Why in Reality No Sentient Beings Are Actually Liberated

"In truth, there are no sentient beings to be liberated." The meaning of this statement is that there is no true mark of sentient beings to be found, nor any actual mark of liberation to be grasped; all are illusory and false appearances conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha, and in essence all are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The five aggregates (pañcaskandha) of these sentient beings appear on the surface to exist, but in reality, the five aggregates of sentient beings are all illusory appearances. They are like a wooden puppet, a robot, or an electric doll—there is no wooden puppet, robot, or electric doll in any true sense.

All the activities of those robots are manipulated by people, or are programs designed by people; in essence, it is not the wooden puppet, not the robot, not the electric doll that is actually acting. It is like a bouquet of plastic flowers: in fact, there are no flowers, only a pile of plastic; nor is there a robot, only a pile of iron. By the same token, there are no sentient beings in any true sense—all are the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, even when bodhisattvas liberate sentient beings so that they all enter nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), in fact no one has been liberated at all, because there are no real people to begin with, nor does any mark of liberation exist; all are illusory appearances of the tathāgatagarbha, the mutual interaction between one tathāgatagarbha and another.