| Summary: | 碩士 === 華梵大學 === 東方人文思想研究所 === 96 === Our body and mind is constrained by Six Sense-organs, Six Fields of Sense , Six Consciousnesses , and Five Skandhas . The power of karma’s seeds is accumulated generation after generation in the Container consciousness. It does not stop arising, abiding, changing and extinction. If the mind has not been purified, then after death our souls will be hauled by the power of karma in the three realms and six paths in the unceasing cycle of transmigration. This is because of the impure heart.
The Earth Store Sutra says: All thoughts of our mind are Karma. In this thesis, the fifty Skandha-Demon States have been discussed in order to understand how it works and how demons confuse a cultivator. Only when the heart feels no difference and the mind doesn’t attach to anything will we not be confused.
This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter explains the motivation of this study. The primary intention of the Shurangama Sutra is to destroy the false thought and to reveal truth; to distinguish between Buddha and demon in critical moments; and to let those who seek liberation to not be blocked by the fifty Skandha-Demon States , one can be released from the wheel of transmigration and enter the Nirvana. The approach of this thesis follows the teachings of the sage the Shurangama Sutra , and cites the related classical documents to explain the essential concepts.
Chapter 2 Explains how the Shurangama Sutra was transmitted into China from the west , its main points and its importance.
Chapter 3 explains the meaning of the five skandhas. If the skandha accumulates, it can cover the real heart, so Master Ananda could not find his real heart in seven places . However, Tathagata clearly showed him the Buddha-nature within oneself in places . One’s own real heart can not be born or destroyed. The five skandhas are illusory and turn out from Tathagatagarbha (the real heart), These two have no difference.
Chapter 4 discusses the circulation of arising, abiding, changing and extinction conditions. The rise and fall of their causes are also described. There is no self-nature for these causes, but ordinary people think falsely that the subject of our life inconsistent and never ending . So it causes many misled attachments. When we observe this phenomena carefully, it looks like the Buddha's Preaching A Wisdom Sutra about a Benevolent King saying : One thought consists of 90 moments and one moment has 900 births and deaths. Therefore, one thought contains 81000 births and deaths. It changes so fast it is unimaginable. In this chapter, The Awakening of Mahayana Faith, Discourse on the Theory of Consciousness-only, Discourse on the Stages of Concentration Practice, and Abhidharma Storehouse Treatise ,were compared for their equivalence and their homologies.
Chpater 5 clearly defines the function of the evil demon. Although the evil demon symbolizes destruction,it can help us by enhancing ourselves via resisting obstructions to free ourselves from the afflictions of birth and death. When the cultivators study hard in certain states, and the five skandhas are about to diminish, the evil demons will appear in this moment, indicating their skill has reached the level of accepting a test. So the skandhas of form, feeling, thought, formations, and consciousness,each have ten states. If each of the skandhas are not well illustrated by sagehood, one will be vulnerable to the demons’ influence, even though one thought one was in a good state .
This chapter offers a framework for arising, abiding, changing and extinction is described to analyse all kinds of the appearances in the skandha, which are illusions . If we are not confused by them then they will disappear, which means a big step toward liberation and Nirvana. But if we are confused by the demons, then we will fall into evil ways, which means eternal suffering.
Chapter 6 is the conclusion that Buddha and demon have no difference because they both come from the real heart. So we must know how to handle our own hearts. Looking into the future of the 21st century, human being has three widespread and serious diseases: cancer, AIDS, and hypochondria. Among these three diseases, hypochondria, which is caused by false minds, is very elusive and complex. Therefore,the suicide number increases. In the conclusion, I hope to use this research in the arising, abiding, changing and extinction of the fifty skandha-demon states, to help clarify problems in modern society and to pursue the attainment of enlightenment.
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