The Two Layers of Meaning of "Real"

"Real" has two layers of meaning: one refers to the things and principles that worldly people acknowledge—temporarily unchanging in the world, visible, audible, tangible, imaginable, and cognizable; the other refers to the supramundane principles that worldly people do not know and do not see.

The first kind of "real" includes the material universe (the inanimate world), which sentient beings feel they can contact and cognize, and which they regard as unchanging, possessing real function, and thus call it real; it includes the body of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), which can be seen, touched, and contacted, which has real functions and effects, is cognizable, and does not change; it includes the six sense-object realms, which can be contacted and cognized by the six consciousnesses, and which are believed to have real function. However, these dharmas, at the level of ultimate reality, are not real; they are conjured into being, have no real function, are virtual dharmas, and everything known about them is illusion. Sentient beings have lived in illusion for beginningless kalpas, not recognizing the true principles and realities. Even if these dharmas have temporary, false functions, they are still momentarily arising and ceasing, impermanent and mutable, and equally unreal. The wisdom of sentient beings can only reach the surface of things; it has never been able to penetrate into the interior, unable to see through surface phenomena and cognize the truth behind them.

The second kind of "real" refers solely to the root of sentient beings—the tathāgatagarbha, the eighth consciousness, which gives birth to all the dharmas that sentient beings require. This alone is the truly real and unchanging principle-substance, the dharma that is forever unborn and unceasing, the true refuge of sentient beings for beginningless kalpas. Compared with each other, these two kinds of "real" differ as heaven from earth; they cannot be compared, and there is no basis for comparison.