The Ultimate Middle Way

Were there no sentient beings tainted by the Three Poisons (Greed, Anger, and Ignorance), the Fruit of Buddhahood would have no means to manifest; were there no imperfect beings clouded by ignorance, how could the World-Honored One’s perfect wisdom and virtue be revealed?

Just as light cannot display its brilliance without the contrast of darkness, so too is there no vessel of salvation without a sea of suffering. The perfection of the Buddha is manifested precisely through the delusions of sentient beings; the liberation of sentient beings is achieved precisely through the awakening of the Buddha. The two are mutually dependent as cause and condition—neither identical nor distinct.

Thus, 'The Mind, the Buddha, and Sentient Beings—these three are no different.' The intrinsic nature is empty; the primordial awareness is True Suchness, the ultimate, intrinsic and essential nature of all existence, (Tathātā). Every individual fully possesses the Tathagatagarbha (Buddha-matrix), yet differentiation arises solely due to ignorance and deluded attachment. In delusion, sentient beings are Buddhas; in enlightenment, Buddhas are sentient beings. Between a moment of delusion and a moment of awakening, there is no hierarchy of high or low.

The subtle meaning of the Middle Way lies in achieving Buddhahood amidst these very ignorant sentient beings—falling neither into Nihilism (asserting no sentient beings and thus no Buddha) nor into Eternalism (clinging to a substantial Buddha or substantial beings). One practices the Bodhisattva path amongst "nominally existing sentient beings" (who arise via dependent origination and lack intrinsic self-nature). As for the so-called "Bodhisattvas of favourable and adverse paths", both prosperity and adversity are the Dao-place (Bodhimanda). The Bodhisattva never abandons sentient beings, nor do they depart from the afflictions of the Three Poisons to perform liberation. Within the perceptible Three Poisons, they recognize both the Finite (the arising and ceasing of phenomena) and the Infinite (the emptiness and constancy of intrinsic nature)—exhaustible yet inexhaustible, inexhaustible yet exhausted; this alone is the Ultimate Middle Way.

True Suchness and Ignorance blend together; they are neither one nor different. Sentient beings revolve according to ignorance; Bodhisattvas enter [the world] through Great Compassion, yet all return to the One Mind. 

May this realization liberate all sentient beings, that we may together witness Supreme Bodhi.”