Commentary on the Father-Son Compendium Sutra (Lecture 87)

Conditions for Attaining the Fruit

The intrinsic nature of the mind-consciousness is free from all dharmas; it possesses no dharmas whatsoever. It is empty and devoid of self-nature; this is called "intrinsically free." We should thus comprehend the body-consciousness, comprehend the emptiness of the body-consciousness, comprehend our own karmic actions and the emptiness of those karmic actions, and comprehend the consciousness that initially arises in the physical body and the emptiness of that consciousness. Before the six consciousnesses—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—arise, they have no location; after they cease, they have nowhere to go; thus, they are empty. If the mind-consciousness is extinguished, this extinguished dharma is also empty. Who extinguishes it? There is no agent who causes the mind-consciousness to cease. The mind-consciousness ceases by itself; no one extinguishes it.

In both the mundane and supramundane realms, nothing is not empty except the Tathāgatagarbha. From beginning to end, from inside to out, when all dharmas of the three realms are completely emptied, one attains the fourth fruition. Not only will one never again fall into the three evil destinies, but one will also transcend the three realms altogether. When one completely empties all kinds of mental formations, all kinds of minds—greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, the mind that comprehends all dharmas—one can enter Parinirvāṇa. It is relatively easy to realize the emptiness of the physical body, knowing it to be false and illusory. Negating the various perceptions, sensations, thoughts, plans, and discriminations of the mind-consciousness to realize its emptiness is slightly more difficult. For those with sharp faculties, attaining the fruit is easy. As long as these conditions are fulfilled and the prerequisites for attaining the fruit are complete, the practice is not very difficult.