All Sentient Beings Are Self-Imprisoned

Being able to understand this picture is nothing special—anyone can understand it by thinking about it; that is not difficult. What is difficult? A mind consciousness producing a paper of ten million words, expressing feelings, reflections, and plans, methods, and strategies for practice, is less substantial than a single concrete action. Those who can do are not necessarily able to speak; the vast majority of those who can speak cannot do.

To see bondage is to be blind in the eyes. The Buddha-dharma is precisely for curing the eyes. If the eyes have no illness, one is already liberated in the first place; there is no need to cultivate to attain liberation—liberation need not be attained. Seeing a frame is equal to seeing a ghost. Seeing these people, things, and objects is like seeing the dungeon you yourself drew—all are perceptions of diseased eyes. Where is there a dungeon? Where are there people, things, and objects? How can one become un-diseased, return to normal, and not see falsely or see chaotically? Sentient beings all fail to see what they should see, yet can see everything they should not see—it is all inverted view.

Ru Chun: All our efforts in the secular world are to make these boundaries more exquisite, more solid, and more spacious, so that we can stay inside more comfortably and enjoy it more. Perhaps we have never considered whether we need these things at all. Occasionally, having experienced once or twice in meditation the disappearance of the physical body, we instantly feel panic. The power of ignorance and habituation is very strong, sweeping us along forward; the power of resistance is very weak and very foolish—even if we know, it is very hard to do.

In the picture, it is merely a person holding a piece of chalk drawing some lines. Due to the inertia of our cognition and our rich imagination, we see them as a frame and bondage. In fact, these lines are just lines—nothing more. In the picture there clearly is no frame and no bondage, nothing at all, yet we say we saw a frame, saw bondage. That is why the Master says we are blind and are seeing ghosts.

The Master means that we have been deceived by ourselves, or in other words, we take the void as real existence; we take the false as true. This is already a mistake, and then to desperately study it, struggle free of it, and terminate it is to compound error upon error, taking a wasted detour. If we truly understood that all dharmas are habituation, are imagination, are self-deception, are void, are nonexistence, are false, are illness, then stand up and walk out—(as in the picture) do these lines bind or obstruct us? Not at all. Because they are originally nonexistent. Since there is no bondage, there is no need for liberation, and thus there is no buddhahood, no nirvāṇa, no becoming a Buddha. That is why the Master says it is unattainable. The hardest thing is to see through the falseness of dharmas and see clearly the truth of the facts. May I ask, Master, is this what you mean?

Comment: Well said. There is only one place you said wrong: does false dharma exist? Does false dharma exist? It does not. This picture can run through the entire Diamond Sutra: the four marks are gone, the three realms are gone, birth-and-death is gone, the Buddha mark is gone, the Buddha-dharma is gone, nirvāṇa is gone, liberation is gone, this shore is gone, the other shore is gone—everything is gone, leaving only a self-natured pure mind, solitary and silent, not existing between heaven and earth. Therefore, becoming a Buddha is attaining nothing; only by attaining nothing can one become a Buddha. Practice is subtraction, is unburdening. When everything has been subtracted, one becomes a Buddha—even the Buddha is subtracted. Practice also does not exist; those who study the Buddha and study the dharma are those who stir up trouble out of nothing, are the deluded and inverted. There is no Buddha to become, no dharma to learn; the one who speaks the dharma has no dharma to speak. From now on, whoever forces the Master to teach the dharma, go up and give them a beating right away—what is there to speak?

Classifying the Diamond Sutra as a prajñā scripture truly underestimates the value of the Diamond Sutra. The Diamond Sutra is a genuine scripture for becoming a Buddha, a Yogācāra scripture—one step straight into emptiness, one step to buddhahood. The Buddha-dharma is precisely to let sentient beings realize that there is originally no birth-and-death, originally no sentient beings, originally no dharmas at all. Yet sentient beings diligently study birth-and-death, study the five aggregates, study all dharmas, deviating from the truth of the facts. The arhats and pratyekabuddhas died utterly wronged—laboring painstakingly to liberate themselves from birth-and-death, when in fact there was no birth-and-death at all, no need for liberation. After becoming a Buddha, did one attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi? The Buddha said, "Regarding bodhi, I attained nothing." Only by attaining nothing at all can one become a Buddha—not even attaining liberation, not attaining nirvāṇa, not attaining the fruit of Buddhahood. With nothing attained, one becomes a Buddha.

Although all dharmas are empty, the thirty-seven factors of the path are empty, the bodhisattvas' six pāramitās are empty, the bodhisattvas' ten pāramitās are empty, the bodhisattvas do not dwell in the unconditioned and do not exhaust the conditioned—whatever should be done is done, and the six and ten pāramitās are all fulfilled completely; otherwise one cannot be empty and cannot be unburdened. What does unburdening mean? What the shoulders carry, what the back bears, what the heart holds—all those things crammed full must be unloaded, thrown away and discarded; all burdens are let go, all dharmas with marks and without marks are emptied and abandoned, given up and no longer wanted. Let go, let go, let go—when the letting go is complete, one returns to the original state: possessing nothing, yet able to have everything.

How can one become empty? Can the mind consciousness ponder these principles and, upon understanding, become empty? Can the mind consciousness turn the frames, cages, hells, and the three realms into emptiness? Does the mind consciousness have this ability? Not at all. So do not use the mind consciousness to blindly speculate, blindly guess, and blindly fiddle around; discarding the mind consciousness loses you nothing. When the mind consciousness is discarded, use the manas directly. Once the manas is employed, meditative absorption (samādhi) appears. Within samādhi, all dharmas are empty—even emptiness itself is empty, not even a ghostly shadow is seen. Such is the power of the manas. Those who are not convinced and cling to the mind consciousness as their venerable master may go argue with King Yama; King Yama will let you see the real proof. Even the Buddha will not reason with you—only King Yama will receive you. If you cannot wait for King Yama, then cause and effect will appear first; retribution in this life will manifest, and this is the most telling. In the final analysis, cause and effect and retribution in this life are the tathāgatagarbha being the master of the house—the tathāgatagarbha has the final say. Even the Buddha does not have the final say; the Buddha does not manage affairs and does not have as much power as the tathāgatagarbha.