Excerpts of the Correct Meanings on Treatise of the Middle Way,
Vol. 1, pp.68-69
Teacher Sun Cheng-Te
That which is called the emptiness-nature of the sign of reality must belong to the realm of wondrous existence because it is not conventional existence, such as worldly existence or the existence of the three realms. It is the dharma entity of the emptiness-nature of sign of reality that can transform and produce all dharmas. This dharma entity simultaneously encompasses the conditioned arising-and-ceasing nature of all the dharmas that it transforms and generates. While constantly supporting and responding to the various conditioned arising and ceasing of all dharmas, it can manifest its own unconditioned nirvāṇic nature, which is neither arising nor ceasing, neither coming nor going, neither defiled nor pure, and neither increasing nor decreasing. The emptiness-nature of the sign of reality, in its manifest state as a dharma entity, never falls to the side of tainted dharmas or to the side of nihilistic nothingness. Yet, it has the dharma-nature of untainted conditioned dharmas. This kind of dharma-nature, which encompasses all dharmas without falling into the two extremes of existence or nothingness, is called the nondual reality-nature.
All enlightened Mahāyāna worthies and sages directly observe that all sentient beings equally possess such a dharma entity with a nondual reality-nature; such a dharma entity denotes the sign of reality, the tathāgatagarbha mind, which can give rise to all dharmas. The mind entity of ālaya-consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, is the Mahāyāna Dharma entity capable of transforming and generating all dharmas of the aggregates, sense fields, and elements, and so forth, and is the dharma entity that possesses a nondual reality-nature. After bodhisattvas who have realized the mind entity of ālaya-consciousness obtain support and guidance from various buddhas, bodhisattvas, and truly enlightened mentors and reorient themselves based on the dharma-nature of reality-suchness of the mind entity, they bring forth the fundamental non-conceptual wisdom—the prajñā of the sign of reality—and a small portion of the subsequently acquired non-conceptual wisdom. Thereupon, they can directly observe that the five-aggregate body is indeed directly produced by the mind entity of ālaya-consciousness. The neither-arising-nor-ceasing mind of the sign of reality, the ālaya-vijñāna mind entity, encompasses all the myriad dharmas of the aggregates, sense fields, and elements that it produces; the producer and the produced are neither identical nor different. When practitioners dwell in the state of the Middle Way in this manner and engage in the observation and contemplation of phenomenal existence, they are considered practitioners who have accomplished the framework of Middle Way. That is, they directly observe that the five-aggregate body merely has the arising and ceasing characteristics of dharmas manifested by the mind entity of ālaya-consciousness through causes and conditions. Therefore, they can correctly penetrate the nondual reality-nature, which encompasses both conditioned and unconditioned dharmas, without falling into the two sides of existence and nothingness and of eternalism and nihilism. Not only can practitioners realize and understand the truth about the origin of the five-aggregate body, but they can also acquire valid knowledge from the direct perception of the sign of reality of the dharma realm. After such realization and understanding, practitioners will profoundly comprehend the prajñā of the sign of reality and will be recognized as having realized the prajñā-wisdom associated with the sign of reality, thus becoming a true bodhisattva Mahāsattva.