The Arhat's Parinirvana Is the Cessation of Body and Mind, Not the Annihilation of All Consciousness

After an Arhat enters the remainderless nirvana, his worldly dharmas of the three realms vanish. The three realms—the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm—are known as the vessel world, containing an immense number of material dharmas (rūpa). If an Arhat enters remainderless nirvana, not only do the material dharmas corresponding to the seven consciousnesses—such as the objective realm (dài zhì jìng), the realm of inherent nature (xìng jìng), and the realm of mere imagination (dú yǐng jìng)—cease to arise, but the fundamental realm (běn zhì jìng) material dharmas corresponding to his eighth consciousness also cease to arise. Without the fundamental realm, there are no objective realm, realm of mere imagination, or realm of inherent nature. These realms are the dependent retribution worldly dharmas manifested by the karmic seeds of the three realms, while the principal retribution is the five-aggregate body.

The phrase "all hopes turning to ashes" (wàn niàn jù huī) describes ordinary worldly people. Sages have no thoughts (wú niàn) and thus cannot be described as having "all hopes turning to ashes." "All hopes turning to ashes" means having many hopes and desires that cannot be fulfilled, leading to great disappointment, resulting in a state of having no thoughts or intentions left in the world. However, the mental faculty (manas, yì gēn) still harbors many unextinguished thoughts and wishes; they simply cannot be realized.

The Buddha used the phrase "relinquishing the body and extinguishing wisdom" (huī shēn mǐn zhì) to describe the Arhat's folly. "Relinquishing the body" means extinguishing the present five-aggregate body and abandoning the five-aggregate bodies of infinite kalpas in future lives. "Extinguishing wisdom" means extinguishing the wisdom of liberation within the three realms. This signifies that the Arhat discards both body and mind, calling it liberation, calling it quiescence.

What then is true liberation? It is facing all realms as if there were no realms: without desire or seeking, seeing yet not seeing, hearing yet not hearing, applying no mental effort, neither actively pursuing nor avoiding, untainted, uncontaminated, utterly free and at ease. The Buddha is liberated in precisely this way. He is unimpeded by possessing a liberated five-aggregate body, unimpeded by having the seven consciousnesses transformed into wisdom. Body and wisdom both remain, mutually accompanying without separation; no celestial demon or external path can do anything about it. This is the Buddha's state of non-abiding nirvana (wú zhù chù niè pán jìng jiè). He abides in no dharma whatsoever, non-active like the immaculate consciousness (wú gòu shí), non-active like Suchness (zhēn rú), yet unimpeded in being active. Like the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom (dà yuán jìng zhì), it is active yet non-active; the active and non-active are perfectly integrated, fused into one, inseparable. This state is unparalleled; the states of sentient beings cannot compare to the state of the Buddha.