Essence of the Middle Way Prajna

 

 “Neither arising nor ceasing, 

Neither extinct nor permanent, 

Neither identical nor different, 

Neither going nor coming.”

The Treatise on the Great Prajñāpāramitā 

(Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa), Vol. 5

 

「不生不滅，不斷不常，不一不異，不去不來。」

《大智度論》卷5

Remarks:

The Three Dharma Seals can help us to understand that the life of every person has both an arising-and-ceasing part and a neither-arising-nor-ceasing part. The part that is neither arising nor ceasing is the eighth vijnana (ālaya-vijnana; ālaya-consciousness; Buddha-nature), the tathagatagarbha, that which set forth in the real aspect of the Consciousness-Only doctrine (真實唯識門). This ālaya-vijnana possesses the nature of both existence and emptiness and both cyclic rebirth and nirvanic liberation, and is both impure and pure. In light of this, this means that if the ālaya-vijnana of a sentient being who does not follow Buddhism to practice and realize the Path to Liberation will cause him to transmigrate while that of a sentient being who follows Buddhism to cultivate the Path to Liberation will cause him to transcend the cyclic existence.

Furthermore, the ālaya-vijnana of a sentient being who does not follow Buddhism to practice and realize the Path to Buddhahood will never transform into the suchness (真如) of the Buddha Ground and will always be the illusory consciousness while that of a sentient being who follows Buddhism to cultivate the Path to Buddhahood will be the foundation of the suchness of Buddha Ground (佛地真如) in the future. The ālaya-consciousness is indeed the true consciousness, the true “Self.” On the causal ground, it contains an illusory nature but at the same time is not illusory. This embodiment of being neither false nor non-false constitutes the notion of the Middle Way. 

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