Why in Reality No Sentient Beings Attain Nirvāṇa

The phrase "there are actually no sentient beings to be liberated and extinguished" means that there is no real mark of sentient beings to be found, nor any actual mark of liberation and extinction to be grasped—all are illusory, false appearances conjured up by the tathāgatagarbha, and their essence is all the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The five-aggregate appearances of these sentient beings seem, on the surface, to exist, but in substance, the five aggregates of sentient beings are all illusory appearances. They are like puppet figures, robots, or electric dolls—there are no puppet figures, robots, or electric dolls in any true sense.

All the activities of those robots are manipulated by people, or are programs designed by people; in substance, it is not the puppet figure, not the robot, not the electric doll that is acting. It is like a bunch of plastic flowers—there are actually no flowers, just a pile of plastic; nor is there a robot, just a pile of iron. By the same token, there are no sentient beings in the true sense—all are the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, even though bodhisattvas liberate sentient beings so that they all enter nirvāṇa without remainder, in fact no one has actually been liberated, because there were never any real people to begin with, nor does any mark of liberation exist—all are illusory appearances of the tathāgatagarbha, the interaction between one tathāgatagarbha and another.