How to Realize the Empty and Tranquil Mind Spoken of in the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through the Ear Faculty of Avalokiteśvara

The Guanyin Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration Dharma Gate practiced by Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, within meditative concentration (samādhi), contemplated emptiness (śūnyatā) and continuously dismantled false and illusory dharmas. This mode of practice requires extremely deep meditative concentration and extremely powerful prajñā wisdom; lacking either one, the Guanyin Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration Dharma Gate cannot be accomplished. This method of practice consists, within extremely deep meditative concentration, of continuously excluding all arising-and-ceasing, unreal, illusory dharmas, until there remains a so-called thing that truly cannot be excluded, that truly cannot be emptied—and that is the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha.

This method of practice is excellent, but most people, indeed all people, cannot cultivate to this degree. First, because they cannot develop such deep meditative concentration; second, because they cannot possess such deep prajñā wisdom of emptiness, and thus cannot realize this mind of emptiness within profound meditative concentration; third, because their aspiration is not vast enough, and their roots of goodness and merit are insufficient to support such practice. Therefore, when realization is impossible, the misunderstanding of the prajñā emptiness will be very great. With the roots of goodness and faculties of us sentient beings in this Sahā world, success in cultivation is impossible; even the initial emptiness is very hard to realize. There can be a similar intellectual understanding of prajñā wisdom, but meditative concentration is a hard criterion, and it is also the most actual cultivation effort; relying on understanding alone, it simply cannot be achieved.

So excluding all illusory dharmas within meditative concentration is something ordinary people cannot do. This requires not only realizing the emptiness of the self of a person, becoming one who has attained from the first fruit to the fourth fruit, but also emptying the self of dharmas, becoming a bodhisattva on the bhūmis, possessing the seed-wisdom (bīja-jñāna) of Yogācāra. Only by thus excluding all false and unreal dharmas, and after emptying them, does there finally remain a solitary, quiescent true mind that truly cannot be emptied—only then is the practice complete. Nowadays it is impossible for anyone to cultivate to this degree; people of such great faculties would not come to the Sahā world, because it does not accord with them and would waste bodhisattva resources; the sentient beings of the Sahā world do not need such greatly wise, supreme bodhisattvas.

After all false dharmas have been excluded, there finally remains only a solitary, quiescent mind, and thus the profound emptiness is realized. Then who is it that realizes this solitary, quiescent mind? Who is it that recognizes that solitary, quiescent true mind? There still must be a "who"; without this "who" it will not work. And this "who" is also empty, also to be excluded; yet one must still make use of this empty "who" that ought to be dismantled, in order to discover our inherently existing solitary, quiescent mind-substance, the tathāgatagarbha. Such practice is to dismantle all illusory dharmas, not to annihilate them—simply not to regard them as real—and then to use the illusory, unreal mind consciousness and manas to realize that indestructible true mind. Without the illusory mind consciousness and manas, one cannot see the true mind and attain enlightenment.

What does this solitary, quiescent mind refer to? It refers to the fact that its substance is solitary and quiescent, without form and without marks: the eyes cannot see it, the ear faculty cannot hear it, the nose faculty cannot smell it, the tongue faculty cannot taste it, the body cannot touch it, and the mind consciousness can neither feel it nor think of it. Then how can He be actually realized? Through studying the prajñā sūtras, one comes to understand the nature of the true mind and the characteristics of its operation, and the true mind's operation is its functioning within the body of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha). After understanding this, one needs to perfect the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, and then undertake the effort of meditative concentration and investigation, single-mindedly investigating with unrelenting perseverance; only then can one realize the solitary, quiescent mind.

The Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration Dharma Gate is not a pure dharma gate of cultivating concentration, but a dharma gate of cultivating concentration and wisdom together. On the foundation of the four dhyānas and eight liberative absorptions, one studies the profound Mahāyāna dharma of the tathāgatagarbha; within meditative concentration, one relinquishes, all along the way, arising-and-ceasing illusory dharmas. Except for the tathāgatagarbha, which cannot be relinquished, all mental activities must be relinquished, including the mind that empties, the dharmas that are emptied, and also all kinds of emptiness. Without wisdom, one simply cannot cultivate this dharma gate. Cultivating this gate can reach Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's thirty-two response bodies; whether in meditative concentration or in wisdom samādhi, one rivals all the Buddhas—of course it is supremely perfect penetration. The closer a dharma is to the ultimate, the more definitive it is, the more sublime it is, the harder it is to cultivate.

For a practitioner to be without self and dharmas, to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and attain purity of the Dharma eye, and to empty the body of the five aggregates—this samādhi is the simplest and easiest dharma. How many people can guarantee they will realize it before the end of their lives? If I were not spreading the Dharma and instead cultivated the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration exclusively, I could not cultivate it either. Extremely many people, even if they can attain the fourth dhyāna, may not necessarily attain the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration; even those with the Yogācāra seed-wisdom realization of a first-bhūmi bodhisattva may not necessarily attain the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration. To practice as Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva did and finally become an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva will not happen in the Sahā world. If even the first contemplation in the Contemplation Sutra (Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra) cannot be accomplished, then there is nothing to talk about; anything said is mere saliva—what use is it?

Regarding the first contemplation in the Contemplation Sutra, has everyone been practicing it for several years now? Not a single person has reported on the results of their practice. Only by accomplishing the third contemplation can rebirth in the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī) at the end of life be guaranteed. If even the first contemplation is this difficult, what to speak of the third contemplation? Still less of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration Dharma Gate? If even the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm is so difficult to cultivate, and the first dhyāna is harder still, what to speak of the fourth dhyāna? Still less of the meditative concentration required for cultivating the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration. If even attaining the first fruit is nowhere in sight, seeing the true mind is harder still, not to mention the Yogācāra seed-wisdom of bodhisattvas on the bhūmis—what to speak of cultivating Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration Dharma Gate? Nearly half the people under heaven can talk grandly about theory, but as for genuine practice, cultivating to a certain degree, truly only a few can be found in this world. Such is the present state of the Dharma-ending age in the Sahā world.