The Transmission Gatha of the Sixteenth Patriarch Rāhulabhadra

Original text: 于法实无证，不取也不离；法非有无相，内外云何起。

Explanation: The true suchness of one's own mind neither cultivates nor realizes any of the Buddha's dharmas, because He has no ignorance, and thus there is no need to attain liberation through cultivation. Toward all dharmas of the three realms as well as His own self, He never grasps or clings, yet there is also never any separation from the mind. The mark of true suchness is neither existent nor nonexistent: if you say He exists, He is formless and markless, invisible and untouchable; if you say He does not exist, He nevertheless has real functions and utilities, truly gives rise to all dharmas, and contains immeasurable dharma-seeds, so He cannot be said to be nonexistent. He is ultimate reality (dharmatā), and ultimate reality is true existence; only He is truly existent, while everything else is emptiness and illusion. Because true suchness is formless and markless, there is no inside or outside: within, He is void; without, He is formless, yet He contains the myriad dharmas. If you do not realize Him, then no matter how exhaustively you think and ponder, you will remain utterly baffled.