Dependent Origination and Emptiness Are Not the Center and Focus of Buddhadharma

The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination expounded by the World-Honored One in the Āgama Sutras, which pertain to the practice and realization of the Śrāvakayāna path to liberation, are the Dharma cultivated by Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas. They do not involve the practice of the Mahāyāna Tathāgatagarbha Dharma and are not a direct path to Buddhahood; therefore, they cannot be regarded as the ultimate Dharma. Practitioners should not assume that the Buddha Dharma teaches only the emptiness of all dharmas. Within all empty dharmas, there exists a non-empty Dharma—the true mind, the Tathāgatagarbha, which is neither born nor extinguished. Without the Tathāgatagarbha, no dharmas could arise through dependent origination. After Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas complete their cultivation of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, they realize dependent origination and emptiness, understanding that all dharmas of the five aggregates and the worldly realm arise due to causes and conditions. Dependent on the cause of the Tathāgatagarbha and conditions such as ignorance and karmic seeds, all dharmas come into being.

Since all dharmas depend on various conditions and are produced by the Tathāgatagarbha, they are not real but empty, illusory appearances. Through this understanding, practitioners of the Two Vehicles attain liberation and transcend the suffering of birth-and-death samsara. However, they have not yet cultivated and realized the Mahāyāna Dharma and do not understand the Tathāgatagarbha path to Buddhahood. Having realized only two of the Three Vehicles and lacking comprehension of the supreme vehicle, they depart from the Three Realms. Yet, they have neither eradicated nor exhausted the beginningless ignorance and the ignorance as numerous as grains of sand; their habitual tendencies of ignorance and latent afflictions remain unsevered. Therefore, they remain far removed from the state of Buddhahood.

Thus, what the Buddha realized upon his enlightenment could not have been the Two Vehicles’ teaching of dependent origination and emptiness; it must have been the supreme Tathāgatagarbha Dharma. When the Buddha saw the morning star and witnessed the Buddha-nature, he beheld the true Buddha-nature—the Dharma of seeing the nature at the Buddha stage. Then, the Great Mirror Wisdom manifested, and the Four Wisdoms became perfectly clear, enabling him to attain Buddhahood. It was not the shallow Dharma of dependent origination and emptiness of the Two Vehicles, as mistakenly understood by worldly people; it is fundamentally different.

If the Buddha had realized only the Two Vehicles’ teaching of dependent origination and emptiness, he could not have taught sentient beings the true Mahāyāna Tathāgatagarbha path to Buddhahood. Then the Buddha Dharma would have been incomplete, lacking profoundly, and sentient beings could not have attained the true, supreme, ultimate benefit. Nowadays, sentient beings gravely misunderstand the Buddha Dharma, and their views are too superficial. They regard dependent origination and emptiness as the core and focal point of the Buddha Dharma, failing to connect it to the source of all dharmas. They remain ignorant of the origin of all dharmas and the fundamental source of the world. This precisely constitutes the current degeneration of the Buddha Dharma.