The Difference between Dependent Origination and Non-Dependent Origination

Within conditioned dharmas, the six consciousnesses, six sense objects, and five sense faculties are easily scattered and destroyed; therefore conditioned dharmas are easily broken, easily changed, and easily eradicated. The unconditioned dharma, the manas, is not easily scattered and destroyed, not easily broken, not easily changed, and not easily eradicated. It is very difficult to change the mental nature of the manas, which is why it is said that cultivation is not easy and liberation is not easy.

As for the tathāgatagarbha, which is a non-conditioned dharma, it will never scatter and perish, never mutate, cannot be changed, and cannot be eradicated. Therefore, in the practice of cultivation, there is no need to cultivate or change the tathāgatagarbha; one only needs to realize that the tathāgatagarbha is real and that all dharmas of the five-aggregate world are false. Then, through one's own direct seeing, one sees that all dharmas are products of the tathāgatagarbha and all depend on the tathāgatagarbha in order to exist; before the tathāgatagarbha, all dharmas remain hidden and do not manifest. In this way, one will no longer grasp at any dharma—not even grasping at the tathāgatagarbha itself. The mind becomes greatly empty, utterly empty—this is the great liberation.

Without meditative concentration (samādhi), one sees all dharmas as just all dharmas; with meditative concentration and wisdom, one sees that all dharmas are not all dharmas, and one can see the true appearance of dharmas, their essence and their root. Afterward, ignorance is extinguished, the mind is transformed, and liberation is attained.