西方合論

Chapter IV

THE CHARACTER OF THE TEACHING

The profound teachings in the Great Canon are like vessels containing empty space. Empty space has no shape, while vessels have square or round forms. Once the vessels are removed, empty space is no longer confined within them. When causes and conditions come to an end, the teachings also disappear. Therefore, the Tathagata responds to conditions and manifests everywhere, then enters true suchness and nirvana, just as those vessels cease to confine space. To uphold names and characteristics single-mindedly is to accord with wisdom as unrestricted as empty space.

Medicine has no fixed prescription; remedies are prescribed according to each illness. How could one say that powdered jade and coral are supremely marvelous medicines capable of treating all four hundred and four illnesses? If a medicine that cures an illness is precious, then urine itself is ghee, a wondrous medicine.

But if a single medicine is used for different illnesses, even poria and ginseng become poison. How much more is this true of the medicine of the foremost physician, who treats the world-transcending practitioners of the Three Vehicles and heals the festering sores of ordinary beings, humans, gods, shravakas, and others? Therefore, with regard to the doctrinal meaning, the ancient worthies sometimes spoke of one teaching and sometimes of many.

Although names and characteristics differ in countless ways, their essential principle is only one. Unhindered by the limitations of my understanding, I rely upon the words of ancient sages, distinguishing the various statements to illuminate the meaning of the One Vehicle, so that readers may know that the Pure Land Dharma-gate encompasses all the teachings proclaimed by Shakyamuni throughout his lifetime. Do not be confused by those who possess only a superficial knowledge of the Chan school yet disparage doctrinal teachings.

1/ The Teaching of Provisional Existence.

2/ The Teaching Directed Toward Quiescence.

3/ The Teaching with a Remainder.

4/ The Teaching without a Remainder.

5/ The Teaching of Sudden Awakening.

6/ The Ultimate Perfect Teaching.

1/ The Teaching of Provisional Existence

Ordinary beings, infatuated and submerged in the ocean of craving, create all manner of evil karma. Out of compassion, the Tathagata reveals the sufferings of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals, as well as the sufferings of beings devoid of merit who cling firmly to self and what belongs to self. To be born among humans or gods, beings should cultivate roots of goodness.

When the Buddha had only recently attained the Way, he expounded the worldly principle of cause and effect for Trapusa. At that time, five hundred merchants together received the Five Precepts. First, they repented of offenses such as the five heinous offenses, the ten evils, and disparaging the Dharma.

This is the Teaching of Provisional Existence. The Contemplation Sutra teaches the cultivation of three kinds of merit:

1/ Filially caring for one’s parents and serving one’s teachers and elders.

2/ Maintaining a compassionate mind and refraining from killing.

3/ Cultivating the ten wholesome deeds.

The Infinite Life Sutra earnestly warns of the suffering caused by committing the five evils: in the present life, one is punished by the authorities and one’s body meets calamity and distress; in the next life, one suffers retribution in the three evil destinies. The sutra’s instruction that everyone cultivate the five good deeds also includes this meaning. Nevertheless, this sutra teaches beings to cease all evil for the sake of rebirth in the Pure Land, not because they delight in the lesser fruits of humans and gods.

Although the practices may be alike, the resulting attainments differ in countless ways. Although the Shurangama Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, and the Vaipulya sutras do not teach this separately, they nevertheless include this meaning and should not therefore be classified as the Teaching of Provisional Existence. The Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra states: “How could practitioners of the perfect and sudden teaching violate the discipline of renunciants of the Lesser Vehicle?

How could they violate the Three Refuges, the precepts, the forms of dignified conduct, and so forth?” It further says: “One who has newly reached an earlier stage has not attained the later stages, whereas one who has reached a later stage has already attained the earlier ones.” Why? Because all Buddhas attain liberation through the ten wholesome deeds. The Avatamsaka Sutra states: “The ten unwholesome deeds are causes of rebirth in the realms of hell beings, animals, and hungry ghosts, while the ten wholesome deeds are causes of rebirth in the human and heavenly realms, up to the Peak of Existence.”

– Regarding these superior-grade ten wholesome deeds, when practitioners cultivate them with wisdom, but with a narrow scope of mind, out of fear of suffering in the three realms, lacking great compassion, and awakening through hearing another’s instruction, they accomplish the Shravaka Vehicle.

– Regarding these superior-grade ten wholesome deeds, when practitioners cultivate them purely, awaken by themselves without another’s instruction, lack the full means of great compassion, and deeply comprehend the Dharma of causes and conditions, they accomplish the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle.

– Regarding these superior-grade ten wholesome deeds, when practitioners cultivate them purely, with an immeasurable and vast mind, complete compassion, skillful means for guiding beings, and vast vows; when they do not forsake beings, seek wisdom as profound and vast as the Buddha’s, purify the bodhisattva bhumis, and purify all paramitas, they accomplish the vast practices of the bodhisattva.

– Regarding these superior-grade ten wholesome deeds, when practitioners possess every kind of purity, up to realization of the ten powers and fearlessnesses, all Buddha-Dharmas are perfected.

Therefore, today we cultivate the ten wholesome deeds so that all beings may become perfectly pure, and so that bodhisattvas may accumulate roots of goodness, perfect roots of goodness, increase roots of goodness, examine roots of goodness, collect the mind upon roots of goodness, distinguish roots of goodness, delight in roots of goodness, cultivate roots of goodness, and abide in roots of goodness. Having accumulated roots of goodness in this way, a great bodhisattva employs the fruits perfected by these roots to cultivate the bodhisattva practices.

In every thought-moment, the bodhisattva sees immeasurable Buddhas and, in accordance with their manifestations, attends upon and makes offerings to them. The sutra also says: “Although doing nothing whatsoever, one constantly abides in roots of goodness. Although knowing that dharmas have no support, one teaches that liberation is attained by relying upon wholesome dharmas.” I respectfully urge those who have awakened: do not slight the precepts; do not crave empty fame.

Courageously examine Master Yongjia’s warning about the harm of clinging to emptiness, and quickly seek uninvited spiritual friends in the White Lotus Society. Then the Lotus Land will not be far away. Please be diligent!

2/ The Teaching Directed Toward Quiescence

The Teaching Directed Toward Quiescence is the teaching of cessation for the Two Vehicles, which directs them toward nirvana. The Two Vehicles do not delight in the Pure Land Dharma-gate’s work of benefiting others. This is the difference between the Lesser Vehicle teaching and the Great Vehicle Pure Land teaching. We shall now discuss those who are received:

The Infinite Life Sutra and the Contemplation Sutra both mention the fruits from stream-entry through arhatship. The ancient worthies said: “Followers of the Lesser Vehicle are not born in the Pure Land, with reference to those of fixed nature.” Here it is said that followers of the Two Vehicles can be born in the Pure Land because, while in this world, they first brought forth the Mahayana mind and perfumed it into a seed. Later, their minds regressed to a lower position. Nevertheless, at death they turn their Lesser Vehicle minds toward the Great Vehicle.

Question: Since they have turned their minds toward the Great Vehicle, why do they attain lesser fruits after being born in that land?

Answer: Because their Mahayana minds had long been in decline, while their cultivation and perfuming in the Lesser Vehicle were profound. Therefore, in accord with their habitual tendencies, Amitabha Buddha teaches them the Lesser Vehicle Dharma and enables them to attain its fruits. In attaining these lesser fruits, however, they do not remain trapped in them but bring forth the vast mind.

Thus their attainment is all the more rapid: after five or ten kalpas, they attain the first fruit. Such a course of cultivation is truly excellent, and therefore there is a distinction. This sutra also speaks of King Bimbisara attaining the fruit of a non-returner, but he is not among those principally received by this teaching.

The Buddha now teaches Vaidehi the sixteen contemplations of the Pure Land. These do not even belong to the Shared Teaching or the Distinct Teaching; how could they belong to the Lesser Vehicle? When Shakyamuni Buddha appeared in the world, there were also shravakas, but ultimately they turned toward the Great Vehicle.

These are merely the goat cart, deer cart, and so forth, not the true cart.

3/ The Teaching with a Remainder

Those who penetrate the truth of the twofold emptiness and cultivate the myriad practices toward the fruit of Mahayana Buddhahood, yet do not accept that icchantikas and followers of the Two Vehicles can become Buddhas—believing that icchantikas lack Buddha-nature and that followers of the Two Vehicles possess a fixed nature—have not yet fully penetrated the truth of the Great Vehicle. Therefore, this is called the Teaching with a Remainder. This sutra states: “Excepting those who have committed the five heinous offenses, they may be born in the Pure Land.” It also says: “Followers of the Two Vehicles are not born in the Pure Land.” The meaning of this teaching has already been explained above.

The sutra says that those who commit the five heinous offenses cannot be born in the Pure Land because they disparage the Dharma, lack faith, and possess a fixed nature, and thus cannot accomplish rebirth. The Contemplation Sutra states: “When a precept-breaker approaches death, he sees evil signs. Hearing a good spiritual friend praise the Buddha’s merit, the fires of hell are transformed into cooling breezes.

Even one who has committed the five heinous offenses and ten evils, if he invokes the Buddha’s name for ten complete thoughts, sees a golden lotus like the disk of the sun and, within a single moment, attains rebirth.” This is accomplished through the inconceivable merit of intrinsic nature and by relying upon the Buddha’s inconceivable power. If perfect Buddha-nature were absent, one would be like a hard stone or turbid water—how could the moon cast its reflection?

Recollection of the Buddha and rebirth can reveal intrinsic nature in this way. This is due to the power of intrinsic nature, just as the sun can illuminate all of empty space, though empty space is not the cause of the sun. All beings become Buddhas.

Therefore, this perfect and sudden Pure Land teaching is not the same as the Teaching with a Remainder of the Initial Mahayana Teaching.

4/ The Teaching without a Remainder

The intrinsic nature of all beings is equal, and all will become Buddhas. This is the ultimate principle of the Great Vehicle. The single self-mind is the substance of the teaching; therefore, it is called “without a remainder.” This Pure Land Dharma-gate now relies upon right faith, vows, and so forth, but at the ultimate point it returns solely to the one mind.

The sutra states: “When the one mind is undisturbed, one immediately attains rebirth.” Furthermore, the Infinite Life Sutra says that all three classes of people who attain rebirth do so by bringing forth the mind of unsurpassed bodhi. The bodhi-mind is Buddha-nature. The Avatamsaka Sutra states: “The bodhi-mind is like a seed capable of producing all the dharmas of the Buddhas.

The bodhi-mind is like a fertile field capable of increasing pure wholesome dharmas. The bodhi-mind is like the earth, capable of supporting all worlds. The bodhi-mind is like pure water, capable of washing away all the defilements of affliction.

The bodhi-mind is like a mighty wind that blows throughout the world without obstruction. The bodhi-mind is like a blazing fire capable of burning all the firewood of views.” These matters are extensively taught in the Avatamsaka Sutra. One should know that the bodhi-mind is the most sensitive explosive within a cannon, while recollection of the Buddha is the fuse.

The Avatamsaka Sutra states: “Upon first bringing forth the mind, one immediately attains perfect awakening.” This is its meaning. Among the five stages of bodhisattva cultivation and realization, the stage of preparatory practice is merely the fuse. Among immeasurable wondrous practices, what Dharma-gate could surpass this Samadhi of the Single Practice?

5/ The Teaching of Sudden Awakening

The Combined Treatise on the Avatamsaka by the elder Li Tongxuan states: “A single thought not arising is itself Buddha. There is no need to discuss stages or sequences; therefore, this is called the sudden teaching.” The Brahma’s Questions Sutra states: “If one awakens to the nature of dharmas, one need not pass from one stage to another.” The Lankavatara Sutra states: “The tenth bhumi is the first bhumi; the first bhumi is the eighth bhumi, and so forth, with no sequence whatsoever.” One should know that sudden awakening means not passing through successive stages.

The Tiantai Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra states: “After sudden awakening, one gradually enters. This is the sudden teaching, as in the case of Vaidehi and her attendants, who were all ordinary beings and had not attained even lesser fruits. Therefore, one should know that this sudden teaching is not entered through the gradual.” It further explains: “The sudden teaching of this sutra is presently a method of transformation, taking the perfect as sudden.

Why? In the Distinct Teaching, this occurs at the first bhumi; in the Perfect Teaching, at the first abode. An ordinary person of the Distinct Teaching cultivates for innumerable kalpas before reaching acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas.

Only under the Perfect Teaching can one realize it in this very life, as Vaidehi realized acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas in her present body. Thus this sutra is classified as sudden, belonging to the perfect and sudden teaching.” Another sutra says: “From the time an ordinary person first receives the bodhisattva precepts and maintains the precepts without violation in every life, one, two, or three kalpas pass before that person reaches the first abode of initial resolve.

Continuing to cultivate the ten paramitas and immeasurable practices and vows without interruption, for a full ten thousand kalpas, that person reaches the sixth abode of the correct mind. Cultivating further from there, the person reaches the seventh abode of non-retrogression.” This sutra now says: “An ordinary person who has committed the five heinous offenses and ten evils, but who upholds the Buddha’s name, immediately attains rebirth and ascends to the stage of non-retrogression.” This precisely accords with the meaning of suddenness.

The Contemplation Sutra states: “This mind makes the Buddha; this mind is the Buddha.” These words point directly to the Mind school, without any indirection. Moreover, one utterance of “Amitabha” sweeps away all right and wrong. How direct!

An ancient said: “A single phrase of recollecting the Buddha is the foremost koan among all koans.” How could ice form at the bottom of a cauldron of furiously boiling water? How could a single blade of grass survive in a fiercely blazing fire? Even if Bodhidharma returned to life, he would not easily overturn my words.

But if one continues to hesitate and waver, one will fall ten thousand miles and a thousand years behind.

6/ The Ultimate Perfect Teaching

The Cien Comprehensive Commentary says: “In this land, the ancient worthies classified sutras and treatises into four schools:

1/ Establishing the nature.

2/ Refuting the nature.

3/ Refuting characteristics.

4/ Revealing reality.

The Nirvana Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, and others illuminate the true characteristic of the Middle Way: abandoning the conjured city and returning to the treasure place. Therefore, the Amitabha Sutra belongs to the school that Reveals Reality. Furthermore, if teachings are taken as the golden rule and jade measure for classifying schools, there are eight kinds:

1/ Both self and dharmas exist.

2/ Dharmas exist, but no self exists.

3/ Dharmas neither come nor go.

4/ The present includes both provisional and real.

5/ The conventional is false; the ultimate is real.

6/ All dharmas are merely provisional names.

7/ All are empty in the ultimate meaning.

8/ Perfect reality in accord with principle.

The Avatamsaka Sutra and the Amitabha Sutra belong to the eighth school. Chan Master Zhenxie Qingliao and others used Indra’s jeweled net with its thousand pearls to elucidate the perfectly interfused meaning of the Pure Land. The books record this meaning fully.

Recently, senior venerable masters have correlated the Avatamsaka Sutra with the Amitabha Sutra, holding that the Perfect Teaching completely encompasses the Amitabha Sutra, while the Amitabha Sutra encompasses only part of the Perfect Teaching. Judging the meaning on the basis of the sutras, this accords very well with the school’s essential purport. Yet the meaning of ultimate perfection is neither whole nor partial.

It is like the full moon on the fifteenth night, shining brightly upon innumerable rivers: every river contains the moon’s reflection, and the same is true even of a vessel holding water from a lake or pond, or a single drop of water, because the moon makes no distinctions. It is also like the wind whispering through rows of trees: every trunk is permeated by the cool breeze, and the same is true even of every leaf and blade of grass, because the wind makes no distinctions.

If the perfect contained separate portions, perfection would be broken into disconnected segments. If a part within the perfect were not the whole, the perfect would no longer pervade everything. Therefore, when part and whole are set in opposition, the meaning of perfection cannot stand.

From the perspective of the Lotus school’s ultimate perfection, five meanings are distinguished:

1/ The worlds of the ten directions mutually contain one another.

2/ One time within the three times.

3/ Insentient things become Buddhas.

4/ Dependent and primary retributions are unobstructed.

5/ Pervading everywhere without moving.

1/ The Worlds of the Ten Directions Mutually Contain One Another

The lands, reward bodies, and transformation bodies of all Buddhas mutually contain one another. This enters that, and that enters this, without any obstruction. To suppose that they cannot enter one another is a false and unreal view.

It is like a house occupying a portion of empty space. Within it, people, ghosts, animals, insects, chairs, jars, shelves, and so forth all depend upon empty space to exist. When empty space belongs to the person, the ghosts, animals, insects, chairs, jars, shelves, and so forth that depend upon that space all belong to the person.

Even when empty space belongs to the shelf, the people, ghosts, animals, insects, chairs, jars, and so forth that depend upon the space all belong to the shelf. All enter one another without confusion; they are apart without being separated; they neither enter one another nor fail to enter one another. The sutra states: “The light within that land is pure, all-pervading, and endless, illuminating immeasurable, innumerable, inconceivable worlds, just as a bright mirror reflects myriad forms.” One should know that the light of defiled and pure lands interweaves like a thousand lamps shining brilliantly in one room.

2/ One Time within the Three Times

The erroneous views of beings grasp three times: past, present, and future. From the perspective of true reality, the substance of time has no true nature. Why? If light and darkness are taken to be time, then light and darkness are characteristics of karma, like the illusory spots seen by a person with diseased eyes; those spots have no fixed characteristic. If youth and old age are taken to be time, then the nature of youth and age is in truth illusory, like wind passing through a torn net, and has no fixed nature. How could any true meaning be found within such time? We shall now explain the substance of time from two perspectives: long time entering short time, and short time entering long time.

a/ Long Time within Short Time

A person sunk in sleep may clearly see cities, towns, villages, former acquaintances, and sorrowful and joyful events unfolding over many months and years. When he suddenly awakens, he immediately asks his attendant:

– How long was I sound asleep?

The attendant replies:

– You slept only as long as it takes to count a few thousand coins.

The person thinks: “I did not sleep long; why did I pass through such extraordinary states? It was not due to illness, nor to deep sleep. Clearly, it was due to memory.” After repeatedly pondering this meaning, he finally realizes that time has no true nature.

b/ Short Time within Long Time

Suppose a person at the age of twenty suddenly becomes mentally deranged. He swallows knives, handles fire, predicts future events to others, laughs and plays normally with his wife and children, fathers sons and daughters, or suddenly composes essays and authors various books. When he reaches the age of thirty, he meets an extraordinary person who recites a mantra over water and gives it to him to drink.

Like someone suddenly awakening from deep sleep, he regards the events that occurred when he was twenty as though they had happened only yesterday. His family counts off the months and years on their fingers for him and points out his sons, daughters, and various books. Yet he reflects that originally there were no months or years, so how could these things have occurred?

Nor can he recall whether he himself was ill or not ill.

By repeatedly contemplating these two examples, one realizes that past, present, and future have no true nature. The sutra states: “Contemplate the distant past as though it were today; within a single moment, go and make offerings to the Buddhas throughout all lands in the ten directions.” This is the meaning of the three times being uninterrupted. The three times are uninterrupted because time has no true nature.

3/ Insentient Things Become Buddhas

Provisional teachings hold that sentient beings possess Buddha-nature while insentient things do not. This would mean that grasses, trees, lands, and worlds can neither attain the Way nor turn the Dharma wheel. This is a profoundly mistaken view, holding that whatever has consciousness possesses Buddha-nature and whatever lacks cognition does not, without clearly knowing that all dharmas abide in their Dharma-position. Why? Because mind is form; mind is the source of empty space; mind is time—past, present, and future—and mind is the insentient.

If one dharma is insentient, all dharmas are insentient. Therefore, the colors blue and yellow are mind; the echoes of wind, birdsong, and caves are mind; grasses, trees, tiles, and stones are mind and are sentient beings. If one dharma is sentient, all dharmas are sentient.

Therefore, one should know that sentience is Sentience; it may also be called oneself and may also be called an object. One should not ask: Which is sentient, and which is insentient? It is like a married couple with one child: one should not ask which parent gave birth and which did not.

Hair, body hair, teeth, and nails are also insentient. Do the insentient and I both possess Buddha-nature, or do the insentient and I both lack Buddha-nature? A person dreaming of mountains, rivers, trees, and stones also sees insentient things.

Do they belong to the perceptions of discriminating consciousness, or do they not? One should know that within that dream they are neither self nor not-self. Why then grasp them as sentient or insentient?

The sutra states: “The bodhimanda and jeweled trees can all purify the faculties. The sounds of water, wind, and trees all proclaim the wondrous Dharma.” Not a single thing is not the Buddha’s body. Not a single thing fails to turn the Dharma wheel.

How could erroneous views ever fathom this?

4/ Dependent and Primary Retributions Are Unobstructed

Dependent retribution refers to lands and worlds. Primary retribution refers to the body. From the standpoint of ordinary thought, people grasp dependent and primary retributions as separate.

This view is incorrect. Why? If empty space is called dependent retribution, then when a person opens his mouth, empty space enters it; there is even empty space within the pores, joints, heart, and abdomen.

Is empty space, then, dependent or primary retribution? If earth, water, wind, and fire are called dependent retribution, then human saliva spat into a spittoon is water; hair dried over heat is earth; warmth produced by rubbing the hands together is fire; and snorting breath is wind. Are these dependent or primary retribution?

The sutra states: “Among the immeasurable jeweled flowers, every flower emits thirty-six kotis of hundreds of millions of hundreds of thousands of rays of light, and every ray emits thirty-six kotis of hundreds of millions of hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, who teach all dharmas throughout the ten directions.” Jeweled flowers appear through the Buddha’s power of transformation. Because jeweled flowers exist, Buddhas in turn appear.

Therefore, one should know that an entire land is the Buddha’s body, and every land is likewise. No body is not a Buddha-land, and every body is likewise. This is not merely a transformation produced by the Buddha’s supernormal power; it is solely because the wisdom of the one true Dharma-realm of the Buddhas constitutes both dependent and primary retribution.

5/ Pervading Everywhere without Moving

Beings mistakenly grasp the Buddha’s body as coming and going. In truth, the Buddha’s body neither comes nor goes, yet neither does it not come and not go. It is like a flock of birds flying through boundless empty space, traversing a thousand miles in a single day.

Empty space does not follow the birds, and the birds do not separate from empty space. The sutra states: “Amitabha Buddha constantly abides in the West.” It also states: “The Buddha comes to the place of every practitioner.” In the Nirvana Sutra, the Buddha said: “Good man, in the city of Varanasi there was a laywoman who had planted roots of goodness in the presence of immeasurable Buddhas in past ages. During the three months of the summer retreat, this laywoman invited the Sangha and made offerings of medicine.

At that time, a bhikshu in the Sangha became gravely ill. The physician examined him and said that only medicine prepared from flesh could cure him. The laywoman then found a knife herself, cut flesh from her thigh, and made meat broth to offer to the bhikshu.

After he consumed it, his illness abated. But the laywoman was tormented by unbearable pain from the wound and cried aloud: ‘Namo Buddhaya! Namo Buddhaya!’ At that time, while in the city of Shravasti, I heard her voice and brought forth great loving-kindness toward her.

The laywoman saw me apply medicine to her wound, whereupon her body became whole as before, and she heard me teach the Dharma. Rejoicing, she brought forth the mind of unsurpassed bodhi. Good man, in truth, at that time I did not go to Varanasi and perform those deeds.

All these things appeared to the laywoman through the power of the roots of goodness of loving-kindness.

– “Furthermore, good man, Devadatta was an evil man and excessively gluttonous. Because he drank too much milk, his head ached and his abdomen swelled, causing him extreme suffering. Devadatta then invoked: ‘Namo Buddhaya! Namo Buddhaya!’ At that time, while in the city of Ujjayini, I heard his voice and immediately brought forth loving-kindness. Devadatta then saw me come to him, stroke his head and abdomen with my hand, and give him hot salt water. Afterward, he recovered from his illness. Good man, in truth, I did not go to Devadatta and perform those deeds. All these things appeared to Devadatta through the power of the roots of goodness of loving-kindness.

– “Furthermore, good man, in the kingdom of Kosala, five hundred thieves joined together as a band of robbers. King Prasenajit ordered his soldiers to pursue them relentlessly, and they captured the band. After their capture, the robbers were punished by having their eyes gouged out and were cast into a dark, dense forest. They suffered dreadful torment and wailed piteously. Together they cried aloud: ‘Namo Buddhaya! Namo Buddhaya!’ At that time, while in Jeta Grove Monastery, I heard their voices and immediately brought forth loving-kindness. A cool breeze then blew fragrant medicinal herbs from the mountain of fragrances. These fragrant medicines filled their eye sockets, and their sight was restored as before. Opening their eyes, they saw the Tathagata standing before them and teaching the Dharma. Having heard the Dharma, they immediately brought forth the mind of unsurpassed bodhi. Good man, in truth, at that time I did not perform those deeds. All these things appeared to them through the power of the roots of goodness of loving-kindness.”

How could the foregoing events be conceivable? All are the one true Dharma-realm—the equal Dharma-body of all Buddhas. One must not say that they are manifestations evoked by one’s own mind, nor that they result from a fusion of one’s mind with the Buddha’s mind, because on the Buddha-ground there is freedom from self, freedom from other, and freedom from conjunction. Therefore, entering this gate is not the same as the erroneous views, discriminations, and conjectures of ordinary beings. Even Master Qingliang’s statement, “Amitabha Buddha is precisely the original teacher, Vairocana,” still belongs to the conjecturing of discriminating consciousness. Why? Because throughout the worlds of the ten directions there is only the single sphere of wisdom, with no other Buddha.