The Mindfulness and No-Thought of Suchness (Tathatā)

One who is without all thoughts possesses the true suchness mind (tathatā), not the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses. Only true suchness is without thought, not being mindful of any dharma whatsoever. The deluded minds of sentient beings are always with thought, because as long as the six consciousnesses exist, they must face the realms of the six sense objects, and thoughts will certainly arise. Although the Buddha is the unsurpassed awakened one, His seven consciousnesses also have thoughts: the Buddha will observe which world's sentient beings' karmic conditions have ripened, so that He may manifest a Nirmāṇakāya to save and liberate them—and observation and deliberation are precisely thoughts. Without thoughts, He would not observe sentient beings' spiritual faculties (indriya) and their karmic conditions; without thoughts, the Buddha would not teach according to beings' capacities and expound immeasurable dharmas. When Śākyamuni Buddha delivered sentient beings in the Sahā world, He never departed from thought; only when the Buddha entered meditation, or when there was nothing to do and no sentient beings to be delivered, were there no thoughts.

However, from another perspective, true suchness also has thoughts. Apart from not being mindful of the six sense-object realms that the six consciousnesses are mindful of, true suchness is mindful of everything else. After enlightenment, one will gradually come to understand the "with-thought" and "without-thought" of true suchness—these are contents that can only be known through the wisdom of subsequent realization (post-enlightenment wisdom), wisdom of specific characteristics, and the wisdom of the varieties of paths. Therefore, one must not take the thoughtlessness of true suchness as the thoughtlessness of the conscious mind, nor take the thoughtlessness of the conscious mind as the thoughtlessness of true suchness; before enlightenment, one often misinterprets the words of the Buddha and the patriarchs. Nowadays it is common that the true and the deluded are not distinguished: the nature of the deluded mind is taken to be the nature of true suchness, while the intrinsic nature possessed by true suchness is expected to be achieved through the deluded mind's cultivation—but how could that possibly be accomplished? In short, sentient beings today hold far too many inverted views: they do not know the true as true, nor the deluded as deluded, and they speak of them all mixed together.

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