Thereupon Ananda and all the assembly, having received this wonderful and profound instruction from the Lord Tathagata and having attained to a state of perfect accommodation of mind and perfect emancipation of mind from all remembrances, thinking and desires, became perfectly free in both body and mind.
Each one of them understood clearly that the Mind can reach to all the ten quarters of the universes and that their perception of sight can reach to all the ten quarters also. It was just as clear to them as though it was a blade of grass held in their hand. They saw that all the worldly phenomena was nothing but their own wonderful, intelligent, original Mind of Enlightenment embracing all the ten quarters of the universes. In contrast to this wonderful, all-embracing Mind of Enlightenment, their physical bodies begotten from their parents seemed like specks of dust blowing about in the open space of the ten quarters of the universes. Who would notice their existence or their non-existence? Their physical bodies were like a speck of foam floating about on a vast and trackless ocean, with nothing distinctive about them to indicate from whence they came, and if they disappeared, whither they went. They realized very clearly, that they, at last, had acquired their own wonderful Mind, a Mind that was Permanent and Indestructible. Therefore the whole assembly with palms pressed together in adoration made obeisance to the Lord Buddha in greatest respect and sincerity as though for the first time they had realized his transcendent worth.
Then they together chanted the following verses, praising the glory of the Lord Tathagata and voicing their sincere devotion to him:
Oh, Most Blessed One! You who have ever been absorbed in tranquil concentration of Dhyana, inspiring wonder and awe. Oh, Honored of the Worlds! You are the King of Highest Śūraṅgama Samādhi!
Oh, Blessed Lord! We beseech You, to dissipate all our upset and confused conceptions that have been developing for untold kalpas, so that we may attain to the pure state of Dharmakaya.
Oh, Blessed Lord! We beseech You, that in this life we may attain to the glory of Supreme Enlightenment; and grant us, we beseech You, that in a following rebirth we may return to this world, for the deliverance of all sentient beings.
O Blessed Lord! As an expression of our gratitude to our Lord Buddha, we dedicate our lives to the emancipation of all sentient beings in all the worlds.
Oh, Blessed Lord! We beseech You to witness our vow to be the pioneers of Liberation to those confined to the five evil worlds of impurities.
Oh, Blessed Lord! So long as any sentient being shall fail to attain Buddhahood, we vow never to accomplish our own Nirvana.
Oh, Lord, the Greatest of Heros, Almighty, Most Compassionate! We beseech You to teach us through meditation, how to get rid of all the defilements of illusive thoughts, reflections and desires.
Oh, Blessed Lord! We beseech You to help us to attain to Highest Perfect Enlightenment, and to quickly develop the power to concentrate our minds in Dhyana, to the end that all sentient beings in all the universes may become tranquil and enlightened, also.
Oh, Blessed Lord! Though the purity of our minds may be disturbed by vagrant thoughts, we beseech You, Oh Lord, that our diamond-like Essential Mind may never again be disturbed.
Thereupon, Purna Metaluniputra rose from his seat, arranged his robe, knelt upon his right knee, with the palms of his hands together, addressed the Lord Buddha, saying: Blessed Lord of Highest Majesty! You have fully enunciated the Dharma-teaching of first importance — the nature of our True Mind — and you have done it for the sake of all sentient beings. The Lord has honored me by looking upon me as being the foremost teacher of the Dharma among the Disciples, but as I listened to the perfect teaching of the Lord Tathagata, I seemed like a deaf person listening to a far away mosquito, too far away to be seen. Though the instruction of the Lord was clear and purified my mind of its illusions, nevertheless, I could not grasp all your profound teaching nor was my mind completely freed from its doubts and suspicions.
Oh, Blessed Lord! There are among us many Brothers like Ananda who have attained a measure of realization and enlightenment, but have not yet been able to discard all of their habitual sentiments, emotions and desires. Then there are some of us, though we have completely discarded our habitual intoxicants, as we listened to the Lord’s instruction, so profound was it, that some of our doubts still remained, for which we are humbly repentant.
Blessed Lord! The thing that troubles us, that we do not fully understand, is this: If all of the sense organs, objects of sense, ingredients of sensation, location of perception between objects and consciousness, and spheres of mentation about objects, are all to be considered as manifestations of the Womb of Tathagata which by its essential nature ever abides in freshness and purity, how have all the conditional phenomena of rivers, mountains, earth, etc., which from beginningless time have been going on in successively changing processes, how have they ever come into manifestation?
And one more question. The Lord Tathagata has said that all of the four great Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind, are perfect and accommodating in their nature and are permeating everywhere throughout the phenomenal universes, how can they be permeating everywhere and, at the same time, be in perfect tranquillity?
Blessed Lord! If the nature of Earth is universal, how can it, at the same time and in the same space, co-exist with water? Or, if the nature of water is universal, how can fire exist at the same time; that is, if water and fire are present universally in the same space and at the same time, how is it that they do not destroy each other? Or, as the nature of earth is dense and impassable and the nature of space is empty and passable, how can the two different and opposing natures be mutually universal at the same time? These things are too difficult for us to comprehend, I pray the Lord Tathagata to have compassion upon us and solve these puzzling questions.
Having finished his plea, the Disciple Purna with forehead, hands and knees touching the ground, waited humbly and expectantly for the Lord Buddha to resume his instruction.
Then the Blessed Lord replies to Purna and to all the advanced Disciples who had attained to self-mastery and Arhatship, saying: Today I will explain the essential nature of True Transcendency, so that all of those who have attained the universalized nature of Arhatship, and all those who have attained Arhatship but have not yet wholly discarded the conception of their own selfhood as being separate from the selfhood of others, to attain to the true seclusion for their practice of Dhyana and to the attainment of Nirvana. Please listen carefully to this teaching. Then Purna and all the other advanced Disciples waited humbly and expectantly for the Lord’s instruction.
The Lord Buddha said: Purna! Referring to your first question as to how the phenomena of rivers, mountains, earth, etc., can come into manifestation if the sense organs, objects of sense, ingredients of sensation, location of perceptions between objects and consciousness, and spheres of mentation, are ever abiding in the freshness and purity of the Womb of Tathagata. In my previous instruction, I made clear to you that the Essential Intuitive Mind possessed its own mysterious Enlightening Nature, and that the attainment to this Essential Intuitive Mind unveils this mysterious Enlightening Nature. Did you not understand?
Purna replied: Yes, Blessed Lord! I have tried to understand your teaching interpreting this principle, but still it is not clear.
The Lord Buddha enquired of him: Purna, when I spoke of the enlightening nature of Intuitive Mind, what did I mean by it? Did I mean that as our Essential nature is enlightening of itself so we called it “Intuitive Mind”? Or does it mean that as our Intuitive Mind is not enlightening by itself so we speak of it as “the Enlightened Mind of Intuition?”
Purna replied: Blessed Lord! If this un-enlightened mind is to be regarded as the same as our Intuitive Mind, what would there be to be enlightened?
Purna, the Lord Buddha interrupted, if there is nothing to be enlightened then there would be no enlightening nature of intuition, either. So long as you cherish and discriminate such arbitrary conceptions as “there is some nature of non-intuitive,” or “there is no nature of non-enlightening,” you only reveal your ignorance — they do not belong to your enlightening mind of tranquillity and Intuition — for the Essential Nature of Intuition is naturally enlightening by itself. It is because of these arbitrary conceptions that these false expressions concerning the Enlightened Mind of Intuition, take their rise. However, Intuitive Mind is not enlightened by something else — it is self-enlightening. As soon as it is supposed to be enlightened by something else, there rises false conceptions as to this something else and then following there rises fantastic conceptions of functions and processes. Because of this, from the perfect unity of Intuitive Mind, innumerable varieties have been manifested, and as there are distinctions among them, so classifications among these varieties are developed. From this arises conceptions of likes and unlikes, and then conceptions of non-likes and non-unlikes, and the mind is thrown into a medley of bewildering puzzles which in time become attached to the mind and contaminate it. At the end, these attachments and contaminations within your mind develop the consciousness of differences between self and the not-self of objects and thus the pure mind becomes entangled in the snarls of attachments and contaminations. Because of their defilement, there rises the disturbing manifestation of an external world, but when they are stilled, there remains only empty space, abiding in perfect unity. The world is a medley of unreal and transitory diversities that contaminate the mind and it is out of these arbitrary conceptions of phenomena that the very conception of unity and diversity arises. But Essential Mind is wholly devoid of conceptions and therefore recognizes neither unity nor diversity.
Moreover, Purna, these two opposites — the Pure Reality of Intuitive Mind by its very self-nature ceaselessly drawing everything into its perfect Unity and Tranquillity, and the unreal and transitory medley of diverse and conflicting differences forever tending to variety and multiplicities — these two opposing conceptions arising from the discrimination of Ignorance bring into existence a vibratory motion that by reason of desire and grasping and the perpetuating influence of habit energy, accounts for all the basic conceptions of the primary Elements, the solidity of Earth, the fluidity of Water, the heat of Fire, and the motivity of Wind. Amid them it is the nature of Fire to move upward and the nature of Water to move downward, and from these two Elements being in reciprocal development there are the manifestations of rivers, and volcanoes and land. As Water takes precedence, oceans appear and when Fire takes precedence, continents and islands. The great ocean is also in reciprocal development with the illusive conception of fire within the mind, and reveals the fact that the blazing Fire is arising continuously. The continents and islands are also in a reciprocal development with the false conception of water within the mind, revealing the fact that rivers and streams are ever flowing. Or if the false conception of water is running very slowly within the mind, and the flame of fire is in a high state of activity, then there rises the high mountains and volcanoes which after all are only combinations of the false conceptions of water and fire within the mind. So if we strike flint, sparks of fire shoot out, and if we melt rocks, they will become liquid. If the false conception of water within the mind predominates over the false conception of earth, then the phenomena of grass and trees rises. As grass and trees are also false conceptions of the mind, as soon as they are compressed they become water again. Thus all these false conceptions of phenomena have their reciprocal developments and successive manifestations within the mind, and by means of causes and conditions there rises the false conception of the reciprocal continuance of the world’s existence.
Again, Purna! It is quite all right for you to have these false conceptions but the fault you have always committed is this, that you have cherished a false conception of the nature of Enlightenment which has conditioned your realization of truth. Because of this false assumption as to the nature of Enlightenment, the reasoning power of the intellectual mind can never go beyond the category of discriminated illusions. For instance: the perception of hearing cannot go beyond the nature of sound, the perception of seeing cannot go beyond the nature of sights, and the same as to other perceptions. And thus the function of the mind is divided into its six divisions of sensitiveness of the sense organs, sensation, perception, discrimination, consciousness and discriminative thinking. As all of these activities of the mind rise from the first activities of the sense organs, so all the activities of the mind are but the working over of material that has originated within its own nature. These thoughts of the mind later become the foundation for the recurring cycles of deaths and rebirths in the manifestations of all the different orders of sentient life. Life that comes from eggs and gives suck to its young comes into entanglement and suffering by means of Karma accumulated by different sentient beings, and the spawns and life produced by metamorphosis come into transformations by means of separation and combination of their elements under the influence of causes and conditions.
After such a manner have the four orders of sentient life been ever wandering in the recurring cycles of deaths and rebirths wholly in close correspondence to the conditions of karma accumulated by them in previous lives. The lives that come from eggs were conceived by means of mutual intercourse that had been inspired by thoughts of each other; lives that are born from wombs, conceive by means of lust and concupiscence; lives that come from spawn come by the conjunction of conformable cells; lives that come by metamorphosis come by means of transformation and separation of cells. Because of these causes and conditions there rises the false conception of a reciprocal continuance of sentient lives.
Again, Purna! When mutual thinking and lustful desire combine the attraction is so intense that the two cannot be separated and, thus, parenthood and posterity will ever continue their reciprocal rebirths because of this lustful desire. So great is this lust and greed that it can not be restrained and thus, all these four great orders of life prey upon each other according to their relative strength — the bodies of the weak becoming the prey of the strong. Thus the killing of sentient beings is always because of greed in some form. When a man kills a sheep for food, the sheep gives rebirth to a man and the man gives rebirth to a sheep, and so the reciprocal killing goes on ever increasing without termination through innumerable kalpas of time. This awful suffering and retribution is all because of greed. So the proverb runs: “You owe me your life, but I must repay the debt.” Because of these causes and conditions all sentient lives have been fast bound to the cycle of deaths and rebirths after hundreds and thousands of kalpas. Another proverb says: “You love my inner heart, but I love your outer beauty,” so because of all these causes and condition, all sentient beings have been entangled in cycle of deaths and rebirths for hundreds and thousands of kalpas. All this suffering and retribution is based upon lust, greed and killing, and because of the causes and conditions arising from them, there is the false conception of the continuity of karmas and their inevitable fruit.
Again, Purna! The pure Essence of Mind leads toward enlightenment and peace, but these three deluding entanglements of lust, greed, and killing, are the very reverse and lead toward entanglement, strife, suffering, deaths and rebirths and all rise from the illusive thinking of the discriminating mind. Because of this false thinking there becomes manifest all the false phenomena that fall within the range of the sense organs. Thus all these conditional phenomena of rivers, mountains, earth, etc., and their successive and endless changes arise, and all are based upon the illusions of the thinking mind without any other interpretation.
Purna addressed the Lord Buddha, saying: Blessed Lord! If this wonderful Intuitive Mind of Essence by nature belongs to mystery, enlightenment and intelligence and is in the same state of permanency as the Tathagata’s Mind of Essence without any decrease or increase in its perfection, how can there be, suddenly, the manifestation of the conditional phenomena of rivers, mountains, earth, etc.? Moreover, as the Lord Tathagata’s Mind has attained to the state of Brightest Enlightenment and Transcendental Emptiness how can there appear within your Mind, all of these limited and conditional and entangling conceptions of rivers, mountains, earth, etc.?
The Lord Buddha interrupted Purna to enquire: Suppose a person comes to a strange and unknown village and becomes confused as to which is north and which is south. Is this confusion of mind derived from the mind’s misconception or from the mind’s right understanding?
Purna replied: Blessed Lord! A person going astray under those conditions becomes confused as to the direction, neither because of his bewilderment, nor because of his right understanding. And why? Because as the confusion in his mind has no real basis, how can it be said to have been caused by his bewilderment? And as the right understanding never changes nor makes a mistake, how can it be said that the bewilderment was caused by his right understanding?
The Lord Buddha then asked Purna: Suppose the person who has lost his sense of direction recovers it by some chance. Does he still have misconceptions about the directions of this unknown village?
Purna replied: No, Blessed Lord.
The Lord Buddha continued: It is just the same with the Tathagata in all the ten quarters of the universes. Your misconceptions about them have no basis in fact. The essential nature of your mind is the purity of perfect emptiness. Though your mind has ever been under illusions, in reality it can suffer no bewilderment; it only seems to be under a cloud of fascinating sentiments and false perceptions. As soon as the mind realizes that it is being deceived, the misconceptions disappear and its right understanding will never again be disturbed. The bewildered mind resembles a person who suffers from some optical hallucination and he thinks that he sees, for instance, fantastic forms of blossoms in empty space. But if his eyes clear, the fantastic blossoms vanish. Suppose there was by chance some simpleton who wanted to see the fantastic blossoms and went peering about. What would you think of such a person, Purna? Is he a fool? Or a half-witted man?
Purna replied: In empty space there can be no blossoms, of course, but by means of false perceptions of seeing they certainly appear and disappear, that is, the perception of seeing is in a state of reversion. If the man continues peering about for the fantastic blossoms, he will soon become insane, and who can say then whether he is a fool or a half-wit?
The Lord Buddha replied: Purna, it is all right for you to interpret the foolish man in that way, but why do you remain in doubt about the intelligence of the Tathagata’s mysterious Enlightenment in realizing the emptiness of all phenomena? Why should you still see manifestations of rivers, mountains, earth, etc.?
Purna, the ordinary unenlightened mind resembles gold hid in its ore, but as soon as the gold is extracted, it can never again be hidden in its ore. It further resembles the condition of wood that is being burned into ashes: it can never again be changed back into wood. It is just the same with all the Buddha-Tathagatas’ experience of Enlightenment and Nirvana.
Purna, you also asked me about the nature of the Four Great Elements — earth, water, fire and wind — if their nature is perfect and accommodating and permeates everywhere throughout all the phenomenal universes, why do not the nature of water and fire mutually destroy one another? And also, you asked about the natures of empty space and the great earth that are permeating everywhere throughout all the phenomenal universes, how can they keep their natures distinct and avoid becoming involved in each other?
As empty space is not made up of a mass of innumerable phenomena, it offers no objection to the manifestation of phenomena. Let me explain this. When the sun shines, the vast ethereal world becomes clear; when the sky is overcast with clouds, it becomes dark and gloomy; when the wind blows, there is motion; after a rain it is fresh and pure; when the atmosphere becomes laden with moisture, it becomes sultry; when there is much dust it becomes impure; after a shower has washed out the dust, it is clear and transparent. What do you think. Purna? Are all these conditional phenomena manifested by themselves, or by the empty space? If they are manifested by themselves, then when the sun is shining, the brightness belongs to the sun and in all the ten quarters of the universes, the brightness belongs to the sunshine. If this is the explanation, how is it that you still see the round sun in the sky. If the brightness belongs to the sky, then the sky should shine of itself, and how is it that the brightness never appears until the sun rises? If the brightness belongs to both the sky and sun, then which part of the brightness belongs to the sun and which part to the sky? Again, if the brightness is manifested by conformity and combination of the sky and sun, then when the sun goes down, the sky should still retain part of the brightness. Why is it that after the sun sets, the night becomes dark? Therefore the brightness belongs neither to the sky nor to the sun. However, if there is neither sun nor sky, how can brightness become manifest? Therefore, we must conclude that brightness is neither dependent nor independent of either sky or sun.
Purna! It is just the same with the intelligence of the true mysterious Mind of Intuition. The Mind of Intuition has universal intelligence and because of it conception of space is embraced within it but undifferentiated and thus the manifestation of emptiness responds to the perception of your sight. Because the Four Great Elements are present within the pure universal intelligence of the Intuitive Mind, the manifestation of them responds to the perception of your sight. What is the significance of this, Purna? Take for instance the reflection of the sun in the water. Two persons, looking at the reflection, go away in opposite direction, one toward the east, the other toward the west, but the reflection of the sun in the water follows both of them. In the beginning they would have agreed that there was only one sun, but now we have two persons each asserting that the sun is following himself, therefore there must be two suns. But why then is there only one sun in the sky? All such deductions and assertions are false and empty because they have no basis of proof.
Purna! All the phenomena arising from sight are false and illusion — they are both indescribable and inexplicable. We might as well wish for the fantastic blossoms in the air to bear fruit. How foolish it is to seek the reason for their transient appearance and disappearance. Nevertheless, the Essential Nature of Perception of Sight is real and true, because it IS the mysterious, intelligent luminosity of the Intuitive Mind of Enlightenment. As the perception does not belong to the element fire or water, of what use is it for you to ask about the principle of their mutual involvement in each other’s phenomena?
Purna! It is because you regard the conceptions of empty space and all the sights as being reciprocally overlapping and substituting for one another in the Tathagata’s Womb, and so, accordingly, the Tathagata’s Womb permeates everywhere throughout the phenomenal world in forms of emptiness and sights. And, therefore, from the Tathagata’s Womb are manifested all such fantastic visions as the movement of wind, the transparency of the sky, the brightness of the sun, the gloominess of the clouds, etc. But it is because of the ignorance and stupidity of sentient beings they turn away from their own enlightening nature and hanker after worldly objects thus accumulating the defilements of attachments and contaminations. Thus arise the manifestations of the phenomenal world.
But I concentrate my mind so as to ignore all these contaminations and return to the mysterious, enlightening nature of non-death and non-rebirth so as to be in conformity with the Womb of Tathagata. Accordingly the Tathagata’s Womb becomes the clear intelligence of the true and mysterious Mind of Intuition that throws its perfect reflection and insight into all the phenomenal world. Therefore, in Tathagata’s Womb Oneness has the same meaning as Infinity, and Infinity has the same meaning as Oneness, the minimum is embraced in the maximum and the maximum in the minimum. The tranquillity and peacefulness of my concentration of mind in Samadhi prevails all over the ten quarters of the universes, my body embraces the vast spaces of the ten quarters, and even within a single pore of my skin there is a Buddha-land with a Buddha sitting on a seat no larger than a particle of dust, absorbed in Samadhi, but endlessly radiating therefrom all the forces of Life-giving Truth and ceaselessly drawing inward into its perfect unity all of its multitudinous manifestations. Since I have ignored and forgotten all worldly objects, I have fully realized this mysterious, enlightening Nature of the Pure Essence of Mind.
Nevertheless, the Womb of Tathagata is pure and perfect, all embracing but free from distinctions. In it is neither the finite mind, nor empty space, nor the earth, nor water, nor wind, nor fire, nor the senses, nor the whole body, nor sensations, nor perceptions, nor the sphere of conscious discriminations, nor the sphere of consciousness that is dependent upon the thinking mind. It is neither the enlightening nature of the Intuitive Mind, nor the non-enlightening nature of the intellectual mind, nor the mental state that discards all ideas relating to enlightenment and non-enlightenment. It is neither decay nor death, nor the state that discards all ideas of decay and death; it is neither suffering, the cause of suffering, the ending of suffering, nor the Noble Path leading to Enlightenment. It is neither Wisdom, nor attainment; neither the giving of gifts, nor the keepings of precepts, nor humble patience, nor zealous perseverance, nor the tranquil concentration of mind, nor Prajna (paramita), nor Emancipation (paramitta). It is neither Tathagata, nor Arhat, nor Highest Perfect Wisdom (anuttara-samyak-sambodhi), nor Pari-nirvana. It is neither eternity, nor happiness, nor ego-consciousness, nor purity, nor anything else. All these differentiations are but arbitrary conceptions — merely figures of speech — not only do they not convey the true meaning of Emancipation, neither do they convey the true meaning of every day life.
(Note: Consider the relation of the radio instrument to the surrounding atmosphere. The air is burdened with all manner of vibrations not kept distinct, but blended into some complex rhythm that is ceaselessly changing, from which the radio by its receiving mechanism selects the vibrations it desires and transforms them into what the ear interprets to be speech or music.)
Nevertheless, if you rightly realize the true meaning of the Tathagata’s Womb in its mysterious nature of the natural Enlightening Mind, you will also realize that this mysterious nature is also the thinking mind; empty space; earth, water, wind and fire; the sense organs, the whole body, sensations, perceptions, discriminations, the sphere of consciousness dependent upon the senses; enlightenment and non-enlightenment; the state that is neither enlightenment nor non-enlightenment; it is the state of decay and death, and the absence of all ideas about decay and death; it is suffering, the cause of suffering, the ending of suffering and the Noble Path that leads to enlightenment; it is Wisdom, it is all the transcendental attainments and graces (samapatti); it is the giving of gifts, keeping the precepts in selfless kindness, practising humble patience, and zealous perseverance, and tranquil concentration of mind and Wisdom and Emancipation. It is Tathagata, the Arhats, Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, and Pari-nirvana. It is Eternity, and Blissful Peace, and ego-consciousness, and Perfect Unity and Purity. And because Tathagata’s Essential Mind contains all these, it not only conveys the true meaning of Emancipation but of every day life as well.
If you fully realize the intrinsic significance of Tathagata’s Womb in its mysterious nature of Enlightening Mind, then you will realize that it embraces both the negative aspects and affirmative aspects as just outlined. You will realize that Tathagata’s Womb and the pure Mind of Enlightenment and the Mind of Intuition (Alaya-vijnana) are of one Essence, radiant in Wisdom, integrant in Compassion, vibrant with Purpose and Life but unmanifest and in perfect balance and thus abiding in perfect and blissful Peace.
Purna! The mysterious nature of the Pure Enlightening Mind is profound and inconceivably mysterious, how can sentient beings in the Triple World, even the “salvation-for-themselves” Arhats and Pratyake-Buddhas, how can they with their limited minds fathom the Supreme Enlightenment of the Lord Tathagata? And how can they merge their mundane understanding with the inscrutable intelligence and insight of the Lord Tathagata? Consider the sweet harmonies that come from the violin, zither, harp, or guitar. They do not come of themselves: they only come when some skillful musician plays upon them. It is the same with your minds and the minds of all sentient beings. Each one of you has full possession of the true Mind-Essence of Buddhahood whose transcendently glorious brightness may shine forth as quickly as the sweet harmonies come from the musical instruments when a Master’s hand plays upon them. Nevertheless, as soon as you attempt to use your mind, the conditioning effects of your defilements, attachments and hindrances, at once reveal themselves. This is wholly due to your lack of diligence in your practice of seeking Supreme Enlightenment, as conditioned by your inclination toward the simpler teachings of the Hinayana school, and your self-complacency because of your imperfect attainments.
Then Purna addressed the Lord Buddha, saying: Blessed Lord! I can see that your true mysterious and pure Mind of Perfect Enlightenment and my own imperfect mind are one in Essence, but as the false conceptions within my mind have been accumulating since beginningless time, I have continued in the cycle of deaths and rebirths for innumerable kalpas. Though I have now acquired some measure of attainment, I have not yet attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Blessed Lord! You have just taught us that as soon as we get rid of all illusions of thought that the mysterious Essential Mind of Permanency alone remains. May I enquire of you, Lord Tathagata, by what causes do sentient beings cling to their illusions of thoughts which so over-shadow the mysterious Brightness of their Essential Mind and cause them to fall into the vast ocean of defilements?
The Lord Buddha replied: Purna, although you have gotten rid of most of your uncertainties about the teaching of Emancipations, yet you still grasp the delusion of an arbitrary discrimination between Ignorance and Enlightenment. To clear this in your mind, I will ask you some questions about a present happening near us. You have doubtless heard about the insane man, Yayattadha in this very city of Sravasti. One morning he looked into a mirror and saw his head but it had no eyes nor eyebrows. He became very angry with his own head and blamed it as being the head of a goblin because it had no eyes nor eyebrows, and ran away quite crazy. What do you think. Purna? Did the man have any good reason for becoming crazy?
Purna replied: It seems to me. Blessed Lord, that he had no other reason than this, that he was crazy already.
The Lord Buddha said: Purna! Our mysterious Intuitive Nature is perfect and enlightening and its natural perfection is intelligent and profound. Since the True Nature is free from all illusions, so the illusions are naturally devoid of any reality, and, therefore, have no source of existence. If they have no source of existence, they are no longer illusions even. All these thought-illusions have been raised by means of their own reciprocal manifestations and thus the piling up of delusion upon delusions has been going on for kalpa after kalpa as many as the particles of dust in the air. Though the Buddhas have disclosed their falsity, yet sentient beings cannot at once realize their falsity and return to their natural state of enlightenment. The source of these delusions is nowhere else but within one’s own mind. As soon as you understand the source of a delusion, the deluding conception loses its hold upon existence. If within your mind you provide no source for these false conceptions, there will be none to be discarded. Those who have attained enlightenment are as if awakening from sleep, and their past life seems only a dream. However clear one’s memory may be, it is impossible to reproduce any dreamed of object — no matter under what conditions or causes. It would be more impossible for you to grasp that which has no hold whatever upon its own source of existence. Like the insane man of Sravasti who ran away because of the wholly imaginary and fantastic thoughts of his mind, with no other cause or conditions. If this insanity was suddenly cured, his consciousness of his head would just as suddenly be recovered, and no matter whether his insanity is cured or not, his head is on his body. Puma, the illusions of the mind are just as fantastic and have no more basis for existence. So if your mind is to remain tranquil and undisturbed, there must be no discriminations of the three deluding phenomena of interrelating continuity, namely, the conception of the world’s existence, the conception of the ego-personality, and the conception of karma and its forth-coming fruit. If you cease all killing, robbery and lust, whose actions are the cause of karma, then the three great causes for the existence of interrelated continuity of existence will cease. Thus, within your mind, your madness will clear of itself, and when your madness clears, Enlightenment is already present. For the essential nature of your Transcendental, Pure and Enlightening Mind is present everywhere, permeating the whole phenomenal world. It is not acquired from any other person, nor by any method of hard and diligent devotion to ascetic practices and attainments. Sentient beings are like a man with a magic gem hidden in his garment of which he is ignorant. He becomes poor and ragged and hungry and wanders about to far countries. Although he is actually suffering from poverty, he still possesses the magic gem. One day a very wise man tells the poor man of his magic gem and forthwith the poor man becomes a millionaire. It is the same with your own nature of intuitive mind. You should forthwith realize that this magic gem of Enlightening Essence of Mind is not to be acquired from some difficult source, but is already within your possession.
