The Difference Between the No-Mind Samādhi and the Tathatā Samādhi

The meaning of the "mindless samādhi" is dwelling within a state of meditative concentration with no thoughts and no notions, having nothing to do, with nothing at all on one's mind, where the mind consciousness does not engage in contemplative observation or thinking—just like the state of "inwardly guarding a leisurely ease" that the World-Honored One spoke of in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. All of these are states in which the mind consciousness is idle. Some people mistakenly take this state to be the tathāgatagarbha that is free of thoughts and notions, and believe they have realized the samādhi of suchness (tathatā-samādhi).

In fact, true suchness originally has not a single thought or notion, whether or not one cultivates meditative concentration—it is always so; therefore the state of true suchness never changes. But the mind consciousness being free of thoughts and notions within meditative concentration is something cultivated; it comes only after not existing before, and what arises can later cease—it will sooner or later disappear. A dharma subject to arising, ceasing, and change is not the tathāgatagarbha, which is unborn and unceasing; therefore it is not equivalent to the realm of the samādhi of suchness.