What Is Detachment from Appearances?

The so-called disengagement from appearances means enabling the six-consciousness mind to disengage from all delusional appearances in the world, not recognizing these delusional appearances as real, thereby shattering the delusional view of self and realizing the true appearances of both the mundane and supramundane realms. A true disengager from appearances is the intrinsically appearance-free Tathāgatagarbha mind-essence, which possesses no form whatsoever.

The term "disengage" means to detach or exclude. The so-called exclusion refers to not recognizing the delusional dharmas of arising and ceasing in the world as real. One observes that any dharma existing in the world is impermanent, arising-and-ceasing, changing, suffering, and illusory. Any dharma possessing these characteristics is not a true dharma, and thus the mind should no longer regard such dharmas as real.

After negating each of these delusional dharmas one by one, we can search among these delusional dharmas to determine which dharma is originally free from all appearances, unarisen-unceasing, constantly abiding, unchanging, and neither empty nor devoid of true function. If we find a dharma and believe it to be true suchness, the true self, we must then compare it with the nature of the emptiness-mind described in the Heart Sutra. We observe whether this dharma has increase or decrease, change or alteration; whether it exhibits phenomena of arising-ceasing and impermanence; whether it is mutable and impermanent; whether it is non-autonomous; whether it is conditionally arisen; and whether it is constrained by numerous causal conditions.

If it is so, then it is a delusional dharma of arising and ceasing. If not, if it indeed accords with the nature described in the Heart Sutra as neither born nor extinguished, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither empty nor existing with attributes, then it is the true, eternal, unchanging Tathāgatagarbha of true suchness. Only then have we found the true reality-mind and genuinely realized the original mind of Tathāgatagarbha.

Therefore, the method of disengagement is not about extinguishing anything, but about confirming the delusory and unreal nature of worldly dharmas, refusing to recognize them as true. After disengaging from them all, what remains—the unarisen-unceasing, unchanging—is the truth. This method does not involve sitting in meditative concentration to extinguish the conscious mind. If the conscious mind is completely extinguished, one cannot know what the true suchness Tathāgatagarbha is, and thus cannot achieve mind-realization and enlightenment.

Realizing the true mind Tathāgatagarbha does not necessarily occur during sitting meditative concentration, when the conscious mind becomes slightly clearer and free from delusional thoughts, leading one to mistake this state for enlightenment. For at this time, the consciousness is temporarily free from delusional thoughts and seems pure, but soon the delusional thoughts of the conscious mind will reappear; it cannot remain clear and luminous forever without a trace of delusional thought. Even if one were forever free from delusional thoughts and eternally pure, this would still be the conscious mind. It can never transform into the true mind. This is the arising-ceasing and changing phenomenon of the dharma-realm state of delusional thoughts, not the unchanging true suchness mind. At this stage, it is merely a temporarily attained state of certain concentration, not an enlightenment state, and thus cannot be recognized as a true dharma.

So what are the delusional dharmas of the world? Worldly dharmas are secular dharmas, the dharmas of the five aggregates world, including the six sense faculties, the six dusts, and the six consciousnesses. The six sense faculties are the eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty, tongue faculty, body faculty, and mind faculty. The six consciousnesses are eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, and mind-consciousness. The six dusts are form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas. Corresponding to the eye faculty is the form-dust; to the ear faculty, the sound-dust; to the nose faculty, the smell-dust; to the tongue faculty, the taste-dust; to the body faculty, the touch-dust; and to the mind faculty, the dharma-dust.

The five aggregates are form aggregate, feeling aggregate, perception aggregate, volitional formations aggregate, and consciousness aggregate. The five aggregates and eighteen elements constitute the entire threefold world. Every dharma within them is delusional, arising-ceasing and changing, impermanent. The world of the five aggregates consists entirely of conditioned dharmas—dharmas involving action and creation, dharmas born subsequently—hence they are delusional. The supramundane dharma refers to Tathāgatagarbha, which does not reside within the threefold world. It has no opposing dharmas whatsoever, and thus is the true dharma.