Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra) (67)

Without a mind of delight and attachment, that is the Buddha's realm

Without a mind of delight and attachment is the realm of the Buddha. Within the Buddha's realm there is no mind of delight and attachment; He takes no delight or pleasure, and has no craving or attachment, toward the five desires and the six sense objects. The Buddha is the Tathāgata, and the Tathāgata is the tathāgatagarbha; He has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness—He neither likes nor dislikes anything, for He is of a non-active (asaṃskṛta) nature. The minds of the first seven consciousnesses have joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, but the true mind has none. When the minds of the seven consciousnesses experience joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, there is the true mind complying and cooperating therein; otherwise, the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses would not manifest such phenomena of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. In all dharmas, the true and the deluded operate together: when the seven consciousnesses experience joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, there is a tathāgatagarbha that neither rejoices nor grieves, ceaselessly transmitting all kinds of seeds so as to sustain the current manifestation of the seven consciousnesses' mental activities of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. Finding this silent, unrecognized, selfless contributor behind the scenes is seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment, thereby obtaining prajñā wisdom.

Why is it said that without a mind of delight and attachment is the Buddha's realm? The Buddha said that if there is no delight and attachment, one can then be far removed from all dharmas. Because all Buddhas have already attained tranquility and non-action, they cling to nothing among all dharmas, worldly or transcendent; they do not abide in objects, and in their minds there is no existence of dharmas—they have ultimately departed from all dharmas. Although the Buddha must engage in ceaseless activity upon the illusory appearances of the five aggregates in order to extensively deliver immeasurable sentient beings, this does not hinder the Buddha's mind from abiding nowhere, and He gives rise to no mind of delight and attachment toward any dharma. The Dharmakāya Buddha (dharma-kāya-buddha) even more so abides nowhere in mind with regard to worldly and transcendent dharmas, far removed from all dharmas and marks, having no mind of delight and attachment toward any dharma.