How to See the True, Remove the False, and Break Through Ignorance

The root of sentient beings' suffering lies in seeing unreal marks yet taking them to be real, and thus clinging to them without letting go. This inevitably gives rise to feelings of suffering, and when one feels that the mark cannot be grasped, the mind becomes even more distressed. Therefore, the fundamental solution to the problem of suffering is to see the true and real marks, to break through the false and illusory marks, and from then on no longer falsely cling to the false. Only then can there be liberation, without feelings of suffering. When seeing marks, if the seeing is endowed with right knowledge and right view, without mistaken views and wrong views, one will no longer grasp at false and illusory marks, and thus no suffering will arise; naturally, one becomes liberated from marks while amid marks.

How can one see the true marks and no longer see erroneous marks? One must recognize the substance and root of marks, so that one's knowledge and view do not fall into worldly dharma-marks. By breaking through the worldly appearance of dharma-marks, one will see, from the surface to the core, the root and substance of dharma-marks, and thus no longer hold erroneous views. Only by seeing correctly and truly will one know that dharma-marks are fundamentally not to be grasped; only then can one be liberated from marks while amid marks, the grasping mind can be extinguished, and one will attain liberation and ease, henceforth free from affliction and distress.

How does one break through the worldly appearance of dharma-marks? First, we must know what worldly dharma-marks consist of: the various forms, various sounds, various scents, various tastes, and various tangibles defined by worldly convention, and within these various dharma-marks, the various shapes, various substances, various flavors and charms, and various worldly functions. Sentient beings all take the various functions and charms of dharma-marks as truly existent, and so they greedily cling without letting go. Yet whether the object of greed is obtained or not, there is suffering: joy is suffering, sorrow and resentment are suffering; every feeling without exception is suffering, churning the mind, depriving it of tranquility and coolness. This is suffering.

Do these worldly dharma-marks truly exist? In a dream, everything seems real; only upon waking do we know it was all false and unreal. Only after personally realizing the Dharma and awakening does one know that all seen marks are not real—they are all illusory, subject to arising, ceasing, change, impermanence, and magical transformation. Since worldly dharma-marks are impermanent, they are therefore empty and unobtainable—unobtainable even in the attempt to obtain them. Since worldly dharma-marks are empty and unobtainable, they are therefore suffering; being empty and unobtainable entails suffering—that is the mark of suffering. Since worldly dharma-marks are impermanent, suffering, and empty, they are not the self, nor can they belong to the self. To take the impermanent dharma-marks of arising, ceasing, and change as the self—such knowledge and view is mistaken and unreasonable, a form of foolishness. Only by extinguishing such unreasonable views can one attain right view, and only then will one no longer grasp at dharma-marks. Without grasping, the mind can attain liberation, ease, and coolness.

How can one see the true marks, so that one's knowledge and view do not fall into worldly dharma-marks? We should understand that all worldly dharma-marks are generated, transformed, and created by the fundamental mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Thereafter, the tathāgatagarbha conditions these dharma-marks and discerns them. However, the tathāgatagarbha does not see the worldly appearance of these dharma-marks; what it sees are the seed-combination marks of the dharma-marks. It only knows the arrangement states of the various seeds within these dharma-marks, and it continually discerns the karmic seeds, constantly adjusting the proportional structure of the various seeds according to the karmic seeds, adjusting the distribution states of the seeds. In this way, the dharma-marks continuously change in accordance with karmic seeds, karmic conditions, or the manas's mental deliberation.

Because the tathāgatagarbha sees seeds and not worldly marks, it cannot distinguish form, sound, scent, taste, tangible, or dharma; its mind makes no discriminations of worldly dharmas, so its mind is pure and without afflictions, and it creates no afflictive karma of birth and death—thus there is no suffering of birth-and-death saṃsāra. If we wish to free ourselves from the suffering of segmented birth-and-death and the suffering of transformational birth-and-death, we should also be like the tathāgatagarbha, extinguishing the worldly dharma-marks in our minds and seeing the true meaning and substance of dharmas. In this way, the mind will become increasingly pure, increasingly close to the Buddha's mind, and finally our wisdom will be equal to the Buddha's, abiding in non-abiding nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa), abiding in the Land of Permanent Stillness and Light, in quiescent cessation and non-action.

Since all worldly dharma-marks do not truly exist, how can sentient beings still see them? This is of course due to sentient beings' ignorance: upon the true marks, they give rise to false views and false thoughts, then engage in false actions, create false karma, obtain false retribution, and undergo the false suffering of saṃsāra. For example, it is clearly a torch being waved rapidly, but due to ignorance, sentient beings do not see the torch; instead they see a fire circle that does not exist. They take the fire circle as truly existent and cling to it without letting go, and thus there is the suffering of birth-and-death saṃsāra. It is the same when sentient beings see worldly dharma-marks: because of ignorance, they take marks that originally do not exist as truly existent, while failing to see the true dharmas that originally do exist. Due to mistaken and inverted views, there is the karma of birth and death, and the suffering of saṃsāra continues unceasingly.

For example, in the heat of summer, water vapor reflects onto a sandy beach. Because a deer is thirsty and its mind is confused, it sees a river covering the beach where there is nothing, and so it runs over to grasp the river water, only to find nothing there upon arrival. Such ignorant false seeing gains sentient beings nothing, yet because they grasp at illusory marks, they attract the afflictions, karma, and suffering of birth and death—how worthless! Therefore, breaking through ignorance and seeing the real marks is the most crucial of priorities in our practice, and also our ultimate goal. As long as one sees the real marks, ignorance will be broken through, illusory marks will gradually cease, and gradually one will no longer grasp at illusory marks and no longer create the karma of birth and death. When afflictions are exhausted and karma dissolved, one returns to the ocean of one's own nature's sarvājña—the One True Dharma Realm—and from then on abides in quiescent nirvāṇa.