What Are the Conditioned and the Unconditioned?

Conditioned means to act for a purpose, to have requirements, to seek, to pursue. Conditioned activity entails seeking, demanding, fabrication, attainment, desire, purpose, mental activity, creation, selfhood, and the four characteristics. Unconditioned is the absence of these mental states, the opposite of conditioned.

A mind without seeking is unconditioned. A mind without attainment is unconditioned. A mind without mental activity toward the three realms is unconditioned. The dharmas that are not born are unconditioned. A mind with boundless, limitless capacity is unconditioned. A mind without afflictions is unconditioned. A mind that has no need for the dharmas of the three realms is unconditioned. A mind that can exist without any conditions is unconditioned. A mind that does not wish to fabricate is unconditioned. A mind without self is unconditioned. A mind without the four characteristics is unconditioned. The conditioned pertains to the mundane dharmas of the seven consciousnesses, while the unconditioned is the Tathagatagarbha, the true suchness, the Buddha-nature.

The Tathagatagarbha selflessly serves sentient beings within the unconditioned state. While operating all dharmas of the three realms, its mind remains unconditioned. Within the unconditioned, there is the conditioned; within the conditioned, there is the unconditioned. Only when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to a certain level do they gradually transform from conditioned nature to unconditioned nature. Within conditioned activity, the mind-ground remains unconditioned, gradually corresponding with the Tathagatagarbha. When it becomes completely unconditioned and fully corresponding, Buddhahood is attained. Only the unconditioned mind of the Tathagatagarbha can exist apart from all dharmas. The unconditioned state of the seven consciousnesses cannot exist apart from the three realms nor apart from the unconditioned Tathagatagarbha. However, this unconditioned dharma of the Tathagatagarbha can exist alone apart from the conditioned dharmas of the three realms; this occurs during the state of Nirvana without remainder. Within Nirvana without remainder, the Tathagatagarbha is quiescent and unconditioned, not fabricating a single dharma, perfectly pure and supremely pure. Apart from conditioned dharmas, the unconditioned dharma of the Tathagatagarbha still exists. Therefore, the Patriarch said: "There is a thing, prior to Heaven and Earth, formless, fundamentally quiescent and solitary."

All dharmas exist dependent on the mind. Since all dharmas are divided into conditioned and unconditioned aspects, the mind is likewise divided into conditioned and unconditioned types. Conditioned dharmas are jointly transformed and created by the conditioned seven consciousnesses and the unconditioned Tathagatagarbha, such as all dharmas of the three realms, bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Unconditioned dharmas are also manifested jointly through either the conditioned or unconditioned seven consciousnesses and the unconditioned Tathagatagarbha, such as the four dhyanas, the cessation of perception and feeling, the state of no-thought, etc., the attainments from the first fruit to the fourth fruit, the realization of the mind and seeing the nature, or the unconditioned nature of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. Only the innate unconditioned dharma of the Tathagatagarbha is neither born nor manifested by the conditioned or unconditioned seven consciousnesses, nor is it born or manifested by the Tathagatagarbha itself. However, if it is to be manifested, it still relies on the contrast provided by the mundane, conditioned dharmas of the seven consciousnesses.