Overall Teaching

The Tathāgata's mind remains consistent, unaffected by external factors or perceptions. His mind is pure and untouched by worldly distinctions, showing an unparalleled form of vision and knowledge. All of the Tathāgata’s manifestations are identical in nature to him, acting with compassion to awaken sentient beings. The Tathāgata's knowledge transcends conditioned states, material realms, and time, embodying effortless wisdom and compassionate engagement.

Summary

1. The Tathāgata has no Transformation of Mind

   • Vajrapāṇi explains to Śāntamati that, unlike ordinary beings whose consciousness shifts and transforms, the Tathāgata’s mind does not transform. From the moment of attaining anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi until entering Mahāparinirvāṇa, the Buddha’s mind does not fluctuate or change. He does not possess a mind that investigates, contemplates, measures, increases, decreases, defends, or wanders. Nor does he have a mind that rejoices, meditates, fabricates, or ceases. His mind is unshaken, without reliance on sense faculties or sense objects, and does not abide in past, future, or present dharmas.

2. The Tathāgata's Mind is Unattached and Unimpeded

   • The Buddha’s mind is purified and free from attachment to any dharmas. It cannot be grasped, and it does not observe the impurities of other beings’ minds. Though vision and perception occur, they are without conceptual elaboration—seeing is “seeing nothing to see.” His knowing does not rely on ordinary or supernormal faculties (fleshly eye, divine eye, Dharma eye, Buddha eye, divine ear, knowledge of others’ minds, recollection of past lives, or other supernormal knowledges). Instead, it is unimpeded knowledge that encompasses all dharmas while remaining effortless and without intention.

3. The Tathāgata's Manifestations are of the Same Nature

   • The Buddha’s manifestations, like conjured images of a Tathāgata, lack mind, thought, or bodily and verbal activity, yet by the Buddha’s power they can perform all Buddha-activities. The Tathāgata himself is just such a manifestation: entirely without discrimination, application, or intention, yet capable of benefitting beings. This is because he has realised that all dharmas share the same nature as himself. Out of compassion, he employs skilful means to manifest and guide beings while remaining beyond all fabrications.

4. The Tathāgata's Knowledge does not Abide

   • Śāntamati is told that the Tathāgata’s knowledge is utterly non-abiding. It does not abide in conditioned or unconditioned dharmas, aggregates, sense realms, or sense fields. It does not abide internally or externally, in wholesome or unwholesome dharmas, in the world or apart from it, with faults or apart from faults, in outflows or apart from outflows. In this way, his knowledge transcends all dualities and fixed abodes—it is free, unconditioned, and inconceivable.