The State of Complete Elimination of Self-View (ātma-dṛṣṭi)

If one takes the tathāgatagarbha to be a real self, then the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) has not been fully eliminated—this is still a kind of self-view. For within the dharma-realm there is fundamentally no self of the seven consciousnesses; since there is no self, how could there be a tathāgatagarbha that is a true self? Without the fundamental self-nature of the seven consciousnesses, there is no self-nature of any kind. If one establishes the view that "the tathāgatagarbha is the true self," one simultaneously establishes a self of the seven consciousnesses; only when there is a self of the seven consciousnesses can one take the tathāgatagarbha to be a real self. Without the seven consciousnesses, one would not take any dharma as a self.

Therefore, as long as one sees dharmas, it is deluded seeing; when there is no deluded seeing, one will surely become a Buddha.

When cultivating to the third gate of the Chan school, if one still clings in the mind to a self of the tathāgatagarbha, one cannot pass through the third gate of Chan, cannot realize nirvāṇa with remainder (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), and cannot escape birth and death.

In Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through the Ear Faculty, when the cultivation reaches its end, everything that can be relinquished has been relinquished, everything that can be emptied has been emptied—even relinquishment itself is relinquished, and even emptiness is emptied. The one who relinquishes and what is relinquished, the one who empties and what is emptied, and emptiness of emptiness as well—all are emptied out, and there is nothing left to be emptied. Only the solitary tathāgatagarbha remains, which cannot be relinquished and must not be relinquished, cannot be emptied and must not be emptied; and there is no longer anyone who relinquishes, no one who empties it. Then one has arrived home, accomplishing the thirty-two response bodies, and is named the greatly compassionate and greatly loving Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva.