The Dharma Transmission Gāthā of the Sixteenth Patriarch Rāhulabhadra

Original Text: Regarding the Dharma, there is truly no attainment; neither grasping nor abandoning. The Dharma is neither existent nor non-existent in appearance—how could it arise internally or externally?

Explanation: The true suchness of one's own mind neither cultivates nor attains any Buddhadharma, for it is free from ignorance and thus requires no practice to attain liberation. It neither grasps at any dharma within the three realms nor clings to the self, nor does it possess a mind of separation. The nature of true suchness is neither existent nor non-existent: if said to exist, it is formless, invisible, and intangible; if said to be non-existent, it possesses genuine functions, truly giving birth to all dharmas and containing immeasurable seeds of dharma—thus it cannot be deemed non-existent. It is the true reality (dharmatā), which alone is genuinely real, while all else is empty and illusory. As true suchness is formless, there is no distinction between internal and external. Though inwardly void and outwardly shapeless, it holds all dharmas. Without realizing it, even if one exhausts all thought and measure, one will remain utterly baffled.