Why All Dharmas Are Ultimate and Pure (Part II)

All sentient beings and insentient lands share the same Dharma-nature. Both hells and celestial palaces are pure lands. Beings with Buddha-nature and those without will equally attain Buddhahood. All afflictions ultimately lead to liberation. The ocean-like wisdom of the Dharma-realm illuminates all phenomena as empty as space. This is called the Tathagata’s conformity with enlightenment.

Explanation: Sentient beings and insentient lands both embody the same Dharma-nature, the nature of Tathagatagarbha. The aggregate of form and mind in sentient beings is accomplished by the Tathagatagarbha through the seven great seeds. Lands, being form, are accomplished by the Tathagatagarbha through the five great seeds. Both are manifestations of the Tathagatagarbha’s perfected reality-nature. Hells and celestial palaces are pure lands, all born and transformed by the Tathagatagarbha, perfectly accomplished by it, all pure mental objects within the Tathagatagarbha’s mind, all existing within the pure land of Tathagatagarbha.

Sentient beings with Buddha-nature and insentient entities without Buddha-nature will together attain the path of Buddhahood, for both fundamentally are the Tathagata Buddha, born and manifested by the Tathagatagarbha, perfectly accomplished by it. All afflictions ultimately lead to liberation, because all afflictions are born and sustained by the Tathagatagarbha, perfectly accomplished by it, all being the nature of Tathagatagarbha. Since the Tathagatagarbha is inherently liberated, all afflictions are ultimately liberated.

The wisdom of the Dharma-realm Tathagatagarbha, vast as an ocean, illuminates all phenomena, which are as empty as space. The Dharma-realm embodiment-wisdom of all Buddhas also possesses ocean-like wisdom, perceiving all phenomena as empty and unobtainable like space — utterly void — because all Buddhas have realized that the essence of all worldly phenomena is empty like space. All of the above constitute the Tathagata’s conformity with enlightenment, which Bodhisattvas and ordinary beings cannot realize but can only comprehend and contemplate. Though understanding may seem attainable through reliance on the Dharma, actual realization requires three great asamkhyeya kalpas. The above describes the Tathagatagarbha’s perfected reality-nature, the nature that perfectly accomplishes all dharmas.