Why Does the Tathāgata Still Experience Karmic Consequences?

At that time, Mahāmati Bodhisattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, the World-Honored One predicted that arhats would attain full and complete enlightenment, no different from any bodhisattva's own attainment — yet if the dharma of every sentient being is [ultimately] not nirvāṇa, who is there left to reach buddhahood at all? From his first attainment of buddhahood to his final nirvāṇa, in the whole interval between these, [you say] the Tathāgata never spoke a single word, nor gave any answer at all. Since the Tathāgata is constantly in samādhi, he has no deliberation and no examination — his transformation-bodies alone carry out a buddha's own activity. Why, then, do you speak of consciousness's own momentary destruction and continual dissolution? Vajrapāṇi constantly attends and guards him. Why is the very origin [of birth-and-death] never explained? Māra and Māra's own deeds appear to him, the fruits of evil karma manifest — the young Brahmin woman Cañcā, the girl Sundarī, an empty almsbowl on which he departs — the very obstruction of evil karma made manifest. How, then, could the Tathāgata, who has attained omniscience itself, still fail to be apart from every fault?" The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Listen carefully, listen carefully, and reflect well upon it — I shall explain this for you." Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "Excellent, World-Honored One — yes indeed, I shall receive your teaching." The Buddha told Mahāmati: "This is taught for the sake of nirvāṇa without remainder, so as to draw forward those who practice the bodhisattva path. Those who cultivate the bodhisattva path, in this world and in every other, who [still] delight in the śrāvaka vehicle's own nirvāṇa, are, for this very reason, caused to leave the śrāvaka vehicle behind and advance toward the Great Vehicle — a transformation-body buddha bestows the prediction upon the śrāvaka, not the Dharma-body buddha itself. Mahāmati, it is for this very reason that śrāvakas are predicted to be no different from bodhisattvas. Mahāmati, as for 'no different': the śrāvaka, the pratyekabuddha, and every buddha-tathāgata alike have cut off the affliction-hindrance, sharing liberation in a single taste — but this is not to say the wisdom-hindrance has been cut off as well. Mahāmati, as for the wisdom-hindrance: it is cut off by seeing the selflessness of dharmas, [reaching] a supreme and pure state. As for the affliction-hindrance: it is cut off through the earlier practice of seeing the selflessness of persons — once the seven [active] consciousnesses cease, one is liberated from the affliction-hindrance, though the storehouse-consciousness's own habituation must still be exhausted before one reaches ultimate purity. Because [enlightenment] rests on the fundamentally abiding Dharma itself, neither 'before' nor 'after' has any fixed nature of its own [with respect to it]. Because his original vow is inexhaustible, the Tathāgata teaches the Dharma without deliberation and without examination — being transformed entirely by right wisdom itself, his mindfulness never once lapsing, he has no need for deliberation or examination at all. Because habituation belonging to the four abodes [of affliction] and the abode of fundamental ignorance has already been cut off, the two afflictions are themselves cut off, he is apart from the two kinds of death, and, awakened to the selflessness of both persons and dharmas, both hindrances are cut off as well.

Mahāmati, mind, will, consciousness, and the eye-consciousness — these seven — are apart from the cause of momentary habituation once they are apart from the very grade of wholesome and undefiled activity, and no longer continue to revolve. Mahāmati, the tathāgatagarbha, however, is the cause of both revolving-existence and nirvāṇa, of pleasure and pain — it is what confuses the mind [when it is merely fixed as] emptiness. Mahāmati, this is something the foolish and ignorant are simply unable to realize. Mahāmati, what Vajrapāṇi accompanies and guards is only the transformation-body buddha, not the true Tathāgata at all. Mahāmati, the true Tathāgata is apart from every measure taken by any sense faculty — every measure taken by any ordinary person, śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, or outsider's sense faculties having entirely ceased — attaining the very bliss of the Dharma as it stands present, dwelling in the ceaseless forbearance of the Dharma's own wisdom, and is therefore not something Vajrapāṇi could ever guard. Every transformation-body buddha is not produced from karma at all. A transformation of a transformation-body buddha is not the [true] Buddha, yet is not apart from the Buddha either — teaching the Dharma by relying on marks constructed the way a potter's wheel [shapes clay] to suit sentient beings, not teaching from the very domain of his own self-realization. "Furthermore, Mahāmati, the foolish and ignorant, relying on the cessation of the seven-consciousness body, give rise to the view of annihilation; failing to be aware of the storehouse-consciousness, they give rise to the view of permanence. Through their own false thought, they fail to know the very origin [of birth-and-death]; only once their own false-thought wisdom itself ceases is there liberation. Once habituation belonging to the four abodes [of affliction] and the abode of fundamental ignorance is cut off, every fault whatsoever is cut off." At that time, wishing to restate this meaning once more, the World-Honored One spoke in verse: "The three vehicles are, in truth, not even a vehicle at all — the Tathāgata himself is never destroyed; everything every buddha has ever taught speaks of being apart from every fault and evil. For the sake of ceaseless wisdom, and for the sake of nirvāṇa without remainder, drawing forward those of lesser capacity — this is why [these teachings] are spoken with their meaning veiled. The very wisdom that arises in every buddha is what distinguishes and teaches the path — the [various] vehicles are not truly a vehicle at all, and that [teaching] is itself not [ultimate] nirvāṇa. Desire, form, existence, and views — these are spoken of as the four abodes [of affliction]; what mental consciousness itself gives rise to is the very dwelling in which will itself resides. Will and the eye-consciousness and the rest are spoken of as subject to annihilation and impermanence — or else, forming a view of nirvāṇa there, they are instead spoken of as abiding permanently."