What Is the Patience of Non-Arising Dharma?

The patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-ksanti) is the wisdom born from seeing the truth when a bodhisattva, after realizing the mind and perceiving the true nature, cultivates to the stage of the First Ground (Prathama-bhumi). Upon initial realization of the mind, one attains the patience of non-arising, recognizing that the tathagatagarbha is neither born nor extinguished and does not arise, while the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) are illusory manifestations of the tathagatagarbha; they appear to arise but are actually non-arising.

Upon reaching the First Ground, one obtains the wisdom of the patience of non-arising. Beyond the non-arising of the five aggregates and the non-arising of the tathagatagarbha, all phenomena in the world are non-arising. This wisdom is exceedingly vast and is known as the wisdom of consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātra-bija-jñāna). All dharmas and all appearances in the world are born from the tathagatagarbha, lacking inherent nature. While they appear to arise in form, they are non-arising in essence, all being of the nature of the tathagatagarbha, just as gold ornaments are all of the nature of gold.