Part 4 - Mind is essenceless

When these appearances of variety are examined by reasoning:

As long as they are not examined, they will please us,
But when they are examined, they are ungraspable.
On thorough examination, they go beyond speech and thought.
They cannot be conceived as existing or not existing.
Extreme conceptions neither apply, nor do they not.

If we do not examine all dharmas, they appear to be truly existent. However, if we examine the atoms of external appearances, they are natureless. No grasped objects are apprehended. Inner fixation is a partless instant beyond any identifiable essence, and so no fixation of mind is perceived. Non-dual and free from complexity, this is beyond expresser and expressed. The Jewel Heap Sutra says:

Kashyapa, what is this world-transcending medicine of wisdom? It is exertion that completely seeks out mind. Completely seeking out mind is like this:

What is this mind that becomes passionate, aggressive, and ignorant? How does it arise in the past, future, or present. That which is past mind has ceased and is exhausted. That which will be in the future has not yet arisen. That which is presently arising has no support or duration.

Kashyapa, mind does not exist internally, nor does it exist externally, nor between the two; nor is it perceived as something without these two.

Kashyapa, as for mind, there is no scrutiny, no showing, no appearance, no understanding, no existence.

Kashyapa, even by the buddhas, mind has never been seen, and it never will be seen. Kashyapa, if mind is sought everywhere, it is not to be found. That which is not to be found is not to be perceived anywhere. That which is not to be perceived anywhere will not be in the past. It will not be in the future. It will not arise in the present. It will not be something which has passed away. It will not be something that is to come. Nor is it something that is arising now. It completely transcends the three times.

Also:

Like mind, all dharmas too are not perceivable, and therefore they do not exist at all. The Sutra Requested by Maitreya says:

Mind has no shape. It has no color. It has no existence. It is like space.

The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

Those who wish to enter this sphere of realization of the Victorious One should abandon all wishes, like space. They should abandon grasping of concepts, thoughts, and perceptions. They should enter into this mind like space.

The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:

It excludes the expressible
And experience of mind,
Unborn and also unceasing,
With a nature like that of nirvana.

The All-Creating King says:

It is not a thing whose characteristics are shown.
It is apart from objects perceivable by sight.
It is unknowable by any verbal expression.
This, the essence that does not arise from any cause,
Is free from all the superimpositions of conception.

If we wish to realize truly the meaning of this,
By example, it is eternal like the sky.
The meaning is the unborn, the space of dharmata.
Its sign is being the unobstructed nature of mind.

Dharmata itself is like the space of the sky.
It is symbolized by the example of being like the sky.