Sentient Beings and Nirvāṇa

Question: Are sentient beings constantly abiding in nirvāṇa, or do they only return to nirvāṇa after [attaining] nirvāṇa without remainder?

Answer: After nirvāṇa without remainder, only the intrinsically pure fundamental mind remains; not a single dharma of the five aggregates exists anymore, and thus there are no sentient beings. Since there are no sentient beings, who enters nirvāṇa? Who returns to nirvāṇa? There is no one who enters nirvāṇa, nor is there anyone who returns to nirvāṇa.

Nirvāṇa represents the pure dharmadhātu; it represents the intrinsically pure mind — neither arising nor ceasing, without form or appearance, without inside or outside, tranquil and unmoving. Regarding nirvāṇa, sentient beings can neither exit from it nor enter into it. The relationship between sentient beings and nirvāṇa is that sentient beings in their entirety are nirvāṇa, just like the relationship between gold vessels and gold: although gold vessels differ in shape in a thousand and one ways, all gold vessels, from inside to outside, are nothing but gold. There is no such notion that a gold vessel must return to gold. Not a single dharma of the sentient beings' five-aggregate body and mind is not created by the pure nirvāṇa mind; in essence, all are pure nirvāṇa. There is no such thing as entering nirvāṇa again or returning to nirvāṇa.

Sentient beings have never left nirvāṇa, and can never leave nirvāṇa; yet due to ignorance, they constantly abide in nirvāṇa without knowing it, deludedly rushing about in restless pursuit everywhere, falsely undergoing the suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra. Therefore nirvāṇa needs no returning and no entering; it is merely that sentient beings, obscured by ignorance, do not recognize it. Once they recognize it, they are immediately pure, immediately tranquil and liberated, with no more birth-and-death and no more bondage. Everywhere is gold — why cling to the gold vessel!