What state is enlightenment?

The first sentence of the Heart Sutra says: When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva practiced profound prajñā-pāramitā, He illuminated and saw that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are all empty, and thereby crossed over all suffering and adversity. Practicing profound prajñā-pāramitā and illuminating and seeing that the five aggregates are all empty means that at the very moment one realizes the tathāgatagarbha endowed with prajñā wisdom, the mind becomes empty. The key word here, "practiced," refers to investigating Chan and inquiring into the meaning of prajñā. "Profound" has two meanings: one is depth of meditative concentration (samādhi), and the other is depth of the wisdom of investigation, with a clear direction. On the premise of this depth, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses give rise to great wisdom, which wisdom illuminates the true reality of the dharmadhātu, realizing that all dharmas within the five aggregates in the dharmadhātu are manifested by the prajñā mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and that the substance of the five aggregates is empty—false appearances, illusory forms.

In this way, deep in one's heart one knows that the five aggregates are not real, and thus there is no suffering; in an instant one crosses over all suffering and adversity. All suffering and adversity are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; they are false appearances, not real. Having thus illuminated and seen that the five aggregates are all empty, the mind becomes empty and non-active (asaṃskṛta in conduct), and afflictions are severed. This is the merit and benefit of Mahāyāna path-seeing through realizing the tathāgatagarbha. This is path-seeing by the manas, the manas realizing the samādhi state of the tathāgatagarbha, complete in both meditative concentration and wisdom, the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā. The so-called "illuminating and seeing" means sudden enlightenment—there is no time or effort of slowly pondering, analyzing, and deliberating toward gradual understanding; one knows or one does not know, without hesitation or ambiguity.

After illuminating and seeing that the five aggregates are all empty in this way, is it still necessary to separately undertake the transformation of the basis as tathāgatagarbha (āśraya-parāvṛtti-tathāgatagarbha) for it to count as realization and enlightenment? Not at all. This is genuine, unambiguous realization and sudden enlightenment, not that kind of gradual intellectual understanding—understanding gradually clarified through analysis and inference. One has already entered the gate of the Mahāyāna and obtained genuine merit and benefit. If instead one uses the mind consciousness to reason, ponder, and guess at a tathāgatagarbha, such guessing and inference carries no merit or benefit whatsoever, and so one must slowly undergo the transformation of the basis. Yet no matter how hard the mind consciousness strives at the transformation, if the manas has not realized it, the transformation of the basis still cannot succeed. Consequently, a heap of messy problems remains unhandled—afflictions are still afflictions, ignorance is still ignorance.

 It is like those who take meditative concentration as Chan: they cultivate a samādhi of "not a single thought arising" and take this to be the no-thought state of the true mind, thus mistaking the false for the true. But after emerging from samādhi, deluded thoughts reappear. Because they fear in their hearts that the true mind will vanish, they keep cultivating concentration, striving to remain in meditative concentration for as long as possible, trying not to emerge from samādhi, in order to preserve and safeguard the state of concentration and ensure the true mind is not lost—calling this, in fine-sounding terms, "preserving and safeguarding." However, the state of concentration will eventually disappear, and one must eventually emerge from samādhi. Even if one did not emerge from samādhi for countless kalpas, the state of concentration would still not be the true mind's self-nature. If one has truly awakened, what is there left to preserve and safeguard? If one has truly realized the true mind, what is there left to transform? Right now it is just so; right now the mind is empty and pure. The carp leaps over the Dragon Gate and, having leapt over, becomes a dragon—would it still fear leaping back and turning into a carp again? Only if one has never actually leapt over the Dragon Gate, with a heart trembling in anxiety, fearing loss and grasping at gain, would one need preservation, safeguarding, and the transformation of the basis.