Why Are All Dharmas Ultimate and Pure? (Part 1)

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, Original Text:

Good sons, all obstacles are none other than ultimate enlightenment. Attaining mindfulness and losing mindfulness are both liberation. Establishing the Dharma and destroying the Dharma are both called Nirvāṇa. Wisdom and ignorance are both Prajñā. The Dharma attained by Bodhisattvas and the Dharma attained by non-Buddhists are equally Bodhi. Ignorance and Suchness are not different realms. All precepts, meditative concentration, wisdom, as well as lust, anger, and delusion, are all sacred practice.

Explanation:

Good sons, all karmic forces and obstacles, all afflictions, are precisely the ultimate enlightenment, which refers to the self-nature enlightenment of the Tathāgatagarbha. Why is this said? Because all afflictive hindrances arise from and are sustained by the Tathāgatagarbha; they are all perfectly accomplished by the Tathāgatagarbha and possess the nature of the Tathāgatagarbha. Without the Tathāgatagarbha, these obstacles would not exist. "Attaining mindfulness" and "losing mindfulness" refer to the desire to gain and the fear of loss, the anxiety over gain and loss. Yet both are none other than liberation, for they arise from and are manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha. They are perfectly accomplished by the Tathāgatagarbha and possess its nature. Without the Tathāgatagarbha, there would be no such phenomena as attaining or losing mindfulness. Thus, the unreal existence of gaining and losing is itself liberation.

Establishing all Dharmas and destroying all Dharmas are both the purity of Nirvāṇa, for both arise from and are sustained by the Tathāgatagarbha. Both are perfectly accomplished by the Tathāgatagarbha; therefore, both are the pure conduct and pure nature of Nirvāṇa, both are the nature of the Tathāgatagarbha. Wisdom and ignorance are both Prajñā, for both arise from and are manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha. Both are perfectly accomplished by the Tathāgatagarbha and are its nature.

The wholesome Dharmas and pure Dharmas attained through the practice of Bodhisattvas, and the unwholesome Dharmas attained through the practice of non-Buddhists, are equally Bodhi. For both arise from and are sustained by the Tathāgatagarbha; both are perfectly accomplished by the Tathāgatagarbha and are its nature. Ignorance and Suchness are not different realms, for both are manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha. Ignorance is none other than Suchness; within the realm of ignorance, its entirety is the nature of Suchness. All pure conduct of precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, as well as the conduct of greed, anger, and delusion, are equally sacred practice. For all arise from and are sustained by the pure Tathāgatagarbha; all are perfectly accomplished by the Tathāgatagarbha and are its pure nature of Nirvāṇa.