Sentient Beings and Nirvāṇa

Answer: After nirvāṇa without remainder, only the intrinsically pure fundamental mind remains, with not a single dharma of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) existing. Then there are no sentient beings. Since there are no sentient beings, who enters nirvāṇa? Who returns to nirvāṇa? There is no one who enters nirvāṇa, nor anyone who returns to nirvāṇa.

Nirvāṇa represents the pure dharmadhātu; it represents the intrinsically pure mind—neither arising nor ceasing, without form or appearance, neither within nor without, tranquil and unmoving. Regarding nirvāṇa, sentient beings can neither exit from it nor enter into it. The relationship between sentient beings and nirvāṇa is that sentient beings in their entirety are nirvāṇa itself, just like the relationship between golden vessels and gold. Although golden vessels differ in a thousand shapes and forms, all golden vessels, from inside to outside, are nothing but gold. There is no such notion that a golden vessel must return to gold. Not a single dharma of a sentient being's five aggregates of body and mind is not created by the pure nirvāṇa mind; in essence, all are pure nirvāṇa. There is no such thing as entering nirvāṇa again or returning to nirvāṇa.

Sentient beings have never departed from nirvāṇa, nor can they ever depart from it. Yet due to ignorance, they constantly abide in nirvāṇa without knowing it, deludedly rushing about in restless pursuit, falsely undergoing the suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra. Therefore, nirvāṇa needs no returning and no entering. It is only that sentient beings are obscured by ignorance and fail to recognize it. Once they recognize it, they are immediately pure, immediately tranquil and liberated, with no more birth-and-death and no more bondage. Everywhere is gold—why cling to the golden vessel!