The Equal and Non-Differentiated Meaning of All Dharmas

All dharmas are equal and non-dual in two aspects. Firstly, all dharmas are impermanent in arising and ceasing, subject to change, unreal, empty, and devoid of self. They are empty in their very existence and even more so after their cessation. Secondly, all dharmas are the nature of Tathagatagarbha. Their nature is equal and non-differentiated, all born from the Tathagatagarbha using the seven great seeds, all manifesting the nature of Tathagatagarbha. It is like gold utensils made from genuine gold, all containing the nature of genuine gold. The utensils differ, but their essence is undifferentiated—all are genuine gold, all possess the value of genuine gold. Genuine gold neither arises nor ceases and is unchanging, yet the utensils are subject to destruction. After destruction, they remain the unchanging genuine gold.

The statement that all dharmas are equal and non-dual does not refer to an equality derived through intellectual understanding, nor is it the equality understood from the perspective of the Hinayana Dharma. Rather, it is the equality spoken of from the perspective of the Mahayana Dharma. Although the Hinayana Dharma also teaches that all dharmas are empty and speaks of the equality of all dharmas in the sense of emptiness, this equality is not true equality in the ultimate sense; it is incomplete equality. This is because the Hinayana Dharma bases itself on conventional phenomenal appearances to speak of all dharmas as impermanent in arising and ceasing, subject to change, and empty. It teaches that phenomena of arising and ceasing do not exist forever and ultimately vanish, leaving nothing behind. From the perspective of the result, they are all equal. However, conventional phenomenal appearances are not empty on the level of conventional truth; they possess various characteristics. These characteristics have distinctions of high and low, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, arising and ceasing, form and mind. Since there is differentiation, there is inequality.

The equality of the Mahayana Dharma is spoken of from the essential nature of all dharmas. It means that all dharmas are essentially the nature of Tathagatagarbha; all are the unborn, unceasing seed-nature of Tathagatagarbha. Although Tathagatagarbha uses the seven great seeds to transform and manifest the different conventional phenomenal appearances of all dharmas, their substance is still the nature of Tathagatagarbha. They are part of the whole of Tathagatagarbha; their essence is still unborn, unceasing, and unchanging. Their essence is also empty and ultimately unobtainable. Regardless of how all dharmas evolve, they are all the functional activity of the seven great seeds of Tathagatagarbha. The seven great seeds are eternally unchanging, unborn, unceasing, and immutable. Therefore, all dharmas are unborn, unceasing, and immutable, so all dharmas are equal and non-dual. From the perspective of Tathagatagarbha, all dharmas are equal; all are the nature and appearance of Tathagatagarbha. Tathagatagarbha is of one mark, non-dual; thus, all dharmas are of one mark, non-dual.

Only after the Wisdom of Consciousness-Only (Vijñāna-mātra-jñāna) has arisen can one directly and truly observe the nature and attributes of all dharmas, observe the substance of all dharmas. Only then can one know that all dharmas are manifestations produced by seeds within the Tathagatagarbha. The seeds within the Tathagatagarbha are unborn and unceasing; they are primordially existent, without distinctions of high or low, superior or inferior. Therefore, the dharmas formed by the seeds are also equal, without distinctions of high or low, superior or inferior; all are equal and non-differentiated. However, from the perspective of the phenomena of conventional dharmas, all dharmas exhibit inequality—an inequality manifested in their appearances. This and the equality spoken of in the Buddha Dharma form a dialectically unified relationship.