The Difference Between Phenomenal Practice and Principle-Based Practice

All dharmas are divided into two parts: phenomena (事) and principle (理). Phenomena are the marks; principle is the principle-substance of the tathāgatagarbha. When discussing phenomena, one must refute the real existence of marks from the standpoint of the marks themselves; at this time one must not speak from the perspective of the principle of the tathāgatagarbha. That would lead some people to believe that the marks are real, giving rise to attachment, and thus their minds would be bound and they could not attain liberation.

The Hīnayāna teachings refute existence entirely from the standpoint of marks, whereas the Mahāyāna teachings cultivate from both the aspects of principle and phenomena: refuting the marks from the standpoint of principle. Once the principle is recognized, things become easier to handle, but the marks are not thereby discarded; one does not cling to principle and abandon phenomena. Principle and phenomena are required to be perfectly harmonized together, and one must not lean toward either side; otherwise, the Buddha-dharma will not be accomplished.

One who has cultivated to the ultimate degree of perfect harmony of principle and phenomena is a Buddha. Those whose harmony of principle and phenomena is not yet ultimate are the bodhisattvas on the bhūmis and the two stages of equal and wondrous enlightenment. Bodhisattvas who have awakened to the true mind may perhaps achieve a little bit of such harmony; if their power of observation is insufficient, then they cannot achieve any harmony at all.

If a person who has neither realized the fruits nor awakened to the true mind is told that the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and all worldly dharmas, are neither arising nor ceasing, he will take them to be real. Then his attachment to them would not be wrong, nothing bad about it, and therefore he would not seek ways to eliminate his own craving and attachment. In that case, the problem of sentient beings' birth and death could not be solved.

"Every dharma is tathatā"—this is the result of the direct-perception contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of bodhisattvas on the bhūmis and of the Buddhas. Ordinary beings can only cultivate step by step, starting from the mark of arising and ceasing (utpāda-nirodha-lakṣaṇa) of the basic five aggregates and eighteen realms; they cannot directly treat the five aggregates and eighteen realms as the neither-arising-nor-ceasing tathatā, for no one would be able to directly observe this principle.

The four dhyānas and eight samādhis are cultivation of phenomena, the cultivation of marks. Marks necessarily involve arising and ceasing; there are no marks that do not arise and cease—except for the empty mark of the eighth consciousness. The empty mark is without mark, and therefore neither arises nor ceases. The six consciousnesses within the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, seen from the standpoint of marks, are arising, ceasing, and changing; the seventh consciousness, seen from the standpoint of marks, is also arising, ceasing, and changing. When discussing dharmas that arise, cease, and change—when cultivating marks—there must be marks of arising, ceasing, and change. If at this time one were to say that the seven consciousnesses and the four dhyānas and eight samādhis are all neither arising nor ceasing, that would be neither one thing nor the other. If they were all neither arising nor ceasing and permanently unchanging, then there would be nothing left for us to cultivate—we would already be perfect.