One Must Not Confuse the True Mind (Tathāgatagarbha) with the Mind Consciousness

"The Dharma is fundamentally without dharma" means that within the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, there is not a single dharma—it is without form and without marks, and the mind-substance is intrinsically empty. This statement is not telling us to abandon the aspiration to become a Buddha and the intention to cultivate the Dharma; if we did, we would never escape the fiery pit of birth and death. Those who do not study Buddhism have neither the aspiration to become a Buddha nor the intention to cultivate the Dharma, yet they remain forever in the cycle of birth and death.

The mind that neither thinks of good nor thinks of evil refers to the true-suchness mind (tathatā). He has no function or role of thinking about the dharmas of the three realms or the dharmas of the six sense-objects; He inherently does not think, and does not know good from evil, right from wrong. "Not thinking of good or evil" does not mean that when the mind consciousness also abides in a state of not thinking of good, evil, right, or wrong, it thereby becomes true suchness. When the mind consciousness also does not think, that is the state of meditative concentration (samādhi); the state of concentration is still the realm of the mind consciousness, not the inherent state of the true mind of suchness. Therefore, one must not take the mind consciousness in its state of not thinking of good or evil as true suchness, nor suppose that at such a moment one has attained enlightenment. If the mind consciousness enters concentration and ceases to deliberate, it cannot investigate Chan; without investigating Chan and without deliberation, one cannot awaken to the Path.

The wisdom-realm that we realize through cultivation can all be expressed in words; what cannot be expressed may well be a case of no genuine awakening. Where the tathāgatagarbha is, which one it is, and how it functions—all of these can be expressed. A few brief sentences can express it clearly, and a lengthy discourse can explain it in even greater detail. The Buddha spent forty-nine years and still did not finish expounding the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha; He only revealed an extremely minute fraction of it, and the dharma left unspoken is still vast beyond measure. Therefore, as long as one has genuine realization and awakening, one can express the tathāgatagarbha, and one will express it accurately.