All sentient beings are those who draw a prison upon the ground and confine themselves within it.

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

To be able to see the bondage means the eyes are blind. The Buddha-dharma is precisely for curing the eyes. When the eyes have no disease, one is already liberated; there is no need to cultivate in order to attain liberation—liberation does not need to be attained. Seeing a frame is equal to seeing a ghost. Seeing these people, things, and phenomena is like seeing a dungeon drawn by oneself—all are the perception of diseased eyes. Where is there a dungeon? Where are there people, things, and phenomena? How can one become free of disease, return to normal, and neither falsely see nor wildly see? Sentient beings all fail to see what they should see, yet can see everything they should not see—all of this is inverted view.

Ru Chun: All our efforts in the worldly realm are to make these boundaries more exquisite, more solid, and more spacious, so that we can stay inside more comfortably and take more delight in them. Perhaps we have never considered whether we need them or not. Occasionally, having experienced once or twice in meditation the disappearance of the physical body, we instantly feel panic. The power of ignorance and habit is very strong, sweeping us along forward; the power of resistance is very weak and very foolish—even if we know, it is hard to actually do.

In the picture, it is merely a person drawing some lines with a piece of chalk. Because of the inertia of our cognition and our rich imagination, we see them as a frame and as bondage. In fact, these lines are just lines, nothing more. In the picture there clearly is no frame and no bondage—there is nothing at all—yet we say we see a frame, see 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 rather, that we take the nonexistent as existent; we take the false as true. This is already a mistake, and yet we desperately study it, struggle to break free of it, and seek to end it—compounding error upon error and taking a detour. If we truly understood that all dharmas are habit, are imagination, are self-deception, are empty, are nothing, are false, are disease, then stand up and walk out—(as in the picture) do these lines bind or obstruct us in any way? Not at all. Because they are originally nothing. Since there is no bondage, there is no need for liberation, and thus there is no buddhahood, no nirvāṇa, no attaining of buddhahood. That is why the Master says it is unattainable. The hardest thing is to see through the falseness of dharmas and to see clearly the truth of facts. May I ask, Master, is this what you mean?

Assessment: Well said. There is only one place that was said wrong: does a false dharma exist? Do false dharmas exist? They do not. This picture can run through the entire Diamond Sutra: the four marks are gone, the three realms are gone, birth and death are gone, the mark of a buddha 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, all alone and utterly silent, not existing within heaven and earth. Therefore, attaining buddhahood is attaining nothing; only by attaining nothing can one become a buddha. Cultivation is subtraction, is unburdening: subtract everything away and one becomes a buddha—even the buddha is subtracted away. Cultivation itself does not exist either; those who study the buddha and study the dharma are those who stir up trouble out of nothing, those who are deluded and inverted. There is no buddha to attain, 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—what is there to speak of?

Classifying the Diamond Sutra among the prajñā scriptures truly underestimates its value. The Diamond Sutra is a genuine scripture of attaining buddhahood and a Yogācāra scripture: one step reaches emptiness in place; one step attains buddhahood. The Buddha-dharma is 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 facts. Arhats and pratyekabuddhas have died wronged: they painstakingly liberated themselves from birth and death, when in fact there was no birth and death at all, and no liberation was needed. After becoming a buddha, did one attain anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi? The Buddha said, "I attained nothing with regard to bodhi." Only by attaining nothing at all can one become a buddha: even liberation is not attained, nirvāṇa is not attained, the fruit of buddhahood is not attained—with nothing attained, one becomes a buddha.

Although all dharmas are empty, the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are empty, the bodhisattvas' six pāramitās are empty, and the bodhisattvas' ten pāramitās are empty, the bodhisattva does not abide in the unconditioned and does not exhaust the conditioned: whatever should be done is done, fulfilling the six and ten pāramitās completely. Otherwise, one cannot become empty and cannot be unburdened. What does unburdening mean? What is carried on the shoulders, what is borne on the back, what is packed in the mind—all those things crammed full—unload them all, throw them all away and discard them; lay down every burden; empty out all dharmas, whether marked or unmarked, and abandon them, letting them go. 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? If the mind consciousness ponders over these principles, can one become empty once one understands? Can the mind consciousness turn the frame, the cage, the hell, the three realms into emptiness? Does the mind consciousness have this ability? Not at all. So do not use the mind consciousness to blindly ponder, blindly speculate, and blindly fuss around; there is no loss in discarding the mind consciousness. Once the mind consciousness is discarded, use the manas directly. Once the manas is employed, samādhi appears; within samādhi, all dharmas are empty—even emptiness itself is empty, and not even a ghostly shadow can be seen. Such is the power of the manas. Those who are not convinced and cling to the mind consciousness as supreme should go find King Yama to argue the matter; 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 thing. In the final analysis, cause and effect and retribution in this life are the tathāgatagarbha being the master in charge: 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 power greater than the tathāgatagarbha.