Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra

World-honored One, just as, for example,

the element of empty space is free from all differentiation, without differentiation and without non-differentiation,

so too is the knowledge of an omniscient one free from all differentiation, without differentiation and without non-differentiation.

Lord of Mysteries, how is one to know one’s own mind.

It cannot, namely, be apprehended by seeking it

in distinctions, or colors, or shapes, or external objects; or in form or sensation, ideation, volition, or consciousness; or in ‘I’ or ‘mine’; or in the grasper (i.e., subject) or the grasped (i.e., object); or in the pure; or in the [eighteen] elements [of existence] or [the twelve] sense fields; or in any other distinctions.

Lord of Mysteries, next there is a special practice.

Following their [friend’s] instructions, they dwell in a special state, whereupon there arises the wisdom that seeks liberation.

This is, namely, [the teachings of] permanence, impermanence, and emptiness, and they follow these teachings.

Lord of Mysteries, it is not that they understand emptiness and non-emptiness, permanence and annihilation.

With regard to both non-existence and non-nothingness, they consider what they differentiate to be without differentiation.

How is one to differentiate emptiness.

They do not know the varieties of emptiness, and [so] they will never be able to know nirvana.

Therefore, one should realize that emptiness is dissociated from annihilat