Dharma Prince Vairocana on His Experience of Spiritual Cultivation and Enlightenment

Original Text: The Buddha of Immeasurable Sound expounded that the fundamental awareness, wondrous and luminous, of a bodhisattva perceives this world and the bodies of sentient beings as all being turned by the wind-power of delusive conditions. At that time, I contemplated the establishment of the realms, the movement of the world, the motion and stillness of the body, and the arising of thoughts in the mind. All these movements are non-dual, neither different nor distinct. At that time, I realized that the nature of all these movements comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. The multitudinous sentient beings, as numerous as motes of dust throughout the ten directions, are all inverted and share the same delusion.

Thus, even all sentient beings within the trichiliocosm are like a hundred mosquitoes confined in a single vessel, chirping chaotically, frenziedly clamoring within a space of mere inches. Not long after encountering the Buddha, I attained the patience with the non-arising of dharmas. At that time, my mind opened, and I beheld the Immovable Buddha-land in the East, becoming a Dharma Prince, serving the Buddhas of the ten directions. My body and mind emitted light, penetratingly clear without obstruction. When the Buddha inquired about perfect penetration, I explained that through observing the wind-power as having no basis, I awakened to the Bodhi-mind and entered samadhi. Uniting with the wondrous mind transmitted by the Buddhas of the ten directions, this is foremost.

Explanation: A bodhisattva above the tenth ground is a Dharma Prince; he will soon accomplish the Buddha Way and inherit the Buddha's fruition. This passage explains that the formation of the trichiliocosm arises from the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—as seeds within the fundamental awareness, wondrous and luminous, of all sentient beings. Based on the delusive karmic conditions of all sentient beings, the great chiliocosm is produced. The physical bodies of sentient beings are also formed by the fundamental awareness outputting the seeds of the four great elements according to the individual karmic conditions of each sentient being.

The operation of the great chiliocosm is the function of the wind element within the fundamental awareness of all sentient beings. The movements, actions, and activities of the body, speech, and mind of sentient beings are due to their own delusive karmic conditions and the function of the wind element within the fundamental awareness. The establishment of the great chiliocosm, the changes across the three periods of time—past, present, and future—the movements and actions of sentient beings' physical bodies, and the thoughts generated by the discriminating minds of sentient beings—the nature of all these movements is identical, without difference.

Why are they not different? Because in essence, they are all the function of the wind element within the fundamental awareness of sentient beings. Why is there the function of the wind element? It is precisely because sentient beings have delusive karmic conditions. Having karma, when conditions manifest, results are inevitably produced; the result is movement, turning, and ceaseless flux. Once this karma is created, it abides within the fundamental awareness. The wind element is also a seed-function within the fundamental awareness.

If sentient beings had no karma and conditions did not manifest, the four great elements within the fundamental awareness would not function. There would be no establishment, construction, or formation of the world, and sentient beings would not have physical bodies. However, for bodhisattvas seeking to accomplish the Buddha Way and liberate beings extensively, they cannot extinguish all conditions; they must retain something to acquire a physical body and cultivate the path. Sentient beings throughout the ten directions, as numerous as motes of dust, are all inverted, produced by the same kind of delusive karmic conditions.

Sentient beings are primarily inverted in their incorrect cognition of themselves and external phenomena, thereby giving rise to incorrect actions of body, speech, and mind. Then, karma abides within the fundamental awareness, and encountering conditions, results in retribution. Thus, even all sentient beings within the trichiliocosm are like a hundred mosquitoes confined in a single vessel, chirping chaotically. We sentient beings of Jambudvīpa on Earth are also like crickets confined in a box, chirping chaotically. In truth, it is all a frenzied clamor arising within our own minds, extremely chaotic and turbulent.

Because sentient beings refuse to quiet their minds and generate incorrect mental engagements regarding the world and themselves, various views, opinions, perceptions, feelings, ideas, thoughts, and notions arise within their minds. Since all are incorrect, each having their own incorrect dharmas, disagreements, disputes, and conflicts arise. This world becomes chaotic, complex, and full of strife and clamor. These disputes, views, feelings, discriminations, and false perceptions are all floating dust on the minds of sentient beings; they are merely images appearing on the mind, not real.

So how do these images arise? How do the dust-phenomena manifest from the mind? Through cultivation and realization, Prince of Vaigaurya Light comprehended this principle, realized the fundamental awareness, wondrous and luminous, and attained the patience with the non-arising of dharmas. After profound cultivation, he became a tenth-ground bodhisattva, an equal of enlightenment, able to penetrate body, mind, and world without obstruction. His method of perfect penetration was to observe the source of the wind-power—it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; it is all the nature of the Tathāgatagarbha, the fundamental awareness, wondrous and luminous. He entered the samādhi of fundamental awareness, where phenomena and principle both accord with the pure, wondrous mind transmitted by all the Buddhas of the ten directions, not contradicting the fundamental awareness. If it contradicted, it would be a wrong realization, an erroneous awakening.