In the first volume of the Surangama Sutra, Ananda passed by a brothel while begging for alms and encountered a great illusion. He saw Matangi use heretical arts to seduce him. For a moment, Ananda's mind was captivated, and his precepts were on the verge of being broken. At the time, the Tathagata was attending a banquet hosted by the King of Persia. Sensing that Ananda had been afflicted by sorcery, he left the feast, chanted the Buddhist teachings, and sent Manjushri to protect Ananda.
At that time, Matangi was caressing Venerable Ananda's body. His appearance was exceptionally handsome and dignified; every woman who saw him would feel reverence and affection. When Ananda became a monk, many young girls had deeply regretted it.
He was not only handsome but compassionate as well. Perhaps because incense had to be burned when chanting Buddhist scriptures, the Venerable carried a pleasant fragrance.
The Buddha said that since time without beginning, all living beings had continued through life and death because they did not know the pure, luminous essence of their eternally abiding true minds. Instead, they used all manner of deluded thoughts. These thoughts were unreal, and thus there was the cycle of rebirth. Those who sought unsurpassed Bodhi should truly illuminate their nature and answer my questions with a straightforward heart.
The joy born of the eyes and the mind lay in the eyes and the mind. If one did not know where the mind and eyes were, one could not subdue the afflictions of the mundane world.
Before her eyes, Matangi, who had been coiled around the dignified high monk, turned into a snake. It was massive and brilliantly colored, like the "giant python" Pomona had seen winding around a tree through the Serpentine Beast window that day.
Every word spoken