How to Realize the Empty and Quiescent Mind as Expounded in Avalokiteshvara’s Ear-Gate Perfect Penetration Dharma Method

The Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing method cultivated by Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva in the Shurangama Sutra involves Avalokiteshvara contemplating emptiness in deep meditation, continuously dispelling illusory dharmas. This mode of practice requires profound meditative absorption and exceptionally strong prajna wisdom; lacking either, one cannot achieve the Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing. This cultivation method entails continuously eliminating all arising-and-ceasing, unreal illusory dharmas within the deepest meditative absorption, until only one so-called "thing" remains—that which cannot truly be eliminated, that which cannot truly be emptied—which is the true mind, the Tathagatagarbha.

This cultivation method is excellent, yet most people—indeed, nearly everyone—cannot cultivate to this level. Firstly, they cannot attain such profound meditative absorption. Secondly, they lack the depth of prajna wisdom of emptiness required to realize this empty mind-nature within such deep meditative absorption. Thirdly, their aspiration is not vast enough, and their virtuous roots and merit are insufficient to support such cultivation. Consequently, when realization proves impossible, misunderstandings about the prajna wisdom of emptiness become immense. Given the virtuous roots and capacities of sentient beings in this Saha World, success in this practice is unattainable; even the initial realization of emptiness is exceedingly difficult to achieve. While prajna wisdom might be understood conceptually to some degree, meditative absorption is a concrete benchmark, the most tangible cultivation skill—it cannot be attained through intellectual understanding alone.

Therefore, eliminating all illusory dharmas within meditative absorption is beyond the capability of ordinary people. This requires not only realizing the emptiness of the self (pudgala-nairātmya), becoming a Stream-enterer up to an Arhat, but also realizing the emptiness of dharmas (dharma-nairātmya), becoming a Bodhisattva on the Bhūmis, possessing consciousness-only seed wisdom. Only after eliminating all false and illusory dharmas, after emptying everything, does only one truly unvoidable, empty and quiescent true mind remain. At that point, cultivation reaches its culmination. It is currently impossible for anyone to cultivate to this level. Beings with such great roots and capacities do not come to the Saha World, as it is incompatible and would waste Bodhisattva resources. Sentient beings in the Saha World do not require such supremely wise, great Bodhisattvas.

After eliminating all false dharmas, only an empty, quiescent mind remains, and one realizes the profound emptiness. But who is it that realizes this quiescent mind? Who cognizes that quiescent true mind? There must still be a "who"; without this "who," it is impossible. Yet this "who" is also empty, also something to be eliminated. However, one must still utilize this "who" that should be negated—this empty "who"—to discover our inherent, empty and quiescent mind-essence, the Tathagatagarbha. Such cultivation involves eliminating all illusory dharmas, not annihilating them; it means not taking them as real. Then, one uses the illusory, non-true consciousness and manas to realize that indestructible true mind. Without the illusory consciousness and manas, one cannot clearly perceive the mind and attain enlightenment.

What does this empty, quiescent mind refer to? It means its essence is empty and quiescent, formless, invisible to the eye, inaudible to the ear, unsmellable to the nose, untastable to the tongue, intangible to the body, unfelt and unthinkable to the mind. How then can one empirically realize it? By studying the Prajna sutras, understanding the nature of the true mind and the characteristics of its functioning, and recognizing that the true mind functions within the five aggregates. After understanding this, one needs to perfect the six pāramitās of a Bodhisattva, then engage in meditative absorption and investigative work, persisting single-mindedly in the investigation, only then can one realize the empty, quiescent mind.

The Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing method is not purely a method of cultivating meditative absorption (śamatha); it is a method that equally cultivates absorption and wisdom (śamatha-vipaśyanā). Based on the four dhyānas and eight samāpattis, one studies the profound Mahāyāna Tathagatagarbha Dharma. Within meditative absorption, one progressively abandons arising-and-ceasing illusory dharmas—everything except the Tathagatagarbha must be relinquished, including the mind that empties, the dharmas that are emptied, and even various conceptions of emptiness. Without wisdom, one fundamentally cannot cultivate this method. Cultivating this method can lead to Avalokiteshvara’s thirty-two response bodies; whether in meditative absorption or wisdom samādhi, one rivals all Buddhas—it is, of course, supremely perfect and penetrating. The closer a method approaches the ultimate, the more profound the Dharma, the more sublime the method, the more difficult it is to cultivate.

Cultivating the Dharma of no-self, severing the view of self to attain the purity of the Dharma-eye, emptying the five aggregates—this samādhi is the simplest and easiest method. How many people can guarantee they will realize it before the end of their life? If I didn’t propagate the Dharma and solely cultivated the Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing, I too could not attain it. Even if many people can cultivate the four dhyānas, they still may not necessarily cultivate the Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing. Even with the realization level of a First Ground Bodhisattva’s consciousness-only seed wisdom, one still may not necessarily cultivate the Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing. Cultivation like Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, culminating in becoming an Equal Enlightenment Bodhisattva, will not occur in the Saha World. If one cannot even accomplish the first visualization in the Contemplation of Amitāyus Sutra, then there is nothing more to discuss; any talk is just empty words—what use is it?

Regarding the first visualization in the Contemplation of Amitāyus Sutra, have practitioners been cultivating it for several years? Not a single person has reported their cultivation results. Only upon achieving the third visualization can one be assured of rebirth in Sukhāvatī (the Land of Ultimate Bliss) at life's end. If the first visualization is already this difficult, how much less the third visualization? How much less Avalokiteshvara’s Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing method? Cultivating the Undistracted Concentration (Anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm is already so difficult; the first dhyāna is even harder—how much less the four dhyānas? How much less the meditative absorption required for cultivating the Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing? If even realizing the first fruit (Stream-entry) seems distant, clearly perceiving the mind is even harder, let alone the consciousness-only seed wisdom of a Bodhisattva on the Bhūmis—how much less cultivating Avalokiteshvara’s Perfect Penetration through the Faculty of Hearing method? Almost half the world can eloquently discuss theory, but as for genuine cultivation, reaching a certain level—truly, few in the world can be found. This is the current state of the Dharma-Ending Age in the Saha World.