The Transmission Gatha of the Twelfth Patriarch Mahasattva Asvaghosa

Original Text: Concealment and revelation are both this Dharma; clarity and obscurity are without duality. Now I transmit the Dharma of realization—neither grasping nor abandoning.

Explanation: For sentient beings, the Tathagatagarbha, whether concealed or revealed, possesses its inherent functional nature as the primordial Dharma, never vanishing or perishing. The clarity and obscurity within sentient beings’ minds are not entirely separate from the Tathagatagarbha as two distinct dharmas. Clarity and obscurity, delusion and enlightenment, arise because of the Tathagatagarbha, depend on the Tathagatagarbha, and are fundamentally of the nature of the Tathagatagarbha. I now transmit the Dharma of realizing the Tathagatagarbha. The self-mind of the Tathagatagarbha never grasps at any worldly dharmas, nor does it abandon them—neither attaching nor detaching. It is devoid of mental activities within the three realms, utterly pure and incomparable.