Patriarch's Teachings: Direct Interpretation
Chapter Two: The Verses of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Eight Patriarchs of the Western Heaven
I. The Verse of Dharma Transmission from Mahākāśyapa to Ānanda
Original text: 法法本来法，无法无非法；
何于一法中，有法有非法。
Explanation: Worldly dharmas and transcendental dharmas all in fact point to the dharma of true suchness (tathatā), and the dharma of true suchness is a dharma that exists from the very beginning, not a dharma born afterward. Within the dharma of true suchness there is not a single dharma-mark, not any mark whatsoever. Even so, among all the dharma-marks manifested by true suchness, there is not one dharma that is not the dharma of true suchness—every dharma is true suchness. Why, within this true suchness dharma that is without duality of marks, forcibly divide out emptiness and existence, right and wrong? Why insist on saying which dharma is true suchness and which dharma is not true suchness?
II. Ānanda's Verse of Dharma Transmission
Original text: 本来付有法，付了言无法；
各个需自悟，悟了无无法。
Explanation: What all the Buddhas and patriarchs of successive generations transmitted to their disciples was the dharma of true suchness. Although this dharma of true suchness is without marks, it truly exists—its marks are empty while its substance is real. Although the disciples all obtained the dharma and awakened to the Way, in fact there is nothing obtained; no dharma whatsoever is obtained. True suchness is originally one's own family treasure, not obtained from outside; it is merely discovered. After discovering it, one knows that the five aggregates of the world do not contain a single existing dharma—all are manifested by true suchness. The mind will also gradually cease to cling to the dharma of true suchness. He is both all dharmas and no dharma at all, both precious and worth not a penny. Sentient beings of great mind must each strive, cultivating and awakening on their own. After awakening, they will know that the mundane and supramundane are not without a single dharma, are not entirely false and illusory—there is still one dharma that is not illusory, which truly exists. Thus one can be at ease, knowing it is not annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā).
III. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Third Patriarch Śāṇavāsa
Original text: 非法也非心，无心也无法；
说是心法时，是法非心法。
Explanation: The dharma of true suchness transmitted by all Buddhas and patriarchs is not a worldly dharma and has no marks of worldly dharmas; it is not the worldly mind of the seven consciousnesses and has no dharma-marks of the seven-consciousness mind. True suchness has no mind toward the six sense objects of the world; it does not discriminate the six sense objects, does not abide in the six sense objects, does not discriminate upon the marks of the six sense objects, and its own mind is empty without a single mark. It does not possess the dharma of the five aggregates, does not possess the dharma of the eighteen realms, does not possess the dharma of the Four Noble Truths, does not possess the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination, does not possess the dharma of the six perfections—empty without a single dharma. The mind that the patriarchs used when discussing the dharma of true suchness and transmitting the dharma of true suchness is precisely the worldly deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, which has the dharma-marks of the seven-consciousness mind and is not the dharma of true suchness itself that is transmitted. And the dharma of true suchness that is transmitted does not have the discriminating nature of the seven-consciousness mind; it is not the dharma of the seven-consciousness mind. The two have utterly different natures, with an enormous difference between them.
IV. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Fourth Patriarch Upagupta
Original text: 心自本来心，本心非有法；
有法有本心，非心非本法。
Explanation: The self-natured pure mind of sentient beings exists from the very beginning; it is not born afterward, not a dharma produced by causes and conditions. In the world there are no causes and conditions capable of producing Him. This inherently existing mind, unlike the other dharmas of the three realms, does not possess form and color; sentient beings cannot contact Him with the six faculties or know Him through the touch of the six consciousnesses. This mind is empty without a single mark, without any dharma whatsoever; He does not inherently belong to the dharmas of the three realms. Yet within any kind of existent dharma in the three realms, He is there upholding, manifesting, and functioning. And the six consciousnesses of the aggregate of consciousness, which are distinct from the original mind, are produced by the original mind in combination with various conditions; they are not dharmas that exist from the beginning.
V. The Fifth Patriarch, the Venerable Dītika
Original text: 通达本心法，无法无非法；
悟了同未悟，无心也无法。
Explanation: If through cultivation one enters the first bhūmi and thoroughly penetrates the dharma of the original mind, the self-natured true suchness, then all dharmas have no right or wrong, and one also knows that among all dharmas of the three-realm world, there is not one dharma that is not the original mind, the tathāgatagarbha—all are born, manifested, and upheld by the tathāgatagarbha, and no truly existing dharmas exist. After awakening to the dharma of the original mind, the tathāgatagarbha, one knows that the original mind is not obtained from outside; the five aggregates themselves have not gained anything—they are still the same five aggregates as before awakening. Only the mental activities have undergone transformation, gradually turning toward purity. After the mind-ground transforms its basis to the original mind, the tathāgatagarbha, one gradually becomes pure and non-active (wu-wei) toward the myriad dharmas of the world, without mind toward all people, matters, and things; in the mind there is not a single dharma to confront one, and not a single dharma is seen as truly existing.
VI. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Sixth Patriarch Miśraka
Original text: 无心无可得，说得不名法；
若了心非心，始解心心法。
Explanation: After awakening to the original mind, one gradually discovers that this original mind is not of the same nature as the deluded mind of the preceding seven consciousnesses; it is not a mental activity within the three realms. This mind cannot be obtained; it is not obtained from outside—it is the family treasure inherently possessed by the five aggregates themselves, merely discovered through another's pointing it out. If one says that enlightenment is obtaining some mind that did not exist before but exists now, born afterward, then it must certainly be a mistaken awakening—the awakening to the realm of the mind consciousness, which can arise and perish. When the mind consciousness, through cultivating meditative concentration, occasionally sees emptiness and takes the state of emptiness as the original mind, this "original mind" is obtained from outside, obtained through cultivating concentration. When the concentration dissipates, the emptiness perishes and the "original mind" vanishes; then one cultivates concentration again to preserve and maintain it, keeping the emptiness constantly present. This method of awakening to the Way is not the Way; it is disordered cultivation. If one clearly understands that the original mind is not the mental activity of the worldly seven consciousnesses and is distinct from the preceding seven consciousnesses, and if all eight consciousnesses are known, then sentient beings begin to understand the various dharma-marks of the original mind and its various functions, gradually acquiring the specific-character wisdom and the wisdom of the varieties of paths.
VII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Seventh Patriarch Vasumitra
Original text: 心同虚空界，示等虚空法；
证得虚空时，无是无非法。
Explanation: The eighth consciousness of sentient beings is like empty space—without form or mark, non-active and unconditioned, without vows or seeking, without speech or demonstration. With this one great matter as the condition, all Buddhas appear in the world, revealing and demonstrating to sentient beings the tathāgatagarbha mind-dharma that is like empty space. When sentient beings hear the Buddha's teaching, cultivate diligently, and realize the tathāgatagarbha with its vast mind-capacity like empty space, they gradually discover that all dharmas of the world have no self-existing nature of their own; all arise, abide, change, and perish in dependence on conditions according to the tathāgatagarbha, and all are the result of the functions, nature, and operations of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus each dharma, in its very substance, is empty; in its very substance it is the emptiness-natured mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Its relationship with the tathāgatagarbha is neither one nor different—there are parts that are the same and natures and functions that are different, with no two-ended assertion of "is" or "is not."
VIII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Eighth Patriarch Buddhanandi
Original text: 虚空无内外，心法也如此；
若了虚空故，是达真如理。
Explanation: Empty space does not truly exist; it is an illusory false appearance manifested by the mind. Therefore empty space has no inside or outside, no boundaries, length, size, or shape. The tathāgatagarbha mind is also like this—no inside or outside, no form or mark, without boundaries. If one can recognize that the nature of the tathāgatagarbha is like empty space—neither coming nor going, neither increasing nor decreasing, suchness is immovable (tathatā-acalita), without vows or seeking, non-active and unconditioned—then one has thoroughly penetrated the principle of true suchness of the tathāgatagarbha.
IX. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Ninth Patriarch Punyamitra
Original text: 真理本无名，因名显真理；
受得真实法，非真也非伪。
Explanation: The true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, has been nameless throughout the kalpas, without speech or demonstration, existing in tranquil silence. When the noble ones appear in the world, in order to conveniently teach sentient beings, they establish the true mind under various provisional names, innumerable in quantity, only to express and reveal the substance, marks, and functions of the true mind, so that sentient beings may conveniently discriminate and recognize it. Sentient beings then, according to the various names of the true mind, discriminate and understand its various natures and functions. Relying on the various natures of the true mind, sentient beings find the mind-substance of true suchness. Having thus realized this truth, they know that the true mind is not like the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates, which have form and marks that sentient beings can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, giving sentient beings the sense that worldly dharmas truly exist and can be used. Even so, the true mind is not illusory; there is a truly existing principle-substance, with true functions and operations—it is not merely nominal fabrication, not merely a name and nothing more.
X. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Tenth Patriarch Pārśva
Original text: 真体自然真，因真说有理；
领得真真法，无行也无止。
Explanation: The true principle-substance of the tathāgatagarbha is true and not illusory from the very beginning; it is not a true dharma made real through cultivation. Because this true principle-substance exists, it is said that the myriad dharmas of the three-realm world exist, and that there are laws governing the operation of the five-aggregate world. When we awaken to the tathāgatagarbha and comprehend and master this true dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, we will know that there is no operation or stillness of the myriad dharmas of the three-realm world, no arising or perishing of the myriad dharmas. All arising-and-perishing dharmas, all the movement and stillness of dharmas, are illusory, unreal dharmas that deceive the human mind; they do not truly exist—they are merely numerous false appearances manifested in reliance on the tathāgatagarbha, this truly existing principle-substance.
XI. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Eleventh Patriarch Punayaśas
Original text: 迷悟如隐显，明暗不相离；
今付隐显法，非一亦非二。
Explanation: When sentient beings are deluded and inverted, not recognizing the tathāgatagarbha, it is as if the tathāgatagarbha were hidden away and not manifest. When sentient beings shatter ignorance and awaken to the tathāgatagarbha, they can discover in their own bodies and in all sentient beings that each tathāgatagarbha is operating without cease, manifesting in every second and instant—as if the tathāgatagarbha would never again be hidden. In fact, whether sentient beings are deluded or awakened, whether their minds are dark or bright, the tathāgatagarbha has never left sentient beings; it is always together with them, always existing and manifesting, never deliberately hidden. It is only that sentient beings' ignorance closes their minds so they do not recognize the tathāgatagarbha. Now I transmit this dharma of the tathāgatagarbha. After sentient beings obtain the dharma, they will know that the relationship of delusion-and-awakening, brightness-and-darkness with the tathāgatagarbha is neither one nor two. Delusion and awakening, brightness and darkness arise in dependence on the tathāgatagarbha and are part of the tathāgatagarbha, yet they are not entirely the tathāgatagarbha; they have both sameness and difference with the tathāgatagarbha—therefore neither one nor two.
XII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twelfth Patriarch, the Mahāsattva Aśvaghoṣa
Original text: 隐显即本法，明暗无不二；
今付悟了法，非取也非弃。
Explanation: Whether hidden or manifest, the tathāgatagarbha has its own substance and functions with respect to sentient beings; it is an inherently existing dharma that never disappears or perishes. The brightness and darkness in sentient beings' minds are not entirely a dharma separate from the tathāgatagarbha; brightness and darkness, delusion and awakening exist because of the tathāgatagarbha, arise in dependence on the tathāgatagarbha, and are inherently of tathāgatagarbha nature. I now transmit the dharma of realizing the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha's own mind never grasps at any dharma of the world, nor does it abandon any; it is neither identical to nor separate from them. He has no mental activities of the three realms and is utterly pure.
XIII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Thirteenth Patriarch Kapimala
Original text: 非隐非显法，说是真实际；
悟此隐显法，非愚也非智。
Explanation: The tathāgatagarbha itself does not deliberately hide away so that sentient beings cannot know it, nor does it deliberately manifest itself so that sentient beings awaken to it; He has no such mental activities. Rather, sentient beings have folly and wisdom: the foolish do not recognize it, the wise see it clearly. Whether sentient beings see it or not, recognize it or not, the tathāgatagarbha truly exists, never arising or perishing, never changing or varying—it is the sole true dharma of the mundane and supramundane. Having realized the tathāgatagarbha, this dharma that is both hidden and manifest, one knows that the tathāgatagarbha is neither foolish nor within the category of worldly wisdom. He has no ignorance, no greed, hatred, or delusion, and is not deluded about the myriad dharmas. Yet He also has no wisdom of the three-realm world: He does not know all dharmas, does not discriminate all dharmas, does not calculate, analyze, deliberate, or reason, and does not act as a master—He merely manifests dharmas in accordance with conditions without obtaining any dharma.
XIV. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Fourteenth Patriarch, Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna
Original text: 为明隐显法，方说解脱理；
于法心不证，无嗔也无喜。
Explanation: In order for sentient beings to clearly understand the tathāgatagarbha dharma that is both hidden and manifest, all Buddhas appear and proclaim to sentient beings the principles of the four kinds of nirvāṇa liberation. From the three dharma-seals—all conditioned things are impermanent, all dharmas are without self, nirvāṇa is tranquility—to the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination based on the self-mind tathāgatagarbha, and finally to the true tathāgatagarbha dharma cultivated by bodhisattvas—everywhere they reveal to sentient beings the principle of liberation through non-self. Yet the self-mind tathāgatagarbha is inherently unbound; toward the dharmas of the three realms He does not abide or act, has no greed or aversion, and suchness is immovable (tathatā-acalita). Therefore He is not bound by the dharmas of the three realms, has no birth-and-death saṃsāra, and thus need not seek liberation, realize liberation, or escape birth-and-death.
He Himself is already on the farther shore beyond birth-and-death, without affliction or distress, without birth or death, always abiding in the realm of nirvāṇa's tranquility. What need is there to again sever afflictions and ignorance and seek liberation? His mind does not abide in dharmas—what need to leave dharmas and realize nirvāṇa? It is the self of the five aggregates that has birth-and-death and bondage, that needs to cultivate and realize liberation, sever afflictions, remove ignorance, and go from this shore of birth-and-death to the other shore of nirvāṇa. In fact, the five aggregates are also within nirvāṇa; in reliance on the self-mind tathāgatagarbha, birth-and-death is precisely non-birth-and-death. Sentient beings do not know this, and so they must cultivate and realize it.
XV. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Fifteenth Patriarch Kāṇadeva
Original text: 本对传法人，为说解脱理；
于法实无证，无终也无始。
Explanation: The principle of liberation spoken by all Buddhas is spoken with respect to the five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings; it is not for the sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha to seek liberation. Therefore it is the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses that cultivate, not the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. When sentient beings' five aggregates, relying on the principle of liberation taught by the Buddha, realize liberation, they transmit what they have realized to other sentient beings, passing it down from generation to generation, so that all sentient beings can attain liberation. Yet whether one is the transmitter of the dharma or the receiver of the dharma, it is their five aggregates that cultivate and realize the principle of liberation. The self-mind tathāgatagarbha need not cultivate or realize the principle of liberation, because He is inherently liberated, never in birth-and-death—never born and never to die. That is to say, the tathāgatagarbha has no beginning and will never perish, existing endlessly without limit, without lifespan and without life, not bound by any dharma whatsoever.
XVI. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Sixteenth Patriarch Rāhulata
Original text: 于法实无证，不取也不离；
法非有无相，内外云何起。
Explanation: The self-mind true suchness cultivates and realizes none of the Buddha-dharmas, because He has no ignorance and need not cultivate further to obtain liberation. Toward all dharmas of the three realms and toward His own person, He never grasps, nor is there any mind of departing. The marks of true suchness are neither existent nor non-existent: say He exists—He has no form or mark, cannot be seen or touched; say He does not exist—yet He has true functions and uses, truly gives birth to all dharmas, and contains infinite dharma-seeds; therefore one cannot say He does not exist. He is the ultimate reality (dharmatā); ultimate reality means truly existing. Only He truly exists; all the rest is emptiness and illusion. Because true suchness has no form or mark, there is no inside or outside—void within, formless without, yet containing the myriad dharmas. If one does not realize Him, no matter how exhaustively you think and measure, you will remain utterly baffled.
XVII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Seventeenth Patriarch Saṃghanandi
Original text: 心地本无生，因地从缘起；
缘种不相妨，花果亦复尔。
Explanation: The mind-substance of the eighth consciousness exists from the very beginning and is not born afterward, whereas the dharmas of the three-realm world arise and manifest through the eighth consciousness's reliance on various karmic conditions. The karmic seeds stored within the eighth consciousness and the external karmic conditions do not obstruct each other. When external karmic conditions mature, the eighth consciousness outputs sentient beings' karmic seeds, producing their karmic retribution. If the karmic seeds do not encounter conditions, or the conditions are not mature, sentient beings' karmic seeds also bear no fruit and yield no karmic retribution. It is like flowers and fruits, which also do not obstruct each other: after a flower grows it bears fruit, which is stored as seeds; the seeds are planted in the ground and, upon meeting conditions, again flower and bear fruit, generation after generation without end. The karmic activities of sentient beings' body, speech, and mind are like flowers: after being committed, they are stored as seeds in the eighth consciousness. When karmic conditions mature, the eighth consciousness outputs the seeds, and sentient beings receive the retribution of those karmic activities, bearing the fruit of karma.
XVIII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Eighteenth Patriarch Gayāśata
Original text: 有种生心地，因缘能发蒙；
于缘不相碍，当生生不生。
Explanation: As long as seeds exist within the mind-ground, with the eighth consciousness as the cause of birth and加上 various external conditions, the seeds sprout, germinate, and bear fruit. Seeds and external conditions do not obstruct each other; they depend on one another, and only then can the eighth consciousness bear fruit and sentient beings have karmic retribution. When the conditions for sentient beings' retribution are complete and they should be born, the eighth consciousness gives birth to the sentient beings' five-aggregate world. Although born, it is not truly born—it is all merely false appearance.
XIX. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Nineteenth Patriarch Kumāralāta
Original text: 性上本无生，为对求人说；
于法既无碍，何怀决不决。
Explanation: The self-nature of one's own mind is inherently unborn. These principles are spoken only to those who seek the dharma: the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses has seeking, and upon hearing the dharma can believe, understand, accept, and uphold it; true suchness has no seeking, so speaking to it is useless. Because true suchness obtains nothing from any dharma, He does not cultivate. Within His mind, He will not generate decisive or indecisive mind toward dharmas, nor believe, understand, accept, and uphold them. What seeks and cultivates is the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses; what obtains is the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses; what can become a Buddha is the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses. True suchness has nothing whatsoever to do with all of these.
XX. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twentieth Patriarch Jayata
Original text: 言下含无生，同于法界性；
若能如是解，通达事理竟。
Explanation: Sentient beings' language is a dharma of arising and perishing: before it is spoken, it has no place of abiding; after it is spoken, it immediately perishes—therefore it is illusory and not to be grasped. Yet within language there is the Mahāyāna principle of non-arising. Without this principle-substance, language could not arise. This unborn and unceasing mind-substance of true suchness is the one true dharma-realm; thus language, relying on this true suchness mind, is the unborn and unceasing nature of the dharma-realm. If one can understand the relationship between all dharmas and true suchness in this way, then one has thoroughly penetrated all worldly affairs and the principle of true suchness.
XXI. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-First Patriarch Vasubhadra
Original text: 泡幻同无碍，云何不悟了；
达法在其中，非今也非古。
Explanation: The three-realm world is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—utterly unobtainable. Even so, this does not obstruct the eternal existence, manifestation, and operation of the one true substance. Why still not awaken? These illusory dharmas all exist through the functioning of the true suchness mind-substance, and in essence are also part of true suchness. If one can thoroughly penetrate that the illusory worldly dharmas are in their essence all true suchness, all the one true dharma-realm, then one also understands that true suchness is not divided into past and present, has no new or old, no age—never born, never perishing, ancient yet ever new.
XXII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Second Patriarch Manorhita
Original text: 心随万境转，转处实能幽；
随流认得性，无喜复无忧。
Explanation: The self-mind true suchness operates following sentient beings' mental states and the various realms of the world, never interrupted. In the process of following the flow of the myriad dharmas, true suchness is indeed hidden and hard to find. Sentient beings whose conditions are not mature can only take various deluded dharmas as real, not knowing that within them exists the true self-nature of the self-mind, still less knowing how He operates all dharmas, not knowing that all dharmas are born and upheld by the self-mind true suchness. When sentient beings' conditions mature, they can, following the various karmic currents, recognize that self-nature of the self-mind which is free of karmic conditions and birth-and-death.
Although the self-mind follows the currents of birth-and-death karma, He is pure and non-active, never changing or varying, never defiled—that is the true self, and also the true substance for becoming a Buddha. Although He follows the currents of birth-and-death karma and the current of ignorance, He is without joy and without sorrow, with no changes of mental state, no feelings or sighs, at ease in accordance with conditions. Then the self of the five aggregates, after according with the nature of true suchness, will gradually also be without joy and without sorrow, without affliction or distress, at ease in accordance with conditions, toward whatever realms appear.
XXIII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Third Patriarch, the Mahāsattva Haklenayaśas
Original text: 认得心性时，可说不思议；
了了无可得，得时不说知。
Explanation: When, through cultivation, we see the mind and realize awakening, recognizing our own inherent mind-nature, we then know that this mind-nature is indeed inconceivable. No matter how sentient beings use their discriminating mind and consciousness, with emotional understanding and deliberation (manasikāra/manana), they cannot deliberate Him; His nature is so subtle and hard to know. Although we have recognized our own mind-nature, this mind-nature is also utterly unobtainable. He is one's own inherent family treasure, an antique; only when conditions are complete can He be dug out from within oneself—not obtained from outside, not given by another. When we recognize Him, we still cannot say that we have known all of His nature; we only know the general characteristics. The many other, deeper and subtler natures must await the future course of cultivating the Way, to be explored and dug out bit by bit, until finally one obtains omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) and perfects the Buddha Way.
XXIV. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Fourth Patriarch, the Venerable Siṃha
Original text: 正说知见时，知见俱是心；
当心即知见，知见即是心。
Explanation: When we express words, views, and opinions, these words and views all flow out from the self-mind; they are all functions manifested by the self-mind, entirely the self-mind, neither one nor different from the self-mind. Just as our knowing and seeing are forming, part of the seed-functions within the self-mind forms the discriminating operations of knowing and seeing—like a piece of gold hammered into a ring, which does not lose its golden self-substance yet has the function of a ring. The self-mind is also thus: it flows into knowing and seeing without losing its inherent nature. The ring is made from gold; knowing and seeing are born from the self-mind. The ring in its entirety is gold, but gold is not all ring; knowing and seeing in their entirety are the self-nature of the self-mind, but the self-mind does not all flow into knowing and seeing.
XXV. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Fifth Patriarch Vaśasita
Original text: 圣人说知见，当境无是非；
我今悟其性，无道也无理。
Explanation: The so-called sage has not a trace of the ordinary person's nature. True suchness, this sage, together with the seven consciousnesses, this ordinary being, in combination produces all dharmas. When They together produce various views and describe them in language, these linguistic realms, words and deeds, and views have no right or wrong, no "is" and no "is not." Say it "is"—yet it is the activity of the seven consciousnesses; say it "is not"—yet it is what true suchness manifests; in its entirety it is all true suchness. Now that I have awakened to the nature of true suchness, I know that within true suchness there is inherently no Way and no principle. Like the true suchness described in the Heart Sūtra: no form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, or consciousness—the five aggregates; no six faculties, no six sense objects, no six consciousnesses, no twelve links of dependent origination, no Four Noble Truths, no bodhisattva's six perfections, no wisdom and no attainment. Within this empty-mark of true suchness there truly are none of these Ways and principles, yet it does not prevent all these principles from being manifested without the slightest effort.
XXVI. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Sixth Patriarch Punyamitra
Original text: 真性心地藏，无头也无尾；
应缘而化物，方便呼为智。
Explanation: The tathāgatagarbha is the treasure-store of sentient beings' mind-ground. Its self-nature is empty, yet it contains infinite meritorious capacities, able to perfectly accomplish all dharmas and harmonize all dharmas without obstruction. Its own substance is formless and markless, without head or tail, without length, squareness, roundness, size, or the colors blue, yellow, red, or white; responding to the myriad conditions, it can transform and give birth to all things and affairs. It is endowed with infinite wisdom, yet not the worldly wisdom of the seven-consciousness mind. In order to distinguish it from worldly wisdom, from the clever discriminating nature of the discriminating mind, the Buddhas could only give the self-natured pure mind of the tathāgatagarbha another name, calling it "wisdom" (jñāna). Then sentient beings can distinguish the discriminating intelligence of the seven consciousnesses' mind from the non-discriminating wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha—the two natures are utterly different: one is the worldly discriminating mind, the other is the true suchness mind that transcends the world, beyond the mundane.
XXVII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Seventh Patriarch Prajñātāra
Original text: 心地生诸种，因事复生理；
果满菩提圆，花开世界起。
Explanation: The pure treasure-ground of the self-mind contains the seeds of the six great elements—earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness—and also contains the karmic seeds of sentient beings' three kinds of karma: wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta). When these karmic seeds' conditions ripen, the self-mind tathāgatagarbha, according to the karmic seeds, outputs the great elements of earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness respectively, producing the various dharmas, and all phenomena of affairs appear. The operation and results of these affairs are again stored as seeds in the treasure-ground of the self-mind, to produce new affairs in the future. Sentient beings all sow, sprout, flower, and bear fruit within the field of their own minds—each affair different, each fruit different. For cultivators, the fruits of cultivation life after life become ever more excellent, ever closer to the Buddha-fruit. When these fruits of cultivation reach perfection, the cultivation of the great Way of bodhi is also perfectly complete; the bodhi seeds will then be born from the mind-ground, sprout, flower, and bear fruit, and the three-thousandfold great-thousandfold world Buddha-land can truly be established.
XXVIII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of the Twenty-Eighth Patriarch Bodhidharma
Original text: 吾本来兹土，传法救迷情；
一花开五叶，结果自然成。
Explanation: I originally came to this land of China (Zhendan) to transmit the one mind-seal of ultimate reality (dharmatā) of the Buddhas and patriarchs, in order to save those sentient beings still lost in delusion and inversion who do not recognize the original mind. By the time the Chan school is transmitted to the Sixth Patriarch, the Chan dharma will naturally form five dharma lineages.
Patriarch Bodhidharma's verse "one flower opens with five petals" refers to the Chan school's dharma lineage: after being transmitted to the Sixth Patriarch, it divided into five schools, namely the Linji school, the Yunmen school, the Guiyang school, the Fayan school, and the Caodong school. "The fruit forms naturally" means that because the Chan school continued to be transmitted, countless people in later generations would naturally attain the Way. These five schools' dharma lineages would naturally transmit the Chan dharma down to later generations without interruption, causing the Mahāyāna dharma of ultimate reality to spread widely, with countless beings delivered; those able to secretly penetrate the mind-dharma and secretly realize the mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta) number more than tens of millions.
