Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (Sixty-Seven)

Without a Mind of Attachment and Delight Is the Buddha's Realm

Without a mind of attachment and delight is the Buddha's realm. Within the Buddha's realm there is no mind of attachment and delight; there is no joy, pleasure, craving, or attachment toward the five desires and the six sense objects. The Buddha is the Tathāgata, and the Tathāgata is the tathāgatagarbha; He has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness—He neither likes nor dislikes anything, for He is of a non-active (asaṃskṛta) nature. The minds of the first seven consciousnesses have joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, but the true mind has none. When the minds of the seven consciousnesses experience joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, there is the true mind's compliance and cooperation within it; otherwise, the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses would not manifest such phenomena of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. In all dharmas, the true and the deluded operate together. When the seven consciousnesses experience joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, there is a tathāgatagarbha—free of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—continuously transmitting all kinds of seeds to sustain the current manifestation of the seven consciousnesses' mental actions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. When you find this silent, unrecognized, selfless contributor behind the scenes, you will have seen your true mind and attained enlightenment, thereby gaining prajñā wisdom.

Why is it said that without a mind of attachment and delight is the Buddha's realm? The Buddha said that if there is no attachment and delight, one can be far removed from all dharmas. This is because all Buddhas have already attained tranquility and non-action, clinging to nothing among all dharmas worldly or transcendent, not attaching to sense objects, with no existence of dharmas in their minds, having utterly departed from all dharmas. Although the Buddha must constantly engage in activity on the illusory appearances of the five aggregates in order to extensively deliver immeasurable sentient beings, this does not prevent the Buddha's mind from abiding nowhere, without generating any mind of attachment and delight toward any dharma. The Dharmakāya Buddha (dharma-kāya-buddha) in particular abides nowhere with regard to worldly or transcendent dharmas, far removed from all dharmas and marks, without any mind of attachment and delight toward any dharma.