Why Are All Dharmas Ultimate and Pure (1)

Original text of the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment: 善男子。一切障碍。即究竟觉。得念失念。无非解脱。成法破法。皆名涅槃。智慧愚痴。通为般若。菩萨外道。所成就法。同是菩提。无明真如。无异境界。诸戒定慧。及淫怒痴。俱是梵行。

Explanation: Son of good lineage, all karmic forces and obstructions, all afflictions, are precisely the most ultimate awakened nature; the ultimate awakening refers to the intrinsic awakening of the tathāgatagarbha. Why is this said? Because all afflictive obstructions and hindrances are born of and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha, are perfectly accomplished by the tathāgatagarbha, and all possess the nature of the tathāgatagarbha; without the tathāgatagarbha there would be none of these obstructions. "Gaining mindfulness" and "losing mindfulness" mean hoping to gain and fearing to lose, being anxious about gain and loss; yet neither of these two is anything other than liberation, because both are born of and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, are perfectly accomplished by the tathāgatagarbha, and both possess the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Without the tathāgatagarbha there would be no such dharma-marks as gaining mindfulness and losing mindfulness; therefore gaining mindfulness and losing mindfulness, which do not truly exist, are liberation.

Accomplishing dharmas and destroying dharmas are both pure nirvāṇa, because both of these matters are born of and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha, and are perfectly accomplished by the tathāgatagarbha; therefore both of these matters are the pure conduct and pure nature of nirvāṇa, and both are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Wisdom and ignorance are both prajñā, because both are born of and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, both are perfectly accomplished by the tathāgatagarbha, and both are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha.

The wholesome and pure dharmas accomplished by bodhisattvas through cultivation, and the unwholesome false dharmas cultivated by non-Buddhists, are equally bodhi, because both are born of and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha, both are perfectly accomplished by the tathāgatagarbha, and both are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The realms of ignorance (avidyā) and suchness (tathatā) are not different, because both are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; ignorance is precisely suchness—abiding in the realm of ignorance, ignorance in its entirety is nonetheless of the nature of suchness. All pure conduct of precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, and the conduct of greed, anger, and delusion, are equally pure conduct (brahmacarya), because all are born of and sustained by the pure tathāgatagarbha, all are perfectly accomplished by the tathāgatagarbha, and all are the pure nirvāṇa nature of the tathāgatagarbha.