འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མཆག་ཏ་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའ་མད་སྡའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 5.17

5.17

If someone in a dream were to practice enlightened conduct, that is how I practiced enlightened conduct. If a mirage were to practice enlightened conduct, that is how I practiced enlightened conduct. If a valley’s echo were to practice enlightened conduct, that is how I practiced enlightened conduct.”

When great Brahmarāja heard that, he asked the bodhisattva Wish-Fulfilling Radiating Light, “Venerable one, based on what meaning did you say those words?”

The bodhisattva Wish-Fulfilling Radiating Light replied, “O Brahmarāja! Although there is not a single phenomenon that does not have the characteristic of the true nature, nevertheless they are created through causes and conditions.”⁷³⁶

“If that is so,” said Brahmarāja, “then it would be logical that childlike, ordinary beings would attain the highest, most complete enlightenment of buddhahood.”

“What are you thinking that made you say that?” asked the bodhisattva Wish-Fulfilling Radiating Light. “Do you think that ignorant individuals are separate, that wise individuals are separate, that enlightenment is separate, that nonenlightenment is separate, that liberation is separate, and that nonliberation is separate?

“Brahmarāja, phenomena are the same in that way and have no separation. This Dharma realm has no separate nature,⁷³⁷ and so on, up to attachment having no separate nature.⁷³⁸ It has no increasing or lessening.

“O Brahmarāja! It is like a conjurer, or a conjurer’s pupil, who is skilled in manifesting illusions, who at a crossroads gathers pebbles, plants, tree leaves, and so on, piles them into a heap, and who then through magic manifests herds of elephants, herds of horses, a mass of chariots and soldiers, and so on, and a heap of the seven precious materials, and various kinds of treasuries that are seen by many people.