Conditioned dharmas and unconditioned dharmas

The mind inherently exists by itself, not due to other conditions; He is the only dharma that exists without any conditions, an unarisen dharma that does not need causes and conditions to exist. Whether or not conditions exist, He is forever unborn and unceasing; therefore He is the true mind (mind of suchness). Apart from Him, everything else is a dharma produced by causes and conditions: it arises whenever the conditions are complete, arising and ceasing with conditions, illusory and unfixed. Since it is a dharma that arises and ceases through conditions, it is a dharma without self-nature; whether it exists or not is not up to itself, nor can it be autonomous.

This true mind, however, has self-nature; it has its own real and intrinsic self-nature. He is also self-existent, not born from other dharmas, existing unconditionally and without causes and conditions, possessing such intrinsic qualities as being unborn and unceasing. Nothing can limit Him, nothing can control Him; He exists inherently and naturally. Therefore, dharmas that arise through conditions have no self-nature, while dharmas that do not arise through conditions have self-nature. Conditioned arising means "because this exists, that arises"—all such arisings are without self-nature, and therefore none of them is the Middle Way. But that which is not produced, which exists from the very beginning, has self-nature; He is the dharma of the Middle Way.

All the myriad dharmas of the world are produced by the true mind; they are born afterward, so there must first be the true mind, and only then do the various dharmas and phenomena come into being. The mind does not depend on various phenomena to exist, but if you want to find the mind, you must look for it within phenomena. Apart from phenomena, apart from the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), apart from the eighteen realms, the mind cannot be found. For the very existence and operation of these phenomena precisely demonstrates that the mind also exists and operates; if the mind departed, the phenomena would immediately cease, and the five aggregates would instantly become a corpse. Therefore, in investigating Chan, one must investigate within the various phenomena of the six sense objects, investigate within the activities of the five aggregates, and investigate when the six faculties contact the six sense objects—seeking the mind that operates within these dharmas. When wisdom is fulfilled, meditative concentration (samādhi) is complete, and the conditions of the season and circumstances are ripe, one can then realize this true mind.