My Heart Is Gentle and Soft

For a bad kid like Māra (Pāpīyas), the Master, while scolding him, also strokes his head and pats his shoulder, telling him to be good and obedient—that he too will become a Buddha in the future, so stop making trouble. For the sake of all sentient beings being able to attain Buddhahood, and for the sake of the suffering of sentient beings, the bodhisattva displays a fierce countenance while his mind is full of loving-kindness, his tender heart turning a thousand times over.

A bodhisattva who has cultivated a mind of compassion, upon seeing the disruptive and unruly appearances of sentient beings, sighs and pities their ignorance on the one hand, while on the other hand embracing everything with a mind like empty space. The inner mind is not only boundlessly vast but also exceedingly soft and gentle. Right now my mind is incomparably gentle, and I am very fond of mischievous troublemakers as well, because since childhood I have dealt with those naughty little rascals, and I do not dislike them.

Moreover, a bodhisattva should have a certain realization: knowing that all dharmas are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, in reality there are no all dharmas at all—they are all the emptiness-mark and emptiness-nature (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha. Hiding inside the tathāgatagarbha and enjoying its coolness—how free and at ease, how comfortable that would be! Just these past couple of days, a disciple said: quickly find the tathāgatagarbha, and then hide inside the tathāgatagarbha and enjoy its coolness and tranquility, with no appearance of any conflicts or disturbances in the mind. This disciple is very wise; we should learn from him.

As for the Sarvadharmāpravṛtti-nirdeśa Sūtra (Sutra on the Teaching of the Non-Running of All Dharmas), "pravṛtti" (行) means movement and operation. In fact, all dharmas do not really exist and do not operate. Why is this so? All dharmas are of the mark of nirvāṇa—tranquil and without action, neither arising nor ceasing, without bondage or fetters, and also without liberation, ever abiding in tranquility like empty space.

All dharmas are of the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. When one sees the tathāgatagarbha, one does not see all dharmas—this is hiding inside the tathāgatagarbha. What dharma is not the tathāgatagarbha? All are the emptiness-nature (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore there is no worldly dharma-mark of the three realms, no marks of wholesome and unwholesome, no marks of disruption and disorder, no marks of opposition. The bodhisattva constantly roams in ultimate emptiness, the mind constantly abiding in samādhi without attachment. If there is attachment, then he is not a bodhisattva; if he sees marks of good and bad in all dharmas, then he is not a bodhisattva.

Therefore my mind is gentle and soft, soft to the utmost, beyond words.