The Excellence of the Ear Faculty Perfect Penetration Dharma Gate

The Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Dharma gate of perfect penetration through the ear faculty, when cultivated to the end, involves letting go of everything that can be let go, emptying everything that can be emptied, even letting go of the letting-go itself, even emptying the emptiness itself. The subject that lets go and the object let go, the subject that empties and the object emptied, and even the emptiness of emptiness—all are emptied out, and there is nothing left to empty. Only the tathāgatagarbha remains, solitary and alone—unable to be relinquished, not to be relinquished, unable to be emptied, 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 called the greatly compassionate and greatly loving Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. 

One may ask: can an ordinary being (pṛthagjana) cultivate and accomplish such a sublime state? It simply cannot be accomplished. Because it is already very difficult for ordinary beings to even attain the first dhyāna, let alone the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, and the various meditative absorptions (samādhi). For ordinary beings, it is already very difficult to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), realize the tathāgatagarbha, and empty out the body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha); it is extremely difficult even to relinquish greed and desire—how could they empty out all dharmas and relinquish all dharmas? How could they empty even emptiness itself and relinquish even relinquishing itself? Let alone speak of emptying the tathāgatagarbha or relinquishing the tathāgatagarbha? Even after enlightenment, this Dharma gate is extremely difficult to cultivate, and even after attaining the bhūmis it is not easy to cultivate—how could sentient beings still at the stage of ordinary beings cultivate it to accomplishment? Therefore, sentient beings who are ordinary beings must cultivate in stages, progressing from the shallow to the deep, step by step; they cannot, while still unable to fly, wish to pluck the moon. Even great bodhisattvas after enlightenment must cultivate in stages, progressing from the shallow to the deep, step by step; they cannot cultivate in a leapfrog manner.