What Is It to See Marks Yet Be Free from Marks

Seeing marks yet being detached from marks does not mean that upon seeing any mark, one leaves no mark in the mind, empties the mark away and abandons it, keeping the mind pure with no dharma in it. That is a method of cultivating meditative concentration (samādhi)—trying as much as possible to avoid the disturbance of worldly marks upon one's mind; when the mind is undisturbed, it becomes pure. This kind of purity is absence of thought and conception; it is a state of meditative concentration. The non-Buddhist practitioners all cultivate this kind of concentration, cultivating all the way to the concentration of neither perception nor non-perception; at the end of life they ascend to the heavens to enjoy blessings, but when the blessings are exhausted, they fall again.

True detachment from marks, however, is that when facing worldly marks, one clearly knows in the mind what the essence of a mark is, knowing that a mark is not the surface appearance presented to us, and that in substance it is empty. As for emptiness, there are two kinds: one is the emptiness of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the Small Vehicle; the other is the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha's emptiness-nature. This makes it clear that without realizing the fruits and without awakening to the true mind, one simply cannot detach from marks; one can only hide from marks. And even if one can hide, it is only temporary; in the long run, one cannot hide at all—one will inevitably have to face them.

Only after realizing the eighth consciousness can one gradually detach from marks in the mind; this is a long process and cannot be accomplished in one stroke. This process is the process of the transformation of the basis; when the transformation of the basis is accomplished, one transforms consciousness into wisdom, enters the house of the Tathāgata, and possesses the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only (Yogācāra). To see the eighth consciousness, one must first understand its nature and characteristics, its functions and roles, and then, carrying a questioning doubt, seek and realize it within the operation of the dharmas of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms. In the process of investigating Chan, of course one must know or realize that the functions and roles of the five aggregates and eighteen realms are not real and not self, that they are empty; only then can one not attach to the marks of the five aggregates and eighteen realms as self or as real, and only then can one negate the five aggregates and eighteen realms. After all the illusory dharmas have been negated, one then raises doubt about that true dharma; investigating back and forth, when the causes and conditions of the bodhisattva's six perfections are complete, realization and enlightenment become possible.