What Is the State of Enlightenment?

The first sentence of the Heart Sutra says: When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva practiced profound prajñā-pāramitā, He illuminated and saw that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are all empty, and thereby crossed over all suffering and distress. Practicing profound prajñā-pāramitā and illuminating and seeing that the five aggregates are all empty means that at the very moment one realizes the tathāgatagarbha endowed with prajñā wisdom, the mind becomes empty. The key word here, "practiced," means investigating the meaning of prajñā through Chan investigation; "profound" refers to two things: one is depth of meditative concentration (samādhi), and the other is depth of the wisdom of investigation, with a clear direction. Under this precondition of profundity, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses give rise to great wisdom, which wisdom illuminates the ultimate reality of the dharmadhātu, realizing that all dharmas within the five aggregates are manifested by the prajñā mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and that the substance of the five aggregates is empty—false appearances, illusory forms.

In this way, deep in one's heart one knows that the five aggregates are not real, and thus there is no suffering; in an instant one crosses over all suffering and distress. All suffering and distress are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; they are false appearances, not real. Having thus illuminated and seen that the five aggregates are all empty, the mind becomes empty and non-active (asaṃskṛta), and afflictions are severed. This is the merit and benefit of Mahāyāna path-seeing, the realization of the tathāgatagarbha; this is the manas attaining path-seeing, the manas realizing the meditative absorption (samādhi) state of the tathāgatagarbha, complete in both meditative concentration and wisdom, the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā. The so-called "illuminating and seeing" means sudden enlightenment—there is no time or effort of slowly pondering, analyzing, and deliberating toward gradual understanding; one knows or one does not know, without hesitation or ambiguity.

Having thus illuminated and seen that the five aggregates are all empty, is it still necessary to additionally perform the transformation of the basis as tathāgatagarbha (āśraya-parāvṛtti-tathāgatagarbha) for it to count as realization and enlightenment? Not at all—this is genuine, unambiguous realization and sudden enlightenment, not that kind of gradual intellectual understanding gained through analysis and inference, gradually clarified. One has thus already entered the gate of the Mahāyāna and obtained genuine merit and benefit. If instead one uses the mind consciousness to reason, ponder, and guess at a tathāgatagarbha, such guessing and inference carries no merit or benefit whatsoever, and so one must slowly undergo the transformation of the basis; yet no matter how hard the mind consciousness strives at the transformation, if the manas has not realized it, the transformation of the basis still cannot succeed. Consequently, a huge mess of problems remains unhandled—afflictions remain afflictions, ignorance remains ignorance.

This is like those who take meditative concentration as Chan: they cultivate a samādhi of "not a single thought arising" and take this to be the thought-free state of the true mind, mistaking the false for the true. But after emerging from concentration, deluded thoughts appear again. Because they fear in their hearts that the true mind will disappear, they keep cultivating concentration, staying in long-term meditative concentration, striving not to leave concentration, in order to preserve and maintain the state of concentration and ensure the true mind is not lost—calling this, in fine-sounding terms, "preserving and maintaining." However, the state of concentration will eventually vanish, and one must eventually emerge from concentration; even if one did not emerge from concentration for countless kalpas, the state of concentration is still not the true mind, the self-nature. If one has truly awakened, what is there left to preserve and maintain? If one has truly realized the true mind, what is there left to transform? It is right here and now—the mind is empty right now, pure right now. The carp leaps over the Dragon Gate and, having leapt over, becomes a dragon—would it still fear leaping back and turning into a carp again? Only if one has never actually leapt over the Dragon Gate, with a heart trembling in fear, anxious about gain and loss, would one need preservation, maintenance, and the transformation of the basis.