We sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have lost sight of our own Original Face. Taking the false for the true and calling a servant master, we give rise to greed and anger, create karma, and undergo retribution. Like spring silkworms spinning cocoons, we bind ourselves and fetter ourselves, with no time of liberation. The foolish, being ignorant, quietly endure their hardship and do not seek liberation. Though the wise know that birth and death is a great matter and that the sea of suffering is boundless, they suffer from not knowing the gate through which liberation may be sought.

For example, the six ancient non-Buddhist teachers investigated the origin of the universe and all that exists. Some spoke of a divine self; others of primordial matter or annihilation. Modern science and philosophy, in probing the source of human life and all things, speak either of dualism or monism. Though each presents its claims with great certainty and elaborates them to the utmost subtlety, all are like blind people feeling an elephant: none is correct.

Śākyamuni Buddha, compassionating sentient beings who had no way to escape suffering, manifested in the world to teach and transform them. For forty-nine years, adapting to the times and to beings’ capacities, he taught the great and the lesser, the partial and the perfect, the sudden and the gradual. With utter sincerity, he expounded in various ways the two fundamental roots: first, the root of beginningless birth and death; second, the originally pure essence of bodhi and nirvāṇa. Thus he elucidated the mysteries of human life and the universe, revealed the causes of birth-and-death and rebirth, and enabled sentient beings to recognize their own original mind, see their own intrinsic nature, return to true permanence, leave birth and death behind, and bring the wheel of suffering to rest.

We sentient beings inherently possess the Tathāgata’s wisdom and virtuous characteristics. Spiritually luminous and empty-quiescent, we are no different from the Buddha. Yet because ignorance leaves us unaware, we cling to inverted delusions, remain ceaselessly agitated, create karma, and undergo retribution. Through collective karma, mountains, rivers, and the great earth appear; through individual karma, we summon the twelve classes of living beings. Thus the cycle begins again and again without end, and birth-and-death and rebirth never cease. If we now wish to return to our original nature and leave birth and death behind, we must first awaken to and break through ignorance. Unless ignorance is broken through, we remain deluded about ourselves and pursue things; on encountering circumstances, thoughts arise, and birth and death can never be transcended.

For this reason, all sūtras, treatises, and dharma gates expound and elucidate around this central point—realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature—so that people may awaken from deluded feelings, eliminate ignorance, leave falsity behind and return to truth, and return home by the direct path. What distinguishes Buddhism from other religions and enables it to surpass non-Buddhist paths is precisely that it directly addresses the root of sentient beings’ birth and death, and of their return to cessation. That root lies in whether or not one realizes the mind and sees one’s true nature. Thus, realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature is truly the essence of Buddhism and the crucial key to transcending birth and death.

Therefore, although the sūtras and treatises are many, and their expositions and commentaries may differ, their fundamental purpose is one. Although dharma gates are extensive, and their methods and expedient means may vary, their aim is no different. As it is said, “Expedient means have many gates, but the return to the source has no second road.”

Yet in these recent times of the Dharma-ending age, Buddhist students have gone greatly astray. Not only do they not dare advocate or propagate the profound and far-reaching intent and essential meaning of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature—the whole body of teachings delivered by the Buddha during his lifetime—they react to it as though speaking of a tiger. They do not even dare to utter the words “realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature,” mention them in their writings, or promote them widely. Upon close examination, the reasons are no more than the following several points:

(I) Chan practitioners lack qualified teachers. When they apply themselves, no one guides them, gives them timely pointers, or forcefully cuts off their attachments and bonds; at critical junctures, no one opens their true eye so that they may directly see their original nature. Most cling to the same lifeless huatou—“Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?”—and struggle with it for decades without receiving any news. They therefore regard seeing one’s true nature as something exceedingly profound and difficult, beyond their reach. They exalt it as a state reserved for sages, dare not aspire to it, and still less dare to promote it.

(II) The vast majority of Pure Land practitioners say that the Pure Land school’s practice is different from others: it advocates horizontal transcendence and rebirth in the Western Pure Land, without the need to realize the mind and see one’s true nature. They do not realize that the Pure Land school is a great teaching that universally embraces practitioners of all three capacities. Although it does not explicitly speak of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature for those of lesser faculties, but only emphasizes horizontal transcendence and rebirth in the Western Pure Land, in fact it has already subtly contained the essential meaning of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature within its practice.

Consider its method of practice: when reciting the Buddha’s name, one must gather in the six sense faculties and sustain uninterrupted pure mindfulness.

Does gathering in the six sense faculties not mean letting go of everything? Unless one lets go of everything, can one tightly close the gates of the six sense faculties and gather seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing into a single Buddha-name? The four words “uninterrupted pure mindfulness” have deep and broad significance, which will be explained in detail below. For now, speaking only from the surface meaning of the words, does not reciting the Buddha’s name continuously with a pure mind teach people to use

Buddha-remembrance to steadily redirect deluded thoughts? For people cannot be without thoughts: if they are not mindful of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, they are thinking of greed, anger, and ignorance. Thus, by skillfully using a single Buddha-name to replace deluded thoughts, people imperceptibly transform their deluded mind into Buddha-mind. As it is said, “When the Buddha-name is cast into a confused mind, that confused mind cannot but become Buddha!” What is Buddha? What else is it but realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature?

This school further says, “Entering samādhi is foremost.” What is samādhi? Samādhi is the same as the term sanmei. When Buddha-recitation reaches samādhi, the mind that recites and the Buddha who is recited both fall away at once. This is also the time when the sense faculties and their objects fall away, and subject and object both vanish. When Buddha-recitation reaches this point, it is the time when, in the Chan school, the bottom drops out of the bucket—the time of realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature. At that point, what Pure Land and Chan remain? Therefore, Pure Land is Chan, Chan is Pure Land, and Chan and Pure Land are not separate families.

For those of lesser faculties, there is no need to speak much of profound Chan principles. Simply teach them to relinquish body and mind and recite straightforwardly. When emotional attachment vanishes and the mind becomes empty, realization naturally follows. Those of superior faculties awaken as soon as they hear, and need no further explanation. Thus, practitioners of lesser and superior faculties in the Pure Land school most readily attain accomplishment. Those of middling faculties seem intelligent but are not truly intelligent; they seem foolish but are not truly foolish. Because they are not truly intelligent, they cannot easily see through worldly affairs and let go of everything; because they are not truly foolish, they are unwilling to recite the Buddha’s name honestly, earnestly, and with their feet firmly on the ground. Therefore, they do not easily attain accomplishment.

Furthermore, most recent Pure Land practitioners seek only to spare themselves effort, relying solely on Amitābha Buddha to guide them to rebirth in the Western Pure Land. They are unwilling to apply themselves in Buddha-recitation to sweep away their deluded minds and habitual defilements and to transform themselves, yet they call this “a dharma gate of other-power, relying on other-power for practice.”

When they hear “one-pointedness of mind without distraction,” they repeatedly shake their heads and say, “No need, no need! Pure Land practice requires only faith and vows; Amitābha will naturally guide us. Whether one’s practice is effective or ineffective is unimportant.” Why would they need “realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature”? And how could they know that “one-pointedness of mind without distraction; when the lotus opens, one sees the Buddha and awakens to the unborn” is simply another expression for realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature?

(III) Esoteric Buddhist practitioners, for the most part, incline toward spiritual powers and mysterious marvels. Some even display these before the world, thereby satisfying their desire for fame and profit. They pay no attention at all to the work of realizing the essence, awakening to the Way, and transcending birth and death. They have turned this excellent Esoteric Buddhism into something steeped in a sinister and superstitious air. Its proclaimed attainment of Buddhahood in this very life or in this very body—that is, realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature—has long been cast beyond the clouds.

The three major schools now existing in our country are so dispirited and disordered; as for the other schools that have name but no substance, their condition is self-evident and readily imagined. Thus the whole splendid and radiant Buddhist tradition has been so ruined by its unprogressive descendants that it has become a scene of smoke and chaos, utterly wretched. How could later learners know where the spirit of Buddhism lies? How could they cultivate themselves and nurture their nature, recover their natural innocence, and be liberated from birth and death? How can one speak of this without profound grief and indignation?

What is more, Buddhism is a great teaching that educates people to understand truth, abandon false views, turn from evil toward good, leave the deviant and return to the right, and transform humanity. It is a wholesome dharma that awakens people from deluded dreams, teaches them not to cling or be selfish, and encourages them to use all their strength to serve the public and seek the welfare of all living beings—benefiting all sentient beings universally. More than this, it is a wondrous dharma that enables sentient beings to leave delusion behind and realize truth, lay down their heavy burdens—the things to which their minds cling—and live with ease, joy, meaning, value, and genuine benefit.

Consequently, it is a great religion of immense practical and positive significance for society and the nation. For every social unrest and national upheaval is caused by the mischief of greed, anger, and ignorance, the three great evil dispositions in people. Because material desires blaze fiercely and greed rises high, people resort to every means to commit such crimes as corruption, violation of the law, profiteering, smuggling, bribery, even plotting rebellion and forming factions for private gain. Buddhism is precisely directed against these three poisonous roots—greed, anger, and ignorance.

As for the operation of the world and the circumstances encountered by humankind, they are all karmic results summoned by people’s own ignorant and deluded activity, their attachment to circumstances, and their creation of karma. In other words, people bring them upon themselves and undergo them themselves; they are not the work of ghosts or spirits. Moreover, as soon as people swiftly awaken, recognize their own original mind, and see their own intrinsic nature, everyone can become a Buddha. Buddhism is a broad and great teaching that advocates complete equality and admits no distinctions of class. For this reason, many people maintain that Buddhism is not a religion.

Furthermore, viewed from Buddhism’s fundamental purpose, the perfect and sudden teaching takes its standpoint from the most ultimate level. It says that there is no birth and death to be transcended, no nirvāṇa to be realized, no Buddhas and no sentient beings, and that all dharmas are empty. To raise the mind or stir a thought is already to depart from its own tenet. As it is said, “Raise the mind and you are already wrong; stir a thought and you have already gone astray.” It takes non-adherence as its tenet.

Taking non-adherence as its tenet is Buddhism’s true tenet, for to adhere to some tenet is to fall into a biased view. Therefore, many people also call Buddhism nonreligious on this basis. Yet they seem to forget that although Buddhism takes non-adherence as its tenet, it is not without a guiding principle: there still remains the tenet of having no tenet. Thus it is not nonreligious either.

Buddhism teaches dialectical truth. Because it takes non-adherence as its tenet, it should not be called a religion; because it takes non-adherence as its tenet, it should not be called nonreligious. Neither empty nor existent, neither existent nor empty: this is Buddhism’s essential meaning of the Middle Way, which does not establish the two extremes. To comprehend this essential meaning, one cannot do without realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature. From this it is clear that realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature is a matter of utmost importance for Buddhist practitioners.

Since realizing the mind and seeing one’s true nature is so important for Buddhist practitioners, what exactly does it mean? How can it be realized? What state is experienced when it is realized? And what functions does it have after realization? These are all questions that Buddhist practitioners wish, and ought, to understand, and that urgently require investigation. In order to make them clear and easy to understand, and to facilitate readers’ realization, they will be briefly set forth separately below.