The Dharma Transmission Verse of the Seventh Patriarch Vasumitra

Original text: 心同虚空界，示等虚空法；证得虚空时，无是无非法。

Explanation: The eighth consciousness of sentient beings is like empty space—without form or appearance, unconditioned and unmade, without vows or seeking, without speaking or revealing. It is because of this one great matter that all Buddhas appear in the world, revealing and teaching sentient beings the tathāgatagarbha mind-dharma, which is like empty space. When sentient beings hear the Buddha's teaching, diligently cultivate practice, and realize the tathāgatagarbha, whose vast mind-capacity is like empty space, they will gradually discover that all dharmas in the world have no self-existing essence of their own; all are generated, manifested, and revealed by the tathāgatagarbha in dependence on conditions, and are entirely the result of the functions, essence, and operations of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus each dharma is empty in its very essence; in its very essence it is the emptiness-natured mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Its relationship with the tathāgatagarbha is neither one nor different—there are parts that are the same, yet also different essences and functions; there is no duality of "is" or "is not."