The Surangama Sutra is a Mahayana Buddhist scripture, transmitted and studied chiefly in Chinese Buddhism, that survives complete only in a Chinese translation traditionally credited to Paramiti in 705 CE, no Sanskrit original having survived and its authenticity as an Indian composition having been questioned by scholars since at least the Song dynasty. Its teaching centers on a sustained investigation into the nature of mind, refuting in turn several proposed locations for where the mind actually resides, and on the practice framework built around Avalokiteshvara's method of contemplating sound. It became especially influential within Chan Buddhism, where it is counted among the tradition's core texts and is still recited in full in many Chinese Buddhist monasteries as part of the morning liturgy.
Facts
Origins
Era of Compositionshowed how many of the text's doctrinal elements may be traced to sources that already existed in China at the beginning of the eighth century 1 Authenticity disputed: traditional accounts describe a translation from Sanskrit into Chinese in 705 or 713 CE; several modern scholars (Mochizuki, Muller, Mizuno, Benn) instead consider it a Chinese apocryphal composition. Both readings converge on the early eighth century, which is recorded, without resolving the translation-versus-composition dispute. Era of CompositionTraditionally dated by its Chinese translation colophon to 705 CE; its status as a genuine Indian composition of that period, a Central Asian compilation, or a Chinese composition presented as translated, has been debated by scholars since at least the Song dynasty and remains unsettled. 2 Whether the sutra is a translation of a lost Indian or Central Asian original or a Chinese composition is a genuine scholarly disagreement, not a settled question either way. LanguageNo Sanskrit original survives; the complete text exists only in the Chinese translation attributed to Paramiti, which is the basis of all later study and translation, including into English. Status
Canonical Status Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 2 Recited in full as part of the morning liturgy in many Chinese Buddhist monasteries today. Text
Literary Form Structure
StructureTen fascicles in the standard Chinese Buddhist canon, opening from Ananda's near seduction and moving through teaching on the nature of mind, twenty five methods of enlightened perception and the Surangama Mantra. 2 Learn More
The Mind That Cannot Be Found
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
A large stretch of the Surangama Sutra is built around a single, deceptively simple question the Buddha puts to his disciple Ananda: where is your mind? Ananda offers one answer after another, inside the body, outside it, hidden in the sense organs, in between, nowhere in particular, and the Buddha methodically dismantles each proposal in turn, showing that mind cannot be pinned to any location a listener would naturally reach for. The exercise is not a trick question so much as a demonstration in real time of how readily the mind is mistaken for a thing sitting somewhere, when the sutra's whole argument is that it is not that kind of object at all.
The text's own history mirrors the question it asks about the mind: nothing about its origin sits where a reader would expect it to. No Sanskrit manuscript of the Surangama Sutra has ever surfaced, and the sole complete text is a Chinese translation whose own translator and transmission history scholars have debated since at least the Song dynasty, some defending it as a genuine, if now lost, Indian or Central Asian original and others arguing it was composed directly in Chinese and presented as translated work. The sutra survived and flourished in Chinese Buddhism regardless of how that question is finally settled, becoming one of the most recited texts in the Chan tradition specifically because its investigation into where mind is and is not spoke directly to Chan's own central concern with the nature of mind itself.
Surangama Sutra
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Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Surangama Sutra (Charles Luk)Charles Luk (Lu K'uan Yu), translator
In Language
Originates in Language
Source The Surangama Sutra (Charles Luk)Charles Luk (Lu K'uan Yu), translator
Sources
1. Surangama Sutra (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia: Surangama Sutra, Comparison to known apocryphal sutras section
According to James Benn, the Japanese scholar Mochizuki Shinko's Bukkyo kyoten seiritsu shiron "showed how many of the text's doctrinal elements may be traced to sources that already existed in China at the beginning of the eighth century."
- In Group: Mahayana Buddhist Sutras
View the Source2. The Surangama Sutra (Charles Luk)
Charles Luk (Lu K'uan Yu), translator, Rider and Company, London, 1966Originates in Language: Classical Chinese, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: classical-chinese
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