Gradual and Sudden Purification

Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva, wishing [to understand how] to purify the self-manifesting flow of his own mind, again made a request of the Tathāgata, saying to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, how is the self-manifesting flow of every sentient being's mind purified? Is it all at once, or gradually?"

The Buddha told Mahāmati: "It is purified gradually, not all at once. Just as an āmra fruit ripens gradually, not all at once, so too the Tathāgata purifies the self-manifesting flow of every sentient being's mind — gradually, not all at once. It is like a potter fashioning his vessels: they are formed gradually, not all at once; so too the Tathāgata purifies the self-manifesting flow of every sentient being's mind — gradually, not all at once. It is like the great earth bringing forth its ten thousand things gradually, never all at once; so too the Tathāgata purifies the self-manifesting flow of every sentient being's mind — gradually, not all at once. It is like a person learning music, calligraphy, painting, or any other art or craft: mastery comes gradually, not all at once; so too the Tathāgata purifies the self-manifesting flow of every sentient being's mind — gradually, not all at once. [Now, for what is sudden:] it is like a bright mirror, which manifests every form and image, markless, all at once; so too the Tathāgata purifies the self-manifesting flow of every sentient being's mind — manifesting, all at once, the markless, the domain that has nothing at all, utterly pure. It is like the orb of the sun or moon, which illumines and displays every form all at once; so too, for the sake of sentient beings troubled by the fault of the habituated force of their own mind's manifestation, the Tathāgata all at once displays the finest domain of inconceivable wisdom. It is like the storehouse consciousness, which discerns, all at once, its own mind's manifestation and the domain of the body it establishes for its own use and benefit; so too are the various buddhas who depend [upon the dharma-body] (the word rendered "depend" is, in the Central Asian text, one meaning "moist and rich" — showing that a transformation buddha is a true buddha's own vital essence): they all at once bring to ripeness the very domain in which sentient beings dwell, so that the practitioner comes to abide securely within Akaniṣṭha. It is like the dharma-body buddha's own activity, the buddha that depends upon it shining with its own radiance; the domain of self-realized wisdom is just the same — it shines upon, and thereby extinguishes, the false views and false thought, whether of existence or of non-existence, that beings hold concerning the marks of dharmas. Mahāmati, the buddha who depends [on the dharma-body] teaches every dharma so as to enter into the causal habituated force of one's own mind's manifestation, in both its own mark and its shared mark, and the cause of the attachment bound up with the continuing false thought of own-nature — every kind of unreal illusion, every kind of attachment, is thereby rendered ultimately unattainable.

"Furthermore, Mahāmati, attachment to the own-nature of dependent origination gives rise to the mark of the own-nature of false thought. Mahāmati, it is like a skilled illusionist who, relying on grass, wood, tiles, and stones, produces every kind of illusion, calling forth every manner of form for every kind of being, and thereby gives rise to every kind of false thought — yet none of that false thought has anything true within it. Just so, Mahāmati: in dependence on the own-nature of dependent origination, the own-nature of false thought arises — the manifold mind of false thought, the manifold marks of imagined activity and the false thought bound up with it, the false thought of attachment through habituated force. Mahāmati, this is what is meant by the mark of the arising of the own-nature of false thought. Mahāmati, this is called the teaching of the buddha who depends [on the dharma-body]. Mahāmati, the dharma-body buddha is apart from the mark of mind's own-nature, established and brought into activity as the very domain upon which self-realized noble wisdom depends. Mahāmati, the transformation buddha teaches giving, moral discipline, patience, vigor, and meditative concentration, together with mind and wisdom; he leaves behind the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, liberation, and the discrimination of the marks of consciousness; through observation he establishes [right understanding], passing beyond the views of the outsiders and the view [that mistakes] the formless [absorption for liberation]. Mahāmati, the dharma-body buddha, moreover, is apart from any object clung to, and apart even from that very apartness; every mark of activity and measurable faculty has ceased within him; he is not the domain any ordinary person, śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, or outsider clings to as a self, but is established as the ultimate mark distinguishing self-realized wisdom. Therefore, Mahāmati, one should diligently train in the mark distinguishing self-realized wisdom, and should extinguish whatever is seen as one's own mind's manifestation.

"Furthermore, Mahāmati, there are two kinds of mark shared by way of distinction among the śrāvaka vehicle: the mark of one who has attained the distinguishing mark of self-realized wisdom, and the mark of one attached to the own-nature of false thought concerning [dharmas'] own-nature. What is the śrāvaka who has attained the distinguishing mark of self-realized wisdom? He is one who, [contemplating] the domain of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and no-self, is, in ultimate truth, apart from desire and utterly still, has quieted the own mark, shared mark, and mark of both together belonging to the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, and knows, in accordance with reality, that the outer, indestructible mark [of things persists even so] — his mind thereby attains stillness. Once his mind has attained stillness, he attains meditative concentration, liberation, samādhi, the fruit of the path, and the true attainment of liberation; though he is not yet free of habituated force, nor of the inconceivable death of transformation and change, he attains the bliss of dwelling in the self-realized noble state proper to a śrāvaka — this is called the śrāvaka who has attained the distinguishing mark of self-realized wisdom. Mahāmati, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva who has attained this same bliss of dwelling in the distinguishing mark of self-realization does not, unlike this śrāvaka, take the bliss of that cessation and that attainment as his own final resting-place; out of concern for sentient beings, and true to his original vow, he does not [use it to] verify his own realization once and for all. Mahāmati, this is what is called the śrāvaka's own bliss in the distinguishing mark of self-realized wisdom — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should not train himself to remain within that particular bliss. Mahāmati, what is the śrāvaka attached to the own-nature of false thought concerning [dharmas'] own-nature? It refers to one who, seeing that the great elements — blue, yellow, red, and white; solid, moist, warm, and mobile — arise, not through any act of creation, each with its own mark and its shared mark, exactly as the Most Excellent One has skillfully taught, thereupon gives rise to false thought concerning their own-nature. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should recognize this fault in such a one, and should leave it behind, entering instead into the mark of the no-self of dharmas, extinguishing the view of the mark of the no-self of persons alone, and thereby establishing his own progress, by stages and in succession, through the [bodhisattva] grounds. This is called the mark of the śrāvaka attached to the own-nature of false thought concerning [dharmas'] own-nature."