The Tathagata points out that all living beings have a misconception

K2 He points out that all living beings have a misconception.

Sutra:

The Buddha said, “Very good, Ananda. You should all know that all living beings are continually born and continually die, simply because they do not know the everlasting true mind, the bright substance of the pure nature. Instead they engage in false thinking. It has been so since time without beginning. Their thoughts are not true, and so the wheel keeps turning.

Commentary:

The Buddha said, “Very good, Ananda.” The Buddha encourages Ananda, telling him he has done a very good thing to resolve to become a bhikshu. Then he addresses the entire assembly, the great bhikshus, great Arhats, great Bodhisattvas, and all the people present, saying that they should all know that all living beings are continually born and continually die - birth and death are undergone in a continuous succession which never ceases, and we leave behind a pile of bones as large as a mountain. Birth and death; death and birth; birth and death. Where did you come from, and where are you going? You don’t know. You are dragged about by your karmic conditions, your karmic obstacles. Where will you be born next? Where were you before? You don’t even know how you got here and you don’t know where you will go after you die.

“Why is there birth and death?” you ask.

Because you don’t understand, do not know the everlasting true mind which does not move or waver, which is not produced or extinguished, which is not defiled or pure, and to which there is nothing added or taken away. Because this mind does not move or waver it is called “everlasting.” Because there is nothing to be added or taken away from it, it is called “true.”

Merely to know of the true mind is not enough; you must also recognize the bright substance of the pure nature. This is your own self-nature, your dharma-nature. It is clear and pure, and its brilliance pervades and illumines everything everywhere. But you aren’t aware of it; you’ve forgotten it. It is like a bright pearl hidden in your clothing.

The Dharma Flower Sutra tells of a wealthy man whose son was unhappy at home and ran away. But just before he left, his parents, who feared their son would end up penniless and become a vagrant sleeping in the streets, secretly sewed a pearl that grants all wishes into the youth’s clothing. The son left, and as predicted soon ended up a drifter. But he didn’t realize that a priceless pearl was sewn in his clothing, so he couldn’t take advantage of the benefit it would provide him. The bright substance of your everlasting pure nature, your true, unchanging mind, is like the youth’s priceless pearl: since you are unaware of it, you can’t use it to good advantage. Instead you engage in false thinking. It has been so since time without beginning. You use the conscious mind, which is subject to production and extinction. Its thoughts are not true, but it takes control of you and makes you murky and confused; it spins you around and pulls you into the mire. Since your actions are based on it, the wheel keeps turning in a perpetual cycle of birth and death. But if your false thinking is cast out and exhausted once and for all and no more is produced, and you recognize your true mind, your births and deaths will cease.