How to Attain the Empty and Tranquil Mind as Taught in the Dharma Door of Guanyin's Ear-Root Perfect Penetration?

The Guanyin Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration dharma gate cultivated by Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, within meditative concentration (samādhi), contemplated emptiness (śūnyatā), continuously breaking through false and illusory dharmas. This mode of practice requires extremely deep meditative concentration and extremely powerful prajñā wisdom; lacking either one, the Guanyin Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration dharma gate cannot be accomplished. This method of practice consists, within extremely deep meditative concentration, of continuously excluding all conditioned, unreal, false dharmas, until what remains is something that truly cannot be excluded, something that truly cannot be emptied—a so-called "thing"—and that is the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha.

This method of practice is excellent, but most people, indeed all people, cannot cultivate to this degree. First, because they cannot develop such deep meditative concentration; second, because they cannot possess such deep prajñā wisdom of emptiness (śūnyatā), and thus cannot realize this mind of emptiness within profound meditative concentration; third, because their aspiration is not vast enough, and their roots of goodness and merit are insufficient to support such practice. Therefore, when realization is impossible, the misunderstanding of the prajñā emptiness will be very great. With the roots of goodness and faculties of us sentient beings in this Sahā world, success in this practice is impossible; even the initial emptiness is very hard to realize. One may have a similar understanding of prajñā wisdom, but meditative concentration is a hard criterion and the most actual measure of cultivation effort; relying on understanding alone, it simply cannot be achieved.

Therefore, excluding all false dharmas within meditative concentration is something ordinary people cannot do. This requires not only realizing the emptiness of the self of persons, becoming one of the srotāpanna through arhat of the fourth fruit, but also realizing the emptiness of the self of dharmas, becoming a bhūmi bodhisattva possessing the seed-wisdom (bīja-jñāna) of Yogācāra. Only by thus excluding all false and illusory dharmas, and having emptied them, does what finally remain become a tranquil true mind that truly cannot be emptied—only then is the practice complete. Nowadays it is impossible for anyone to cultivate to this degree; people of such great faculties would not come to the Sahā world, because it does not correspond—wasting a bodhisattva's resources. The sentient beings of the Sahā world do not need such great bodhisattvas of supremely high wisdom.

After all false dharmas have been excluded, what finally remains is a tranquil mind, and thus the profound emptiness is realized. Then who is it that realizes this tranquil mind? Who is it that recognizes that tranquil true mind? There still must be a "who"; without this "who" it will not work. And this "who" is also empty, also something to be excluded; yet one must still make use of this empty "who" that ought to be broken through, in order to discover our inherently possessed tranquil mind-substance, the tathāgatagarbha. Such practice is to break through all false dharmas, not to annihilate them—simply not to regard them as real—and then to use the false, unreal mind consciousness and manas to realize that true mind which cannot be broken through. Without the false mind consciousness and manas, one cannot see the mind and attain enlightenment.

What does this tranquil mind refer to? It refers to the fact that His substance is tranquil, without form and without mark: the eyes cannot see Him, the ear faculty cannot hear Him, the nose faculty cannot smell Him, the tongue faculty cannot taste Him, the body cannot touch Him, and the mind consciousness can neither feel Him nor think of Him. Then how can He be actually realized? Through studying the prajñā sūtras, one comes to understand the nature of the true mind and the characteristics of the true mind's operation—and the true mind's operation is its functioning within the body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha). After understanding this, one needs to perfect the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, then do the work of meditative concentration and investigation, single-mindedly investigating with unrelenting perseverance, and only then can the tranquil mind be realized.

The Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration dharma gate is not a pure dharma gate of cultivating concentration, but a dharma gate of cultivating concentration and wisdom together. On the foundation of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, one studies the profound Mahāyāna dharma of the tathāgatagarbha; within meditative concentration one relinquishes, all along the way, conditioned and false dharmas—everything must be relinquished except the tathāgatagarbha: all mental activities must be relinquished, including the mind that empties, the dharmas that are emptied, and also the various kinds of emptiness. Without wisdom, this dharma gate simply cannot be cultivated. By cultivating this gate one can reach the thirty-two response bodies of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva; whether in meditative concentration or in the samādhis of wisdom, one rivals all the Buddhas—of course it is supremely perfect penetration. The closer a dharma is to the ultimate, the more definitive it is, the more sublime it is, the harder it is to cultivate.

For a practitioner to be without self and dharmas, to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and attain purity of the dharma eye, and to empty the body of the five aggregates—this samādhi is the simplest and easiest dharma; yet how many people can guarantee they will realize it before the end of their lives? If I were not propagating the Dharma and devoted myself exclusively to cultivating the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration, I too could not cultivate it successfully. Very many people, even if they can attain the fourth dhyāna, still may not necessarily attain the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration; even those with the Yogācāra seed-wisdom realization of a first-bhūmi bodhisattva may not necessarily attain the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration. To cultivate as Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva did and finally become an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva—this will not happen in the Sahā world. If even the first contemplation in the Contemplation Sūtra (Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra) cannot be accomplished, then there is nothing to talk about; whatever one says is mere spit—what use is it?

The first contemplation in the Contemplation Sūtra—have you all been practicing it for several years now? Not a single person has reported on the results of their practice. Only by attaining the third contemplation can rebirth in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) at the end of life be guaranteed; if even the first contemplation is this difficult, what to say of the third contemplation? What to say, then, of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration dharma gate? Even the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm is that difficult, and the first dhyāna is even more difficult—what to say of the fourth dhyāna? What to say, then, of the meditative concentration required for cultivating the Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration? If even attaining the srotāpanna fruit is nowhere in sight, seeing the mind is even harder, not to mention the Yogācāra seed-wisdom of bhūmi bodhisattvas—what to say of cultivating Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Ear-Faculty Perfect Penetration dharma gate? Nearly half the people in the world can talk at great length about theory, but as for genuinely cultivating and reaching a certain level of attainment, you truly cannot find more than a few in this world. Such is the present state of the Dharma-ending age in the Sahā world.