The Meaning of "Precepts Are Fundamentally Without Precepts"

Precepts are fundamentally without precepts means that the dharma of precepts is a dharma arising from causes and conditions, and originally does not exist. It is because the body, speech, and mind of sentient beings in the Saha world are not pure, and their mind-ground is defiled, that the Buddha established the dharma of precepts to restrain the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of his disciples. If there were no body of the five aggregates, there would be no need to restrain it with the dharma of precepts; and if the five aggregates, after cultivation, attain purity and non-action, the dharma of precepts is likewise no longer needed for restraint. On the other hand, the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, has no physical body, no bodily, verbal, or mental actions, and no defilement; it simply does not need to be restrained by the dharma of precepts at all. He does not receive precepts, does not keep precepts, and still less does He violate precepts. It is the body of the five aggregates that needs to receive precepts, keep precepts, and at times violates them. Therefore it is said that precepts are fundamentally without precepts: precepts are in fact formed after the fact, a dharma subject to arising and ceasing—that is, they are false and illusory.