Every Dharma Like Lightning, Like a Dream

"Child of the Buddha, a bodhisattva such as this transcends the stage of the ordinary person, realizing the dharma of transcending birth; he is born into the tathāgata's own family, abiding in the buddha's own lineage, never severing the Three Jewels, guarding the lineage of every bodhisattva, purifying the very place of his own birth, far removed from every evil destiny, reverently honored and served by every god and human, by Śakra and Brahmā, by śramaṇa and brāhmaṇa alike — for having been born into the buddha's own family, he fully perfects the treasury of every great vow. Child of the Buddha, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva born into such a family knows that every dharma is exactly like a lightning-flash, and accepts rebirth into every destiny without any weariness at all; he understands that every destiny is like a transformation, and though he is present within it, he clings to nothing there; he fully realizes that no dharma at all possesses any self, and so his mind holds no sorrow or regret, teaching and transforming sentient beings with great compassion, tirelessly; he fully realizes that birth and death are exactly like a dream, and so carries out the bodhisattva's own practice across every kalpa without slackening or abandoning it; he fully knows that the five aggregates are exactly like an illusion, and so does not fear birth and death, knowing the Dharma-realm with a mind that clings to nothing; he fully realizes that every dharma is exactly like a mirage in the heat, and so gives rise to no confused, inverted view in any of his own practices, playing freely within the dharma of illusion, transcending Māra's own domain; he attains a pure Dharma-body, free of the karma of every affliction, and is thereby sovereign and free within every destiny, without any confused, inverted view at all."