upon me, my body has become withered and weary. My vital spirits are dulled, my hair is white, my skin is wrinkled. Not much time remains for me. How can all this compare to the prime of life?”
The Buddha said, “Great King, your body’s appearance cannot have deteriorated suddenly.”
The king replied, “Your Holiness, the change has in fact been so subtle that I have hardly been aware of it. I’ve reached this point only gradually through the passing of the years. When I was in my twenties, I was still young, but I already looked older than when I was ten. My thirties marked a further decline from my twenties, and now, at two years past sixty, I look back on my fifties as a time of strength and health.”
“Your Holiness, as I observe these subtle transformations, I realize that the changes wrought by this descent toward death are evident not only from decade to decade; they can also be discerned in smaller increments. Examining more closely, one can see that changes happen year by year even. In fact, such changes happen every month. But how could they occur from month to month only? These changes must be happening day by day. And if one contemplates this deeply, one can see that there is change from moment to moment, constantly, along with each successive thought. Therefore, I know that my body will keep on changing till it perishes.”
佛告大王。汝身現在。今復問汝。汝此肉身，為同金剛常住不朽，為復變壞。世尊，我今此身，終從變滅。佛言大王。汝未曾滅，云何知滅。世尊，我此無常變壞之身雖未曾滅。我觀現前，念念遷謝，新新不住。如火成灰，漸漸銷殞。殞亡不息，決知此身，當從滅盡。佛言：如是，大王，汝今生齡，已從衰老，顏貌何如童子之時。世尊，我昔孩孺，膚腠潤澤。年至長成，血氣充滿。而今頹齡。迫於衰耄，形色枯悴，精神昏昧，髮白面皺，逮將不久，如何見比充盛之時。佛言大王。汝之形容，應不頓朽。王言世尊。變化密移，我誠不覺。寒暑遷流，漸至於此。何以故。我年二十，雖號年少顏貌已老初十歲時。三十之年，又衰二十。於今六十，又過於二，觀五十時，宛然強壯。世尊，我見密移。雖此殂落。其間流易，且限十年。若復令我微細思惟，其變寧唯一紀二紀，實為年變。豈唯年變。亦兼月化。何直月化。兼又日遷。沈思諦觀，剎那剎那，念念之間，不得停住。故知我身，終從變滅。
The Buddha said, “Observing these changes — these never-ceasing transformations — you know that you must perish. But do you also know that when you perish, something in you does not perish with you?”
Putting his palms together, King Prasenajit replied to the Buddha, “Indeed I do not know.”
The Buddha said, “I now will reveal to you what it is that neither comes into being nor perishes. When you first saw the River Ganges, how old were you?”
The king replied, “I was three when my beloved mother took me to pay respects to the goddess Jīva. When we went past a river, I knew that it was the Ganges.”
The Buddha said, “You said that when you were in your twenties, you already looked older comparing to when you were ten. Year after year, month after month, day after day, until you have reached sixty now, there have been always changes about your looks along with each thought coming and going. Now consider this: when you were three years old, you saw the river for the first time; ten years later, when you were thirteen, what was the river like?”
The king replied, “It looked the same when I was thirteen as it did when I was three, and even now, when I am sixty-two, it is still the same.”
The Buddha said, “Now you are mournful that your hair is white and your face more wrinkled than when you were in your youth. But when you look at the Ganges now, is your visual awareness any different from your visual awareness as it was when you saw the river in your boyhood?”
The king replied, “No difference, Your Holiness.”
The Buddha said, “Great King, your face is wrinkled, but the essential nature of your visual awareness has not wrinkled. What wrinkles is subject to change. What does not wrinkle does not change. What changes will perish. But what does not change neither comes into being nor perishes. Then how could it be affected by your being born and dead? So you have no need to be concerned with what such people as Maskari Gośālīputra say: that when this body dies, you cease to exist.”
The king believed every word he had heard to be true, and he now realized that when we leave this body, we go on to another. He and the entire assembly were elated at having gained a new understanding.
佛告大王。汝見變化，遷改不停，悟知汝滅。亦於滅時，汝知身中有不滅耶。波斯匿王。合掌白佛。我實不知。佛言，我今示汝不生滅性。大王，汝年幾時，見恒河水。王言：我生三歲，慈母攜我，謁耆婆天，經過此流，爾時即知是恒河水。佛言大王。如汝所說，二十之時，衰於十歲，乃至六十，日月歲時，念念遷變。則汝三歲見此河時，至年十三，其水。云何。王言：如三歲時，宛然無異。乃至於今，年六十二，亦無有異，佛言：汝今自傷髮白面皺。其面必定皺於童年。則汝今時，觀此恒河，與昔童時，觀河之見，有童耄不。王言：不也，世尊。佛言大王。汝面雖皺，而此見精，性未曾皺。皺者為變。不皺非變。變者受滅。彼不變者，元無生滅。云何於中受汝生死。而猶引彼末伽黎等，都言此身死後全滅。王聞是言。信知身後捨生趣生。與諸大眾，踊躍歡喜，得未曾有。
Buddha Mind 