Only Through the Perfect Fusion of the Two Truths Can One Penetrate Without Obstruction

The land of bliss (sukhāvatī) is a mind-only pure land, manifested by the mind. If so, does the fact that the land of bliss is not truly existent mean that there is fundamentally no land of bliss at all?

On the phenomenal level, the land of bliss does exist; it belongs to conventional existence, although conventional existence is also empty and illusory. The Buddha described the excellence and adornment of the land of bliss in the Amitābha Sūtra, proving that the land of bliss exists and is not imaginary. However, the land of bliss is also transformed by mind alone; it is a buddha-land within the one true dharma realm, and it is also the pure land within the mind of every sentient being. The one true dharma realm is the most real world; it is the world of sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha, and no dharma lies outside the tathāgatagarbha. The land of bliss exists phenomenally; the phenomenal realm is the conventional truth (saṃvṛti-satya), which exists in dependence upon the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. It is the excellent buddha-land established by Amitābha Buddha when, at the bodhisattva stage in the causal ground, He made great pure vows, established in order to gather in and receive sentient beings. But the land of bliss is also conjured into being; it was brought about by the wholesome karma of the bhikṣu Dharmākara. What did not exist before but exists now is therefore a false mark, illusory, subject to arising and ceasing.

No conventional dharma can negate the existence of the phenomenal realm. For example, our body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) exists phenomenally—this cannot be denied—yet in essence it is empty, conjured forth by the true mind; it is an empty, illusory conventional dharma, and therefore unreal. Although the five aggregates are illusory, subject to arising and ceasing, and empty, one still cannot deny their phenomenal existence, nor their function within the conventional truth. By the same reasoning, the land of bliss was also conjured forth by Amitābha Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), and it was conjured forth jointly by the tathāgatagarbhas of all the sentient beings in the land of bliss. What arises from nothing, produced after the fact, is an illusory, provisional existence. Even so, one cannot deny the phenomenal existence of the land of bliss, nor its existence within the conventional truth.

Apart from the true mind, all dharmas are things within the true mind, all transformed by the true mind, and therefore all are subject to arising and ceasing; only the true mind neither arises nor ceases. Although the land of bliss will exist for an extremely long time, it nevertheless has the nature of arising, ceasing, and change; it cannot exist eternally like the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. For forty-nine years the Buddha taught the Dharma from two aspects: the conventional truth and the ultimate truth (paramārtha-satya). The conventional truth is phenomenal existence, and this existence is provisional and illusory; the ultimate truth is nonexistent phenomenally but existent in essence—it is the mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta). Because the ultimate truth exists in essence, it can give rise to the illusory and provisional existence of conventional, phenomenal appearances.

In studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, we must not lean toward one side and negate the other; both are important. Only by understanding the principle of the ultimate truth can we correct the inversions of the conventional truth and rectify our past ignorant and narrow cognition, thereby attaining great wisdom and perfecting the buddha path. If one acknowledges only the conventional truth and not the ultimate truth, one cannot escape the cycle of birth and death (saṃsāra); if one acknowledges only the ultimate truth and denies the conventional truth, then that ultimate truth has no actual function or meaning, and sentient beings would be unable to cultivate practice.

When one's study of Buddhism reaches ultimate completion, both truths are perfectly mastered without obstruction. If one truth is not mastered, neither is mastered; whereas once the ultimate truth is thoroughly understood, one can gradually master the conventional truth. Only by perfectly and completely fulfilling both truths can the mundane and supramundane dharmas be perfectly and thoroughly mastered without obstruction. The final result is that the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses undergo a thorough and ultimate transformation, all ignorance is extinguished, and the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses attain their greatest and most perfect function.