Bodhisattvas Should Save Sentient Beings with the Three Wheels in Emptiness

Original text:尔时须菩提白佛言。世尊。善男子。善女人。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心。云何应住。云何降伏其心。佛告须菩提。善男子。善女人。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心。当生如是心。我应灭度一切众生。灭度一切众生已。而无有一众生实灭度者。何以故。须菩提。若菩萨有我相人相众生相寿者相，则非菩萨。所以者何。须菩提。实无有法。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。

Explanation: Subhūti asked the Buddha: World-Honored One, when good men and good women give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, how should they abide, and how should they subdue their minds? The Buddha told Subhūti: Good men and good women who give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi should give rise to such a mind: I shall liberate all sentient beings; and after all sentient beings have been liberated, there is in fact not a single sentient being who has been liberated. Why should one give rise to such a mind? Subhūti, if a bodhisattva has the notions of self, person, sentient being, or life span in his mind, he is not a true bodhisattva. Why is he not a true bodhisattva? Subhūti, because in the world there truly is no dharma of giving rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi; there is no one who gives rise to the bodhi mind. If a person has the notions of self, person, sentient being, and life span, he has not eliminated the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), and he is not a bodhisattva.

When bodhisattvas resolve to liberate sentient beings, with what state of mind should they liberate them? Bodhisattvas who liberate sentient beings should do so with the three wheels being empty: they should not have the notions of self, person, sentient being, or life span, but should liberate sentient beings with an empty mind of no self, no person, no sentient beings, and no life span. Because the notion of self is empty, there is no real "I" to liberate sentient beings; because the notions of person and sentient being are empty, there are no sentient beings being liberated; and thus the matter of "I liberating sentient beings" is itself empty, not truly existent. If a bodhisattva clings to the thought that "I have liberated sentient beings" or "there are sentient beings who have been liberated by me," then he has not realized selflessness, his mind is not empty, and he is not a true bodhisattva. Sentient beings are empty—how could they be liberated? The self is empty—how could it liberate them? Therefore, although the bodhisattva has liberated all sentient beings, in the ground of actual principle, not a single sentient being has been liberated.

The person who gives rise to the bodhi mind is empty; the act of giving rise to the bodhi mind is empty, an illusory transformation—the phenomena exist but the principle does not; the existence is only provisional existence. Yet by cultivating through this illusory phenomenon, one can attain buddhahood; and the matter of attaining buddhahood is also empty and illusory. In the ground of actual principle, there is no buddha to be attained, and no ordinary being to be had. Everything is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—void and ethereal, neither real nor false, both real and false. True or illusory, real or empty, there is no need to grasp at them: the deeds must be done, but the mind must be empty. Not only must bodhisattvas liberate sentient beings with the three wheels being empty; in practicing generosity (dāna) and all the other six perfections and myriad practices, they must likewise keep the three wheels empty. Only by being empty all the way through does one truly arrive home.