Does the True Mind Need to Be Guarded?

The Fifth Patriarch said: Guard the true mind of one's fundamental nature, and deluded thoughts will naturally not arise. The Fifth Patriarch's meaning is to have us recognize the self-natured pure mind as the unborn-and-undying true mind, not to take the illusory body of the five aggregates as oneself, and not to take the arising-and-ceasing deluded mind as oneself. As long as one accomplishes this, one is truly a person who has seen the mind and awakened to the Way, and only then can one be freed from the cycle of birth and death.

Moreover, after realizing the true mind, there is no need to guard or watch over Him, because regardless of whether you guard Him or not, the true mind is always operating; He does not run away, He is not lost, and He does not perish—so why would you guard Him? As long as our mind consciousness takes refuge in the nature of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and changes itself, the mind can become increasingly tranquil (praśama). It does not mean we should watch over and grasp hold of Him. This "guarding" means taking refuge in and acknowledging Him, regarding Him as true, and thereafter no longer greedily seeking outwardly. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions of our six consciousnesses should be carried out by taking refuge in the pure nature of the tathāgatagarbha; by taking refuge in the tranquil nature of the tathāgatagarbha, we must also purify our own deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses—this too is guarding.

After enlightenment, there is no need to spend all day watching over the true mind or clinging to the true mind; doing so would instead increase bondage and strengthen attachment. Once the mind no longer clings to the true mind, nor clings to the dharmas of the three realms, one can reach the final barrier (laoguan), and then pass through the barrier of birth and death. Some people say that after enlightenment one needs to preserve and sustain (the realization), but what needs to be preserved and sustained is the mind consciousness—preserving and sustaining the mind consciousness so that it does not give rise to deluded thoughts. They believe that if deluded thoughts arise, it is no longer the true mind, and therefore they need to make themselves remain without thoughts for as long as possible, believing this to be guarding the true mind. In reality, what they are guarding is the deluded mind consciousness. The true mind needs no guarding—He is inherently just as He is, inherently thus, neither running away nor being lost, unchanging, and even less does He disappear. But what does need guarding is this: before seeing the mind, one should know the true mind as the true self and acknowledge the true mind as one's self-nature; after seeing the mind, one should take refuge in the nature of the true mind to transform one's own mental actions, subdue one's afflictions such as greed, hatred, delusion, and arrogance, so that the mind attains purity and no longer gives rise to selfishness or arrogance—this is the method of guarding.