To Conquer the Mind Is to Conquer the World

The world is established in the void, and the void resides within the Tathagatagarbha, like a wisp of cloud in the vast sky. The Sahā World and the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss are closest to each other, yet still separated by a hundred thousand Buddha lands. How immensely vast must the great chiliocosms of sand-like realms be! Conquer your own mind, and you conquer the universe, conquer the worlds of the ten directions, conquer the One True Dharma Realm. Take out your heart and thoroughly comprehend the Dharma within it, and the immeasurable worlds will belong to you. In truth, to conquer the world is to conquer your own mind; there is no Dharma outside the mind.

Yet every day, we still cling to trivial worldly dharmas, stirring thoughts over minor matters, appearing utterly insignificant. Observing from the standpoint of cosmic emptiness, what worldly matter can truly be considered significant? When will you expand the capacity of your mind to match that of the Tathagatagarbha? The moment you do, you will possess the ocean of worlds in the ten directions. The Buddha said: "It is as if one were to discard the clear waters of a hundred thousand great seas and recognize only the form of a single bubble, considering it the entire ocean, exhausting the vastness of the seas. You are beings doubly deluded within delusion." Hearing these words of the Buddha, we should truly awaken quickly and cease our deluded attachments.