Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Father and Son (71)

All dharmas are originally emancipated.

Emancipation means being unbound. Since all dharmas are utterly unobtainable, they cannot bind sentient beings. It is sentient beings themselves who perceive dharmas as real and as self, clinging incessantly, willingly attaching to all dharmas, thus failing to attain emancipation—this has nothing to do with the dharmas themselves. If one realizes that all dharmas are unobtainable and no longer seeks to grasp them, one attains emancipation and is no longer bound by dharmas. Sentient beings are bound by the objects of the six senses and bound by their own five aggregates. The ropes loop one over another, locking them firmly, as if imprisoned within the three realms, unable to break free and escape the prison. The root lies in sentient beings’ failure to perceive dharmas clearly, unaware that dharmas are empty, illusory, and unreal. Dharmas fundamentally do not bind people; thus, there is no need to cling to them. If sentient beings realize this truth, their minds will naturally be emancipated from the realm of delusion. The emancipation of dharmas is decisively present; sentient beings are originally emancipated, yet they merely bind themselves due to delusion. There is no sentient being who cannot be emancipated, except those who remain deluded.

All dharmas in the world are originally empty and illusory; there is no need for us to empty them. All dharmas are originally emancipated; there is no need for us to emancipate them. As long as we perceive the truth, there is no dharma that is not empty, no dharma that is not emancipated. We cannot establish dharmas as real. The ten dharma realms and the eighteen realms are equally empty and illusory. Therefore, there are no sentient beings, no sages, no six sense faculties, no objects of the six senses, and no six consciousnesses. Thus, there is no bondage, nor is there one who is bound. Both bondage and the bound are illusory and utterly unobtainable.