Living beings are born without a beginning, and die without an end. They revolve in this beginningless and endless transmigration like dust motes: suddenly up in the heavens, suddenly down on the earth. Just as suddenly they are born as hungry ghosts, or humans, or animals, or hell-dwellers, or asuras. Ah! There is no beginning and no end. You stop transmigrating in birth and death only when you realize the fruition of Buddhahood. Before you become a Buddha, you keep transmigrating. It is said, “Even Bodhisattvas get confused after having gone through rebirth; even Arhats become muddled after having dwelt in the womb.” Even if you are a great knight of the Dharma body (a Bodhisattva) manifesting in this world, sometimes you may be confused by the flow of birth and death and not know how to stop it.

Our birth and death, being born and dying, dying and being born again, is birth and death on a great scale. We also have birth and death on a small scale. There is the day we are born. Although we are born, we will have to die. The day of our death is already set the day we are born. Therefore, our life is birth and death on a great scale. Each passing year brings the death of that year. Thus if we are born one day, we will have to die one day, because once there is birth, there is death. If there is no birth, then there is no death.

As to the “beginningless,” most people explain it as there being no beginning and no end. It refers to time without beginning; it started at a kalpa in the beginningless past, and goes to a kalpa in the endless future. What is without a beginning? And what is without an end? It is something we all recognize: the zero. This O has no beginning and no end. It is the Absolute, without beginning or end. The beginningless is just the O. If you cut this O open, it becomes a “一” (the Chinese character for “one”). This is the beginning. Once there is a one, there is also a two: when you add one to one, that is two. Adding another one makes three, and adding more ones makes four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. From ten, a hundred is produced; a hundred brings forth a thousand; a thousand transforms into ten thousand; ten thousand further transforms into one hundred thousand, one million, ten million, and a thousand million, up to infinity. That is the beginning of numbers.

In the modern scientific age, we can launch satellites into space, where they revolve in their orbits ceaselessly. That’s a beginning. With the help of mathematical calculations, we are able to send rockets into space. That is the function of a beginning; it’s a kind of mathematical transformation. Then is there an end? We don’t know when the end will come. The end corresponds to the stage of emptiness in the four stages—formation, dwelling, decay, and emptiness. The kalpa (eon) of formation is a beginning. Formation lasts for twenty small kalpas. Then there is dwelling for twenty small kalpas, decay for twenty small kalpas, and emptiness for twenty small kalpas. One could say that this is a beginning and an end.

這個大光明藏是你 自己本有的，不是旁人給你的，也不是諸佛給你的，是你自己本具的。 This great light treasury is originally yours; it not given to you by anyone else, not even by the Buddhas. It is inherent in you.

Where have all these living beings that have appeared since beginningless kalpas come from? Take human beings, for example. Did man exist before woman, or woman before man? If you say man appeared before woman, how could there be any men without a woman? If you say woman appeared before man, how could there be any women without a man? This is the “beginningless”—we don’t know where it started. Chickens are another example. Would you say the chicken came before the egg, or the egg before the chicken? For countless ages in the past, there were no chickens. How did the first one come into being? “It was born from an egg,” you may say. Well, if there were no chickens, how could there be eggs? We cannot gain a clear understanding of this principle; it comes from the beginningless. People also came from the beginningless, from the O.

This O is beginningless and endless; it has neither inside nor outside; it is neither big nor small. In its minutest aspect, the O is nothing but a dust mote. If we expand it, it becomes the Dharma Realm. To the ends of the empty space throughout the Dharma Realm, there is nothing beyond the O. If the empty space throughout the Dharma Realm were smashed into dust motes, not a single dust mote would be beyond the O. Therefore, the O is the source of the myriad births and transformations. It is the principle of true emptiness and wonderful existence, which is without beginning or end. When the O is expanded, it becomes empty space and the Dharma Realm. That is true emptiness. When it is shrunk, it becomes a dust mote. Despite its tiny size, that dust mote is wonderful existence. Therefore, beginningless kalpas have no beginning. The O is true emptiness, and it is wonderful existence. All of you, think about this! If you understand this principle, you understand the true Dharma. If you don’t understand this principle, you’re still a confused person with no real wisdom.

If you are enlightened, then the O is great bright wisdom. If you aren’t, then it is ignorance. Ignorance is the O, and great bright wisdom is also the O. It has no beginning or end, no inside or outside; it is neither big nor small. It’s so big there’s nothing outside of it, nothing bigger. When you draw a zero, you can make it as big or as small as you want. It can be so big that there’s nothing outside, or so small there’s nothing inside. Its bigness transforms into the pure and clean fundamental source—the wonderful true nature. Its smallness and hiddenness represent the initial thought of ignorance. That is how I explain “beginningless.”

Transmigration is also the O. When you transmigrate in the six paths, you are just revolving within the O, unable to break out. Living beings transmigrate in the O for countless great kalpas, eternally revolving in birth and death. Isn’t it scary? You keep turning ’round and round’ in transmigration. Why do you revolve eternally? Your thoughts come into being and cease to be one after another. With a single defiled thought, you become an animal or a hungry ghost, or fall into the hells. If you incline toward purity, you may be born a human or an asura, or ascend to the heavens. It is the mind that brings about transmigration. Your mind creates karma, and so you receive the retribution of transmigration.

Such karma does not start when you receive the retribution. In reality, you had many false thoughts in the past. If you have false thoughts about the heavens, you’ll be born in the heavens; if you have false thoughts about asuras, you’ll be born an asura. With false thoughts of being human, you are born a human; with false thoughts of animals, you are born an animal; with false thoughts of hungry ghosts, you are born a hungry ghost; with false thoughts of the hells, you fall into the hells. If you do nothing but commit offenses, you fall into the three evil paths; if you always establish wholesome merit and virtue, you ascend to the three good paths. This is just a general explanation. If I were to explain this in detail, I wouldn’t be able to finish to the end of time. In short, this world is created from living beings’ false thoughts. If no one had false thoughts, then the world would be empty.

Living beings don’t understand this Dharma of the real appearance of true emptiness and true suchness, the Dharma of true emptiness and wonderful existence. This is known as the actual Dharma. The Dharma of true emptiness and wonderful existence is just the O. The vast universe arises from the O; so does the great world, all the multitudes of living beings, and everything else. The O is not a number. It is beyond numbers and reckoning. It has no beginning or end, no inside or outside, no big or small. “Let it go and it fills the six directions. Roll it up and it hides away in a secret place.” The actual Dharma is just the Dharma of true emptiness and wonderful existence. True emptiness is not empty. Why not? It contains wonderful existence. Wonderful existence does not exist. Why not? It encompasses true emptiness. It is said, “True emptiness does not obstruct wonderful existence, and wonderful existence does not hinder true emptiness.” This principle resolves the question of whether man or woman came first. It also resolves the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first. The O solves all problems, because the O is true emptiness, and wonderful existence and the myriad things arise from it. Yet that wonderful existence is not separate from true emptiness. If you have not received the Buddhas’ mind-seal Dharma, you will not understand this state. If you understand the mind-seal Dharma-door of the Buddhas, you will understand this Dharma. Therefore, it is said, “The actual Dharma is not understood.”

Living beings are forever adding a head on top of a head, or riding on a donkey and looking for a donkey. They run around seeking outside and don’t know that they should look within themselves. Our own natures are originally replete with the actual Dharma. We need not seek outside for it. You may spend 80,000 great kalpas looking for it outside, but you won’t find it. However, if you can return the light and look within, it’s right there. As it is said, “The sea of suffering is boundless; a turn of the head is the other shore.” When you seek outside, you are in the boundless sea of suffering; when you reflect within and work on your own nature, you are turning your head and finding the other shore.

People are so upside down! From morning to night we pursue false conditions, using our six sense faculties to chase the six sense objects. We fail to understand the actual Dharma. In the land of eternal stillness and light, the Buddhas sit in full lotus posture and enter samadhi, and in samadhi they come to this world. Why do they come? They see foolish living beings forgetting the real and clinging to the false, and they take pity on us. We don’t know how to turn from delusion and return to enlightenment, to turn from the unreal and return to the real, to use the false to cultivate the true, to reflect upon ourselves. How pathetic we are! The Buddhas in samadhi bring forth great compassion and come to the world to instruct us in our confusion. However, we chase after false conditions and fail to recognize the true Dharma. The more Dharma the Buddha speaks to us, the more we retreat. And so the Buddha shakes his head and is at a loss. What can we do if the Buddha is at a loss? Well, we can turn around. When we do so, the Buddha will come before us and teach us. That’s why the Buddhas appear in the world.

The actual Dharma cannot be destroyed by those of externalist paths (heretics). It encompasses everything throughout empty space and the Dharma Realm. Buddhas, demons, and externalists are all included in this true Dharma; they cannot go outside the Dharma Realm. Even the heavenly demons and externalists have to comply with the Proper Dharma, for they cannot destroy it. No one can destroy the Proper Dharma. If it could be destroyed, it wouldn’t be the actual Dharma. It is indestructible.

The great brightness of self-mastery is just this O. When you have perfected your cultivation, the great light treasury will manifest; the awesome spiritual power of self-mastery will appear. This great light treasury pervades empty space and the Dharma Realm. The Buddha comes to the world to teach all living beings about the Dharma-doors of leaving birth and death, of reflecting upon oneself, and of returning to the source. Your great bright wisdom can shatter ignorance and reveal the inherent Dharma nature. If you don’t believe what I say, you can try it out. When the time is ripe, you won’t be able to disbelieve it. You’ll have to believe it, because that’s the way it is. How can you not believe? This great light treasury is originally yours; it’s not given to you by anyone else, not even by the Buddhas. It is inherent in you.