Dharma-Transmission Verse of the Twenty-Third Patriarch, Bodhisattva Havelana

Original text: 认得心性时，可说不思议；了了无可得，得时不说知。

Explanation: When, through practice, we awaken to the true mind and realize enlightenment, and come to recognize our own fundamental mind and nature, only then do we know that this mind-nature is truly inconceivable. No matter how sentient beings employ their discriminating consciousness and mental cognition, their emotional understanding and deliberation (manana), they can never fathom Him; His essential nature is so subtle and difficult to know. Although we have recognized our own mind-nature, this mind-nature is likewise utterly unattainable—He is our own inherent family treasure, an antique heirloom, which is dug out when the conditions are complete; it is not obtained from outside, nor is it given by anyone else. Even when we have recognized Him, we cannot say that we have fully known all of His essential nature; we have only known the general characteristic. The rest of His deeper and more subtle essential qualities must be gradually explored and uncovered throughout the subsequent course of cultivating the Path, until finally we can attain the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) and bring the Buddha-way to perfection.