Do Not Mistake the Deluded Mind for True Suchness

The causal ground refers to the stage before one has attained buddhahood, when one is still at the bodhisattva stages; the fruition ground refers to the stage of the already accomplished buddha-ground. The mind realized by sentient beings while at the bodhisattva stage on the causal ground should be the same mind as that perfectly awakened mind at the buddha-ground—it cannot be two minds. Otherwise, the causal-ground mind would be unable to reach the buddha-ground, which would mean it is a deluded mind of arising-and-ceasing nature, not the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. The mind realized when a bodhisattva sees the mind should be the true mind that neither arises nor ceases; it cannot be the seven deluded consciousnesses that have the nature of arising and ceasing. When seeing the mind and awakening to the Way, one must awaken to what is true; one must not awaken wrongly, for if one awakens wrongly, one cannot attain buddhahood.

Many people, when their mind consciousness occasionally has no wandering thoughts, take that to be the originally tranquil self-nature tathāgatagarbha. This is a huge misunderstanding. If one mistakes a thief for one's own son like this, one will rob one's own family treasure, and in the end one will be utterly destitute, revolving in saṃsāra in an inverted manner, unable to attain liberation. Not only will one fail to gain genuine benefit, but attaining buddhahood will be even more out of the question.

The true essence for attaining buddhahood is the self-nature tathāgatagarbha. This mind is never lost all the way to the buddha-ground. The deluded mind cannot remain unchanged and unceasing all the way to the buddha-ground, nor does it possess any genuine merit—all of its functions are endowed by the tathāgatagarbha. The mind realized when one is a bodhisattva should be the self-nature tathāgatagarbha that is originally tranquil and free of wandering thoughts; one should not, through cultivation, forcibly restrain oneself from giving rise to wandering thoughts and then regard this mind that has suppressed wandering thoughts as true suchness. This false true suchness is not the true suchness of the buddha-ground that is complete with permanence, bliss, self, and purity. One must not take this thief as one's own child; otherwise, one cannot attain buddhahood.