Who Needs Enlightenment, and How Is It Attained?

Many people do not understand how to attain enlightenment, nor who it is that needs to attain it. So why do we, in studying Buddhism, need enlightenment? Because from beginningless kalpas we have been deluded and inverted, taking the false as real, falsely undergoing the suffering of birth and death in saṃsāra, unable to attain liberation and ease. Therefore we need to break through ignorance (avidyā), break through the illusory dharmas in the mind, and awaken to the true principle. But we must see clearly and understand who this "we" refers to—it refers to the two minds of the mind consciousness and the manas, because these two minds possess an immense amount of ignorance, not knowing the true principle of the reality of the dharmadhātu, and thus they need to cultivate practice and awaken to the truth. Only after awakening to the truth can one realize the falsity of all dharmas of the five-aggregate world, exhaust all ignorance, extinguish all the suffering of birth and death, and attain great liberation. Only after realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the true reality of the dharmadhātu, can one, through cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, exhaust all ignorance, reach the tranquility of nirvāṇa, and be liberated from all the suffering of birth and death. Therefore, what needs to attain enlightenment are the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses.

How does one realize the tathāgatagarbha? We simply cannot see the essential substance of the tathāgatagarbha, because He is empty, without any appearance or form; naturally, His essential substance cannot be seen. He can only be realized through His functions and operations. To be able to directly perceive (in valid direct cognition) the modes of operation of the tathāgatagarbha in the functioning of the five-aggregate body is to realize the tathāgatagarbha; only then can one understand how the tathāgatagarbha operates within the five-aggregate body. Although the essential substance of the tathāgatagarbha is empty and quiescent, His functioning is by no means empty and quiescent; His functions and operations have discernible modes of activity and can be contemplated. When one contemplates them, that is enlightenment.

I have once used wind as an analogy: the empty and quiescent mind, like the wind, cannot be seen, and yet we can still know of the wind's existence. Wind is also empty—we simply cannot see the wind, smell the wind, or touch the wind. But why can we know that the wind has come? Because when the wind comes, there are certainly all kinds of functions, and these functions are manifested upon objects and in space. The wind acts upon objects and acts within empty space; the wind makes contact with objects and with space, and their mutual collision produces various phenomena. At the very moment we see these phenomena, we realize the wind. Whether it is a gentle breeze, a great wind, a small wind, a fierce gale or a storm, or a tornado—from the phenomena manifested upon objects, we can determine which kind of wind it is.

The essential substance of the tathāgatagarbha, like the wind, is formless and without appearance, but He can only be discovered through His operations upon the five-aggregate body. Then, when we find the wind, who is it that finds it? It is the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, including the five sense consciousnesses as well. When a great wind arises, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses together devise ways to evade and guard against the wind disaster. Likewise, when the tathāgatagarbha is realized, it is realized jointly by the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, through observing the functions that the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to—the modes of activity that manifest as He operates within the five-aggregate body. What functions does the tathāgatagarbha have? All myriad dharmas are generated and sustained by Him; all myriad dharmas are upheld by Him. When one has investigated and uncovered exactly how the tathāgatagarbha operates and how He functions, one can then understand the five "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" statements spoken by the Sixth Patriarch.