Realm of the Wisdom of Patient Endurance of the Non-Arising of Dharmas

The Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, fascicle 449, states (Taishō 7, p. 264b): ‘如是不退转菩萨摩诃萨，以自相空，观一切法，已入菩萨正性离生，乃至不见少法可得。不可得故，无所造作。无所造作故，毕竟不生。毕竟不生故，名无生法忍。由得如是无生法忍故，名不退转菩萨摩诃萨。’

This means that when a bodhisattva contemplates the emptiness of all dharmas and enters the bhūmi of insight—the first ground—he first sees the principle that all dharmas ultimately do not arise; this is called the patience with the non-arising of dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti).

Explanation: After seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment, a bodhisattva who has reached non-retrogression observes that the appearances of his own five aggregates and eighteen realms are all empty. Expanding from this perspective, he observes that all other dharmas are also empty, that none of them has ever truly come into existence, and that not a single dharma in the world can be obtained. A bodhisattva who can contemplate in this way has genuinely realized the emptiness of all dharmas and the non-arising of all dharmas, which corresponds to the liberation realm of an arhat of the fourth fruit. Because all dharmas cannot be obtained, all dharmas involve no fabrication; because there is no fabrication, all dharmas ultimately do not arise—none of them has ever been born. Because he has realized that all dharmas ultimately do not arise and accepts this principle, this is the patience with the non-arising of dharmas. Having attained this patience with the non-arising of dharmas, one no longer regresses on the great path of unsurpassed bodhi and forever walks the bodhisattva path.

The patience with non-arising (regarding the self) only knows the emptiness of the person, that is, the emptiness of the five aggregates. The patience with the non-arising of dharmas not only realizes the emptiness of the person—the emptiness of the five aggregates—but also realizes that all dharmas are empty; its scope is extremely broad and its depth extremely profound. It is beyond what pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva) and arhats can compare with. Post-bhūmi bodhisattvas (bhūmika bodhisattva), because they possess the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas, do not engage in worldly affairs apart from cultivation and propagating the Dharma; they do not act for worldly benefit, do not delight in fame, profit, and offerings, and devote their single-minded attention to the Buddha Way.