What Is Anutpattika-Dharma-Kṣānti?

Non-arising has two meanings. One meaning refers to the fact that although the worldly phenomena of the five aggregates appear to arise and cease on the surface level, their essence is actually empty and non-arising. Arising is merely an illusory, false appearance—arising yet non-arising. The wisdom of recognizing this is the wisdom attained by realizing the selflessness of persons within the five aggregates. Enduring and accepting the selflessness of the five aggregates is a great wisdom called the patience with non-arising. This is the Śrāvaka (Hinayāna) patience with non-arising. The other meaning of non-arising refers to the ultimate truth of the Dharma Realm, the Tathāgatagarbha, which is non-arising, innate, unborn, and unceasing. Being able to endure, accept, and acknowledge the non-arising of the Tathāgatagarbha is an even greater wisdom, also called the patience with non-arising. This is the Mahāyāna patience with non-arising. Observing the non-arising of both the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna together, one realizes that all phenomena, worldly and supramundane, are non-arising, all are quiescent in nirvāṇa, and not a single phenomenon can be grasped at. Both the one who grasps and the one who does not grasp are also non-arising.

Why is it called 'patience'? Previously, one always believed the five aggregates to be truly existent. Although they could arise and cease, one felt the phenomena of arising and ceasing were also real, not knowing the five aggregates are non-arising. Now, having realized from both the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna perspectives that the five aggregates are empty and selfless, being able to accept and acknowledge this extremely difficult-to-understand principle, to endure and bear it, requires great wisdom. Without wisdom, one cannot endure and accept it. Therefore, patience is a form of wisdom.

For Hinayāna practitioners to attain the patience with non-arising, they need to study the truths of the Four Noble Truths and contemplate the five aggregates through practice, cutting off and realizing the emptiness and selflessness of the five aggregates. Although the phenomenon of emptiness exists, this emptiness is also empty, hence it too is non-arising. If a Hinayāna practitioner can endure and accept this principle, it is called the patience with non-arising. The wisdom state of this Hinayāna patience with non-arising is inferior and coarser than the Mahāyāna patience with non-arising, and it is even lower and more superficial than the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas attained by Bodhisattvas on the Bhūmis (stages).

The Mahāyāna patience with non-arising is the wisdom state attained by Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas upon realizing the fundamental mind, the Tathāgatagarbha. Upon the sudden awakening to the Tathāgatagarbha, one simultaneously awakens to the principle of the non-arising of the five aggregates. Both the Tathāgatagarbha and the five aggregates are non-arising. When the mind endures, accepts, acknowledges, and bears this principle, the wisdom of the patience with non-arising arises. Previously, one did not know that within the functioning of the five-aggregate body there exists the unborn, unceasing Tathāgatagarbha. Now one knows there is a Tathāgatagarbha, but before realization, this is merely intellectual understanding. After realization, one knows for certain that the fundamental mind is indeed unborn—this is true knowledge. Simultaneously with this true knowledge, one also realizes that the five aggregates are produced by the Tathāgatagarbha and depend on it for their existence. The five aggregates arise and cease ceaselessly, and the karmic actions performed exist as seeds within the Tathāgatagarbha. In later lives, after these seeds take root and sprout, new five aggregates are born. Therefore, the Tathāgatagarbha cannot cease; since it does not cease, it is certainly not a phenomenon that is produced.

'Patience' (忍, rěn) means to endure, to accept, to bear, and it also has the meaning of abiding peacefully. 'Enduring insults' (忍辱, rěnrǔ) means to endure and accept the humiliation from others without retaliation. The 'patience' in the Four Applications of Mindfulness (四加行) refers to the mind enduring, acknowledging, accepting, and bearing the emptiness of the grasper and the grasped, the emptiness of the five aggregates subject to clinging, and the emptiness of the eighteen elements (dhātus). The 'patience' in the patience with non-arising and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas also carries this meaning: accepting, acknowledging, and enduring the non-arising and selflessness of all dharmas, with no resistance or doubt remaining in the mind. This is the manifestation of the birth of great wisdom.