The Entire Great Earth Is the Body of the Dharmarāja

The entire great earth is the body of the Dharma King—this is truly not false. Even the tiniest speck of dust, anywhere, is a place where the Dharma King resides; every dharma is true suchness (tathatā), and every particle is true suchness. What do all dharmas encompass? They encompass all dharmas of the threefold world, from the vast trichiliocosm and the universe and empty space, down to the smallest dust mote and bacterium—all are true suchness; "the meaning of the coming from the West upon the tips of the hundred grasses"—not a single blade of grass or thread of silk departs from self-nature, departs from true suchness. Having realized this state, one has already entered the household of the Tathāgata and has cultivated for an extremely long period of time.

Why is every dharma true suchness? Because all dharmas are generated from the seeds of the seven great elements within the true-suchness mind-substance, the tathāgatagarbha; there is not a single dharma that can exist apart from the seeds of the seven great elements. The seeds of the seven great elements fill the world, fill the worlds of the lotus treasury, fill the ocean of worlds, fill the one true dharma realm.

The seeds of the seven great elements are like the emperor's yellow robe, and the tathāgatagarbha is like the emperor himself. When the emperor moves about the world, the yellow robe never leaves his body; upon seeing the yellow robe, one knows the emperor has appeared. There is no place in the world that is not the soil of the tathāgatagarbha, no place He cannot reach, no place that is not where He abides, no place without His figure, no dharma that is not He. From the sky to the earth, everything is He; the mountains, rivers, and great earth all reveal the body of the Dharma King—all are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and all exist by relying on the tathāgatagarbha's sustaining and holding of them.

"The verdant green bamboo is nothing but prajñā; the lush yellow flowers are entirely the Dharma body"—the whole world is Buddha. To truly understand these words and realize them, one must reach the state of the first bhūmi and above; within and beyond the world, there is no dharma, no place, no moment that is not true suchness—every dharma is true suchness. This is the contemplative realization state of the bhūmi bodhisattvas. In the world, no dharma can exist independently or stand alone; all are transformed by true suchness and sustained by true suchness. Whether arising or ceasing, all transformations are the doing of true suchness.