All Sentient Beings Are Those Who Imprison Themselves

Being able to understand this image is nothing special; anyone who thinks about it can grasp it. This is not difficult. What is truly difficult? Consciousness expressing a ten-thousand-word thesis, pouring out sentiments, emotions, and plans, methods, and strategies for implementation, is less substantial than a single concrete action. Those who can do are not necessarily skilled at speaking; those who are skilled at speaking, for the most part, do not act.

To perceive bondage is spiritual blindness. The Dharma is meant to cure the eyes. If the eyes are healthy, one is originally liberated; there is no need to practice further to attain liberation, for liberation is not something to be attained. Seeing a frame is like seeing a ghost. Seeing these people, events, and things is like seeing a dungeon one has drawn oneself—all are perceptions of diseased eyes. Where is the dungeon? Where are the people, events, and things? How can one avoid illness, return to normalcy, and cease false and disordered perceptions? Sentient beings all fail to see what should be seen, yet see clearly what should not be seen; all is inverted perception.

Ru Chun: All our efforts in the mundane world are aimed at making these boundaries more exquisite, more solid, and broader, so that we may reside within them more comfortably and delightfully. Perhaps we have never considered whether we need these boundaries at all. Occasionally, when experiencing the disappearance of the form body in meditation for a moment, we instantly feel panic. The power of ignorance and habit is immensely strong, carrying us forward; the power to resist is weak and foolish. Even when we know, it is hard to act accordingly.

In the image, it is merely a person drawing some lines with chalk. Due to the inertia of our cognition and our rich imagination, we perceive them as frames and bondage. In reality, these lines are just lines, nothing more. The image clearly has no frame, no bondage, nothing at all, yet we claim to see frames and bondage. Therefore, the Master says we are spiritually blind and seeing ghosts.

The Master means we are deceived by ourselves, or rather, we mistake emptiness for reality. We take the false as true, which is fundamentally wrong. Yet we go further, frantically researching it, struggling to break free from it, and seeking to sever it—this is compounding error upon error, taking a futile path. If we truly understood that all dharmas are inertia, imagination, self-deception, emptiness, nothingness, falsity, and illness, and if we stood up and walked out (as in the image), would these lines bind or obstruct us? Not at all. Because they are originally non-existent. Since there is no bondage, there is no need for liberation, and thus no Buddhahood, no Nirvana, no becoming a Buddha. Therefore, the Master says it is unattainable. The hardest part is seeing through the falsity of dharmas and perceiving the truth of reality. Master, is this what you mean?

Comment: Well said, except for one point that is incorrect. Do false dharmas exist? Do false dharmas exist? They do not. This image can encompass the entire Diamond Sutra. The four marks vanish, the three realms vanish, birth and death vanish, the Buddha mark vanishes, the Dharma vanishes, Nirvana vanishes, liberation vanishes, this shore vanishes, the other shore vanishes—everything vanishes. Only the inherently pure mind remains, solitary and silent, not within heaven or earth. Therefore, becoming a Buddha is attaining nothing; only by attaining nothing can one become a Buddha. Practice is subtraction, lightening the load. When everything is subtracted, one becomes a Buddha—even the Buddha is subtracted away. Practice itself does not exist. Those who study the Buddha and the Dharma are making trouble out of nothing, are deluded and inverted. There is no Buddha to become, no Dharma to study, and those who expound the Dharma have no Dharma to expound. Henceforth, if anyone forces the Master to teach the Dharma, give them a beating. What is there to speak of?

Classifying the Diamond Sutra as a Prajñā scripture is a serious underestimation of its value. The Diamond Sutra is a genuine scripture for achieving Buddhahood, a scripture of Consciousness-Only, achieving emptiness in one step, becoming a Buddha in one step. The Buddha Dharma is meant to enable sentient beings to realize that originally there is no birth and death, originally there are no sentient beings, originally there are no dharmas at all. Yet sentient beings diligently study birth and death, study the five aggregates, study all dharmas, deviating from the truth. Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas have suffered unjustly, toiling to liberate themselves from birth and death, only to find there was never any birth and death to liberate from. After becoming a Buddha, did they attain Anuttarā Samyak Saṃbodhi? The Buddha said, “I have attained nothing with regard to Bodhi.” Only by attaining nothing can one become a Buddha. Not even liberation is attained, not Nirvana, not the fruit of Buddhahood. Attaining nothing, one becomes a Buddha.

Although all dharmas are empty, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment are empty, the six pāramitās of the Bodhisattva are empty, the ten pāramitās of the Bodhisattva are empty, yet the Bodhisattva does not dwell in the inaction of emptiness, nor exhaust conditioned existence. They do what should be done, fulfilling all six and ten pāramitās; otherwise, emptiness cannot be achieved, and the burden cannot be lightened. What does lightening the burden mean? All that is carried on the shoulders, borne on the back, held in the heart—those full burdens—are to be unloaded, discarded, abandoned. All burdens are to be laid down. Dharmas with marks and without marks are to be emptied, relinquished, abandoned. Relinquish, relinquish, relinquish. When relinquishment is complete, one returns to the original state: possessing nothing, yet capable of having everything.

How can emptiness be achieved? Can pondering these principles with the thinking consciousness lead to understanding and thus emptiness? Can the thinking consciousness transform the frame, the cage, hell, and the three realms into emptiness? Does the thinking consciousness possess such capability? Not at all. Therefore, do not use the thinking consciousness to speculate wildly, conjecture recklessly, or struggle pointlessly. Abandoning the thinking consciousness is no loss. When the thinking consciousness is abandoned, directly use the mental faculty (manas). When the mental faculty is employed, samādhi arises. In samādhi, all dharmas are empty; even emptiness is empty. Not a ghostly shadow remains. The mental faculty is indeed this powerful. Those who refuse to accept this and cling to the thinking consciousness as supreme may go debate with Yama, the King of the Underworld. Yama will show you the truth. The Buddha does not reason with you; only Yama will receive you. If you cannot wait for Yama, karmic retribution may manifest first, with immediate retribution in this life. This is the most illustrative proof. Ultimately, karmic retribution and immediate retribution mean that the Tathāgatagarbha is in charge; the Tathāgatagarbha has the final say. Even the Buddha has no say; the Buddha does not manage affairs and does not possess the authority of the Tathāgatagarbha.