For the sake of Mind-Seal, and because the causal ground must be correct, we shall first explain the Section on Inspiring Potential. Qi means to inspire: to inspire the potential of the assembly, arouse in them faith, earnest resolve, and the courageous resolve to put the teaching into practice, so that they may accord with the sūtras and treatises taught by the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Thus they turn delusion into awakening, cross beyond suffering and adversity, and transcend birth and death.

Further, this inspires each person's inherent roots and gives them the true Dharma according to whether their capacities are sharp or dull. Capacities may be sharp or dull, but there is no fixed Dharma; that which accords with one's capacity is correct. We therefore first expound the Dharma to inspire and guide them, and to test and observe them. This is the preliminary expedient before the transmission of Dharma in this assembly, enabling beginners first to understand how to arouse bodhicitta, the initial step in entering the Buddha's path.

Of all dharma gates, arousing the resolve is the foremost difficulty and the foremost essential matter. A sūtra says, “The moment one arouses the resolve, one becomes a Buddha.” This single thought is of immense and inconceivable consequence; practitioners must not dismiss it as merely an initial step. In every worldly undertaking, there must be a primary reason: “Why?”

Why have you all come to hear the Dharma? Before hearing it, each of you should ask yourself: Why have I come here to hear the Dharma? Now remain silent for one minute. In this single minute, the state of mind of you all will already have progressed, already transcending to the other shore. This is self-nature questioning itself. For to ask oneself a question is to contemplate one's own nature in reverse; to turn back is to reach the shore—this is the turning of a single thought.

To enter sagehood from the ordinary state requires only this one turn. For forty-nine years, the Buddha taught immeasurable wondrous Dharma only to teach sentient beings this one turn. Yet the Buddha's difficulty is that he cannot turn on another's behalf. People must question themselves, contemplate their own nature in reverse, and themselves turn suffering into happiness and delusion into awakening. It is not that people cannot do so; it is that they do not do so. Thus the Buddha cannot make the crossing on anyone’s behalf. Each person must liberate themselves.

The wise seek the mind, not the Buddha; the foolish seek the Buddha, not the mind. For thousands of years, practitioners have undergone arduous cultivation for decades, taken the wrong path, and failed to reach the ultimate. The crucial point lies here. This point is the practitioner's initial causal ground. If the causal ground is not correct, the more one cultivates, the more confused one becomes. I have personally suffered in this way, and so I urge you all to examine yourselves and make the root clear. If the causal ground is correct, the ground of fruition will also be correct in the future. Never take what has gone before lightly.

But some may say: if one does not seek the Buddha but seeks only oneself, why must the Buddha expound the Dharma, and why must I study Buddhism? This is an entirely valid question. Yet when the Buddha descends into the world, he comes as a physician; if sentient beings were not ill, the Buddha would have no use. It is precisely because sentient beings are ill that medicine is indispensable. Those who are ill should note three things: first, the patient; second, the physician; third, taking the medicine.

If one disregards the patient and does not ask about taking medicine, but seeks only the physician's blessing, what use is that? To say that one does not seek the Buddha does not mean discarding the physician and the medicine; to seek oneself does not mean leaving behind the physician and the medicine. Once the illness is cured, however, the physician and medicine are no longer needed. One may then transmit all dharma gates to other patients; this is benefiting oneself and benefiting others.

What, then, is the method of seeking oneself? Worldly people are deluded and do not understand how to consult a physician. Is not consulting a physician meant to cure illness? Yet surely one does not abandon the treatment of one's present illness and merely ask the physician to guarantee that one will not become ill in the future. Today's students of Buddhism devoutly worship the Buddha and seek future blessings, but do not remove their present suffering and habitual tendencies. How is their folly any different?

Worldly people seek future blessings precisely because of their present suffering. They do not know that relieving present suffering is itself a blessing; there is no need to wait for future blessings. Future matters have their own cause and effect and must not be reversed or confused. Those in the heavenly realms and those who enjoy wealth and rank among humans often refuse to cultivate. Precisely because their present blessings are so great, they indulge in ease and pleasure and do not know to reflect upon themselves; thus they mislead themselves. Therefore, to remedy all illnesses, one must distinguish cause and effect clearly and recognize the path clearly.

First, know the illness: one must first recognize where one's own illness lies. This illness concerns birth and death and is of the utmost gravity. Then one must courageously arouse the resolve, sincerely seek a physician, and honestly take the medicine. Second, understand the physician: one must recognize the physician's responsibility and its significance, and whether one can rely entirely on the physician without relying on oneself. Third, use the medicine: one must understand the medicine's nature, how it should be used, and what reactions it may produce as it removes the illness.

Sweating, vomiting, and purging are precisely the removal of illness; they are not the addition of illness. If one becomes doubtful because of them, that is a great mistake. These three levels are ordinary knowledge for patients; why can those who study Buddhism not be the same?

To know one's own illness is simply to know the suffering of human life. Worldly people do not understand the meaning of suffering. They think that lacking adequate clothing, food, and shelter is suffering. They do not know that this is merely apparent suffering, suffering judged by comparison, and not yet true suffering.

There are certainly people in the world whose clothing, food, and shelter are all sufficient, yet they remain anxious and unsettled; they may not even obtain a peaceful meal or a peaceful night's sleep. Why is this? In times of disorder, the wealthy suffer even more pain and fear. From this we know that suffering does not truly lie in such things. The fundamental suffering of human life lies in mistakenly taking this one lifetime to be all there is, believing that when this life ends, everything ends.

Thus those who indulge themselves end up creating karma and committing evil, indulging in licentious luxury and dissipation. They think that after death and so forth, since they will see nothing, it is definitively nonexistent. With this annihilationist view, what reckless deed would they not commit? The present world war, international conflicts, human cruelty, and even suicide all arise from this error of a single thought. It misleads oneself and others and grows ever more intense.

Therefore one must first understand the principle of cause and effect across the three periods of time. If there were no cause and effect, evil people need not receive retribution and good people would have no result; what kind of world could there then be? Therefore cause and effect is called a law; it is fundamentally unshakable. Cause and effect extend through the three periods of time. Everything in this life necessarily arises from prior causes and necessarily turns into later results. Of two children born to the same parents, one may become a thief and the other a sage.

Different fruits arise from different causal grounds. Causes include remote causes and immediate causes; results likewise include present results and later results. Cause and result succeed one another like a wheel, turning upward or downward, toward good or bad, according to what people themselves create. Therefore, not understanding the three periods of time is not understanding cause and effect. If cause and effect are not understood, there is no way to enter into faith in the Buddhadharma. Such a person will ultimately sink into the round of suffering and cannot be saved.

The hardships people undergo in this life all arise from karma created through prior causes. Evil karma from past lives is a remote cause; laziness and deceit are immediate causes. Although a poor person may suffer because of evil causes from past lives, if they can be diligent, prudent, and honest, they create another good cause and may thereby turn misfortune into good fortune, or transform what is heavy into what is light. This too is the law of the transformations of cause and effect; its power still rests in human hands.

When people today, before their clothing, food, and shelter have been adequately provided for, investigate the causes of their immediate fears, they are no more than the following: the hardships of daily life; demand exceeding supply; insufficient production; everyone's greed for convenience and desire to gain without labor; the ease with which the powerful acquire things and the ease with which the licentious seek them; people's lack of morality; killing, theft, and sexual misconduct

becoming habitual; superstitious attachment to greed, anger, and ignorance; short-sightedness, seeking only immediate advantage through inverted views; not understanding the three periods of time or cause and effect; lack of awakening; not hearing the true Dharma; being busy all day with no time for this; and the lack of adequate clothing, food, and shelter.

When people's clothing, food, and shelter have already been adequately provided for, the fears that bring future suffering likewise arise from no more than the following: the world's lack of peace; the abundance of thieves; the preponderance of evil over good among humankind; inequality between rich and poor; the greed and stinginess of human hearts; unwillingness to give; not understanding the three periods of time, cause and effect, and the principle of recompense for giving; lack of awakening; not hearing the true Dharma; being busy with no time for this; and being unsatisfied despite having adequate clothing, food, and shelter.

In brief, the suffering of sentient beings is entirely karma they create themselves; at root, it is due to lack of awakening. Because they are not awakened, they become greedy. Whether they crave wealth, fame, or profit, they all cling to the word “I.” Thus the self is the root of all suffering. Now, at the beginning of cultivation, the aim is to use the Buddhadharma to remove the root of one's own illness. Therefore we must explain the Buddha, explain the Dharma, and explain the Saṅgha.

Having understood what these three are, we must then explain the self. To understand the basis of the self is to consult the physician, obtain a prescription, and remove the illness. Scholars in recent times often delight in what is lofty and profound and seek quick results. When they study Buddhism, they also enter by way of the middle rather than the beginning. Thus their roots are not firm and their foundation is unclear. Even after cultivating for many years, they cling rigidly to words, mix in views of self, and consequently cannot understand the meanings in an all-encompassing way. From this arise sectarian divisions, disputes over superiority and inferiority, doubt, slander, and regression. All of these belong to this illness. Therefore, one must be especially careful with the causal ground.

Explaining the Buddha

Buddha means great awakening. It is an honorific title established on the basis of his virtues, not the name of a particular individual. The Sanskrit word buddha was transliterated into Chinese in full as 佛陀 (Fótuó) and abbreviated as 佛 (Fó); it is one of the Tathāgata’s ten epithets. It is also called wisdom-awakening: awakened oneself and awakening others. It refers to one whose awakening is complete and wondrous. It is also called all-knowing wisdom, for it knows clearly and distinctly the principle and phenomena of all dharmas, without any delusion; hence the name Buddha.

Ordinary beings are unawakened; those of the two vehicles awaken themselves but cannot awaken others; bodhisattvas awaken themselves and others, but their practice is not yet complete; the Buddha, however, has perfect enlightenment. The title Buddha has the same meaning as such words as sage and worthy. When it is said, “The Master is surely a sage,” it means that Confucius's state of mind had entered the realm of sagehood. All people can become Yao or Shun, and all sentient beings can become Buddhas; this is the meaning.

A state of mind belongs to mind. Mind is called the ground, and also the field of intrinsic nature. A field possesses the wondrous capacity for unceasing growth; therefore intrinsic nature is called Buddha-land and Buddha-seed. Buddha-land does not refer only to the land of Śākyamuni Buddha's manifestation. There are two kinds of Buddha: causal Buddhas and fruition Buddhas. Fruition Buddhas include Śākyamuni Tathāgata and others who have already accomplished Buddhahood.

A causal Buddha means that my mind and all sentient beings, at the causal ground, can all become Buddhas. Thus it is said, “Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings—these three are without distinction.” The nature of awakening is originally equal in all, and all can become Buddhas. Upon cultivating to the ground of awakening, it is also called the Buddha-ground, opening Buddha-wisdom, opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision, and the Buddha-eye. The Buddha-eye is formed by combining the dharma eye, wisdom eye, heavenly eye, and physical eye.

The eye is mind. Sentient beings are collectively divided into ten realms, and the ten realms are mind alone. The Buddha is the highest among the ten realms. Only the Buddha is not called a sentient being; the other nine realms—bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, śrāvakas, devas, humans, asuras, animals, ghosts, and hell beings—are all called sentient beings, because their afflictions have not been eliminated. To enter Buddhahood from the ordinary state, one should rely on the Dharma; this is called the Buddhadharma.

The Dharma is like a vehicle by which one crosses over; this is called the Buddha vehicle. It is divided into the lesser vehicle, the two vehicles, and the great vehicle. By this one understands the Way; it is called the Buddha Way and the Buddha Seal. The Way is the supreme treasure of the worldly and supramundane realms, beyond comparison; therefore it is called the Buddha Treasure. When Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha accord and seal one another, the Treasure appears. The three are one. Therefore everyone possesses Buddha-nature, and everyone can become a Buddha, just like Śākyamuni Buddha.

Becoming a Buddha does not mean emitting light, sitting upon a lotus, or changing one’s form. We bow to and revere the Buddha every day because we admire the virtues of Śākyamuni Buddha and wish to learn from and emulate him, attaining the same luminous perfect enlightenment. It is like revering Confucius: one willingly studies to become a sage, not to become Confucius; nor can Confucius make one into a sage.

Yet one cannot avoid relying on an image for contemplation and emulation; thus Buddhist images are established and used as mirrors. But if one has a mirror and cannot reflect upon oneself, it is ultimately of no benefit. Looking into a mirror without removing one’s defilements is likewise of no benefit. Only practitioners who cultivate sincerely and do not deceive themselves may be called children of the Buddha or children of the Dharma. The Tathāgata has many titles; they will now be briefly explained.

1. Tathāgata: this means that the mind comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; hence it is called the Tathāgata. 2. Worthy of Offerings: this means being worthy to receive offerings from all sentient beings. 3. Perfectly and Universally Knowing: this means being able to know all dharmas universally. Knowing all dharmas to be without distinction is called perfect knowing; wisdom that encompasses all without exception is called universal knowing.

4. Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct: this refers to knowledge of past lives, the heavenly eye, and the exhaustion of outflows, known as the three insights; it is so called because all are fully perfected. 5. Well Gone: this means ascending to the highest state and never returning again. 6. Knower of the World: this means being able to understand all the afflictions and purity of the world. 7. Unsurpassed One: this means that among dharmas, nirvāṇa is unsurpassed, and among sentient beings, the Buddha is unsurpassed; he may also be called a great being.

8. Tamer of Men: this means being able to regulate and guide all sentient beings. 9. Teacher of Humans and Devas: this means being the honored teacher among humans and devas. 10. Buddha: this means awakening—awakening oneself, awakening others, and perfecting awakening and conduct. 11. World-Honored One: this means possessing all the foregoing honored titles and being revered by all humans and devas in the world. 12. Bhagavān: this means possessing six honorable qualities: (1) sovereignty, (2) blazing splendor, (3) dignity, (4) renown, (5) auspiciousness, and (6) nobility. All the foregoing are alternate names for the World-Honored One and merely express his supreme virtues.

Explaining the Dharma

Dharma, in Sanskrit, is dhamma; it means that which pervades all things. Only the Buddha is called the Dharma King, for he penetrates all phenomena. Dharma also means a method, like a boat that can ferry people out of danger; it is called the Dharma raft or Dharma boat. Human intrinsic nature can give rise to all phenomena; it is called the Dharma body, and also Dharma-nature. When one cultivates to the point of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature, one becomes a Dharma-body Buddha.

Understanding difficult Buddhist principles without being deluded by them is called dharma-patience. Understanding and realizing the principle of the unborn is called patience with the unborn dharmas. Being able to understand the true Dharma and use it to liberate others is called the dharma eye, also called the purified dharma eye. The sūtras and teachings spoken by Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past and recorded in writing are called Dharma canons or Dharma maṇḍalas. Their divisions into categories are called dharma gates.

The Dharma has no fixed dharma; all may bring people to life, and thus it is called Dharma milk. When expressed from writing in speech and sound, it is called the Dharma sound; the Dharma sound reaches throughout the ten realms. Since all sentient beings share this same mind, there are ten dharma realms. Sentient beings cling rigidly to dharmas and do not understand transformation; their suffering is thereby multiplied ten thousandfold. This is called attachment to dharmas, also called dharma views and dharma bondage. One should seek a good spiritual friend as one’s teacher, who entrusts one with the true Dharma; such a person is called a Dharma teacher.

The teacher employs various expedient dharma gates to open up my wondrous Dharma lotus. The lotus is my mind, my essence; the wondrous Dharma is the wondrous functioning of my mind. This enables me to attain the unsurpassed wondrous truth, whose meaning is boundless; hence it is also called the flavor of the Dharma and Dharma food. Because its joy and delight are immeasurable, it is called Dharma joy and Dharma bliss. Today’s gathering for study, common discussion, and mutual liberation is called a Dharma assembly.

To transmit the treasure of the One Vehicle Dharma from one person to another in order to liberate others, without allowing it to cease, is called the Dharma wheel’s constant turning. Each of you possesses unsurpassed capacity, sufficient to shoulder the Tathāgata’s anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. This is to be a vessel of the Dharma, just as a vessel can hold things. In sum, the Dharma saves people’s wisdom-life and is therefore called Dharma medicine. When the King of Physicians uses it to save the world, those able to enter this maṇḍala are said to have a Dharma affinity.

Yet all things are empty, and the Dharma too is borrowed for temporary use. Once an illness is cured, medicine must no longer be used; otherwise it becomes a disease of the Dharma. While medicine is now being used, one must cultivate until realizing the empty characteristics of all dharmas; only then may one relinquish the Dharma. Human life is impermanent, and opportunities are hard to encounter again. The time must not be lost.

Explaining the Saṅgha

Saṅgha means an assembly, an assembly of those with virtue. Just as one monk alone does not constitute a saṅgha, there must be at least four people for it to be called a saṅgha; there are saṅghas of ten and saṅghas of twenty, and they must be people of moral conduct. Even virtuous lay practitioners, when gathered together, may be called a saṅgha. Any monk who does not understand the Buddhadharma and does not understand the mind-ground cannot be called a treasure, for he has departed from the Buddhadharma. We revere the Three Treasures.

The Three Treasures are the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. Awakening to it is called Buddha; taking it as the norm is called Dharma; harmonizing with it is called Saṅgha. What does this refer to? What is this thing? It refers only to the treasure of the mind. The monastics who have broken the precepts, of whom the Buddha spoke in the past, were those who still possessed the substance of the precepts and dignified deportment; this does not refer to those today who observe not the slightest precept. They lack even the substance of the precepts, and the outward marks of the precepts are also lost.

If persons of inferior wisdom hear this, they may think that, since there is such expediency, they need only aspire to become monastics who have broken the precepts. Would not the future of the Buddhadharma then be in danger? Moreover, once monks drift into business, it is only natural that they pursue what worldly people favor.

What worldly people favor is of such a low level; how could they then fail to deceive people with sūtra recitations and repentance rites? If the prevailing custom were changed, so that in performing meritorious deeds people did not emphasize outward form but instead invited virtuous elders to explain the meaning of the sūtras, valuing the gift of Dharma and then making offerings in return, they would naturally turn to studying the sūtras as well. This might enable monks to understand, at least somewhat, the principles of the Buddhadharma, and the merit and virtue would be inconceivable. Yet the degeneration of the saṅgha should not be blamed on the Buddhadharma; this must be clearly distinguished.

Explaining the Self

The self is what a person calls oneself. Once attachment to self is firm, self-love grows ever deeper. The hardest things to break are the view of self, the sense that “I am,” and the mark of self. Over time these become habits and fixed dharmas; hence they are called the self-dharma. Not knowing that Buddhism distinguishes between the true self and the provisional self, people should first understand the three bodies if they wish to understand what the self is. The first is the form body: the physical body of skin, hair, bones, and flesh, possessing form and color.

The hard elements, such as bones and flesh, are earth; blood, bodily fluids, and moisture are water; warmth is fire; and breathing is wind. This body is compounded of earth, water, fire, and wind, and is merely borrowed from one’s parents; it is also called the karmic-result body. One creates one’s own causes and forms one’s own results. Because the causal conditions of past lives differ, the resulting conditions of wisdom or foolishness, beauty or ugliness, early death or long life are unequal.

From childhood to maturity, one’s childhood appearance has already changed and vanished; from maturity to old age, one’s mature form has already changed and vanished; from old age to death, one’s aged condition is completely transformed and gone. Death need not wait until the moment of dying: even before death, one is constantly changing and unreal, like a shimmering mirage, like a banana tree, like a bubble or a shadow.

It may also be compared to an electric light bulb: though the bulb has no true reality, electricity relies on it to emit light; thus it is the provisional self. The second is the Dharma body, the person’s spiritual nature. That which does not move is called nature; when thoughts arise in response to circumstances, it is called mind. It is thus at the age of three, and remains thus at thirty, sixty, or even one hundred and sixty; its nature never changes or perishes.

When one sees red or tastes a delicious flavor, and so forth, old and young are alike; there are not two because of age. If there were a difference, it would be due to dim eyesight or other illnesses, not an illness of one’s inner intrinsic nature. This thing is numinous and wondrous, inconceivable. All worldly dharmas arise from it; therefore it is called the Dharma body.

The Dharma body is neither existent nor nonexistent. If it is said to exist, it cannot be grasped and shown to others; if it is said not to exist, human beings are not wood or stone, and apart from it the provisional designation is death. Having it, one seems to live on without end, though in truth there is originally neither arising nor ceasing, and it is eternally unchanging. This is the true self. Only because the root of attachment gives rise to craving and clinging does one enter a mother’s womb, receive a portion of the mother’s physical substance, and come into being as a human; animals are the same.

This may again be compared to electricity. Without a light bulb, electricity has no means to emit light; the bulb may break and perish, but electricity never perishes. This is called the true self. The third is the manifestation body: when the form body and Dharma body unite, they give rise to all kinds of wondrous functions and unpredictable transformations. This is like lamp light, formed through the union of a lamp and electricity. Thus, the form body is the appearance, like the lamp; the Dharma body is the essence, like electricity; and the manifestation body is the function, like the light.

It is also all the affairs and things of the world. The three are distinct yet not separate; therefore the three bodies are nondual. Birth and death are merely provisional names, established by people through the view of self. Since my physical body is only a temporary combination of causes and conditions, when dispersed it becomes minute particles; how then can it be clung to as a self? And the so-called true self is also empty in nature. Mind is originally unborn, provisionally existing in dependence on circumstances; thus it is called the illusory mind.

All the evil we do, suffering we undergo, and habits we acquire arise from the mischief of this illusory mind. Therefore, to capture bandits, capture their king; without entering the tiger’s den, how can one obtain its cub? Practitioners must begin with realizing the mind, with boundless courageous diligence; only then is there a way out. Otherwise, they will forever sink in cyclic existence. There are also two kinds of self: the personal self and the dharma-self. The personal self is attachment to self; the dharma-self is attachment to dharmas.

Attachment to self is the coarse aspect of self; attachment to dharmas is its subtle aspect. Breaking attachment to self is still relatively easy, but breaking attachment to dharmas requires the great wisdom of Vajra prajñā. Vajra prajñā is complete in everyone and has been there from the beginning, but the treasure chest has not been opened: one has wealth yet cannot use it. Therefore one relies on the Three Treasures—the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—to open it and awaken one’s potential. People differ in capacity—greater or lesser, sharp or dull.

For those of lesser capacity, first enable them to have faith in the Buddha, then guide them to have faith in themselves. For those of greater capacity, directly enable them to have faith in themselves; they will then resolutely undertake this without doubt. Afterward, urge them to cultivate in actual practice, and mind and Buddha will naturally become one. Those of lesser capacity are willing to practice but difficult to transform; those of greater capacity awaken easily but are indolent in practice. Those of lesser capacity are excessively rigid in observance—this is their habitual tendency; those of greater capacity are lax and arrogant—this is theirs.

Yet in treating the illness of those of lesser capacity, the difficulty lies in the illness; in treating the illness of those of greater capacity, the difficulty lies in the teacher. When persons of greater capacity develop doubt midway, if this is not decisively resolved for them, their faith becomes impure. Thereafter they retreat and cease practicing, or take their mistaken view to be correct and in turn mislead others, spreading the poison of non-Buddhist paths. Their original intention may also have been to arouse the resolve and do good, but their own capacity is insufficient; one blind person leading many blind people—the harm of this cannot be fully described. Therefore, a Dharma suited to the recipient is paramount; one must examine carefully at every moment and adapt it. There is absolutely no single dharma that can be universally applied. The Buddha taught eighty-four thousand methods precisely to counteract each different root of illness, because capacities differ.

Studying the Buddha’s teaching is a matter of abandoning suffering and seeking happiness, an exceedingly joyful thing; it is certainly not something dry, desolate, or obscure. If, at the outset, one forces people to do what is difficult for them, this is contrary to human feeling. What does not accord with human feeling is not Buddhadharma. Buddhadharma places great importance on constantly accommodating sentient beings, using expedient means everywhere and gradually guiding them in. Once they themselves feel the terror of birth and death, they will naturally strive diligently.

Since beginningless time, worldly people have clung exclusively to the word “self.” If they are immediately taught no-self, and at the outset are lectured on the Heart Sūtra and Diamond Sūtra, it is like sending a child directly to university. To demand that they be without the mark of self and give without marks—is this not forcing people to do what is difficult for them? I, on the contrary, want people first to speak of having a self, first to develop knowledge of the self. Once they recognize the self, only then will they be willing to advance.

The suffering of people in the world lies precisely in their not understanding what is going on: everywhere they deny the self, everywhere they struggle against themselves, everywhere they desperately fight with themselves—committing suicide, and so forth. This is giving everything away, the extreme of selflessness; yet, pitiably, they die still confused. Thus all the causes and fruits of suffering in the world are entirely self-created and self-received. It is like a madman who has no idea what sort of mind he has or what he himself is. Therefore, people must first have a self—provided it is a great self; to enlarge it is precisely the meaning here.

Human beings are one class of animals. Yet their number is small: the entire population of the earth is only two billion. In a spoonful of water from a summer ditch, however, the microorganisms are as countless as the sands of the Ganges. Thus, human birth is indeed difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, all sentient beings are endowed with spiritual awareness and all possess Buddha-nature; in essence, they are equal.

The reason they cannot function in the same way is that they create different causes and therefore obtain different fruits. Each has its wondrous functions and innate abilities: birds fly, beasts run, fish swim, and dragons soar. Each has its own strengths beyond human reach. What is precious in human beings is wisdom, which birds and beasts likewise cannot attain. Having obtained a human body is like having entered a university: in the blink of an eye one graduates, and with one step may leave the school. A human body is difficult to obtain and precious in this way; how then can there be no self?

Human beings and all sentient beings possess Buddha-nature, yet human beings alone can cultivate themselves to Buddhahood because the potential fruition contained within their causes differs. All sentient beings possess Buddha-nature, including human beings. This is like copper in a mine: although it is all copper, it is mixed with sand. Human beings alone have already been refined from copper ore into copper ingots, and from copper ingots melted into sheets of copper. With only a little polishing, they become copper mirrors. The others remain either ore or copper ingots and cannot yet be directly polished into mirrors. Therefore, their essence is the same but their functions differ. Human life is precious in this way; how then can there be no self?

Since human beings are the spiritual beings among all things, and the mind is the sage among all things, this is the sagely spirit. What one wishes to attain for oneself, one enables others to attain; what one wishes to establish for oneself, one establishes for others. Of all the work of liberating beings throughout the immeasurable three-thousandfold worlds, only human beings can undertake the burden. Such is the magnitude of the responsibility; how then can there be no self?

The Buddhadharma is a tool for great initiative and great function. To shoulder the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed bodhi—if not I, then who? If everyone were willing to be so active, transforming a family through oneself, extending this from a family to a nation, and advancing from a nation to the world, the responsibility would be so grave. How could one seek only one’s own liberation, depart, and leave matters behind, abandoning one’s parents, siblings, and spouse in this world to suffer while oneself leisurely enjoys ultimate bliss? How could such an inferior thought be the Buddha’s original intention? Therefore, rebirth in the Western Pure Land is like entering a school to study: after graduating, one returns to save the world.

If the causal ground is not upright, one will instead achieve only one’s own liberation. Yet the initiative of the Buddhadharma surpasses that of any other undertaking; how then can there be no self?

The self is boundless and immeasurable. If people can truly know the self, they will see the true self. Whether greed, anger, or ignorance; whether precepts, samādhi, or wisdom; whether sage, worthy, or human being; whether ghost, animal, or hell-being—all are freely chosen by oneself. The chooser is the mind. To understand this mind is the true self, the great self.

Whether one turns one’s mind from delusion to awakening, from disorder to samādhi, and from foolishness to wisdom also lies within one’s own power of judgment. For the sake of liberating the multitude of beings, one endures every hardship and suffering. This has always been the work of a great person, and it should indeed be so; this too lies within one’s own power of judgment. If, at the slightest disappointment, minor setback, or failed romance, one becomes resentful and commits suicide, showing such lack of promise, how can one shoulder national calamities or undertake great affairs? Such people consider the Buddhadharma passive, yet they actively engage in this hopeless business. They are truly deluded upon deluded; the reason is that they do not understand the great self.

What, then, does it mean to understand the self? It means understanding the reason for human life: are other people and I one or two? One who penetrates the nonduality of self and others is called nengren. Ren consists of two persons, indicating that the two mutually communicate. To fulfill oneself is loyalty; to extend oneself to others is empathy. To fulfill loyalty and empathy is nengren. To penetrate the nonduality of oneself and things—to know that all things are complete within oneself and that oneself communicates with all things—is called investigating things.

Thus, to be nengren and investigate things is to be a sage or worthy; to realize the mind is to be a bodhisattva or Buddha. All take the human being as their original ground. It is like obtaining precious jade as raw material and then carving it to make a Buddha. Carving is cultivation. The Buddha too was originally an ordinary being and had also been confused and inverted. He merely became aware early, awakened, turned back, and cultivated himself; thus he became greatly awakened.

Having obtained the qualifications to become a Buddha directly, how can one drift along and sit idly by, thereby missing the opportunity? Since one knows what it means to be human, one should immediately rise and pursue it directly. Life is impermanent; once lost, the opportunity is gone for ages. Yet practice must also advance in proper sequence: it cannot be too slow, nor can it be rushed. Blind cultivation and reckless training bring toil without accomplishment and will inevitably give rise to doubt and retreat.

First understand that the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—are models for us. Next understand that I and the Buddha are originally nondual in essence. Ordinary beings are originally awakened; this is called original awakening. Because awakening seeks illumination, it turns into false awakening and loses what is original. Hearing the Buddhadharma and opening wisdom is called initial awakening. When one attains awakening, it is called awakening at the level of principle. When knowledge and practice are united, and principle and phenomena interpenetrate, it is called realized awakening. When habitual tendencies have been removed, awakened conduct perfected, and essence and function are suchness, it is called right awakening—that is, great awakening, wondrous awakening, and perfect enlightenment. The following table compares the similarities and differences in the nature-seeing of sages and ordinary beings.

Table of Similarities and Differences in the Essence and Function of Nature-Seeing in Sages and Ordinary Beings (= indicates similarity; − indicates difference)

Sages − Ordinary Beings

(Source) = (Source)

Essence = Essence

Electricity = Electricity

Light = Light

Function − Function

Illuminates the ten directions without obstruction − Obscured and blocked, unable to illuminate

Awareness − Ignorance

Awakening is enduring − Delusion is temporary

Consciousness = Consciousness

Discrimination = Discrimination

Consciousness transformed into wisdom − Wisdom transformed into consciousness

Transforms objects − Is transformed by objects

At ease − Bound

Master − Slave

Has the power of wisdom − Lacks the power of wisdom

Vajra prajñā is manifest − Vajra prajñā is hidden

Ever clearly aware − Now clear, now obscure

Transcends birth and death; birth and death and nirvāṇa are all empty − Does not transcend birth and death; does not know what birth and death are

Sober − Drunk

Drinks alcohol; drinks every day yet is never intoxicated − Is drunk by alcohol; drunk every day and bound by alcohol every day

Without habitual defilements − Entirely habituated to defilements

Merit and virtue − Karmic obstacles

Sense faculties and their objects fall away − Sense faculties and their objects become entangled

Mind and objects are both empty − Uses objects to bind the mind

Clearly understands cause and effect − Does not understand cause and effect

Awakening comes first − Awakening comes afterward

Illuminates beforehand − Regrets afterward

Sees all things as delusive − Sees all delusions as real

No self − Clings to self

Direct perception fully illuminates − Inferential understanding probes deeply

Outflows exhausted − With outflows

Empty − Not empty

Mind is unobtainable − Mind is everywhere

Has samādhi and wisdom − Lacks samādhi and wisdom

Understands worldly dharmas in order to comprehend the supramundane − Does not understand worldly dharmas yet seeks the supramundane

Samādhi − Agitation

Activity and stillness are both samādhi − Activity and stillness are both agitation

Penetrates the three divisions of time − Cares only for the present

At ease − Not at ease

Knows the dharma of suffering and happiness − Does not know suffering and happiness

Ultimate happiness − Utter suffering

Samādhi, wisdom, and emptiness − Delusion, karma, and suffering

Seeks for oneself − Seeks the Buddha

Spirit = Spirit

Able to penetrate all things − Unable to penetrate anything

Realizes samādhi − Merely holds emotional views

Original awakening = Original awakening

May suddenly become deluded midway = May suddenly become deluded midway

Awakens − Does not awaken

Refuses to become deluded again − Lets oneself drift in cyclic wandering

Seeks awakening − Does not seek awakening

Cultivates − Does not cultivate

Seeks the ultimate Dharma − Does not seek the ultimate

Attains great awakening − Remains forever deluded

Buddha-nature = Buddha-nature

Buddha at the stage of fruition − Buddha at the causal stage

Like water = Like water

Wet nature = Wet nature

Clear − Turbid

Able to perform all wondrous functions − Unable to perform wondrous functions

Already clarified − Not yet clarified

Returns to ○ = Returns to ○

From the preceding table, one should know that sages and ordinary beings are originally nondual in essence. Only because ordinary beings are deluded do they create all kinds of karma and consequently undergo all kinds of suffering. Delusion and karma are suffering; without suffering, there is no delusion and karma. Those who habitually do evil mostly harm others. Thus, to understand suffering is to know the illness; only upon knowing the illness will one be willing to seek a physician and take medicine.

Explaining Suffering

Human life has eight kinds of suffering: first, the suffering of birth; second, the suffering of aging; third, the suffering of illness; fourth, the suffering of death; fifth, the suffering of not obtaining what one seeks; sixth, the suffering of separation from those one loves; seventh, the suffering of meeting those one hates; and eighth, the suffering of the blazing of the five aggregates. There is also another suffering: the suffering of not hearing the Buddhadharma and not knowing suffering, called the suffering of suffering.

People also suffer the three calamities and eight difficulties. “Difficulties” are difficulties in advancing on the Way. Not being able to hear the Buddhadharma is the greatest hardship in human life. What are the eight difficulties? First, hell; second, hungry ghosts; third, animals. Those who enter these three lower realms either undergo uninterrupted suffering or are ignorant and without understanding, and so cannot hear the Buddhadharma.

Fourth, being born in the northern continent of Uttarakuru, where people live for a thousand years, have sufficient clothing and food, suffer no illness or hardship, and have no wish to hear the Dharma. Fifth, being born in the long-life heavens—that is, the form realm and formless realm heavens—where one is likewise attached to joy and pleasure and does not wish to hear the Dharma. Sixth, being blind, deaf, mute, or otherwise unable to see or hear the supreme truth of the Buddhadharma. Seventh, possessing worldly wisdom and clever eloquence—that is, being self-confident, fond of contentious argument, and priding oneself on cleverness—which can also obstruct the Way. Eighth, being born before or after a Buddha, in an age when no Buddhadharma is available to be seen or heard. These are the eight difficulties. As for the three calamities, they are warfare, epidemics, and famine.

The general cause of all suffering begins with birth. The emergence of something from nonexistence is called birth. Between birth and death, one has already passed through many inverted causes, conditions, and results of suffering. The result in turn becomes a cause, and the cause again produces a result; suffering upon suffering never ceases. Since beginningless time, who knows how many thousands upon thousands of sufferings we have endured? The sufferings of old age, sickness, and death have already been determined at the time of birth and cannot be escaped.

From birth to death, one must pass through old age and sickness. The causes of old age and sickness are the following four kinds of suffering: first, the suffering of not obtaining what one seeks, which manifests in two ways: sound and activity.

Sound consists of the disputes of buying and selling, the cries of street vendors, the cries of children, and people's noisy quarrels and complaints. All arise because what is sought has not been attained. The more one wishes to achieve one's aim but cannot obtain it, the louder the clamor becomes. Activity consists of rushing about busily, pursuing and coming and going. Before what one seeks is obtained, one fears not obtaining it; once it has been obtained, one fears losing it again.

The two sufferings of separation from what one loves and meeting with what one hates then follow in succession. When the impulses of desire burn like fire, how can one avoid old age and sickness? Separation demonstrates that all things are impermanent and must not be grasped as real. They are originally only provisional combinations, so why take the false for true?

This applies not only to people but also to things. It is not only separation that is suffering: attachment even before separation occurs is suffering. Because of the causes, conditions, and results of suffering, one can never avoid it. The wise do not wait until separation occurs; they have already seen through its causes. There is no other wondrous method: simply recognize that all is empty, false, and unreal. Then attachment has no ground in which to take root, and suffering has nothing on which to depend.

Meeting with what one hates is precisely the opposite side, yet its suffering is equal. One thing accords with my wishes, another does not; yet both are impermanent. When the seven sufferings torment one together, the anxious mind burns like fire. This is the blazing of the five aggregates. The five aggregates are form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. When these five aggregates remain knotted together and cannot disperse, interlinked and unable to be released, they are called the five aggregates.

Form refers to the six sense faculties joining with the six sense objects; both alike are form, and both alike are illusory. Feeling is the arrival of contact, which I receive. Perception is the stirring of thought. Formations are the flow of the discriminating mind. Consciousness is the knowing that follows sensation and discrimination. The five aggregates arise simultaneously, and suffering and pleasure arrive simultaneously as well. Whether it is good or evil, gain or loss, the blazing fires of desire that sear us wave after wave are not thereby diminished in the least. All arise from the entanglement of form and mind. The eight sufferings cannot be separately analyzed; collectively, they are simply called unease.

Everything in the world belongs to the realm of opposites. Doing evil is certainly suffering, but doing good while expecting recompense also creates distinctions of gain and loss, abundance and scarcity, coming and going, self and others. If even one part is not commensurate, there is one part of suffering. If the recompense exceeds by one part what I have given, I may be satisfied for a time, but the other person will feel uneasy. Unease gives rise to the intention of seeking compensation from me, and I in turn become fearful.

Therefore worldly dharmas are not ultimate, and suffering can never finally be avoided. The origin of all worldly suffering is delusion. Delusion means confusion; actions performed out of confusion are called karma, and karma brings about the fruition of suffering.

All worldly evil arises from delusion. Out of delusion, people create evil karma, believing there is no cause and effect and that no one will know. They may even force their arguments, defend and conceal their faults, and invoke freedom as a pretext. Such people are deeply superstitious. Because you are deluded, the Buddhadharma asks you to have faith—faith in what is real, not faith in what is false. Through layer upon layer of analysis and every kind of demonstration, the causes of delusion are made clear, and only then can one realize where the root of suffering lies.

Suffering has no fixed definition. For example, a house may be furnished only moderately. A wealthy person who sees it may feel extremely uncomfortable, whereas a poor person may consider it blissful. Spicy sauce is delicious to people from Sichuan and Yunnan, while a child may find it bitter; yet after becoming accustomed to it, the child may in turn find it pleasurable.

Thus the root of suffering lies in the mind's habits. The mind is enticed by external circumstances and unjustly creates this suffering for itself.

But how does the mind form these habits? They arise from discrimination and comparison. Discriminating good and bad, wholesome and unwholesome, favorable and adverse, right and wrong—all are assumptions established by one's own deluded views since beginningless time. Without asking whether they are right or wrong, one clings to them as right. The firmer this attachment, the less willing one is to relax it. Over time, it becomes a fixed pattern that one refuses to alter. This is the general cause of delusion.

Then, using habits that are not in accord with the Dharma to compare with other things, one sees everything as failing to accord with one's wishes and thus becomes miserable. The discriminating mind may be stronger or weaker, and suffering correspondingly deeper or shallower. According to whether the force of attachment is tight or loose, suffering lasts longer or shorter. For example, children have little experience of human affairs, so they discriminate less, cling less, and suffer less. But if a child is suddenly beaten or scolded and receives a severe shock, the child will not forget it, because the powers of attachment and discrimination are strong.

Since suffering has no fixed definition, it can be transformed into pleasure. What cannot be transformed is true suffering. How can it be transformed? First, one must know suffering. People in the world often do not believe that they themselves are suffering beings; thus, those willing to cultivate are all people who have already tasted hardship to the full. People also often do not believe in future suffering. For example, on a clear day they certainly do not believe that the roof will leak. Unless one possesses great wisdom, one will not prepare early. This is the suffering of not knowing suffering.

In teaching people the Dharma of suffering and pleasure, the Buddha first tells them that all things are impermanent. Precisely because they are impermanent, nothing can be relied upon. Second, he teaches the ultimate Dharma gate: because worldly dharmas are not ultimate, they must in the end return to suffering. If one can understand that all is impermanent, then one who ordinarily relies on wealth will not become attached to it. Such a person is taught to give, so as to practice letting go until the conception of impermanence is thoroughly familiar.

If one has already let go of everything to which one clings, then when sudden suffering comes, one may have a method with which to withstand it. How, then, can one come to know and end suffering? One can only be urged to arouse the resolve. To arouse the resolve means to give rise to the resolve to realize the mind. One must truly put faith, vows, and practice into effect. If one does not understand that the root of suffering truly lies in the mind's lack of clarity—what is called delusion, karma, and suffering, whose root lies in delusion—then one cannot proceed. The appearance of the mind must indeed be understood. A sūtra says, “Know your own mind as it truly is.” In forty-nine years of teaching, the Buddha said only this one sentence.

Since we must realize the mind and know suffering, we cannot avoid investigating the appearance of the mind. One must question one's own mind, undergo suffering, and know suffering. Only after realizing the experience of going from suffering to happiness can one relieve the suffering of others. The method for overcoming suffering is: first, recognize suffering; second, endure it; third, understand it; fourth, train through it; fifth, realize its emptiness. The concrete practice will be explained in the following Section on Right Cultivation. The verse says:

To uproot suffering, one must uproot its root; to uproot its root, one must know the root.

To know the root requires thorough awakening; to awaken thoroughly, one must realize the mind.

Realizing the mind lies in attaining nothing; when nothing is attained, the root of suffering is exhausted.

If ordinary people do not enter into suffering, how can they understand the meaning of suffering?

To know suffering is already to transform it; once transformed, suffering falls away.

Suffering and pleasure are originally relative; worldly pleasure is itself suffering.

When unstained by either suffering or pleasure, this is called transcending birth and death.

How to Transcend Birth and Death

Once the root of suffering has been clarified, we may speak of transcending birth and death. Buddhist practitioners often do not understand what birth and death are. They generally take one as alive before death and dead only after one has died, and suppose that if one does not return after death, one has truly transcended birth and death. Such talk is truly like a blind person speaking of darkness; it does not even understand the principle of cause and effect and rebirth.

To understand the principle of birth and death, one must first understand what undergoes birth and death, and what the principle of that thing truly is. Only by understanding birth and death can one speak of the method for transcending birth and death. The reward body is the physical body. It is inherently subject to arising and ceasing and is impermanent. Though it exists, its existence is only temporary; ultimately it is illusory and unreal, and therefore it is called empty.

When it reaches the time of transformation and destruction, ordinary beings naturally regard it as death. But in the eye of wisdom, it was already dead before it died; before its transformation and destruction, it had already been transforming and perishing again and again. There is nothing remarkable about it.

As for the nature that is neither arising nor ceasing, it exists forever. Ordinary beings cannot see it and therefore cling to its nonexistence. Those with the eye of wisdom clearly see its nature and see that it is constant and unchanging, so there can be no question of birth and death. Hence it is said that nirvāṇa and birth and death are equally like flowers in empty space. For one has understood that the turning of birth and death is precisely the turning of the illusory mind.

The turning of the illusory mind is like a wheel, suddenly rising and falling in the dusty ocean of the six realms. This is called the ocean of birth and death. Its ceaseless revolutions are called the wheel of birth and death. This illusory mind spins a cocoon and binds itself, becoming ever more entangled and bound; this is called the bondage of birth and death. Like a dream from which one does not awaken, it is called the long night of birth and death. When the Buddha appears in the world to liberate sentient beings, he liberates only this illusory mind, turning it from delusion to awakening; this is called transcending birth and death.

“Transcending” means understanding: realization at the level of principle. It also means liberation, enabling one not to create causes and undergo results: realization in actual circumstances. This is life's one great matter; hence it is said that the matter of birth and death is great. Yet the physical reward body cannot truly be said to undergo birth and death, and the Dharma nature, being ever present, likewise cannot truly be said to undergo birth and death.

Only the illusory mind creates mischief. Through delusion, it takes the false for true, and thus there is the revolving cycle of birth and death. If one knows it to be flowers in empty space and does not take it as real, there is no revolving cycle, nor is there any body or mind to undergo that birth and death.

It is not that a state without birth and death is artificially produced, for original nature is inherently without birth and death. But ordinary beings do not understand the principle of birth and death, so sages can only explain illusion in terms of illusion and provisionally posit birth and death. Those of lesser faculties do not understand birth and death; they merely fear death. Those of somewhat greater faculties seek only to transcend birth and death, believing that there really is a birth and death to be transcended.

Those of great faculties know that birth and death do not lie in the physical reward body, but only in the revolutions of the illusory mind; the illusory mind is birth and death. Those of the highest faculties recognize that the mind is unobtainable, that originally there is no birth and death and no nirvāṇa. Yet for the sake of sentient beings, they do not incline exclusively toward emptiness or abandon existence. They speak to them of transcending birth and death so that they may awaken for themselves and know that birth and death are their own deluded, illusory mind. To transcend birth and death, first transcend the illusory mind. When the mind knows itself to be illusory, its illusion is extinguished, and one has truly transcended birth and death.

Birth and death are provisionally named in two ways. The first is segmented birth and death: one relinquishes a particular segmented body and is reborn in another form. For example, when a person dies, they cast off the segmentation of this body and become an ox or sheep; when oxen or sheep die, they too relinquish their segmented bodies. Such ceaseless turning is called segmented birth and death. The second is transformational birth and death, which is transformation in one’s state of mind. For example, one advances from an ordinary being to an arhat, and then becomes a bodhisattva. This is a transformation of mind, not a change of physical form. When one reaches the ground of eternal quiescence and immovability, transformational birth and death comes to an end; this is called complete illumination and profound quiescence, and one then ascends to the ground of Buddhahood.

In sum, the segmented body takes rebirth in accordance with the root of attachment: whatever realm one is attached to, one receives the body of that realm. Attachment arises from the illusory mind; when the illusory mind turns from delusion to awakening and does not cling to illusory circumstances, body and mind no longer undergo that birth and death. One must first transcend segmented birth and death, and then proceed to eliminate attachment to dharmas; this is to transcend transformational birth and death. In our cultivation, we must first realize the mind and see our true nature. After directly realizing fundamental wisdom, we must diligently eliminate habitual tendencies; only then can we truly transcend birth and death.

The birth and death of ordinary beings first arises from birth itself. One first takes an object as one’s basis. For example, when a person sees a pig, an image of a pig first arises in the mind and is impressed upon the brain. Morning and evening, it remains there. Once this has become habitual over time and causes, conditions, and fruition mature, they naturally converge, and the person becomes a pig.

If nothing at all is established and all images in the mind are extinguished, then even if various scenes appear, one already knows them to be illusory. They pass without remaining and leave no trace. Since external objects have nothing to which they can attach, the field of one’s nature does not undergo transformation. The twelve links of dependent origination are nothing more than attachment and grasping leading into birth and death; their root lies in ignorance. To transform ignorance is awakening. If one understands how birth comes about, one can understand how death comes about.

If one does not understand birth, how can one understand death? Since birth itself does not truly exist, on what could death depend? If one understands that birth and death are produced by the illusory mind of ignorance, this is transcending birth and death at the level of principle. If one actually cultivates, seeking to realize the mind and free oneself from bondage, and painfully uproots one’s own habitual tendencies, this is transcending birth and death in actual practice.

The matter of birth and death is indeed grave. This thing called birth and death is the movement and functioning of a single thought in the illusory mind of ignorance. It proceeds from subtle to coarse distinctions, becomes firmly fixed as one’s nature, and is habitually taken for granted without awareness; thus it is easy to enter but difficult to leave. Yet nothing in the world is difficult: a journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet. If practitioners truly regard birth and death as fearful, they should uproot its root and first break through ignorance. But if one does not know what ignorance is, what can one do? It will be explained in detail below.

Explaining Ignorance

Ignorance means darkness and delusion; when one awakens, there is clarity. Ignorance refers to a dark and dull mind. In Sanskrit it is called avijñā, and it is formed from the six great root afflictions of greed, anger, ignorance, doubt, pride, and wrong views. Their habitual conditioning binds and entangles one, like smoke clouding the eyes and causing blindness.

In examining doctrinal categories, ignorance is said to have four kinds, five kinds, or even as many as fifteen kinds. Such excessively fine distinctions instead lead practitioners to doubt that there really is an ignorance and to think of ways to destroy it. They do not know that ignorance is simply the illusory mind’s deluded attachment: it has no substantial entity and is not like an object that can be broken. If it could be broken, some form would remain after its breaking, just as fragments of a broken bowl remain.

But this is not so. Clarity and darkness are opposites and cannot coexist: where there is clarity, there is no darkness; where there is darkness, there is no clarity. It is also like a dark room: when light appears, it is bright; when the light departs, it is dark. Thus ignorance cannot properly be said to be broken; it should be said to be extinguished. When a deluded person turns toward awakening, delusion is extinguished and awakening appears; that person is no longer deluded. When someone enters a dream, one cannot call it waking; once they have awakened, one cannot call it a dream, for waking extinguishes the dream.

How could a dream be broken apart bit by bit? Therefore, when awakening opens, ignorance is extinguished. Before awakening, there is still ignorance and still birth and death. Yet sages and ordinary beings alike have thoughts, and their illusory minds arise in the same way. The difference is that ordinary beings do not recognize the illusory mind or know awakened illumination. Conditioned by objects, they bind themselves and thereby become deluded, create karma, undergo suffering, and fall into the sea of birth and death.

Sages know this to be the wondrous functioning of the illusory mind. As it arises, it is empty; it leaves not the slightest trace. Illusory objects and the illusory mind are both unobtainable; therefore, sages transcend to the other shore. If, when we encounter circumstances, we can remain without a clinging mind, letting them pass without retaining them, then the seeds in the store consciousness become empty and pure and cannot bear fruit. This is what is meant by the severing of the seeds of birth and death.

Thus the seven evil karmic actions of body and speech, such as killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, begin with the three mental karmas of greed, anger, and ignorance, called the three poisons. These three poisons in turn begin with the seeds in the store consciousness. Such seeds are the illusory mind’s attachments, mistakenly drawing external objects into the store consciousness through clinging. They accumulate and are nurtured over time. Though the seeds are innumerable, they do not go beyond three kinds: establishing a self, opposing others, and setting up dualities.

Thus good and evil, favorable and adverse, right and wrong, self and other, and all kinds of comparative judgments arise in succession as causes. Greed, anger, and ignorance form the conditions as the convergence of all seeds. Layer upon layer, they advance until they culminate in killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct—the full collection of evils—and the bondage of birth and death turns like a wheel as its result.

If one knows that all is illusory, then at the causal stage both mind and objects are empty, and one will not cling to circumstances and draw them into the store consciousness. With no seeds within and no conditions without, how could anything arise? It is like making firecrackers: if there is no gunpowder inside, then even with a fuse, they can scarcely explode. The reason the illusory mind clings to objects and draws them in is truly delusion and unawareness: it mistakes the false for the real and is wrongfully deceived. This is called ignorance. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra says, “Ignorance is the father and attachment is the mother.” This means that they are the root of birth and death and the source from which all seeds arise; therefore, they must be eradicated.

Explaining Karmic Obstacles

Someone may say, “Ignorance certainly should be eradicated, but what if one’s karmic obstacles are deep and heavy?” One should ask in return, “What exactly are karmic obstacles?” If such a thing truly existed, it should be brought forth; the person would surely be at a loss. For those of sharp faculties, this alone may bring awakening. But those of dull faculties are not yet ready for this, so it must be explained in detail.

Karmic obstacles are precisely your habitual tendencies. A lazy person who enjoys ease and comfort has such a habitual tendency, and therefore cannot advance on the Way. A person who practices austerities may be too rigid and unable to function freely; this too is a habitual tendency and likewise prevents progress on the Way. Or someone may be excessively doubtful and given to speculation, with views of self continually arising; this is also a habitual tendency and still more prevents progress on the Way. All these are unwholesome karma that can obstruct the Way; hence they are called karmic obstacles.

But karma is not necessarily evil. Pure karma, the ten wholesome deeds, and the like are all wholesome karma. Karma means intentional action; in Sanskrit it is called karma, meaning the work that one does. There are three kinds: bodily karma, verbal karma, and mental karma.

Of these three kinds of karma, those directed toward good are called white karma, and those tending toward evil are called black karma. Cultivating worldly dharmas produces defiled karma, while supramundane dharmas produce undefiled karma. Karma that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome is called indeterminate karma. For those cultivating the six realms, there is also deva karma, human karma, ghost karma, and so forth. From cause to fruition, when conditions are complete, fruition ripens. When habitual tendencies are deep and their force is strong beyond control, this is karmic conditions and karmic power.

What cannot be escaped is called karmic fruition, karmic suffering, and karmic retribution. That in which one sinks and from which it is difficult to emerge is called the sea of karma. Being bound by habitual tendencies without release is called karmic bondage. The ceaseless turning that follows from this is called the wheel of karma. When, at death, a moonlike disk suddenly appears, illuminating the good and evil of one’s lifetime and giving rise to a multitude of thoughts, this is called the karmic mirror. Yet all these are fixed karma created by one’s own mind. Only those who have realized the mind-ground understand that karma is established by the mind. Knowing the mind to be illusory, they know karma too is not existent. With a single turn, it is empty; this is inconceivable power. As for karma that obstructs the Way, there are karmic obstacles, and obstacles have five kinds; however, as this belongs to proper cultivation, it will be discussed only briefly.

Methods for Eliminating Karmic Obstacles

The root lies in extinguishing ignorance. When ignorance is extinguished, karmic obstacles dissolve of themselves without needing to be eliminated. The coarse aspects of karmic obstacles can be seen, but their subtle aspects are not easily perceived. In Buddhadharma there is no distinction between great and small: if a thought of killing arises, even though one has not killed, it is as if one had killed. Yet when this thought of killing turns, it is empty; emptiness is purity. The only difficulty is being unable to turn it. Therefore, whenever a thought arises that contains views of self or emotional attachment, whether great or small, it is a karmic obstacle.

But eliminating thoughts does not mean cutting off or extinguishing thoughts; it simply means turning thoughts. Without turning, there is attachment; attachment is bondage. From the intention to kill to the act of killing, all comes from lacking the strength to turn, and thus one follows the current downstream, unable to recover. This is the root of birth and death and is called emotional attachment; all of it can obstruct the Way.

The depth or shallowness of karmic obstacles is simply the depth or shallowness of one’s accumulated habits. What is easily removed is a shallow karmic obstacle; what is difficult to remove is a deep karmic obstacle. Moreover, when thoughts can be let go, turned quickly, and become empty with a single illumination, they are shallow. If they cannot be let go, cannot be turned, and cannot be brought under illumination, they are deep.

Nevertheless, to state the essential point, one cannot eliminate karmic obstacles without understanding cause and effect. To understand that the causal ground of karmic obstacles is originally empty in nature is the Buddha’s realm. People of inferior and dull faculties cannot be told this, for they may fail to understand cause and effect or the ultimate truth, mistake emptiness, and fall into an evil path. Therefore, they must first be guided by ritual forms.

Instruct them to keep the precepts and not indulge themselves; gradually open for them the path of prajñā; encourage them to change their temperaments and habits. When their capacity matures, directly point it out to them in accordance with their potential, enabling them to awaken with open clarity. As for rebirth while carrying karma in the Western Pure Land, this karma refers to the afflictions of views and thoughts that have not yet been severed. Upon seeing the sublime realm of the West and yearning for it, one is still subject to such afflictions.

But at death, when one’s own strength is insufficient and one has no assurance at all, the aid of this right mindfulness can provide considerable support. One will naturally rise beyond the three lower realms. Without attachment to this world and with one-pointedness of mind without distraction, one attains rebirth.

After attaining rebirth, one’s old habitual karmic powers have not yet been eliminated. Thereafter, one receives conditioning in the West. In time, when maturity is reached, one again awakens to the fact that the nature of sin and merit is empty, originally without arising or ceasing. The flower of wisdom opens, and one sees the Buddha of one’s own nature. If karma itself does not exist, how can one speak of eliminating it?

Those who do not understand the mind-ground or cause and effect speak one-sidedly of eliminating karma rather than explaining it in terms of karma itself. They take karmic obstacles to be something truly existent. Therefore, without relying on prajñā, there is no way to eliminate karmic obstacles. Strive, strive; prepare early, and do not panic at the last moment. Human birth is difficult to obtain—how could one enter an evil realm again? Since practitioners understand the suffering of birth and death, with ignorance as its cause, karmic obstacles as its condition, and suffering as its result, they should seek a means of liberation. Yet the meaning of liberation remains to be explained.

Explaining Liberation

Liberation has two meanings. First, it means explanation: explaining in order to remove doubt. Second, it means understanding: understanding the principle in order to free the mind. In Sanskrit it is called mokṣa, meaning freedom from bondage and the attainment of ease. To free oneself from the bondage of delusion and karma and escape the suffering of the three realms is called liberation. This bondage is self-created, unlike bondage imposed by others. The latter is bondage by another; this is self-bondage. The former is bondage with form; this is formless bondage.

The other binds me to the body; this self-bondage binds the mind. The other has only one or two kinds of bondage; this has as many as eighty-four thousand kinds. The other is released by the hand; this is released by wisdom. For release from the other, one seeks another person; for this release, one seeks oneself. The other bondage must be untied before one is freed; this bondage is freed without being untied. Yet this is not truly without untying: those with the eye of wisdom see that its root is already empty. Since there was originally no bondage, how could there be any release?

It is only for those of dull faculties that one cannot avoid speaking of so many technical terms. Those who seek liberation resemble prisoners seeking release because they lack freedom, yet this is not so, for originally there is no bondage. But sentient beings do not understand this. Those today who bustle after fame and profit are either bound by fame, bound by profit, or bound by both. They are exerting themselves to scheme and pursue them ever more deeply, with no time to spare; how could they be willing to relax and seek liberation?

Only when they experience suffering do they begin to realize such truths as suffering, emptiness, and impermanence. Yet before they become aware of it, they are already suffering in countless ways. Deluded by hopes and expectations, they fail to recognize their suffering, still imagining that, once their hopes are fulfilled, all suffering will be dispelled. They do not know that human affairs are impermanent and that it is exceedingly difficult for things to turn out as one wishes.

For example, a lottery has a top prize of five hundred thousand, while perhaps a million people desire it. In the end, only one person obtains what they hoped for, while the number of disappointed people runs into countless tens of thousands. Before the drawing, the burning unease of desire is as indescribable as the distress, resentment, and vexation of disappointment afterward. Thus, it is true that there is originally no bondage, yet the present unease is not unreal. Simply because they fail to recognize this, people needlessly bind themselves. The one who tied the bell must untie it: since one is bound in the mind, one must also be liberated in the mind. To be liberated in the mind, one must first understand the principles of cause and effect and of the coming together of conditions.

On Cause and Effect

Cause is the originating cause, and fruition is the fully developed result. Between cause and fruition there must be conditions; if the conditions are insufficient, the fruition will not be complete. The so-called four conditions are: first, causal conditions; second, object conditions; third, immediately preceding conditions; and fourth, dominant conditions. Within conditions there are also countless minor causes and minor results. For example, thirst gives rise to thoughts of tea: this is a causal condition. Thinking of tea leads one to brew tea: this is an object condition.

From being thirsty, to thinking of tea, brewing tea, steeping tea, drinking tea, and quenching thirst, the sequence cannot be disordered; this is the immediately preceding condition. From thirst to thirst being quenched, there are many intervening processes, each progressively advancing; this is the dominant condition. Layer upon layer, there are causes and effects; everywhere, conditions can be transformed. Whether good or bad, none falls outside these four principles.

If, in brewing tea, one scalds one's finger, becomes angry, resents another person, and then quarrels, this transforms yet another causal condition into a different result. Cause and effect may extend across the three divisions of time, or, more immediately, exist right before us. Each instant is itself a cause and effect. No matter how great or small an affair, it cannot escape the law of cause and effect. All science is inseparable from cause and effect in every respect, with various conditions assisting in bringing results to completion.

The arising of causes and the ripening of results are both called birth. For example, in planting a tree, sowing the seed is the cause; watering, fertilizer, and sunlight are the conditions; and sprouting branches, flowering, bearing fruit, and producing seeds are the result. This is birth. Then the living tree is the cause; the yellowing, falling, and withering of its leaves, and its being cut down by an axe, are the conditions; and its branches and trunk becoming firewood, being burned, and turning into ashes are the result. This is cessation.

This is one birth and one cessation. Birth is conditionally arisen, and cessation is conditionally arisen; therefore, they do not arise and cease of themselves, for a single seed cannot by itself become a tree, bear fruit, and become firewood. Nor do they arise and cease from another, for even if other conditions come together, without a seed there can ultimately be no tree, firewood, ashes, and so forth.

Nor do they arise and cease jointly, for in a joint arising there is no primary subject and no inherent nature; ultimately, for whom would it be? It cannot be found. Therefore it is said that what arises through conditions is empty of inherent nature: though present, it cannot be grasped. Nor do they arise and cease without cause, for this birth and cessation are both results; if there were originally no cause, there could certainly be no result of birth and cessation.

The mind is also thus: it does not arise of itself, from another, jointly, or without cause. Indeed, all things arise and cease through conditions in this way. Thus, the mind arises through causes and conditions and ceases through causes and conditions; it illusorily arises and illusorily ceases, and ultimately cannot be grasped. The various sufferings and vexations of today are likewise bondage through causes and conditions and liberation through causes and conditions. Because the mind is deluded, it takes external circumstances as conditions and binds itself.

Because the mind is clear, it takes awakened contemplation as its condition and is liberated. Yet all conditions are empty and cannot be grasped. Ordinary beings are foolish and do not understand cause and effect. They fear only results, not causes, because causes cannot be seen while results are right before their eyes. Cause and effect are easy to enter but difficult to escape, yet people continually take them lightly. The two vehicles fear causes and refuse to create them; this too is fearing results.

Bodhisattvas are not ignorant of cause and effect, while Buddhas understand cause and effect with clear, ever-present knowing. Since there were prior causes, there must now be results; one can only undergo what must be undergone. There is no question of favorable or adverse circumstances. As for future matters, prior causes bring later results: such cause, such conditions, such result, such retribution, such experience.

Before acting, one is already clearly aware and discerning, and thus naturally does not lightly create causes and undergo their later results. Therefore, realizing the mind is the master key to every undertaking. Using mind to illuminate mind is prajñā; yet only by understanding the essence of mind can one activate the function of prajñā. This is the most essential point in the Section on Inspiring Potential. From this, some suddenly open prajñā; from this, some decisively resolve their doubts; and from this, some plant wholesome roots. This is the subtle meaning of liberating the sentient beings of one's own nature at the causal stage.

Discerning Mind and Intrinsic Nature

What is mind? Mind is that which arises through the coming together of things, as when the eye and visual forms come together, or the ear and sounds come together. The inner six sense faculties are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; the outer six sense objects are visual forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, and dharmas. When faculties and objects come together, cognition arises; thus there are the six consciousnesses, and this is called the conscious mind.

Therefore, that which arises in dependence on external circumstances is thought; that which measures and assesses in accordance with thought is mind; that which discriminates on the basis of such assessment is consciousness; that which pursues and investigates is ideation; that which decides on the basis of consciousness is the view of self; and that which firmly holds this view and refuses to change is emotional attachment. Using the power of wisdom-light to direct this ideation, mind, thought, consciousness, and view, and thereby transform them, is awakened contemplation.

To realize that wisdom too is empty, and to be able to relinquish greatly and abide nowhere, is the wondrous function of prajñā. In truth, all these are the mind's illusory arising and illusory ceasing. Each arising and ceasing is a birth and a death, a cause and a result, a single cycle of turning. To abide in this is bondage; not to abide is liberation.

Yet mind neither enters nor leaves, neither comes nor goes, and still less has birth and death. Originally it is not deluded; it is originally unobtainable. From where, then, can liberation be spoken of? The answer is that mind is originally awakened, yet now there plainly appears to be delusion—what is to be done? It is like a person who was originally not ill, for whom medicine would not even be discussed. But if the person has in fact fallen ill, with fever and headache, one cannot cling to the illness as illusory and insist that it does not exist.

Though one clearly knows that after the illness is cured, nothing can be grasped, one must still use illusion to dispel illusion. Again, compare a drunk person with a sober person: although in every respect they are completely nondual, the drunk person's actions are wild and disordered, and cannot be said not to exist. The difference between ourselves and the Buddha is likewise only that between drunkenness and sobriety.

People in the world often divide realizing the mind and seeing one's true nature into two separate matters; nor can they distinguish mind from nature. This is why it is difficult to inspire their potential. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism all speak of nature in the same way, representing it by a circle. In Confucianism it is called humaneness, the great Way, the highest good, the Mandate of Heaven, luminous virtue, the vast and flowing qi, the imperial norm, heavenly principle, the ever-abiding, mind-nature, and the primal origin.

In Buddhism it is called the tathāgata-garbha, suchness, great perfect mirror wisdom, wisdom of the essential nature of the dharma realm, perfect enlightenment, bodhi, Vairocana, dharma-nature, dharmakāya, the Buddha Way, wondrous mind, nirvāṇa, vajra prajñā conscious mind, ālaya, the five wisdoms, the ninth consciousness, the boundless body, and return to the origin. In Daoism it is called the mysterious, the golden elixir, the valley spirit, the supreme purity, the limitless, deathlessness, the great Way, and so forth. All three traditions establish provisional names, too numerous to count; but the thing itself is one, and these merely indicate this empty nature.

Now, let the clear quiescence and immovability of nature be compared to water. When, in response to circumstances, a thought moves, that thought is mind, comparable to waves stirred up by wind. Water has the potential to form waves, but waves are not actually inherent in water. Since the waves exist because of wind, this is called illusory arising. When the wind stops and the waves cease, their cessation returns to water; this is called illusory cessation. Because they illusorily arise and illusorily cease, they cannot be grasped; because they lack inherent nature, they are empty.

Water and waves are two yet one. Nature alone originally has neither arising nor ceasing; though a thousand myriad ages pass, it undergoes no change. Because it cannot be seen yet is not empty, it is called true emptiness that is not emptiness. Because its presence cannot be seen, yet its wondrous functioning is as inexhaustible as the sands of the Ganges, it is called wondrous presence that is not presence. This is neither born nor extinguished, neither defiled nor pure; therefore, that which is clear, quiescent, and unmoving is nature.

This immovability is not like the immovability of wood or stone. It remains vibrant and alive: when it encounters circumstances, thoughts arise, illusorily arising and ceasing, yet ultimately unobtainable—this is mind. Mind arises from intrinsic nature. The character 性 consists of 心, “mind,” and 生, “arise,” indicating that intrinsic nature is that from which mind arises.

When mind ceases, its cessation returns to nature. Therefore, its point of arising cannot be seen: whence it comes cannot be known. If it is said to arise in dependence on circumstances, then it should arise from those circumstances and not be connected with anything inherent; nature would seem to have no part in it. If it is said to arise in dependence on nature, then without circumstances how could a thought arise? In nature, a thought cannot arise from nothing.

Therefore, know that it exists through the provisional conjunction of causes and conditions. Just as a bell sounds because it is struck, the emergence of sound is also provisionally present through the conjunction of various causes and conditions. This is why its point of arising cannot be grasped.

When it ceases, where does it go? This cannot be known. If it is said to cease in circumstances, no increase is seen in those circumstances. If it is said to return and cease in nature, then when mind arises no diminution is seen in nature, and when mind ceases no increase is seen in nature. It is precisely like water: when there are waves, the water need not decrease; when waves cease in water, the water need not increase. Moving yet unmoving—this is why its point of cessation cannot be grasped.

Because it cannot be grasped, it does not arise; because it does not arise, there is nothing that can cease. This is what is meant by neither arising nor ceasing. From this we know that arising is illusory arising and cessation is illusory cessation; both are merely provisional names. What does illusory arising mean? It means arising in dependence on others, according to the Dharma Characteristics School. Nature originally has three aspects: first, the nature of dependence on others; second, the nature of pervasive discrimination and attachment; third, the nature of absolute reality and perfection.

The nature of absolute reality and perfection means the true aspect that is originally complete and originally accomplished. Suddenly enticed by external objects, one gives rise to thoughts in dependence on others. Failing to awaken to this, one takes it as illusory, then pervasively calculates and clings to it. The problem does not lie in arising in dependence on others, but in attachment. The fault in attachment does not lie in pervasive calculation, but in firmly clinging to it. Thus one's intrinsic nature becomes confused. Yet this confusion is only temporary; intrinsic nature can never increase or diminish. Therefore it is called the eternally unchanging nature of the tathāgata-garbha.

Non-Duality of Nature and Mind

If nature is the essence and mind is the function, essence and function are nondual. When a thought arises, wind forms waves. Whether it is good or evil, with a single turn it is empty; in its very substance it vanishes. The distinction between sages and ordinary beings also lies in this single turn. Turning away from evil and toward good lies in this single turn. To transcend the ordinary and enter sagehood is fundamentally very easy.

Yet mind is both the most alive and the most dead. People always refuse to turn this mind toward goodness. Even with the strength of nine oxen and two tigers, it will not move in the slightest. This is because the karmic force of the obstinate mind is strong; it is difficult to tame and subdue. Even the Buddha can do nothing about it. Without one's own initiative, it cannot turn.

But how can it turn? One need only awaken; awakening itself is turning. The intrinsic nature of ordinary people is originally complete and lacks nothing, and is therefore called fundamental awakening. It is originally wondrous, and is therefore also called the wondrous mind of perfect enlightenment. Unfortunately, they are drunk as though mad. Though all are equally drunk, drunkenness has degrees; yet a drunk person is no different in nature from a good person.

Those who have awakened first go to rescue those who have not yet awakened. This is called practicing the bodhisattva path: impartially and compassionately liberating all. Though a drunk person may be wild, one must not despise him, for his original nature has not been damaged in the slightest. He is merely confused for the moment and unable to be clear-minded. Once he awakens, he is no different at all from a good person. Thus afflictions and bodhi are in truth nondual.

Both are empty in nature and unobtainable; therefore they are said to be identical.

Long ago, someone asked what it meant to say that afflictions are themselves bodhi. I asked him to raise his hand, then asked him to put it down. I then asked, “Did your hand make one raising and one lowering?” He said, “Yes.” I asked again, “Were that raising and lowering performed by two hands, or by this same hand?” He said, “The same hand.” I then asked, “Are raising and lowering two?” He said, “Two.” I asked, “Is the hand one?” He said, “One.” He suddenly awakened to this principle and departed joyfully.

Thus drunkenness and sobriety, too, are nondual; this is originally so. Yet people refuse to let go. Once this turn has been made, what can be done? When they enter the gate of practice, their greed and laziness all arise, and they rely entirely on the Buddha, wanting the Buddha to let go of this hand for them and to awaken for them. What can be done? What can be done? Tracing the matter to its source, the reason is that they have never understood the character of mind and intrinsic nature.

Interacting Faculties and Objects

One cannot help seeing and hearing. To force oneself not to see or hear is the annihilationism of non-Buddhist paths. Forcefully suppressing one’s practice will inevitably produce serious illness: one either falls into a dead sea or turns into a mad demon.

If one follows seeing and hearing as they flow and turn, this is the grasping after conditions of ordinary beings. Such grasping means being passively carried along by delusion and karma, losing one’s mastery. Therefore one must still maintain clear, ever-present knowing in all things, adding the practice of seeing clearly. Know them to be flowers in empty space, and there will be no further turning in the cycle. This is a principal passage of the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment. Its difficulty lies in the single word “knowing,” which encompasses such states as awareness and illumination, realization of emptiness, freedom from delusion, and immovability. Without cultivation and realization, one simply does not know.

Mind as the Treasury

What is meant by “treasury”? It refers to the storehouse consciousness. Consciousness is further divided into the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth consciousnesses, which will now be explained separately.

The fifth consciousnesses are the first five consciousnesses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body consciousness. They arise in relation to forms, sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile objects. They are like attendants at a doorway who receive messengers and goods into a warehouse; they store what has not yet entered the warehouse.

The sixth consciousness is mental consciousness: the thoughts aroused by the preceding five consciousnesses. It is like a special agent who receives and carries goods into the warehouse.

The seventh consciousness is consciousness that discriminates through inference. It distinguishes what is good, evil, or indeterminate, and clings obstinately without relaxing its hold. It is the storehouse of attachment to self. It is like a person who inspects goods and determines their quality. It is the general cause of suffering and the ancestor of afflictions; in Sanskrit, it is called manas consciousness.

The eighth consciousness is the storehouse consciousness. “Store” has three senses: the capacity to store, encompassing storage, and storage grasped through attachment to self. The capacity to store means having the ability to store: once something is stored, it does not emerge again; no matter how many years pass, not the slightest bit can be removed. Encompassing storage means that its scope can contain everything: things as great as mountains, rivers, the sun, moon, and earth, and as small as mustard seeds, grains of rice, and tiny insects, are all contained within it. It is like a great warehouse, in which all things—large and small, good and bad, impure and pure—are stored. In Sanskrit, it is called ālaya consciousness.

The ninth consciousness is the empty and pure aspect of the eighth consciousness. Although the eighth consciousness is likened to a warehouse, it is originally empty and pure. Though goods are carried in and out, coming and going in confusion, the warehouse itself does not move because of this. It is neither defiled nor pure, neither comes nor goes, and is originally spotless and immaculate. It is therefore separately called the ninth consciousness. The ninth consciousness is called the pure consciousness; in Sanskrit, it is called amalavijñāna.

All these consciousnesses are fundamentally one entity and have no inherent reality. These provisional names are established merely to awaken people’s understanding, to explain how the mind gives rise to causes and thereby creates karma.

When worldly people create karma through their causal actions, they fall into cause and effect and are not easily rescued. This is why the three karmas of body, speech, and mind are not easily purified. What is bodily karma? Killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. What is verbal karma? Divisive speech, harsh speech, false speech, and frivolous speech. What is mental karma? Greed, anger, and ignorance. These are the three poisons, collectively called the ten evil acts. Add the word “not”—not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, and so forth—and they become the ten wholesome acts.

Mental karma is primary, the cause; verbal karma is the lead, the condition; bodily karma is the completion, the fruition. If one does not save the root at the level of cause, but merely makes amends at the level of result, there will ultimately be no benefit. In this assembly, we cultivate the precepts by beginning with samādhi and wisdom. Samādhi and wisdom are themselves precepts—the precepts of mind, the so-called fundamental great precepts—though this does not dispense with the forms and deportment of the precepts.

Practice begins with cultivating the mind and working at the root. This is the Heart-of-Heart Dharma, in which function arises from essence. Therefore, in speaking of the dependent arising of mental karma, I do not tire of repetition. People suffer because they do not recognize their own illness. The Buddha therefore described the various habitual tendencies. There are one hundred and sixty types of mind; the Mahāvairocana Sūtra condenses them into sixty types, so that practitioners may each turn the light inward and examine themselves.

Zengzi examined himself three times a day. These “three examinations” must not be understood as three separate occasions; if one examined oneself only three times daily, it would be much like exposure to the sun for one day and cold for ten. These “three” are the three periods of a day: the beginning, middle, and end. That is, there is no day or time when one should not do this. Do so day after day and month after month; over time it will become natural, and to go three months without departing from benevolence will not be difficult. All the ailments of the mind are habitual tendencies. Their root is nothing other than the binding of faculties and objects, the mutual entanglement of form and mind. It is like a mirror: when it faces an object, an image appears; when there is no external object, the mirror itself is empty. Yet there are differences.

1. When a mirror faces an object, an image appears; when the object goes, the image vanishes. When the mind encounters an object, a thought arises; when the object goes, the image remains, because of grasping after conditions.

2. When an object outside a mirror is gone, there is no image. But when an external object of the mind has vanished, the thought still remains, because the mind grasps after conditions out of thin air and establishes all kinds of images.

3. A mirror necessarily retains an image when facing an object, but when the mind encounters an object, it need not retain one—for example, seeing without seeing, or not binding the mind to anything. Moreover, one endowed with wisdom, whose direct perception is complete, can also cut off everything.

4. A mirror retains only one image when facing an object and cannot transform it. When the mind encounters an object, however, it may not only retain an image but also transform it, producing limitless illusions. With wisdom, it can further turn toward another mental state.

From this we can see that mastery truly lies in our own hands. Fools do not recognize the master within; they allow themselves to be carried along in the flow. Unable to transform things, they are transformed by things. They may even be turned by the sutras they read, forming a dead understanding that cannot function.

Sages establish teachings with realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature as the primary aim, wishing people to realize bodhi. Bodhi is without form or name; it is the unobtainable, perfectly wondrous, clear, and aware mind. Worldly people mistakenly take bodhicitta to mean a good or compassionate mind, believing that refraining from evil is the manifestation of bodhi. This is truly insufficiently clear: if the causal ground is not understood, how can fruition be perfected? Moreover, bodhicitta is provisionally given five names:

1. Bodhi of arousing the resolve: knowing delusion and seeking awakening, one arouses the resolve and begins practice. This means arousing the resolve to realize bodhicitta.

2. Bodhi of subduing the mind: knowing how to use mind to restrain mind and subdue its coarse and weighty accumulated habits. Yet suppression is not ultimate; since the mind has not yet become empty, this cannot be called bodhi.

3. Bodhi of realizing the mind: clearly knowing the true character of one’s mind as it really is and realizing its empty and pure ground.

4. Bodhi of arriving beyond: leaving this shore of birth and death and reaching the other shore of nirvāṇa. At this point, one has still not left behind deliberate effort.

5. Unsurpassed bodhi: having entered the state of all-pervading perfection and reality, one attains great accomplishment. This is true bodhi.

Therefore, at the level of principle, one can understand that intrinsic nature is originally perfect bodhi and that Buddha-nature is equal in all; this is becoming a Buddha in the dharmakāya. At the level of phenomena, one cultivates and realizes samādhi, sees the true marks of reality, and realizes the mind and sees one’s true nature; this is becoming a Buddha in the sambhogakāya. As for becoming a Buddha in the nirmāṇakāya through the nonobstruction of principle and phenomena, the complete removal of habitual tendencies, and the development of spiritual powers, this cannot be accomplished in a single lifetime; it requires an inexpressible length of time.

Time is kalpas; this is called asaṃkhyeya kalpas. A means “without,” and saṃkhyeya means “countless quantity”: it means immeasurable kalpas, that is, there is no fixed period of time. It may be accomplished in one lifetime, or in tens of millions of lifetimes. The wise seek the mind and transcend in an instant; fools seek externally and cannot realize it even in tens of millions of lifetimes. What practice, then, can be called transcendent? Apart from the Mind-Ground Dharma Gate, there is no other method.

Within the three realms, mind is primary. Mind is called the ground; through this Dharma of mind one enters the dharma realm, and therefore it is called a dharma gate. Those able to contemplate the mind attain ultimate liberation; those unable to contemplate it sink at once.

In the Contemplation of the Mind chapter of the Mahāyāna Birth Stories Sūtra on Contemplation of the Mind-Ground, Mañjuśrī, the Dharma Prince, said: “This dharma gate is the supreme secret mind-ground dharma gate of the Tathāgatas of the ten directions. This dharma gate is the gate through which all ordinary beings enter the Tathāgata’s sudden awakening. This dharma gate is the true and correct path by which all bodhisattvas proceed toward great bodhi. This dharma gate is the subtle jewel palace of Dharma bliss personally enjoyed by the Buddhas of the three times. This dharma gate is the inexhaustible treasury that benefits all sentient beings. This dharma gate can lead all bodhisattvas to the realm of sovereign wisdom at the summit of the form realm. This dharma gate can liberate all sentient beings from the perils of birth and death.”

I have now briefly cited several passages. All proceed through the gate of prajñāpāramitā, directly realizing the field of mind and knowing one’s own mind as it truly is. This is called the Mind-Ground Dharma Gate. The Secret Lord of the Mahāvairocana Sūtra refers to the lord of heart esotericism. The equal and secret empowerment of body, speech, and mind is the gate of entry: first, the secret of the body is mudrā; second, the secret of speech is mantra; third, the secret of mind is wondrous contemplation.

The third is the expedient addition of this enjoyment body; it is the dharmakāya of Vairocana, pervading all things. This signifies the perfection of the bodhisattva’s practices and is therefore given this name. In truth, it is the inconceivable mind of the equal dharmatā of all sentient beings. The sutra says, “Relying on this dharma gate,” and so forth; the gate is precisely this gate. Therefore, apart from prajñā, the provisions for learning the Buddha’s teaching are cut off.

Dharmas arise from mind; names are established on the basis of dharmas. The mind that gives rise to them has no location, and the dharmas that arise likewise have none. Mind and objects are both empty and without location. Thus, without mind, there are no names at all. Since the mind responds to things in accordance with conditions, all belong to the emptiness of conditions.

For forty-nine years the Buddha taught the Dharma for no purpose other than liberating the minds of sentient beings and bringing them peace and happiness. No sentient being fails to seek peace and happiness; their struggles, killings, cunning pursuits, and deceitful acquisitions all arise from seeking their own happiness. Yet they do not know that this happiness is not ultimate. Worldly happiness stands in opposition to and dependence upon suffering; it all arises from habitual comparison.

Today’s happiness is tomorrow’s suffering; the happiness of having is the suffering of lacking. Therefore it is not ultimate, and such happiness is temporary and difficult to preserve for long. Moreover, as the mind races outward, people forget the root, believing that suffering and happiness lie in the body’s toil and rest. The Buddha wishes them to awaken to what Dharma can truly bring ultimate peace to the mind.

People of the world do not even know their own minds, much less how to bring them peace. Thus disputes proliferate, and even after hundreds and thousands of years no final conclusion has been reached. People spend their entire lives rushing about for no reason other than to find a way to attain peace. Yet how peace is to be attained so that one’s wishes are fulfilled has never truly touched upon the mind itself. When people seek wealth and emolument, they ask themselves how they may make their minds content. This shows that what they hope for is still the mind’s own fulfillment and peace. But human affairs are impermanent, and the eight sufferings press in from every side. There is no true happiness, only the suffering of many kinds. Unable to illuminate this with wisdom, people are therefore called deluded.

From youth and vigor through old age and death, human life never departs from the eight sufferings mentioned above. Yet what people fail to recognize is the suffering of the blazing five aggregates. Most terrifying is the suffering of death. First, people mistakenly suppose that with a single death they will be annihilated forever. Second, they grieve that the property, wife, and children acquired through a lifetime of labor must soon be left behind. Third, they wonder what destination awaits them after death.

Because these doubts remain unresolved, fear arises. The more afraid they are, the less willing they are to let go; and the less they let go, the less willing the mind is to release its hold. Thus, at death, they undergo indescribable confusion and suffering. Seeing this, people instead suppose that such is inevitably the condition at death; the seed of their fear of death has already been planted. The root of this is failure to understand the mind-ground. Without clarity regarding the mind-ground, there is no way even to begin the method of settling the mind.

All who possess wisdom seek liberation from this, yet do not obtain the method. Bodhisattvas employ compassion and wisdom together to liberate them, teaching them the method of settling the mind. But they do not begin by speaking of peace; they first speak of mind, so that people may understand ultimately that there is originally no birth and death, that mind cannot be grasped, and that suffering and happiness therefore have nothing on which to depend.

To depend means to abide. Abiding in attachment means that mind and objects stand opposed to each other and cannot both be empty; calculation and discrimination arise in dependence on conditions, and suffering and happiness are born because the mind has attachments in which it abides. Yet non-abiding does not mean a stubborn emptiness, like the insentience of wood or stone. It is precisely clear, ever-present knowing without attachment; this is called non-abiding. It does not mean that there is no attachment because there is sheer nothingness.

The sūtra says, “One should give rise to a mind that abides nowhere.” One must not only refrain from abiding in suffering, but also refrain from abiding in happiness; even non-abiding itself must not be abided in. Yet one abides in this place of no abiding. This is the true mind that ever abides, and thus it is called the Pure Land and called Ultimate Bliss. What is called ultimate bliss is the utmost peace. Do not discuss peace and unrest as opposites. This word peace means true and ultimate peace, a peace beyond all naming and description.

When one understands this wondrous mind of perfect enlightenment, one sees that, being fundamentally neither arising nor ceasing, it is neither pure nor defiled, neither hidden nor manifest. The Second Patriarch could not find his mind; the First Patriarch then acknowledged that his mind had been settled. Thus the root of all birth and death and the eight sufferings was shattered. This depends on investigating one’s own mind; there is no Dharma to be transmitted. It is only that one’s strength in ordinary times is insufficient and the path is still unfamiliar, so you are taught to practice earnestly for yourself. Practice is not the pursuit of spiritual powers; it is the pursuit of samādhi giving rise to wisdom, so that by the power of prajñā all bonds are broken. This is nothing other than settling the mind. Yet among all the greatest spiritual powers under heaven, is there any greater than settling the mind?

Because people of the world do not understand the method of settling the mind, they take the pursuit of wealth and fame and the satisfaction of desire to be peace of mind. In the end, they become ever more confused, adding suffering upon suffering; nothing need be said of the rest. Even practitioners of the Way who have obtained the essential method of settling the mind still do not dare trust themselves. They often say that their karmic obstacles are profound and that they have no means of freeing themselves. This is due to not understanding karmic obstacles.

As stated earlier, if one wishes to eliminate karmic obstacles, the first thing is to understand clearly what karmic obstacles are. Once this is understood, they dissolve of themselves without needing to be eliminated. Thus, before the mind-ground is clear, every stirring of mind and movement of thought is a karmic obstacle; one’s temper and habitual tendencies are karmic obstacles. Karmic obstacles are unlike a criminal case on file, where the case may be dismissed and the offense pardoned. They are bonds tied within the mind.

For example, when someone kills another person and flees, the act of killing is an impulse of karmic force, and fleeing is likewise an impulse of karmic force. Even if the authorities do not investigate, the victim’s family does not pursue the matter, or a pardon is granted, the terror in that person’s conscience and the confusion at the time of death are precisely past karma that has not been resolved.

Again, in killing bandits or enemies, one may have no choice but to use armed force. If one does not seek personal emolument, rank, or territory, but, like King Wen, becomes angry once and brings peace to the realm, then one may remain at ease in body and mind. What karmic obstacle could there be? Still more so when greed, anger, and ignorance do not mingle in the mind. This is what is meant by: when principle is understood, the mind is at peace.

Unease is precisely delusion, karma, and suffering. To break through delusion, karma, and suffering is nothing beyond samādhi, wisdom, and emptiness. Samādhi gives rise to wisdom; wisdom realizes emptiness; and in emptiness, without being fixed, there is samādhi. Wisdom means intelligence; the wise are not deluded. People of the world are deluded because they lack wisdom. Lacking wisdom, they cannot distinguish true from false, and instead recognize what is false as true. If one can empty all that one possesses, one naturally understands that worldly dharmas are all insubstantial.

What is called defiled is like a leaking cup: it may at first be full of water, but before long the water leaks away, and therefore it is called defiled. Buddhadharma is a supramundane dharma, a truth of ultimate reality. Truth means that it cannot be shaken. It is like a cup without leaks, whose water never drains away, and is therefore called undefiled. Buddhadharma is that by which worldly dharmas are understood. Once worldly dharmas are understood, that itself is Buddhadharma. Apart from worldly dharmas, there is no Buddhadharma.

Therefore, Buddhadharma is enlightenment inseparable from the world. When one thoroughly understands without obstruction the defiled worldly dharmas and the undefiled supramundane dharmas, and the two kinds of defilement are utterly purified without remainder, this is called the supernormal power of the exhaustion of defilements. This is the sixth supernormal power, the highest dharma gate, absent from non-Buddhist paths and unique to the Buddha Way. It is absent from all other religions and unique to Buddhism.

For those studying Buddhism, this must be given foremost priority. Thus opening prajñā-wisdom is the fundamental provision for attaining Buddhahood and the first crucial key to realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature; there is no second path by which one may pass through. The Benevolent Kings Sūtra says: “All rely on this gate to attain perfect enlightenment. For one to become a Buddha by going beyond it, there is no such possibility.”

This is because the root illness of sentient beings is simply delusion and unawareness, and there is likewise only this one path among all Dharma gates for treating it. Though throughout immeasurable hundreds of millions of kalpas Buddhas appear in the world in every kalpa, the way of every Buddha is the same: this one Dharma. Only its application differs, adapting in response to the capacities of beings. Yet when one returns to unsurpassed bodhi and realizes entry into the ocean of Vairocana’s nature, there has never been a second way. As for its names, the various sūtras differ slightly. A brief list follows:

1. the ever-constant and unchanging nature of the Tathāgata-garbha; 2. storehouse consciousness; 3. Tathāgata-garbha; 4. the wondrous mind of perfect enlightenment; 5. the wondrous, still, luminous mind; 6. return to the origin; 7. the ocean of Vairocana’s nature; 8. great perfect mirror wisdom; 9. dharmakāya; 10. mind-ground; 11. field of nature; 12. mind-treasure; 13. bodhicitta; 14. the gate of pure bodhicitta; 15. vajra prajñā;

16. true reality; 17. suchness; 18. treasure storehouse; 19. Buddha-nature; 20. true child; 21. secret treasury; 22. the ocean of sarvajñā; 23. mind-king; 24. vajra secret traces; 25. the master of the house; 26. the single eye; 27. the mani jewel; 28. the primordial constant; 29. the great self; 30. ○.

Although the names differ in the various sūtras, their meaning is not two. This is also called the great secret of all Buddhas, and is also called the supreme Mahāyāna. The supreme Mahāyāna is not what non-Buddhist paths can know. What is meant by great is mahā, which has seven meanings:

1. Great Dharma: this means the vast, profound, and secret treasury of all Buddhas. Vairocana pervades all places, and this vehicle is only for great persons.

2. Great arousing of the resolve: this means single-mindedly aspiring to equal great wisdom, giving rise to inexhaustible vows of compassion, and vowing to bestow the Dharma universally upon sentient beings throughout the dharma realm.

3. Great faith and understanding: this means that when one first sees one’s nature and clearly realizes the Way, one possesses immeasurable merit and virtue, can reach Buddha-lands as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, and brings sentient beings to accomplishment through great causes and conditions.

4. Great nature: this means the intrinsically pure mind, the vajra treasure storehouse, which lacks nothing and is shared by all sentient beings.

5. Great reliance: this means the great support of sentient beings in the dharma realm, like a hundred rivers flowing toward the sea, and grasses and trees growing in reliance upon the great earth.

6. Great time: this means a lifespan vast and long, extending beyond the three divisions of time. The secret function of the lion’s vigorous leap of spiritual powers has never ceased.

7. Great wisdom: this means that all dharmas are boundless, equal to empty space, and the mind’s natural wondrous wisdom is likewise boundless. Because of these seven causes and conditions, among all Mahāyāna Dharma gates it is like clarified butter; therefore it is called the supreme Mahāyāna. The sūtra says, “Its nature is ever firm and solid, immeasurable as empty space.” This precisely expresses the supreme virtue of this wondrous mind.

At the Lotus Dharma assembly, the Buddha caused all sentient beings to open, reveal, awaken to, and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision. Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch, directly pointed to the human mind: see one’s nature and attain Buddhahood. Yet sentient beings’ minds are turned by things; they crave sounds and cling to forms, are bound by sensual desires, and are shaken by the eight worldly winds.

If people understand that all worldly phenomena are impermanent, like illusions and dreams, like lightning and dew, and understand this principle so that they no longer crave or remain deluded, then the substance of this mind remains thusness, unmoving. All dharmas are without intrinsic nature; because they are without intrinsic nature, all can become Buddhas.

Therefore, the Diamond Sūtra says: “All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like dew and also like lightning. One should contemplate them thus.” This is to contemplate the principle that all dharmas are without intrinsic nature.

What is meant by being without intrinsic nature? Without what sort of nature? It means without the nature of characteristics, without the nature of exhaustion, without the nature of arising, without the nature of ceasing, without the nature of self, without the nature of non-self; indeed, without the nature of bodhi, without the nature of the dharma realm, and without the nature of empty space. Knowing that all dharmas are without intrinsic nature, one can know all wisdom, attain all wisdom, see one’s nature, and become a Buddha.

Buddhadharma is not passive. Therefore, the two vehicles, which seek liberation for themselves without liberating sentient beings, are reproved by the Buddha, who calls such persons scorched sprouts and rotten seeds. Such people cannot attain Buddhahood; thus it is better to fall into hell than enter the two vehicles. Those who cultivate Mahāyāna Dharma must arouse Great Vows, sustain great compassion, realize great wisdom, and establish great conduct.

To arouse Great Vows is to vow that throughout life after life one will generate bodhicitta, relinquish one’s body, life, and possessions, and rescue sentient beings—not only enabling them to attain peace and happiness, but also enabling them to understand clearly the nature of mind, so that they may become Buddhas. To sustain great compassion is to take the mind of great compassion as one’s foundation, pitying sentient beings who do not understand true principle and suffer anguish in vain, and vowing to rescue them and bring them peace and happiness.

To establish great conduct is to practice the six pāramitās, benefiting oneself and others. To realize great wisdom is to realize the wisdom of the fundamental nature of the dharma realm and accomplish fundamental wisdom, so that one knows without exception the principles of the dharma realms in the ten directions; this is called the wisdom of all wisdom. What is called great is the nature of sentient beings’ minds: in its utmost smallness, it has no inside, so that not a mote of dust can enter it; in its utmost greatness, it has no outside, so that there is not a single dharma it does not encompass.

What is called a vehicle has the meaning of carrying. It can carry people onward directly to the ocean of sarvajñā. The ocean of sarvajñā is the ground of the wisdom of all wisdom. This ocean is within the nature of sentient beings’ minds; thus one knows that this ocean is not far away and that the mind-treasure is ever present. Compared with the mind-treasure, worldly treasures are no treasures: the jade disc of Zhao is not a treasure, and the pearl of Sui is not precious enough. If one can realize the mind and see one’s true nature, external things cannot move one’s mind. In a single instant, this treasure manifests of itself. When one personally awakens to it, it is truly not attained from another; this is seeing one’s nature and attaining Buddhahood.

Sentient beings differ in wisdom or foolishness solely because of differences in where the power of their minds is directed. Discrimination thus gives rise to wisdom and foolishness; yet all equally possess this wisdom of fundamental reality. Covered over by deluded emotional attachments and inverted views, they cannot manifest or perceive it. It is like an eye obscured by a film, or a hand rendered disabled and unable to function, though its inherent capacity has not been lost.

People possess wisdom without manifesting it, just as someone may possess treasure yet suffer poverty. Is this not tragic? Let us cite a passage from the “Chapter on the Manifestation of the Tathāgata” in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra to explain its meaning. The general sense of the sūtra passage is this: Suppose there were a great scripture as vast as three thousand worlds, recording in full all the affairs within a great trichiliocosm. Although this great scripture is so vast, it is entirely contained within a single mote of dust. Nor is this true of only one mote of dust: each and every one of innumerable motes of dust is likewise so.

Then there is a person of lucid and penetrating wisdom, endowed with the heavenly eye, who sees this scripture within the motes of dust and realizes that it brings no benefit at all to sentient beings. He then thinks: “I shall break open these motes of dust, bring forth this scripture, and enable sentient beings to benefit from it.”

This is like the Tathāgata, who, with the pure eye of wisdom, universally observes all sentient beings and says: “Wondrous indeed, wondrous indeed! How is it that these sentient beings fully possess the wisdom of the Tathāgata, yet remain foolish and deluded? I shall teach them the noble path, enabling them forever to leave behind deluded thoughts and attachments, so that within themselves they may see vast wisdom no different from that of the Buddha,” bringing benefit, peace, and happiness, and so forth.

The explanation is as follows: the great trichiliocosm-sized scripture represents the wisdom of the Tathāgata; its presence within every mote of dust means that it is within the minds of all sentient beings. That every mote of dust is thus endowed means that all sentient beings possess vast wisdom. Yet although sentient beings possess such wisdom, it is covered by deluded emotional attachments, and they cannot turn inward and illuminate it. It is like a great treasury of gold lying buried in the ground: without the guidance of one endowed with the heavenly eye, how could it be discovered?

Therefore, one must hear the principles taught in the sūtras and teachings, understand that everyone possesses vast wisdom within the mind, and consider how to awaken it. Then one may obtain the unsurpassed treasure and bring benefit to beings without end. It is regrettable only that people do not know this. If one understands this principle, one will make no distinctions of honor or lowliness, nobility or poverty, superiority or inferiority among all sentient beings; the light of impartial wisdom will naturally reveal itself.

The mind’s numinous wonder is inconceivable. The subtler the substance, the greater its force; the heavier the substance, the weaker its force. Thus the force of earth is inferior to that of water, the force of water to that of fire, the force of fire to that of wind, and the force of wind to that of mind. The force of mind is formless and is supreme among forces. Spiritual powers and transformations that enter the inconceivable are the power of mind. I shall briefly cite several passages to explain the mind:

1. The Commentary on the Awakening of Faith says: “It is easy to believe that Śākyamuni was in the past and Maitreya will come in the future. But to lead people to believe that suchness within the minds of sentient beings is the common basis of ordinary beings and sages alike—that when deluded, it gives rise to the endless six realms, and when awakened, to the unceasing Three Jewels—this is rare indeed.”

2. The Sūtra of Mindfulness of the True Dharma says: “Devas, asuras, hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals are ever guided by the mind as their chief.”

3. The “Chapter on Contemplating the Mind” in the Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Mind-Ground of Original Birth says: “What is mind? What is ground?” Mañjuśrī replied: “Within the three realms, mind is the chief; mind is called the ground. Those who can contemplate the mind ultimately attain liberation; those who cannot ultimately sink into saṃsāra.”

4. The Sūtra of the Irreversible Dharma Wheel says: “At that time, three bodhisattvas, having offered māṇḍārava flowers to the Buddha before the World-Honored One, spoke thus: ‘We have developed profound faith and understanding in this Dharma and are free of all doubt.’”

5. The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra says: “The World-Honored One said to Vajramati: ‘Good man, with the Buddha eye I observe all sentient beings. Amid the afflictions of craving, anger, and ignorance, they possess the wisdom of the Tathāgata, the eye of the Tathāgata, and the body of the Tathāgata, seated cross-legged in full lotus posture, dignified and unmoving. Good man, although all sentient beings are within the various realms and embodied in afflictions, they possess the tathāgatagarbha, ever undefiled and fully endowed with virtuous marks, no different from myself.’”

6. The Yanye Sūtra says: “The bhikshus said to Śāriputra: ‘The Buddha is not separate from our honored self. Why is this so? Because I am not apart from the Buddha, and the Buddha is not apart from me.’”

7. Before Dīpaṅkara Buddha, the Buddha offered five lotus blossoms, signifying that the five aggregates are empty in nature. His mind had no attachment, and he suddenly entered the gate of nonobstruction; thus he received the prophecy and the name Śākyamuni.

8. The Diamond Sūtra’s Elucidation of Its Tenet says: “The Diamond Sūtra is the gate through which all Tathāgatas awaken to the mind. To recognize the deluded mind of ignorance is the true mind of wondrous wisdom; therefore it is called awakening to the mind.” It also says: “Among the lands of the ten directions, the supreme, foremost, and rarest Dharma is the One Vehicle Dharma alone. It is simply the one mind: mind is Dharma, and Dharma is mind. What further dharma could one abide in? Therefore it speaks of non-abiding. If, apart from mind, one believes there is another dharma to be obtained, attachment arises in the mind; to abide in dharma-marks is to be like a person without eyes.”

9. The Treatise on the Treasury says: “To know that existence is subject to decay, and to know that nonexistence does not perish—this is true knowing. Not reckoning existence and nonexistence is precisely not reckoning either existence or nonexistence; it is the non-discriminating knowing of intrinsic nature.”

10. Chan Master Shuimian said: “The single word ‘knowing’ is the gateway to all wonders. The mind of numinous knowing is true nature itself and is no different from the Buddha.”

11. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: “Excellent, excellent! How is it that the Tathāgata is within the body, yet one does not realize it?”

12. A treatise says: “The Buddha teaches all dharmas in order to liberate all minds. If I have no mind at all, what use are all dharmas to me?”

From the passages listed above, we can see that throughout the Buddha’s forty-nine years of teaching, he spoke only one sentence: the mind is unobtainable. Although the Buddha taught, it was as though he had never taught, because dharmas are originally empty. If the mind does not arise, the myriad dharmas do not arise. Mind pervades every place, and every place pervades mind. Once this is understood, one immediately enters one’s own tradition. Those who do not realize that mind pervades every place mistakenly imagine that dharmas exist outside the mind; all is then inverted.

If one does not understand that the formless is precisely form, one is an ordinary being attached to marks. If one understands that form is precisely formlessness, one becomes greatly awakened to mind-only. Therefore, one must not seek awakening by grasping at marks, nor realize truth by abandoning marks. Neither clinging to nor departing from them, the nature of awakening reveals itself.

Conclusion: The Dharma gates for inspiring potential cannot be exhausted. Here they have been discussed only in outline, so that everyone may gain a general understanding. First arouse great vows, establish the core principle, and clarify the origins of learning Buddhism. Learning Buddhism further divides into three phases: first, the phase of inspiring potential; second, the phase of right cultivation; and third, the phase of verification. This is the first phase. But why does one wish to learn Buddhism? One should ask oneself: Do I seek myself, or do I seek the Buddha? Which is more important?

Only after recognizing the fundamental place of one’s own delusion and error can one sincerely and urgently seek medicine. The medicine is the Three Jewels. But what are Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and what makes them treasures? Once the Three Jewels are understood, we may proceed to explain the self. First begin from the existence of self, without falling into empty annihilation; then attain selflessness, without falling into emotional views and birth and death. One then knows that emotional views and birth and death are nothing but suffering.

We then explain suffering. Once the meaning of suffering is understood, one fears birth and death and seeks liberation from them. Yet one must understand how one is drawn into birth and death; at the root lies ignorance. Therefore we explain ignorance. This ignorance vainly creates all kinds of karma, and so we explain karmic obstacles. How are karmic obstacles eliminated? Only through liberation; therefore we discuss liberation. But without understanding the causes, one cannot attain the true reality; therefore we discuss cause and effect.

The arising and ceasing of cause and effect is the circulation of the illusory mind. Thus we discern mind and intrinsic nature, so as to know the marks of mind and what intrinsic nature is, and directly realize bodhi; therefore we discuss bodhi. This echoes the Mind-Seal school’s core principle on page four: “prajñā as the function.” It emphatically states that without prajñā, the provisions for learning Buddhism are cut off, just as a worker who loses the proper tools, though possessing great strength, can scarcely put it to use.

Inspiring potential means inspiring the capacity for prajñā. This prajñā is not possessed by the Buddha alone; everyone possesses it fully. Prajñā, rendered in Chinese as “great wisdom,” still does not fully convey its meaning. It should be called “the great wisdom that thoroughly comprehends the principles and phenomena of worldly and supramundane dharmas, perfectly integrating them without obstruction.” Only these sixteen Chinese characters can suggest even a fraction of its meaning. If one asks how this prajñā may be awakened, one must enter the path of right cultivation.