What This Concept Is About
In the complete map of the Buddhist path of liberation, the human condition is fundamentally a "karmic activity" (業行, karma-caryā) driven by ignorance (無明, avidyā)—conditioned, outflow-laden (有漏, sāsrava) formation and saṃsāric flux. The process of practice moves from passively governed "karmic activity" toward the bodhisattva's true practice (菩薩正行, bodhisattva-caryā) of self-awakening and awakening others, and ultimately converges into the supreme, perfect, unobstructed ultimate state of life—如來行 (tathāgata-caryā, "the Tathāgata's conduct").
In a word: 如來行 refers to the Tathāgata's enactment of non-attainment (無所得, anupalabdhi), unobstructedness, and suchness (真如, tathatā) practice; it also refers to the bodhisattva's true practice tending toward buddhahood.
It is by no means "some behavior" or "an action" in the mundane sense, but rather, after thoroughly awakening to reality (實相), the unimpeded, lively manifestation of life as one with suchness. To grasp 如來行 accurately, one must understand it systematically through its four core dimensions and three classical metaphors:
1. Essential Dimension: Non-Attainment, the Middle Way, and Suchness Unobstructed
In the *Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra* (《大宝积经》) and the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (《华严经》), the most fundamental nature of 如來行 is defined as "non-attainment" and "identical with suchness."
* Beyond conceptual elaboration (戲論, prapañca) and the two extremes: The scriptures describe this state as "neither enacting nor not enacting" (不行亦非不行). It is neither rigid immobility (not "not enacting") nor fabrication based on a self and purpose (not "enacting"). There is not the slightest fixed, substantial dharma that can be called "Tathāgata"; its inherent nature and the nature of tathāgatahood are neither identical nor separate. * Unborn, unmoving, unarisen: In its essence, 如來行 is like suchness and the dharma-realm (法界, dharmadhātu)—without body, without measure, without bondage, transcending spatial location and the coming and going of time ("the past is not extinguished, the future does not arrive, the present does not arise").
2. Inner Dimension: The Great Stillness Concentration and the Sixth Power of Thorough Knowledge
如來行 is by no means an empty surface appearance lacking inner support. Internally, it is deeply rooted in the great stillness concentration (大寂定, mahāśamatha)—called "the great person's conduct" (大丈夫行, mahāpuruṣa-caryā)—and externally it manifests as the Tathāgata's sixth power (第六力)—namely, the thorough knowledge of all sentient beings' various afflicted actions (惑行).
* The Tathāgata sees with perfect clarity all the boundless afflictive fabrications of sentient beings corresponding to greed, hatred, and delusion (貪瞋痴, rāga-dveṣa-moha); he perceives the sharpness or dullness of beings' faculties and whether their bodily, verbal, and mental actions are pure or impure. It is precisely because of this all-illuminating thorough knowledge and the great stillness concentration that 如來行 can teach according to capacity with not the slightest error.
3. Outer Function Dimension: The Precise Mapping of Three Classical Metaphors
To reveal the wondrous function of 如來行—"abiding nowhere yet able to manifest universally"—the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (in both the Eastern Jin translation and the Tang translation) gives three classical metaphors that must never be conflated:
* The metaphor of the bird flying through space (without divisions and immeasurable): * *Mapping*: Space has no boundary (無分齊, without divisions); as a bird flies through space, both the path it has already traversed and the path it has not yet traversed are immeasurable. Likewise, 如來行 transcends the limits of language and number; even if one spent hundreds of thousands of koṭis of eons (劫, kalpa) expounding and explaining 如來行, what has been spoken and what has not been spoken would both remain immeasurable. * The metaphor of the king of garuḍas (the ten powers, calming-and-insight, and rescuing from the sea of craving): * *The eyes*: The Tathāgata surveys all sentient beings throughout the dharma-realm with his "pure Buddha-eye" (淨佛眼). * *The two wings*: Relying on the "ten powers" (十力, daśabala) and the "two wings of calming and insight" (止觀, śamatha-vipaśyanā)—the dual cultivation of concentration and wisdom (定慧, samādhi-prajñā). * *The action*: Stirring up / spreading wide the "great ocean of the water of birth-and-death craving" (生死大愛水海)—churning the sea of craving and drowning in which beings sink. * *The result*: Seizing beings whose roots of merit have matured, rescuing them from the sea of birth-and-death, and establishing them in the "non-discriminative unobstructed conduct" (無分別無礙行), also called the Tathāgata's unobstructed practice. * The metaphor of the sun and moon traversing the heavens (broadly performing Buddha-work without any thought of coming or going): * *Mapping*: The Tathāgata traverses the unobstructed space of liberation, destroys darkness, and benefits sentient beings, just as the sun and moon move across the sky. The sun illuminates all things and broadly performs Buddha-work, yet never arises the self-referential deliberation of "where have I come from, where am I going." In his countless manifestations, the Tathāgata likewise has not the slightest function or self-clinging of "I have coming and going."
4. Ground Dimension: The Bodhisattva's True Practice and the Unobstructed "Path Trodden" (所行道)
For practitioners, 如來行 is both the fruition (果位) and the causal ground (因地). The bodhisattva's path toward 如來行 is the cultivation of the "true practice of the perfection of wisdom" (般若波羅蜜多, prajñāpāramitā)—namely, enacting right conduct without grasping any dharmas (不取諸法而行正行): toward all dharmas, neither slighting nor grasping nor rejecting, awakening into the signless (無相, ānimitta).
In practical manifestation, 如來行 unfolds into various concrete "paths trodden" (such as the "space-equal path," the "dharma-body path" (法身, dharmakāya), the "boundless path," etc.): able to fill countless buddha-fields (刹土, kṣetra) in the ten directions with a single body seated in cross-legged posture (結跏趺坐, paryaṅka), able to manifest descent into the womb, awakening, and even entry into nirvāṇa (涅槃), while truly never abandoning the great vow (大願, mahāpraṇidhāna) or sinking into extinction.
A Walkthrough in Daily Life
So that 如來行 does not become an ethereal metaphysical term, let us map it step by step onto the three life scenarios most familiar to contemporary people:
Scenario One: Scrolling Phones and Information-Flow Anxiety (Mapping: Prajñā True Practice and the Sixth Power)
* The ordinary person's (凡夫, pṛthagjana) "karmic activity": Lying in bed late at night scrolling short videos or social media, dragged along by algorithmically pushed anxiety, anger, or vanity. Seeing others' glamour gives rise to craving; seeing disagreeable posts gives rise to hatred. This is called "grasping at signs and fabricating"—stuck in afflictive actions corresponding to greed, hatred, and delusion. * Where people most often mis-map: Thinking that to practice the Dharma one must "smash the phone entirely and seal oneself off from the internet." This is still falling into the mundane clinging of "grasping and rejecting" both extremes. * Walkthrough of the bodhisattva's true practice and 如來行: * *Insight (the sixth power)*: See clearly, as they truly are, the mechanisms in the information feed that stir thoughts to rise and fall, and also honestly observe the greed, hatred, and delusion arising in one's own mind—without deceiving oneself. * *True practice (neither grasping nor rejecting)*: As information slides past the eyes, realize its essence: all of it is fleeting "signlessness" and "non-attainment." Do not be stuck to it (not grasping), and do not forcibly generate aversion or rejection (not rejecting). * *Entering 如來行*: Abide in the state of "neither enacting nor not enacting"—the phone is in use, the information flows, but the mind is unborn, unceasing, without location.
Scenario Two: Workplace KPIs, Overtime, and Self-Proof (Mapping: The Sun-and-Moon Metaphor)
* The ordinary person's "karmic activity": Completing a major project leads to arrogance and a strong clinging of "I'm really impressive"; having a project rejected or being laid off leads to total self-doubt. One is stuck all day in the self-referential drama of "I have coming and going, I have gain and loss." * Walkthrough of 如來行 (sun and moon): * Facing complex workplace tasks, you give your full effort to planning, executing, and firefighting (broadly performing Buddha-work, like the sun and moon illuminating all things and traversing space). * But deep inside, you know full well that this "project" is nothing but a phantom of dependent origination (緣起, pratītyasamutpāda) gathering and dispersing. While fully engaged, your mind never arises the self-accounting of "this is my achievement, I am the savior" or "I failed, I'm finished" (not making the thought "I have coming and going"). When the work is done, the mind is like space, leaving not a trace.
Scenario Three: Intimate Relationships and the Parenting Trap (Mapping: The King of Garuḍas Metaphor)
* The ordinary person's "karmic activity": In parenting or romance, waving the banner of "I'm doing this for your own good," one exerts suffocating control, indulgence, and emotional blackmail. This is precisely falling into the "great ocean of the water of birth-and-death craving" that drowns and kills life. * Where people most often mis-map: Mistakenly thinking that compassion means bottomless compliance, indulgence, or condescending moral coercion. * Precise mapping of the king of garuḍas metaphor: * *Pure Buddha-eye*: See clearly that the child or partner is an independent living being, and see clearly the "love" in the relationship that is actually disguised control. * *The two wings of calming and insight*: "Calming" (止, śamatha) is the steady composure when facing the other's emotional provocation; "insight" (觀, vipaśyanā) is the rational wisdom that sees through the nature of affliction. * *Stirring the sea and rescuing*: With the power of concentration and wisdom, spread wide and break through suffocating attachment and indulgence (the great sea of craving), "seize" the child out of the mire of dependence and anxiety, give the other independent spiritual space, and let them abide in free, unobstructed growth (the non-discriminative unobstructed conduct).
Why Contemporary People Need It
Contemporary society is shrouded in unprecedented "performatism" (绩效主义) and "algorithmic control." Every action of our daily lives is imbued with extreme purposiveness (for KPIs, for traffic, for a house, for success). This hyper-utilitarian mode of existence is essentially an extremely painful "conduct of attainment" (有所得行).
1. Dissolving "performance anxiety" and "self-objectification" Contemporary people feel they are machines that must keep running; stopping produces enormous guilt. 如來行's revelation of "non-attainment" and "neither enacting nor not enacting" tells us that the highest state of life is not endless "grasping and proving," but remaining inwardly "unmoving, unarisen, unborn-unceasing" while fully participating in the world. It offers an extremely high degree of existential elasticity that "falls into neither extreme." 2. Clarifying the uniqueness of life in the "algorithmic life" and AI era Today's AI and automated algorithms can formally simulate extremely complex human "actions" and decisions. But does this mean AI possesses life? From the perspective of 如來行, no matter how strong AI's computational power, it is only pattern-matching based on historical data. It has neither the inner essence of the "great stillness concentration" nor any understanding of "non-attainment" and "reality is signless." AI's logic is forever the seeking of "attainment," while 如來行 is a "mindless manifestation" (無心示現) grounded in suchness and selflessness. Using AI as a contemporary point of comparison lets us see more clearly: the liberation Buddhism pursues is by no means the stacking of computational power or the extreme of efficiency, but the unobstructed freedom that comes after completely shedding the illusion of "self." *(Note: this comparison is only an aid to understanding; science and algorithms are still at a preliminary stage in exploring the nature of consciousness. One must never equate AI algorithms with Buddhist theories of mind, nor claim that science has proven the Dharma.)*
Common Misreadings and Clarifications
* Misreading One: Treating "non-attainment" and "neither enacting nor not enacting" as passive lying-flat and not working. * *Clarification*: This is the most typical "narrowing" and falling into one extreme. The scriptures state explicitly that 如來行, though "without abode" and "non-attained," can nevertheless "fill countless buddha-fields in the ten directions with a single body seated in proper cross-legged posture," and can manifest great superpowers (神通, abhijñā) such as birth, awakening, and entry into nirvāṇa, broadly saving beings. Lying flat arises from weariness and fear—it is "rejecting" (捨); 如來行 is an extremely active compassionate response, enacted without mind, having transcended both "grasping" and "rejecting."
* Misreading Two: Viewing 如來行 as a distant miracle with no connection to ordinary people. * *Clarification*: 如來行 is indeed the perfect manifestation of the Buddha's fruition, but the scriptures emphasize that the bodhisattva's "true practice of the perfection of wisdom" *is* the 如來行 on the causal ground. As long as you attempt "not grasping any dharmas" in daily life, and practice "neither grasping nor rejecting, awakening into the signless" when facing favorable and adverse circumstances, you are on the path toward 如來行. The unobstructedness of the fruition is precisely gathered step by step from that single moment of awareness on the causal ground.
* Misreading Three: Understanding metaphors like "sun and moon traversing the heavens" or "king of garuḍas" as mundane heroism or natural law. * *Clarification*: Mundane heroes saving the world are typically driven by strong "self-identification," a "savior complex," and moral superiority; natural sun, moon, and stars are merely unconscious material motion. The "king of garuḍas" and "sun and moon traversing the heavens" of 如來行 are expressions of wisdom grounded in the "great stillness concentration" and the "sixth power of thorough knowledge"—possessing both extremely keen compassionate rescue and being utterly free of the function and self-referential drama of "I am the savior." This state of "deep awareness without self-clinging" is precisely the most distinctive and most wise aspect of Buddhism's practice of reality.