Emptiness of Mind, Fullness of Attainment

The entire process from an ordinary being to Buddhahood is the process of verifying the emptiness of all dharmas, the continuous process of shattering appearances, views, attachments, emptying the mind, and emptying all dharmas. If the mind is not empty, and one believes dharmas are real, this is ignorance. If there is any dharma you believe to be real, that is ignorance; this dharma binds and obstructs you, preventing liberation and freedom. Even if you believe the dharma of attaining Buddhahood is real, not empty, this is still ignorance. Only when ignorance is completely eradicated does one become a Buddha. If there is a mind that desires to become a Buddha, the mind is still not empty; with deluded thoughts, one still cannot become a Buddha. Of course, ordinary beings and Bodhisattvas of the Three Sage Grounds should still have the mind aspiring for Buddhahood; they should still seek Buddhahood, as this is the cornerstone for solidifying their path. Only after passing the Three Sage Grounds, when it is time to shatter the view of a real self in dharmas and the attachment to dharmas, can all deluded thoughts be gradually eliminated. Only when your mind is empty and pure, devoid of any mind of contrivance—formless, wishless, non-doing—can there be true great accomplishment.

Subhuti’s mind was empty and tranquil even in his mother’s womb. After birth, he was named "Empty Birth." After leaving home to follow the Buddha and cultivate the path, his mind became even emptier; he even emptied the Buddha with form from his mind, not clinging to the Buddha’s appearance. When the Buddha taught the Dharma in the heavenly realm for forty-nine days and then descended back to the human world, all the disciples went to welcome him. Only Subhuti remained seated in serene meditation in the forest, his mind abiding in the Dharmakaya Buddha, not clinging to the Buddha with form. Knowing that the Dharma assembly where the Buddha taught was also arising, ceasing, and illusory, he neither went to see the Buddha nor attended the assembly, sitting silently in meditation. The Buddha praised him, saying: "Although you did not come to welcome me, you are the first disciple to see me." This "me" refers to the formless true Buddha of the Dharmakaya, not the Buddha with the form of the Sambhogakaya or Nirmanakaya. All dharmas are empty; the Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya Buddhas are also empty. All conditioned phenomena produced by subsequent causes are entirely empty, including the Buddha’s great deeds of liberating sentient beings over immeasurable kalpas—all are empty.

Before the Eighth Ground, Bodhisattvas engage in many conditioned actions. Upon reaching the Eighth Ground, the mind becomes empty; the mind that makes offerings to the Triple Gem, works for sentient beings, and serves the Buddhist cause becomes empty. Only when acting spontaneously and mindlessly in all beneficial deeds for sentient beings will the Buddha confer the prediction of Buddhahood. If the mind is not empty, and one engages in conditioned actions with a conditioned mind—including making offerings to the Triple Gem with a conditioned mind, believing this brings great merit and great blessings—while grasping dharmas without emptiness, the Buddha will not confer the prediction of Buddhahood. Although some Bodhisattvas make offerings to immeasurable Buddhas life after life, renouncing everything of themselves to make offerings, using the jewels of a great trichiliocosm to offer to the Buddha, the Buddha still does not confer the prediction. How much less so for engaging in worldly conditioned actions—they will not receive the prediction at all. However, through these conditioned actions, blessings can be increased. As blessings increase, wisdom can grow, and the mind can become increasingly empty, ultimately becoming the One Perfect in Blessings and Wisdom. Therefore, one cannot say that since all dharmas are empty, there is no need to cultivate any wholesome dharmas. Without cultivating wholesome dharmas, lacking the support of blessings, the wisdom of emptiness will not arise, and the mind certainly cannot become completely empty.

While cultivating blessings, the mind should also strive to be as empty as possible. Cultivating blessings with a mind of non-attainment yields even greater blessings. For example, when liberating sentient beings, do not think that the more beings you liberate, the more merit and blessings you gain. In truth, it is through the act of liberating sentient beings that blessings are continuously increased. Then, the merit of the mind’s emptiness appears; the mind becomes increasingly empty. When emptiness reaches a certain degree, accomplishment in practice is achieved. The measure of blessings lies in the degree of emptiness of the mind during the process of liberating sentient beings, in the degree of non-action attained. The emptiness and non-action of the mind determine a Bodhisattva’s level of wisdom realization and fruition.

Therefore, do not focus on external appearances. If you dwell on appearances and cling to them, even if you write a hundred books a year, guide hundreds of thousands of sentient beings a year, or give alms amounting to billions, these are all conditioned actions. Within them, there is evident self-attachment and dharma-attachment; clinging to appearances, the mind is not empty, and one cannot attain the wisdom realization or the corresponding Bodhisattva fruition. Only when great blessings are fully perfected can one realize enlightenment. After realizing the Tathagatagarbha, observing one’s own various actions, including meritorious actions, one will know how these actions are all arising, ceasing, and unreal, how they are all the functional manifestations of the Tathagatagarbha. In the ultimate truth, there are no real conditioned phenomena. Thus, the mind becomes increasingly empty, and accomplishments in practice grow ever greater.

The path to shattering dharma-attachment is extremely long. From the First Ground Bodhisattva until Buddhahood, throughout two great asamkhyeya kalpas of practice, one continuously shatters dharma-attachment. Before this, during the first great asamkhyeya kalpa, one shatters self-attachment. Therefore, the path of practice to completely eradicate the view of self is also very long. The ignorance of the mental faculty (manas) is extremely deep and heavy, with great clinging. To shatter the clinging of the mental faculty, one must first shatter its views, shatter its thoughts—that is, eradicate the mental faculty’s view of self. After the view of self is eradicated, self-attachment is gradually eliminated. Then, one shatters the mental faculty’s view of a real self in dharmas and its dharma-attachment. The view that all dharmas are real must be shattered bit by bit. Finally, when ignorance is completely extinguished and the mind is entirely empty, one becomes a Buddha. The magnitude of accomplishment in practice depends on the degree to which ignorance is shattered and the mind is emptied. To empty the mind and shatter appearances, one must directly realize the Tathagatagarbha and then observe the unreality of all dharmas.

The Buddha eliminated the negative karma of King Ajatashatru, who committed the evil deed of killing his father, using the principle of emptiness, enabling him to understand the principle, empty his mind, and thereby eradicate the sinful karma. King Ajatashatru killed his father and later deeply regretted it, feeling certain he would fall into hell after death, suffering immense mental anguish. Why was he in such pain? Because he regarded his father as real, regarded himself as real, regarded the act of killing his father as real, and regarded hell as real. Thus, these so-called real dharmas bound his mind, preventing him from freeing himself from guilt, and he would inevitably suffer retribution upon death. Therefore, the Buddha explained to King Ajatashatru the emptiness of the three spheres regarding the act of killing his father: the father as a person is empty, oneself as a person is empty, the act of killing the father is empty—there is no such person or event. Finally, King Ajatashatru developed faith in emptiness, the sinful nature of killing his father was eradicated, and upon death, he was reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, without falling into hell to suffer retribution.

Similarly, realizing fruition, attaining enlightenment—these events are also empty, including the act of liberating sentient beings. None are real. When one sees all dharmas as empty, without any person or event in the mind, liberation is attained. It is like dreaming of killing someone and, upon waking, still thinking one has killed a person—the mind is still in the dream, not awakened. As long as there is a dharma existing in the mind, this dharma will bind and obstruct you. Only when there is no dharma in the mind can no dharma become an obstruction, having no effect whatsoever on oneself. The power of emptiness is immense; it can shatter all ignorance and karmic obstacles, shatter all suffering and the bonds of birth and death. Only with an empty mind can one attain liberation and become the King of Emptiness and Dharma King.