Translated By Tony Qin
True Suchness and Ignorance are two key terms that often appear in Buddhist sutras and treatises. Like light and darkness, these two concepts are fundamentally opposed. Just as darkness is recognized only in contrast to light, the sutras speak of Ignorance in contrast to True Suchness. Ignorance has no intrinsic nature; once dispelled, it becomes nothingness and does not re-arise. True Suchness, on the other hand, is the ineffable, emptiness-nature, beyond grasping or expression—any attempt to describe it can only amount to idle words.
The essential nature of all dharmas is reality as it is, free from delusion; hence we call it “True.” It is constant, unchanging, serene, and unmoving; hence we call it “Suchness.” All dharmas exist in constant accord with this true nature; therefore, we call it “True Suchness.” True Suchness, then, is the truth of all dharmas, innately and fully present within all beings. It is the very reality that pervades all existence, without beginning or end.
Ignorance, on the other hand, is the obscuration of the mind’s original clarity—it is the root of delusive afflictions. Under the sway of Ignorance, the illusion of a fleeting individual existence arises, veiling the inherent nature of True Suchness. Thus begins a life filled with afflictions.
Ignorance is beginningless, yet it has an end. When a confused sentient being develops wisdom through cultivation and ultimately awakens, the delusive, segmented notion of birth and death ceases. Meanwhile, the one ultimate truth of True Suchness continues to shine, revealing its inherent spiritual radiance.
True Suchness can be likened to the reflective power of a bright mirror—perfect and complete in itself. Ignorance, by contrast, is like dust that settles on the mirror; yet even when obscured by dust, the mirror never loses its reflective nature. Wherever the dust is wiped away, the mirror’s luminous clarity is revealed.
Thus, the morality of a person’s conduct affects the clarity with which True Suchness is revealed. As the ancient sages say, “The difference between sentient beings and Buddhas, between delusion and enlightenment, is but a hair’s breadth.”
Some may wonder: if True Suchness is inherently pure, how could it ever be defiled by Ignorance? If the purity of True Suchness can be tainted by Ignorance—giving rise to deluded thoughts and the illusion of self, leading to karmic actions and the suffering of body and mind in endless Saṃsāra—then wouldn’t one fall back into delusion and return to Saṃsāra even after attaining Buddhahood?
To answer this, the ancient masters offered a vivid and fitting analogy. Before gold ore is refined, both ore and gold coexist: where there is gold, there is ore. Gold is the essence; ore is the impurity. The ore exists in dependence upon the gold. Yet after mining, refining, washing away the dirt, and skillfully smelting and shaping it into an ornament, the pure gold reveals its radiant brilliance—never again to be tainted by ore.
True Suchness is just the same. From time without beginning, it has coexisted with Ignorance, just as gold and ore have always existed together in mutual dependence. Through diligent cultivation of the Dharma and the sharpening of wisdom, delusion and confusion are eliminated, and the full radiance of True Suchness shines forth. From that moment on, it can no longer be defiled by the delusions of Ignorance.
Thus, once a sentient being attains Buddhahood, they never again regress into delusion or become subject to the sufferings of Saṃsāra. As the sutras teach: “Ignorance is without beginning but has an end; True Suchness is without beginning and without end.” “Without beginning” means there is no discernible first cause. The Buddha taught that all phenomena in the universe arise through dependent origination: because this cause exists, that effect appears; when the cause arises, the effect naturally comes into being. Everything arises through the coming together of conditions in a continuous cycle of interdependence.
Therefore, there is only the causal activity of dependent origination—never an absolute beginning. If there were an absolute beginning, there would be no need for causes and conditions, and that would contradict the natural law. For example, once a circle is complete, no single point can be identified as its start or end; every point on the circumference is simultaneously both beginning and end.
Our lives, too, are like this. The delusive cycle of segmented birth and death has no beginning, but it will one day reach its end. When one attains Buddhahood, only the luminous essence of True Suchness shines forth; at that moment, Ignorance is fully extinguished, and one arrives in the serene, blissful state of Nirvāṇa.
