Dependent Origination and Non-Dependent Origination

The six consciousnesses, six dusts, and five roots of the conditioned dharmas are easily scattered and decayed, hence they are easily destroyed, easily altered, and easily severed. The mental faculty of non-conditioned dharmas is not easily scattered and decayed, hence it is not easily destroyed, not easily altered, and not easily severed. Altering the mental faculty is difficult, which is why it is said that cultivation is not easy, and liberation is not easy.

The eighth consciousness, being a non-conditioned dharma, is fundamentally neither scattered nor decayed, neither altered nor changeable, and cannot be severed. Therefore, the starting point of cultivation does not lie in cultivating or altering the eighth consciousness, but merely in realizing it. Then, having personally witnessed that all dharmas depend on the eighth consciousness and are its products, one sees that before the eighth consciousness, all dharmas are concealed and do not appear. Thus, one ceases to grasp at any dharma, not even grasping at the eighth consciousness itself. The mind becomes supremely empty, an emptiness within emptiness—this is liberation.

Without meditative concentration, one perceives all dharmas as they are. With meditative concentration, one perceives that all dharmas are not what they seem; one can see the true appearance of dharmas, their essence and fundamental nature. Thereafter, ignorance is extinguished, the mind is transformed, and liberation is attained.