What Are the Conditioned and the Unconditioned?

"为" means doing, purpose, aim, requirement, seeking. "有为" (conditioned) means there is seeking, there are requirements, there is fabrication, there is gaining, there is pursuit, there is purpose, there is mental activity, there is fabrication, there is self, there are the four marks. "无为" (unconditioned) means being without these mental notions, the opposite of the conditioned.

A mind that seeks nothing is unconditioned; a mind that gains nothing is unconditioned; a mind that has no mental activity toward the world of the three realms is unconditioned; a dharma that is not born is unconditioned; a mind of vast, boundless capacity is unconditioned; a mind without afflictions is unconditioned. A mind that does not need the dharmas of the three realms' world is unconditioned; a mind that can exist without any conditions is unconditioned; a mind that does not wish to fabricate is unconditioned; a mind without self is unconditioned; a mind without the four marks is unconditioned. What is conditioned is the dharma of the world consisting of the seven consciousnesses; what is unconditioned is the tathāgatagarbha, true suchness, and buddha-nature.

Within the unconditioned, the tathāgatagarbha selflessly serves sentient beings; while operating all dharmas of the three realms, its mind is nonetheless unconditioned—within the unconditioned there is the conditioned, and within the conditioned there is the unconditioned. Only when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to a certain degree do they gradually transform from a conditioned nature into an unconditioned nature; within the conditioned, the mind-ground is nonetheless unconditioned, gradually according with the tathāgatagarbha, and when there is complete unconditionedness and complete accordance, one becomes a Buddha. Only the tathāgatagarbha, this unconditioned mind, can exist apart from all dharmas; the unconditionedness of the mind of the seven consciousnesses cannot be apart from the world of the three realms, nor can it be apart from the unconditioned tathāgatagarbha. But the tathāgatagarbha, this unconditioned dharma, can still exist independently even when apart from the conditioned dharmas of the three realms—that is, at the time of Nirvāṇa without remainder. In Nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha is quiescent and unconditioned, fabricating not a single dharma, pure and supremely pure. Because apart from conditioned dharmas there still exists the unconditioned dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, the patriarch said: "There is something prior to heaven and earth, formless and originally solitary and silent."

All dharmas exist in dependence on mind. Since all dharmas are divided into the conditioned and the unconditioned, mind is likewise divided into two kinds: the conditioned and the unconditioned. Conditioned dharmas are jointly created and transformed by the conditioned mind of the seven consciousnesses and the unconditioned tathāgatagarbha—for example, all dharmas of the world of the three realms, such as bodily, verbal, and mental actions; unconditioned dharmas are also jointly created and manifested by the conditioned or unconditioned mind of the seven consciousnesses and the unconditioned tathāgatagarbha—for example, the fourth dhyāna, the cessation absorption (nirodha-samāpatti), the absorption without perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), and so on; from the first fruit to the fourth fruit; seeing the mind and seeing the nature; and the unconditioned nature of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. Only the tathāgatagarbha, this innate unconditioned dharma, is neither born and manifested by the conditioned or unconditioned mind of the seven consciousnesses, nor born and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha itself. However, if it is to be manifested, it still relies on the foil of the worldly conditioned dharmas of the mind of the seven consciousnesses.