progression is true and real, it is definitely not so!
In The Great Matrix Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in One Hundred Thousand
Verses, at the time of his teaching on the twentyfold emptiness, Shakyamuni
Buddha said, “There is neither beginning nor end in emptiness.” There is nothing
in samsara that can be called either a beginning or an end. If we investigate this
samsara that is without beginning or end and in which live the beings whose
appearances arise out of their own karma, we find it to be like a dream and an
illusion. In its identity, it has no going or coming, and it abides in its own empty
essence in the emptiness that has neither beginning nor end. The attachment that
arises out of desire for samsara, and the terror of it that arises out of apprehension
is eliminated. The Buddha does not speak of a beginning or an end to samsara
because he knows no beginning or end. Just as samsara has neither beginning nor
end, there is no beginning nor end to emptiness.
In the tantra The Discourse of the General Assembly, it is said,
Air is established in the sky,
And the water aggregate is established in air;
In water earth is established,
And beings are established on earth.
Beings depend on karma,
So their causes are as stated thus.
What supports the sky?
This is the point to examine!Asked “What do human beings depend upon?” we can answer: the earth. “Upon
what does earth depend?” Water. “Upon what does water depend? Air. “Upon what
does air depend?” The sky. But if we are asked upon what does space depend,
ordinary people cannot answer, and even great scientists are left dumb.
Shakyamuni Buddha, knowing the reality of all things, said that nothing has any
true existence. Thus he is known as omniscient, praised by all gods and people.
In the tantras it is understood that all external, mundane things like mountains,
houses, wealth, and so on, cannot be known and experienced and proven to exist
as more than mental projections or mental appearances. Internally, the mind itself
cannot be established as anything other than the creativity of pure presence, the
essential nature of mind. That spontaneously arisen pure presence, timelessly free
of any blemish, abides in its own space as the buddha-potential of the
dharmakaya. We must understand that it always stays in the space of the
unconditioned essence.
1.30 IN UNCONDITIONED PURE PRESENCE, ALL BUDDHA-POTENTIAL IS SPONTANEOUSLY
MANIFEST
The primal awareness of intrinsic presence, beyond expression and
understanding, is said in all the tantras to be essentially unconditioned. In the
tantra Magnificent Unelaborated Clear Meaning, it is said,