What Are the Conditioned and the Unconditioned?

"Wei" (conditioned activity) means "for the sake of," meaning purpose, demand, and seeking. "Conditioned" (wei-wei) means there is seeking, there is demand, there is fabrication, there is attainment, there is pursuit, there is purpose, there is mental activity, there is fabrication, there is self, and there are the four marks. "Unconditioned" (wu-wei) means being without these mental notions, the opposite of the conditioned.

A mind that seeks nothing is unconditioned; a mind that attains nothing is unconditioned; a mind with no mental activity toward the world of the three realms is unconditioned; a dharma that is not born is unconditioned; a mind vast and boundless in capacity is unconditioned; a mind without afflictions is unconditioned. A mind that does not need the dharmas of the three realms is unconditioned; a mind that can exist without any conditions is unconditioned; a mind that does not wish to fabricate anything is unconditioned; a mind without self is unconditioned; a mind without the four marks is unconditioned. The conditioned is the worldly dharma of the seven consciousnesses; the unconditioned is the tathāgatagarbha, the true suchness and buddha-nature.

Within the unconditioned, the tathāgatagarbha selflessly serves sentient beings; while operating all dharmas of the three realms, its mind remains unconditioned—within the unconditioned there is the conditioned, and within the conditioned there is the unconditioned. Only when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to a certain degree do they gradually transform from a conditioned nature into an unconditioned nature; within the conditioned, the mind-ground is nonetheless unconditioned, gradually according with the tathāgatagarbha, and when there is complete unconditionedness and complete accordance, one becomes a Buddha. Only the unconditioned mind of the tathāgatagarbha can exist apart from all dharmas; the unconditionedness of the seven consciousnesses cannot be separated from the world of the three realms, nor can it be separated from the unconditioned tathāgatagarbha. But the tathāgatagarbha, this unconditioned dharma, can exist independently even when apart from the conditioned dharmas of the three realms—that is, during nirvāṇa without remainder. In nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha abides in quiescent cessation, unconditioned, fabricating not a single dharma, pure and utterly most pure. Since the unconditioned dharma of the tathāgatagarbha still exists apart from conditioned dharmas, the patriarch said: "There is something prior to heaven and earth, formless and originally silent and still."

All dharmas exist in dependence upon mind. Since all dharmas are divided into the conditioned and the unconditioned, mind is likewise divided into two kinds: the conditioned and the unconditioned. Conditioned dharmas are jointly fabricated and produced by the conditioned seven consciousnesses and the unconditioned tathāgatagarbha—for example, all dharmas of the three realms, such as bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Unconditioned dharmas are also jointly fabricated and manifested by the seven consciousnesses—whether conditioned or unconditioned—and the unconditioned tathāgatagarbha, such as the fourth dhyāna, the cessation of perception and feeling (nirodha-samāpatti), the concentration without perception, and so on; from the first fruit to the fourth fruit; such as awakening to the true mind and seeing the buddha-nature; such as the unconditioned nature of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. Only the tathāgatagarbha, this innately unconditioned dharma, does not need to be born and manifested by the conditioned or unconditioned seven consciousnesses, nor is it born and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha itself. However, if it is to be manifested, it still relies on the foil of the worldly conditioned dharmas of the seven consciousnesses.