The Bodhisattva Always Roams in Ultimate Emptiness

The Sūtra on the Non-Practice of All Dharmas (Sarvadharmāpravṛtti): "practice" here means the arising of movement and operation; in reality, all dharmas have no actuality and no movement or operation. Why is this so? All dharmas are of the mark of nirvāṇa—tranquil and without action, neither arising nor ceasing, without bondage or fetters, and likewise without liberation, ever abiding in tranquility like empty space. All dharmas are of the mark of the tathāgatagarbha; when one sees the tathāgatagarbha, one does not see any dharmas—this is to abide hidden within the tathāgatagarbha. What dharma is not the tathāgatagarbha? All are the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore there is no worldly dharma-mark of the three realms, no mark of wholesome and unwholesome, no mark of disorder and ruin, no mark of opposition.

Bodhisattvas constantly roam in ultimate emptiness, their minds constantly abiding in meditative concentration (samādhi) without attachment. If there is attachment, then they are not bodhisattvas; if they see marks of good and bad in all things, then they are not bodhisattvas. Therefore my mind is gentle, supremely soft and pliant, beyond words. After seeing the mind, one becomes a true Mahāyāna bodhisattva; if one's mental disposition has not been genuinely transformed before seeing the mind, and one does not yet possess the mental disposition of a qualified Mahāyāna bodhisattva, then it will be difficult, or even impossible, to become a true Mahāyāna bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva should have the disposition of a bodhisattva; a person should have a human character; a Buddha has the disposition of a Buddha—one's mental disposition should correspond to one's stage of fruition; only this is normal. Otherwise, one is a false bodhisattva, a false Buddha. A person who lacks a proper human character is not a complete person, not a person in the true sense.

Bodhisattvas receive instruction from the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions for countless kalpas; the parts of their teachings that are correct belong to the Dharma of the Buddhas of the ten directions, while the erroneous parts belong to their own still-imperfect cultivation and realization. The Buddha-dharma cannot belong to a single Buddha, still less to a certain bodhisattva, and ordinary beings certainly cannot possess the Buddha-dharma. One who has the Buddha-dharma is a Buddha; one who has the bodhisattva-dharma is a bodhisattva; one who has the ordinary being's dharma is an ordinary being. People at each level have the dharma of their own level; therefore everyone should make the great vow to perfect the Buddha-dharma as soon as possible, so as to attain buddhahood sooner.