Why Seek Bodhi Within the Mind?

Bodhi is to be sought only within the mind; why labor to seek the profound externally? Hearing this and cultivating in accordance with it, the Western Pure Land is right before your eyes.

Explanation: Why should bodhi be sought within the mind? Because bodhi is the mind. But which kind of mind is it? What are its characteristics and features? Within which mind should bodhi be sought? From which mind can bodhi be found?

The mind is within the body, or rather within one's own mind; the mind is not in empty space, not in external appearances or external sense objects, nor in other people. Therefore, to seek this mind you need not search outwardly—no need to speak of the profound or the wondrous; you only need to turn back and look for it within your own mind. However, this mind at all times and in all places engages with all dharmas, including other people, external environments, and also the material universe—the vessel world. When you are engaging with these external environments, if you gather your light inward and introspect upon your own mind, you will be able to perceive this bodhi mind. Because bodhi is functional, operating at every moment without idle time, you must seek Him amid all these functions, while at the same time not letting external environments blind your eyes—seeing only the external environment and taking it as real. If you do that, you will not be able to perceive the bodhi mind.

This is called investigating Chan (cān chán). Only by cultivating in this way can you realize your own mind, realize the bodhi mind that manifests the great thousand worlds in radiance, realize the bodhi mind that can perfectly accomplish all dharmas, and realize the tathāgata of one's own mind, who has always been a Buddha. Having found the tathāgata, rely on Him to transform the defiled mind of the seven consciousnesses, making it as pure as the bodhi mind, as selfless as the bodhi mind, as pure and non-active (wu-wei) as the bodhi mind, and as beneficial and joy-bringing to all sentient beings as the bodhi mind. Such cultivation can perfect the Buddha Way, becoming a tathāgata who is transparent within and without, whose radiance shines illuminatingly across the boundless trichiliocosm. Merging with the tathāgata of one's own mind, one will manifest countless great thousand worlds as resplendent and wondrous as the land of bliss (sukhāvatī). The land of bliss is at all times and in all places right before your eyes. Deliver all suffering sentient beings, returning to the place of quiescent extinction, with permanence, bliss, self, and purity.