An honest word upfront: The classical entry in our archive consists of a single sentence — "The pure meditative absorption of a Tathāgata, free from defilement and unimpeded." This sentence is extremely condensed, but it conceals depths that are extremely profound. To explain it thoroughly, I must unpack every single character, and then place it within the larger map of the entire path to liberation. If, after reading, you feel that certain details "could go one level deeper," that should not surprise you — this in itself shows that this concept cannot be dispatched with a single definition.
What This Concept Is Saying
I. Taking the Four Characters Apart
"如來清淨禪" can be broken down into a superposition of two nouns: 如來 + 清淨, jointly modifying 禪定. But for this concept to truly stand up, not a single word in that classical entry's phrase "the pure meditative absorption of a Tathāgata, free from defilement and unimpeded" can be glossed over.
"禪定" (dhyāna-samādhi) — first, establish the foundation. In Sanskrit, the family of meditative absorption includes at least dhyāna (禪那), samādhi (三摩地), samāpatti (等至), and śamatha (奢摩他) — these are related but not identical. Generally, "禪" (chan) leans toward dhyāna — a deeply focused one-pointedness of mind; "定" (ding) leans toward samādhi — a stable state in which consciousness does not scatter and does not waver. Combined as "禪定," the term, in the Chinese translation tradition, broadly refers to all states of highly concentrated, still, unmoving consciousness achieved through śamatha. But "禪定" itself can be conditioned (有漏) or unconditioned (無漏); conditioned (有為) or unconditioned (無為); it can be a conditioned antidote, or it can be originally pure — the word "禪定" is not equivalent to the ultimate goal that Buddhism seeks. The four dhyānas and the four formless attainments, even when fully cultivated, are still ordinary-person dhyāna; non-Buddhists can cultivate them too — they merely suppress afflictions temporarily without cutting their roots. Thus, in treatises like the *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* (《瑜伽師地論》) and the *Cheng weishi lun* (《成唯識論》), what kind of dhyāna a meditator cultivates — this matter itself is far more important than "whether you have meditative absorption."
"清淨" (pariśuddha, "pure") — this word appears twice in the entry: "pure meditative absorption" and "pure, free from defilement and unimpeded." This is not rhetorical repetition; it is a superposition of two levels. - The first level is purity in the sense of "free from defilement": consciousness has completely departed from the defilement of afflictions (kleśa, 煩惱), from the obstructions of karma and consciousness (āvaraṇa, 蓋障), from the grasping of subject and object. This purity is not "having no thoughts," nor is it "feeling peaceful"; it is that the self-nature of consciousness is no longer defiled by any affliction whatsoever. - The second level is purity in the sense of "unimpeded": after consciousness is free from defilement, what manifests is the free functioning of its marks and uses, the unimpeded interpenetration of principle and phenomena, and the unimpeded interpenetration of phenomenon and phenomenon. This is the fruition that purity brings — because it is pure, it is unimpeded; because it is unimpeded, it is pure. So the entry lists "free from defilement," "unimpeded," and "pure" side by side — not as padding, but as a tautological emphasis on the thoroughness of this state. Therefore, the four characters "清淨禪定" in the entry are not a modifier; they are a qualifier: they demarcate a class of meditative absorption — only that meditative absorption which is thoroughly free from defilement and thoroughly unimpeded can be called pure meditative absorption. Ordinary four-dhyāna four-formless attainments, ordinary bodhisattva subtle absorptions — none of these yet qualify to wear this hat.
"如來" (tathāgata, "Thus-Come One") — these two characters are the very soul of the entire concept. "如來" is one of the ten epithets of the Buddha. "如" (tathā, "thus") means as-real, as-principle, as-tathatā; "來" (āgata, "come") means coming without coming, coming from nowhere — combined, it means "comes from tathatā, goes to sentient beings; comes yet does not come, therefore called Tathāgata." In other words, the epithet "如來" itself presupposes that three things are simultaneously established: realizing tathatā, not abiding in nirvāṇa, and the extinction of both subject and object. Adding this prefix to "pure meditative absorption" changes the meaning entirely: - "Pure meditative absorption" could still refer to a class of meditative experience that is supreme within the sphere of absorption states; - "如來 pure meditative absorption" can only be the meditative absorption itself of one who has realized anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi — that is, at the Buddha level, that primordial self-nature absorption which is unattainable, ineffable, unthinkable, and inexpressible. So "如來清淨禪" can also be read this way: it is not "the meditation that a Buddha cultivates," but "the Buddha's meditation is the Buddha level itself." Meditation and Buddhahood are no longer separate. Wherever a Buddha is, this meditation is; apart from this meditation, there is no other Buddha.
II. Its Position Within the Entire Path to Liberation
Before: Where it comes from The genealogy of meditative absorption in Buddhism can be roughly arranged as follows —
- Ordinary-person dhyāna (凡夫禪): the four dhyānas, the four formless attainments. Non-Buddhists can also cultivate these; in essence they are conditioned — they can only temporarily suppress the arising of afflictions, not cut the seeds. These are worldly meditation (世間禪). - Two-vehicle dhyāna (二乘禪): śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, contemplating the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent origination, suppress and cut the afflictions of views and thought, and attain a one-sided true nirvāṇa. This is supramundane meditation (出世間禪), but its degree of "purity" is limited — it only departs from the birth-and-death of the conditioned (分段生死), not the birth-and-death of transformation (變易生死); it can only benefit oneself, not ultimately benefit others. - Bodhisattva dhyāna (菩薩禪): from the first ground to the tenth ground, bodhisattvas broadly cultivate the four immeasurable minds and the 84,000 dharma-gates; within absorption they do not abandon sentient beings, nor do they abandon the non-duality of wisdom and compassion. This is supramundane supreme dhyāna (出世間上上禪) — deeper and broader than two-vehicle dhyāna, but still with something to learn (still having something to cultivate). - 如來清淨禪: it is the endpoint of meditative cultivation and realization, and also the inversion of the starting point — there is no longer the mark of "cultivating," and there is no longer an object of "absorption." At this point, meditative absorption itself is the non-dual manifestation of the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya.
Middle: Where it is located In Yogācāra terminology, "如來清淨禪" is most commonly situated in the span between the fundamental wisdom of the tenth ground (法雲地, dharmameghā-bhūmi) and the anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi of the ultimate Buddha level. One could say: the final operation of all bodhisattva cultivation and realization is completed on the Dharma-Cloud Ground; after the Dharma-Cloud Ground, one enters the vajra-like concentration (金剛喻定); and after the vajra-like concentration is 如來清淨禪 — at the moment of the uninterrupted path (無間道), the liberated path (解脫道) is already accomplished. The key to this final operation is the non-duality of absorption and wisdom. All prior bodhisattva dhyānas still have the mark of cultivation in which absorption is absorption and wisdom is wisdom (as in the sequential triad of śīla—samādhi—prajñā, 戒—定—慧); when one reaches 如來清淨禪, absorption is just wisdom, wisdom is just absorption, concentration and wisdom are non-dual. This is precisely why the entry uses the word "無礙" (unimpeded) — it is the hallmark of the fusion of concentration and wisdom, of freely functioning marks and uses.
After: Where it leads 如來清淨禪 is not "clocking out after reaching the summit." It is the starting point of turning the ship of compassion back (倒駕慈航) — it is precisely within this absorption that the Buddha's saṃbhogakāya is ever still, and the nirmāṇakāya responds ever-presently; within stillness and immovability, it responds throughout the ten directions without moving; while responding to circumstances with teachings, it constantly abides in absorption without disturbance. This is why Mahāyāna scriptures speak of "那伽常在定，無有不定時" (*the nāga is always in absorption; there is never a time not in absorption*; see the meaning of the *Śūraṅgama-sūtra* 楞嚴經), using "always in absorption" to describe the state of Buddhas and bodhisattvas — this does not mean the Buddha is forever sitting without moving, but that all walking, standing, sitting, and lying down are marks of pure meditative absorption, with no distinction between "inside absorption" and "outside absorption."
III. Points of Confusion with Other "Dhyānas"
- vs. the four dhyānas and four formless attainments (四禪八定): the four dhyānas and four formless attainments have "freedom from defilement" (freedom from the defilement of the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm), but they are still worldly meditation — there is a summit to reach, something above to climb, an object to abide in — hence they are "impeded." 如來清淨禪 does not even have "that which is freed" or "that from which one is freed" as objects. - vs. two-vehicle dhyāna (supramundane meditation): although two-vehicle practitioners cut views and thought and attain nirvāṇa, they only "purify themselves" and are incomplete in benefiting others — this is called "sinking into emptiness and stagnating in stillness" (沈空滯寂), which is another kind of "impediment." 如來清淨禪 has no such impediment. - vs. general bodhisattva dhyāna: the dhyāna that bodhisattvas cultivate is often closely tied to bodhicitta and altruistic practice, and therefore has the mark of "cultivation" — this is its preciousness, but it is also the limitation of "still having something to cultivate." 如來清淨禪, by contrast, is the cultivation of no-cultivation; cultivated yet not cultivated. - vs. "如來禪" (tathāgata-dhyāna) in the context of ancestral Chan (祖師禪): in Chan school records (e.g., Guifeng Zongmi's 《禅源诸诠集都序》, *Prolegomenon to the Collection of Expressions of the Chan Source*), "如來禪" is contrasted with "祖師禪" (ancestral Chan). The former refers to the Chan that precedes "transmitting mind with mind, not establishing words" — a Chan entered gradually through verbal teachings; the latter is the sudden Chan of "directly pointing to the human mind, seeing nature and becoming Buddha." The "如來清淨禪" discussed here is related to but not identical with the "如來禪" of the Chan school context — the former is more a description at the level of fruition (the absorption of the Buddha level), the latter more a description of the cultivation path (verbal teaching vs. direct pointing). The two do not contradict each other, but they must not be conflated.
A Walk-Through in Everyday Life
Let us try to place "如來清淨禪" back into the small time-spaces of contemporary people's daily lives. This is not to make it "land on the ground," but rather the reverse — to use the familiar matters of the human world as a mirror, to illuminate what this concept is actually pointing to.
Scenario One: At 2 a.m., Collapsed from Overtime
You have been pinned to your chair for eleven hours by meetings, reports, and KPIs. Your mind is full of "what do I still need to do / what haven't I finished / am I going to be laid off" — this is the saṃskāra-skandha (行蘊, the aggregate of volition and fabrication) running at full load; accompanying it, the vedanā-skandha (受蘊, the aggregate of feeling) is anxiety and exhaustion; the constantly arising saṃjñā-skandha (想蘊, the aggregate of perception) is labeling everything — "this is important, that is dangerous"; the rūpa-skandha (色蘊, the aggregate of form) is your stiff neck and aching eyes; the vijñāna-skandha (識蘊, the aggregate of consciousness) is the overall director of all of this.
At such a moment, your usual way of "entering meditative absorption" is — take a deep breath, scroll through short videos for a while, or simply turn off the lights and lie flat. Do these actions work? Yes. But they all remain within the category of ordinary-person dhyāna / worldly meditation: consciousness is briefly occupied by something else, so the original anxiety is "temporarily not there" — this is diversion, not liberation. In diverted absorption, the moment that new object is removed, the old affliction returns exactly as it was, unchanged.
So what is the corresponding state of "如來清淨禪" in this scenario? — It is not "thinking of nothing", but rather "even if you are still thinking, you are clearly watching the one who is thinking"; not "anxiety disappears," but "you know what shape anxiety has, what taste it has, where it comes from, where it will go" — and within this "knowing," there is no anxiety that can truly pin you down. This is "freedom from defilement" — the arising of afflictions is still there (overtime is still exhausting), but it can no longer defile you (you are no longer determined by it). It is also "unimpededness" — you can simultaneously handle work, feel anxiety, take care of your body, and also notice the wind outside the window — and these things no longer "fight" with each other.
Walk-through: in this step, the hard part is not "knowing"; the hard part is "not being swept in." Most people think "purity" equals "having no anxiety," and therefore mistake "emotion being suppressed" for "having attained absorption" — this is mistaking anesthesia for meditation. The opposite of "freedom from defilement" in the entry is not the opposite of "being defiled"; it is "being defiled yet not defiled" — this is the true mark of "purity."
Scenario Two: Arguing with the Person Closest to You
Two people who love each other, at the height of their fiercest argument, often have one side saying "you never listen to me" and the other thinking "he/she simply doesn't love me" — both statements are inaccurate, but both are taken as true by the other.
What is most intense in an argument is the hyperactivity of the saṃjñā-skandha (想蘊): we abstract the other person's current, specific behavior into an eternal, unchanging trait ("you never listen," "you simply don't love") — this is the over-grasping of perceiving marks; then the saṃskāra-skandha (行蘊) immediately follows up, wanting to "win," to "be vindicated," to "demand an explanation"; the vedanā-skandha (受蘊) is grievance, anger, frustration; the rūpa-skandha (色蘊) is a racing heart, shallow breathing, tense muscles; the vijñāna-skandha (識蘊) is the overall director of a serial drama titled "I must clear my name."
What is the corresponding state of "如來清淨禪" in this scenario? — You see the process of "mark-grasping" itself; you see that the moment you said "you never listen," that was the saṃjñā-skandha grasping at an eternal mark, not the fact itself. You can, before it comes out of your mouth, pause for half a second longer — that half-second is purity. This does not mean not expressing anger, not discussing the conflict; it means that in the moment of expressing and discussing, there is no overlay of "frozen marks" — you can directly see the other person's face at this moment, this breath, this vulnerability, rather than seeing "the prototype of the other person you have constructed in your mind."
Walk-through: what most people most easily map incorrectly here is equating "purity" with "amiability," "not arguing," "forbearance." Forbearance is impeded purity — internally one is suppressing, stewing, keeping score; it is freezing anger, not being free from defilement. True freedom from defilement is not having no anger; it is that when anger comes, you are not pushed along by it; it is not not arguing; it is that after the argument, there is no lingering illusion that "the other person is someone else."
Scenario Three: Scrolling Your Phone Until Dawn
At 2 a.m., you originally planned to sleep, but you happened to watch a short video, and then three more hours passed in one scroll — this kind of "addictive concentration" is very easily mistaken for meditation.
Its structure is precisely the opposite of 如來清淨禪: your concentration is pushed along by the algorithm — it is a high degree of object-fixed absorption, one-pointedly staring at the screen, but the mind is passive, subject and object are split, and the subject is enslaved. It appears "unimpeded" (you can see anything on the platform), but in reality it is the greatest impediment — you cannot leave it.
What is the corresponding state of "如來清淨禪" in this scenario? — Being able to clearly know what shape the hook "the next video is waiting for me" has; being able to see the inertia of the finger's swipe; being able, before the finger swipes, to have a moment of pause. That moment of pause, that freedom of "choosing not to tap," is the smallest, most real, most trainable granularity of "freedom from defilement" in contemporary life.
Walk-through: what most people most easily map incorrectly is treating "freedom from defilement" as "freedom from desire" — thinking this means "not looking at your phone, not dating, not working, not being entertained." This narrows meditation into asceticism. Freedom from defilement is not freedom from desire; it is that "the hook of desire can be seen by you" — you can still scroll your phone, can still fall in love, can still enjoy entertainment, but you are no longer the prey of the hook.
Scenario Four: Raising a Child
When your child's exam results are poor, homework is procrastinated, and tantrums erupt, the question "how should I discipline him/her" is a heavy weight of the saṃskāra-skandha (行蘊); accompanying it, the vedanā-skandha (受蘊) is anxiety or self-blame; the saṃjñā-skandha (想蘊) is rapidly labeling the child's behavior with "what will he/she become later"; the rūpa-skandha (色蘊) is your tightened breath and sinking shoulders.
What is the corresponding state of "如來清淨禪" in this scenario? — You see your own deep-seated fixation of "I must make him/her walk the right path"; you see that the reason you are anxious is not the child's present crisis, but a deep unease triggered by the child's very existence — "I cannot accept him/her being like this." This seeing itself is purity. After seeing, there is still work to be done between you and the child — homework must be discussed, habits adjusted, emotions tended to — but these "matters" are no longer driven by fixation; they are propelled by lucid compassion.
Walk-through: what most people most easily map incorrectly is treating this kind of "seeing" as "detachment" — as if, having seen the fixation, one could stop caring for the child, stop responding. True purity is not coldness; it is "being able to manage" while the body and demeanor remain unmoved, "being able to love" without demanding return. This is precisely why the entry places "無礙" side by side with "清淨" — purity does not make us numb; it makes us able to endure, able to bear, able to let go.
Scenario Five: Alone in the Early Morning
No people, no information, no tasks — you simply sit there. This is one of the rarest moments in contemporary life. But many people, after five minutes, automatically pick up their phones, or are driven by inner anxiety to do something, or try hard to "empty the mind" — and the very effort is itself a form of grasping.
What is the corresponding state of "如來清淨禪" in this scenario? — Neither grasping at "emptiness" nor grasping at "having something to do"; letting the body and mind's form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness run on their own, cease on their own; not guiding, not resisting, not judging — this is the manifestation of purity in its most plain state — it usually does not look very "mystical"; it only looks like a person sitting quietly for a long time, without panic, and without artifice.
Walk-through: most people most easily misread this state as "supernormal powers," "entering absorption," "nirvāṇa" — attaching a sacred label to it. Once labeled, the saṃjñā-skandha (想蘊) begins over-grasping again, and freedom from defilement becomes a fresh round of defilement. The Chan school says "才有所重，便成窠臼" (*the moment there is something you hold on to, it becomes a nest*), which is precisely this point. 如來清淨禪 is not a state that can be "caught"; it is the loosening of the "hand that catches."
Why Contemporary People Need It
Bringing this concept, which looks so "far shore," down into the concrete circumstances of contemporary people, there are at least three levels of reasons.
Level One: The "Overload" in Psychological Structure Needs a Fundamental Deconstruction
The most common spiritual symptom of contemporary people is not any one specific anxiety or depression, but cognitive overload, emotional overload, relational overload. We are simultaneously online, simultaneously available, simultaneously expected to respond — which means the saṃskāra-skandha (行蘊) almost never rests; the saṃjñā-skandha (想蘊) is almost never allowed to stay only on "the matter at hand"; the vedanā-skandha (受蘊) keeps stacking; the rūpa-skandha (色蘊) is continuously bombarded by lights, sounds, and vibrations; the vijñāna-skandha (識蘊) is exhausted from switching tasks.
Ordinary relaxation (vacations, spas, meditation apps) works, but their common limitation is "temporary disengagement" — the moment one returns to the magnetic field of work and life, they immediately fail. Because they treat the symptoms of overload, not the structure of overload.
What "如來清淨禪" corresponds to is not symptom management but the loosening of structure — - "Freedom from defilement": when you can see the shape of anxiety, you are no longer determined by the logic of anxiety; - "Unimpededness": when you can simultaneously be in work, in relationships, in bodily sensation, in emotion without them fighting each other, "overload" loses its fundamental mechanism; - "Purity": when you no longer confirm the self through any state (no longer defining yourself by "I must be efficient," and no longer defining yourself by "I can lie flat"), overload no longer has a hand that can press the switch.
This has a formal resemblance to what contemporary psychology calls "self-differentiation" — being able to maintain an observational position within emotion, not being swallowed by emotion, relationships, or roles. But be clear: this is formal resemblance only, not the same thing: self-differentiation in the psychological sense still presupposes a self as observer; whereas 如來清淨禪 seeks the unattainability even of this "self as observer." In other words, the psychological program is "I can stay steady"; 如來清淨禪 is "there is nothing that needs to stay steady, because there was never an entity called 'I' that was shaking to begin with."
Level Two: The Fragility of Contemporary Identity Needs A Stability That Does Not Rely on Construction
Contemporary people have a very specific predicament: the question "who am I" is answered almost entirely through external feedback — through work achievements, social relationships, self-presentation, emotional experiences, to confirm oneself in reverse. This identity constructed through external feedback is impeded: lose your job, and it collapses; lose a relationship, and it collapses; have your image questioned, and it collapses.
What "如來清淨禪" corresponds to is not "another identity" (e.g., a deeper self-identity, a more genuine inner child, a purer soul) — these are all still constructions. It corresponds to the loosening of the very business of identity itself — you are still you, but you are no longer "living in order to become someone" — you live freely because you see the original shape of the act "becoming someone."
This level is directly related to the contemporary reality of "algorithmic identity." A considerable part of our "self" today is shaped by algorithms — algorithms profile us, and we unconsciously live according to the profile; algorithms recommend content we like, and we assume that is "our taste." Freedom from defilement in the sense of "如來清淨禪" is a total departure from this entire process — not that you "see through the algorithm's trickery" (seeing through is still construction), but "letting the character performing in the algorithm's frame completely loosen."
Level Three: The Genuine Longing for Liberation
If you honestly ask yourself: why have I been pursuing efficiency, wealth, relationships, influence, peace, love — you may discover on some quiet night: all of this is trying to avoid one thing — some fundamental unease in the very fact of "I exist." We could call it "existential anxiety," "the background color of ignorance," "fundamental insecurity" — it lies beneath all effort, and can never be covered over by any achievement.
The main coping strategy of contemporary culture is diversion: translating it into solvable problems (I need to earn more money / I need to be more loved / I need to be calmer). But all diversions are still diversions. What 如來清淨禪 corresponds to is not another diversion strategy, but the original shape of "that thing itself" — it is not "a problem to be solved"; it is "something that can be seen," it is "something that no longer needs to spin us around."
This level is the hardest to articulate, but also the most crucial: "如來清淨禪" does not give a better answer; it allows the "I" that keeps asking questions to also be loosened. This is why it is called "如來" — coming thus, as it originally is, already here from the very beginning.
Common Misreadings and Clarifications
Misreading One: treating "清淨" (purity) as "tranquility," "equanimity," "having no emotions" - This misreads purity as a kind of emotional style or personality temperament — as if purity meant being mild, calm, without agitation. - Actually: purity is the self-nature of consciousness being undefilable by anything — not because there is nothing to defile it, but because even defilement cannot stick to it. Buddhas and bodhisattvas, in the vast agitation of saving sentient beings, remain pure — that agitation is not the opposite of purity; it is the mark and function of purity.
Misreading Two: treating "禪定" (meditative absorption) as a superior kind of "thinking nothing" - This equates meditative absorption with the cessation of conscious activity. - Actually: meditative absorption is a state of highly lucid, clearly discerning consciousness, not a state of consciousness not working. It is closer to the unity of deep concentration + heightened clarity than to "shutting down." And more critically — 如來清淨禪 is not at all "meditative absorption as an object" that exists; it is an indivisibility in which "absorption is everything, everything is absorption." Reducing it to a superior meditative experience is to make it smaller than it is.
Misreading Three: treating "無礙" (unimpeded) as "omnipotence / supernormal powers" - This romanticizes unimpededness as an external capacity — as if unimpeded meant "being able to do anything, knowing everything." - Actually: "無礙" in the entry is listed alongside "離染" and "清淨"; it is the mark and function of purity — the mind is obstructed by nothing, and therefore in phenomenal matters it naturally can observe capacities and respond accordingly, abide nowhere, and be unimpeded in principle and phenomena. It is not necessarily superhuman power in the sense of "神通"; it is first and foremost the absence of any internal stickiness, any grasping.
Misreading Four: treating "如來" as Buddha-exclusive, beyond our reach - This treats the Tathāgata as a far-away object on the other shore — as if only a Buddha could possess this absorption. - Actually: "如來" is also the original nature of sentient beings (as the *Avatamsaka-sūtra* 華嚴經 and *Śūraṅgama-sūtra* 圓覺經 repeatedly say: "all sentient beings are originally Buddha" and "all sentient beings possess the wisdom of the Tathāgata"). Pure meditative absorption is not something cultivated into being; it is something already present, temporarily covered over — the entire meaning of practice is to let what is originally pure emerge. So it is not out of reach; it is "forgotten."
Misreading Five: treating "如來清淨禪" as a kind of "religious experience" or "mystical state" - This places it within the "category of faith" — as if one needed piety, mystery, and ineffable experiences to enter it. - Actually: it is not mystical in itself; it is a unity of view + cultivation + life — in view, purity and unimpededness have always been clearly taught and confirmed; in cultivation, there are stages to follow and choices to discern; in life, the pure luminous awareness of every present moment is it. Mystifying it wraps it back up in defilement.
Misreading Six: reading "如來离染无碍的清净禅定" apart into "the Buddha's, departed from defilement, unobstructed, clean meditation" - This treats it as some special state the Buddha happens to be in at some moment. - Actually: the entire sentence is a tautological depiction of an indivisible whole — "如來" = "離染無礙清淨" = "禪定." The three are, in the ultimate sense, different facets of the same thing — it is not that the Buddha has this state, but that the epithet "Buddha" is this state itself.
Finally, returning to a single statement: 如來清淨禪 is not describing a religious experience; it is describing "our original nature" — "the pure meditative absorption of the Tathāgata is the original freedom from which we have never truly departed." In this matter, freedom from defilement is not cultivating away afflictions, unimpededness is not cultivating for abilities, purity is not cultivating oneself into spotlessness — it is "seeing that we have never been affliction, never been obstruction, never been defilement."
On this path, there is the direct pointing of Chan, the stages of Yogācāra, the skillful means of the tantras, the faith and vows of the Pure Land — they are not all the same road, but they all point to this one place. "如來清淨禪" is both their common name and their final destination.