འཕགས་པ་ཀན་རྫབ་དང་དན་དམ་པའ་བདན་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.6

1.6

great beings have no thoughts at all, none that have arisen, none that are arising, and none that will arise. And why is that? Because ultimately all phenomena are inherently unborn.”

The god asked, “Mañjuśrī, so what does that Thus-gone One wish to see abandoned through his teaching the Dharma?”

Mañjuśrī said, “That Thus-gone One teaches the Dharma because ultimately things are neither inherently born, nor do they inherently end. And why? Because bodhisattva great beings apply themselves assiduously to the ultimate truth. However, they do not apply themselves diligently to the relative truth.”

The god said, “Mañjuśrī, what is the ultimate truth?”

Mañjuśrī said, “Divine son, if, on the ultimate level, ultimate truth becomes an object of body, speech, or mind, that is not ‘ultimate truth’ but relative truth itself. Rather, divine son, on the ultimate level, ultimate truth transcends all conventions. It is without specific instances; it does not arise, does not cease, and is free from something to be expressed, an expression, something to be known, and knowledge. Divine son, the ultimate truth transcends everything up through the domain of omniscient wisdom that is endowed with the supreme of all aspects. Divine son, it has no engagement with, nor any turning back of, concepts and thoughts. Ultimately, there is no ‘far shore,’ there is no ‘this shore,’ nor is there a middle. Divine son, although one indeed makes the exaggerated claim, ‘This is ultimate truth,’ that is not the same as saying, ‘Ultimate truth is like this.’ Divine son, ultimately, reality is unborn; thus, no conventions apply to it. That to which, on the ultimate level, no conventions apply, divine son, is ultimate truth. Thus, that is not like saying, ‘Ultimate truth is like this.’