Going Along with Conditions All Day While Remaining Unchanged

From the perspective of our single-thought mind-nature, though our present mind is a grasping, discriminative consciousness: a single instant of ignorance gives rise to the three subtle marks of existence; when the phenomenal realm, which lacks inherent independent existence, serves as a condition, the six coarse marks develop. The Dharma-characteristics (Yogacara) school has analyzed these in exhaustive detail: the sovereign mind (the eight primary consciousnesses), and all attendant mental factors.

This deluded, false mind of ours arises from the Suchness-mind (tathata), just as a tiny bubble rises from the surface of the vast, boundless ocean. Yet this bubble is never separate from the ocean itself – but ordinary beings cling to the bubble as if it were the entire ocean. When we cultivate practice and shatter our attachment to this deluded bubble, it merges back into the ocean of our original nature. We must fully recognize this truth, so that we can understand, from the perspectives of Suchness and the distinction between the true and the false, the principle of Going Along with Conditions All Day While Remaining Unchanged.

When our single-thought Suchness-nature does not abide in its inherent state, it manifests and transforms in response to conditions. There are pure conditions and defiled conditions. Following defiled conditions to create karma leads to the Six Paths of rebirth – the six realms of samsara; following pure conditions leads to the Four Holy Realms. These conditioned, arising-and-ceasing realms that manifest in response to conditions are what is meant by "going along with conditions all day" in this principle. Yet even within these conditioned manifestations, we remain unchanged all day. Though we may find ourselves in the hell realms, the human realm, or even the heavenly realms, the shravaka realms, or the pratyekabuddha realms, our Buddha-nature, when viewed from the perspective of ultimate reality, is neither born nor destroyed: it does not increase in fully enlightened buddhas, nor decrease in ordinary beings.

Even though we are suffering ordinary beings, our Buddha-nature is not diminished in the slightest. It fully possesses the fruit of enlightenment that Amitabha Buddha has already realized, and remains unchanged all day. Thus, "going along with conditions all day" refers to the gate of conditioned, arising-and-ceasing phenomenal existence, while "remaining unchanged all day" refers to the gate of Suchness as ultimate reality. We must fully grasp this dialectical relationship between the two.

This single-thought true nature of ours vertically exhausts the three periods of time – past, present, and future – and horizontally pervades the ten directions of space. Thus, in its very essence it is wholly unobstructed: this is the Great, Expansive, and Universal, which constitutes our essence, marks, and function, our fundamental mind-nature. Within this self-nature of the Great, Expansive, and Universal, Amitabha Buddha and the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss are fully contained within our single-thought mind-nature; they are not outside of it.

It is critical to clarify a key distinction here: the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss lies outside our deluded, false mind, but within our true, fundamental mind. Our present single-thought true mind fully contains the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya of Amitabha Buddha.

This single-thought true mind of ours also pervades equally to the presence of Amitabha Buddha, just as all the lamps in a room mutually interpenetrate and illuminate one another: it is impossible to tell which lamp a given beam of light originates from, for their light blends into a perfectly interfused, unobstructed whole.

Thus, the light of our true nature and the light of Amitabha Buddha also mutually interpenetrate and illuminate each other. Our minds contain Amitabha, and Amitabha's mind contains ours. So when we use a mind fully endowed with Amitabha to recite the Buddha who is fully endowed with our mind-nature, the response is immediate, and calling and response occur simultaneously. This is the principle underlying the responsive power of the Buddha-recitation practice.

Amitabha Buddha's Dharmakaya enters into our minds, and his entire great compassionate vow power dwells within our every thought. The instant we recite, the Amitabha within our hearts responds immediately. Thus, the manifestations that appear at the deathbed are also manifestations of our own mind-nature. Though Amitabha's great compassionate vow power serves as the condition for these appearances, they are still manifested by our own discriminative consciousness.

Records of such responsive manifestations are documented in Biographies of Rebirth in the Pure Land. The various auspicious signs that appear at the deathbed – extraordinary fragrance filling the room, celestial music filling the sky, the appearance of Amitabha Buddha and the Western Three Saints, and so on – are all entirely true and real. They will never deceive us.

This is truly inconceivable, the greatest of all inconceivables!