The State of Complete Eradication of the View of Self

If the tathāgatagarbha is taken as a real self, the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) has not been fully eradicated—this is still a kind of view of self. For in the dharmadhātu there is fundamentally no self of the seven consciousnesses; since there is no self, how could there be a tathāgatagarbha that is a true self? Without the fundamental self-nature of the seven consciousnesses, there is no selfhood of any kind. If one establishes the view that "the tathāgatagarbha is the true self," one simultaneously establishes a self of the seven consciousnesses; only when there is a self of the seven consciousnesses would one take the tathāgatagarbha as a real self. Without the seven consciousnesses, one would not take any dharma as a self.

Therefore, as long as one sees dharmas, that is false seeing; when there is no false seeing, one will inevitably become a Buddha.

When one cultivates to the third gate of the Chan school, if one still clings in the mind to a self of the tathāgatagarbha, one cannot pass the third gate of Chan, cannot realize nirvāṇa with remainder (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), and cannot escape birth-and-death.

In Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara's Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration Through the Ear Faculty, by the final stage of cultivation, everything that can be relinquished has been relinquished, everything that can be emptied has been emptied—even the relinquishing itself is relinquished, even emptiness itself is emptied. The one who relinquishes and what is relinquished, the one who empties and what is emptied, as well as the emptiness of emptiness—all are completely emptied, and there is nothing left that can be emptied. Only the solitary tathāgatagarbha remains, which cannot be relinquished and is not to be relinquished, which cannot be emptied and is not to be emptied; and there is no longer anyone who relinquishes, no one who empties Him. Then one has arrived home, accomplishing the thirty-two response bodies, and is named the greatly compassionate and greatly loving Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva.