Collected below are many of the references contained in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra to the Dharma practice that lead to awakening for Avalokiteśvara. First is a description by Avalokiteśvara of the practice, followed by several detailed observations by Mañjuśrī detailing the benefits and reasons for inclining towards this method.
I began with a practice based on the enlightened nature of hearing. First I redirected my hearing inward in order to enter the current of the sages. Then external sounds disappeared. With the direction of my hearing reversed and with sounds stilled, both sounds and silence ceased to arise. So it was that, as I gradually progressed, what I heard and my awareness of what I heard came to an end. Even when that state of mind in which everything had come to an end disappeared, I did not rest. My awareness and the objects of my awareness were emptied, and when that process of emptying my awareness was wholly complete, then even that emptying and what had been emptied vanished. Coming into being and ceasing to be themselves ceased to be. Then the ultimate stillness was revealed.
Avalokiteśvara in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
An intermittent practice’s results are intermittent. How could awareness guide all beings to enlightenment? I now respectfully say this to the World-Honored One – The One who came to be a Buddha in this Sahā world in order to transmit to us the true, essential teaching meant for this place – I say that purity is found through hearing. All those who wish to gain samādhi’s mastery will surely find that hearing is the way to enter. For leaving suffering behind and gaining liberation, how excellent the method that the One Who Hears the Cries of the World has just proclaimed! Throughout the ages many as the River Ganges’ sands, he enters countless Buddha-lands. He has the ease of mastery and he bestows his fearlessness on beings in danger. Most wondrous is the voice of the One Who Hears the Cries! Its sound is pure and like the ocean-tide! Throughout the worlds he rescues worldly beings, brings them peace, and if they wish, he helps them leave the world and reach nirvana everlasting! I now can recommend respectfully the practice taught by the One Who Hears the Cries of the World. A being whose mind is tranquil hears the sound of drumbeats coming from all ten directions, and yet he’ll hear each of the drums distinctly. And so our hearing faculty must be the perfect one, the one that’s genuine and true.
Mañjuśrī in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
No other faculty’s the equal of our hearing; both true and genuine, it is the one for breaking through. We’re capable of hearing sounds and silence both; they may be present to the ear or not. Though people say that when no sound is present, our hearing must be absent too, in fact our hearing does not lapse. It does not cease with silence; neither is it born of sound. Our hearing, then, is genuine and true. It is the everlasting one.
Mañjuśrī in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
And when cognition ceases in a dream, that does not mean that hearing is suspended. The ear’s awareness goes beyond mere thought. No other faculty, of mind or body, can ever be the equal of our hearing. And now, for beings of this Sahā world, I have explained the method based on hearing. Confused about the nature of our hearing, beings, by permitting their attention to go out pursuing sounds, have bound themselves to birth and death’s unending cycle.
Mañjuśrī in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
Ananda, listen closely! Aided by the awe-inspiring power of the Buddha, I have now explained to you indestructible, beyond the reach of mundane thought, this regal, genuine, and marvelous samādhi. It is the mother of all Buddhas. Though you may hear of all the secret Dharma-gateways learning them is useless if you first do not get rid of all your outflows, which are based upon desire. You’ve heard and practiced all these Buddhas’ Buddha-Dharmas; why haven’t you been hearing your own hearing? People say that hearing comes about because of sounds, not on its own. If that’s what you call ‘hearing,’ though, then when you turn your hearing round and set it free from sounds, what name are you to give to that which is set free? Return just one of the perceiving faculties back to its source, and all six faculties will then be free. For what we hear is mere illusion, like the objects of our vision – like what is seen by one whose eyes are covered by a film. The Threefold Realm is like those flowers in an empty sky, but turn the hearing inward, and the faculties are cured. Their objects vanish, and awareness is completely pure. In perfect purity, the brilliance of awareness shines unhindered and in still illumination of all space, in contemplating worldly things as the events of dreams.
Mañjuśrī in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
Great Assembly! Ānanda! Halt the puppet show of your distorted hearing! Merely turn your hearing round to listen to your genuine true nature, which is the destination of the Path that is supreme.This is the genuine way to break through to enlightenment. It is the way that the innumerable Buddhas followed straight to nirvana’s gate. All Thus-Come Ones of eons past succeeded by this method. Through this method, Bodhisattvas, too, right now are gaining perfect understanding. Among the people of the future, those who undertakea spiritual practice should rely upon this teaching. I myself became enlightened by this very method. He Who Hears the Cries is not the only one.
Mañjuśrī in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra
The best of all the methods is the practice taught by the One Who Hears the Cries of the World. The sages who attained enlightenment by other means were aided by the Buddha’s awe-inspiring spiritual power, and each was specially taught how to abandon all affliction. Some of these paths are shallow, some go deep; these teachings vary. I bow now in respect to all the Buddhas, and I bow to all their Dharma-treasuries and to the marvelous ones who’ve put an end to outflows. And may beings of the future be empowered so that they will have no doubts that this one method is the most accessible. It is the easiest way to reach enlightenment. It is the teaching most appropriate for Ānanda and for the beings drowning in the Dharma’s ending-time. They only need this practice of the faculty of hearing for them to break through to enlightenment, for it surpasses all the other methods. It is the genuine path to the true mind.
Mañjuśrī in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra