When You Attain the One, All Things Are Completed

All dharmas arise from conditions.
All dharmas cease with conditions.

Our Buddha, the great Shramana,
Always speaks in this way.

All dharmas arise from causes and conditions, and cease because of causes and conditions. This is the principle of transmigration. This is also the principle of “When something reaches an extreme, it will turn around. When adversity reaches an extreme, fortune comes.” This is also true of all dual dharmas in the world.

“Relativity dharmas”: when good reaches an extreme, it turns bad; when bad reaches an extreme, it turns good. For instance, when we are born, it is good; when we die, it is bad. Coming into being, dwelling, change, and extinction: after something comes into being, it dwells, then undergoes changes, and then ceases to be. Birth, aging, sickness, and death follows these same principles. After we are born, we gradually grow old. When we are old, we get sick. With sickness comes death. These are all conditions. Everyone undergoes birth and is glad to be born; everyone must die, but everyone fears death. If you are neither glad to be born nor afraid to die, you have samadhi power. Why do people fear ghosts? Ghosts are grotesque and frightening, menacing and capable of killing people. Fear of ghosts is a manifestation of the fear of death. If you did do not fear death, you would not fear anything. You would not be afraid of ghosts, spirits, goblins, demons, monsters, or anything at all. If you are afraid of something, you have not attained the proper Samadhi. Fearlessness is a form of proper samadhi and proper reception, it shows that one has attained samadhi. A person who has attained samadhi power is such:

Even if I meet with a knife’s point,
I am always completely tranquil.

If given a poisonous drug, I am still totally at ease.

Meaning to say, if someone were to slice my head off with a knife or poison me, I would not mind at all. I would stay unmoved. Why? Because I have already put an end to birth-and-death－ “Everything is done, and there is no more rebirth.” When you attain the One, all things are done.

However, just attaining the One is not enough. You must find a way to get back to the origin and turn it into a Zero. The Zero is an ineffably wonderful principle. Any person who understands the Zero can cultivate and realize the fruition. How can you understand the Zero? You must first understand the One. “When you attain the One, all things are done.” It is beyond the marks of speech, words, and conditions of the mind. Sweep away all dharmas, and separate from all marks. “With not a single dharma established, all dharmas are empty.” If you want to attain this kind of state and realize this principle, you must first attain the One. Do not think the One is so simple.

When heaven attains the One,
it becomes clear.

When earth attains the One, it becomes serene.

When a person attains the One, he becomes a sage.

Why is heaven able to shelter the myriad creatures and things? Because it has attained the One. Why is earth able to nurture the myriad things? Because it has attained the One. If the earth lost the One, there would be landslides, earthquakes, tidal waves, and all kinds of disasters. Wherever the One is lost, there will be incessant calamities. If the One is not lost, the earth will be peaceful and secure.

When a person attains the One, he becomes a sage. If a person really attains the One, he is free from transmigration; he can realize sagehood and open up his wisdom. When people lose the One, they undergo rebirth in the six paths, and suffer all kinds of afflictions and ignorance. The eighty-four thousand afflictions all come about because of having lost the One. If you attain the One, then afflictions will turn into Bodhi and birth and death will become Nirvana; it is as easy as turning over your hand, not difficult at all. So why haven’t you been able to turn afflictions into Bodhi, and birth and death into Nirvana? It’s because you’ve lost the One, and you’ve gone to two, three,…, ten. From ten to its exponential power, hundreds of thousands of afflictions come up. Hence, the One is very important. Once you lose the One, it’s not easy to regain it. Going from the One back to the origin, Zero, is even more difficult.