What Is the Compliance with Enlightenment Nature in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment?

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment states: "Good sons! When all bodhisattvas and sentient beings of the degenerate age abide without giving rise to false thoughts at all times, without extinguishing false minds, abide in the realm of deluded thoughts without adding discriminating awareness, and without discerning the reality of non-awareness—those sentient beings who hear this Dharma gate will believe, understand, accept, uphold, and give rise to no fear or alarm. This is called accommodating enlightenment. Good sons! You should know this! Such sentient beings have already made offerings to hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges and to great bodhisattvas, planting roots of virtue. The Buddha declares that such a person is called one who accomplishes omniscience."

Explanation: This refers to the self-abiding state of Tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature), describing its essential nature, which is not a state to be abided in by the consciousness of the seventh sense (manas). The essential nature of Tathāgatagarbha is such that, regardless of the time, it never gives rise to false thoughts, nor does it ever extinguish the false minds of the seventh consciousness. In all realms of deluded thoughts, Tathāgatagarbha manifests, yet Tathāgatagarbha never knows these realms of delusion. Tathāgatagarbha does not know its own non-awareness of the various realms of delusion; regarding its own unknowing, Tathāgatagarbha never discriminates its reality and does not know it possesses such a nature. Only bodhisattvas with the wisdom of the path (bodhisattva-jñāna) can comprehend these profound and subtle essential natures of Tathāgatagarbha; thus, this is the accommodating enlightenment of bodhisattvas on the stages of realization (bhūmi).

Recognizing and attaining this state of Tathāgatagarbha is the practice; one who truly reaches this state is a Buddha. That is a realm of principle, the state of Tathāgatagarbha. The conscious minds of great bodhisattvas cannot achieve this, let alone ordinary beings. As stated above, hearing this Dharma gate—this is a method, the method of Tathāgatagarbha. The ability to believe, understand, accept, and moreover practice this method of Tathāgatagarbha is the accommodating enlightenment of bodhisattvas who have entered the stages (bhūmi). Only bodhisattvas on the stages can truly comprehend and accommodate it. When this accommodating enlightenment reaches perfection, it becomes the perfect enlightenment of all Buddhas. At this point, such a sentient being has already made offerings to hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas and great bodhisattvas, enabling the realization of omniscience (sarvajñā) and the perfect accomplishment of the Buddha Way.