Speaking of Tathagata’s manipulation, only a certain Bodhisattva can fully understand Tathagata’s manipulation. This Bodhisattva is the one who relies on virtuous deeds of the Tathagata to establish conduct and vow of action to be aware of the precept’s dharmas to absorb and salve thousands and thousands of dharmas. This Bodhisattva has also performed Prajñāpāramitā and is the only one who can be acutely aware of the manipulation of the Tathagata. If Tathagata’s manipulation needs to be described in words, the knowledgeable one can say this:
When thousands and thousands of dharmas have achieved their form, it is called dharma form. Examples of dharma forms are national land, pure land, mountains, rivers, continents, lands, and planes, and all of these become the three thousand worlds. Dharma form in the aspect of form is Buddha’s dharma body. More precisely, Tathagata’s manipulation is the moment when thousands and thousands of dharmas are moving formlessly, are still in invisibleness but will become visibleness, are not achieved yet but will be achieved, are not combined yet but will be combined, are not enlightened yet but are practicing and will be enlightened, and are not acquired yet but will be acquired. Though Tathagata’s manipulation has no shape, the supra Bodhisattva is acutely aware that the procession of Tathagata is complete without missing and is thus called the essence of Tathagata. In other words, everything in the universe, from air, space, world, and the outside of the world to the Heaven’s lands, Buddha’s lands, and fairy’s land, all belong to the unique essence of Tathagata. Therefore, speaking of Tathagata is generally speaking of everything, and one cannot point at any small group and say that this is Tathagata: “Tathagata is neither coming from somewhere nor going anywhere, and thus it’s called Tathagata,” it says in the Diamond Sutra. When one practices Tathagata meditation, one should perform without holding onto any particular field as the road leading to complete accomplishment.
In current and future generations, if a practitioner repeatedly says “I practice Tathagata meditation” while practicing by focusing on a specified field, such as fixed thoughts, praying, or expectations of Nirvana through confused-illusory imagination, he or she is not accurately practicing Tathagata meditation. Furthermore, he or she has gotten stuck in one door among the six doors of the meditation subject. Why? This is because Tathagata meditation embraces six subjects as the six doors of the whole house of Tathagata meditation, and this is a presentation of first-rate supremacy. The first-rate supreme Tathagata meditation, and therefore the establishment of the sect, is the manipulation of Tathagata, which guides practitioners in using Buddha’s vehicles to drive on their own roads of practice and action, leading to widespread awareness of the unique essence, and thus to becoming completely enlightened.
