Then Subhuti asked Buddha:
"World-honored One, in the attainment of the Consummation of Incomparable Awakening did Buddha make no acquisition whatsoever?"
Buddha replied:
"Just so, Subhuti. Through the Consummation of Incomparable Awakening I acquired not even the least thing; therefore it is called "Consummation of Incomparable Awakening."
There you have the answer.
You cannot acquire the least thing.
Nevertheless, although one acquires nothing at all as a result of the Awakening, for after all what is there to acquire, you will have followed a correct and natural path of teachings, contemplation and daily application and that is your acquisition.
You will have dismissed the Identities with all of their symptoms. Mara himself will have fled and you will walk within Samsara with the Presence.
Both Transforation Shen and Rexin will have been fully awakened and the Masculine expression of the Life Force Principles will be in operation, governing Cognition.
What more can you expect? When the Awakening presents itself, Cognition will instantaneosly afterwards know and the experience will be one of having seen the undifferentiated light and being surprised at only having the "after-sensation" with great well being of, "Aha, so that's all it is!"
Yet it is still Incomparable.
One can call this event anything one likes when it is sustained and not just a rapid artificial glimpse... So what has happened really?
You will have passed into the zone beyond conceptualization into the inner world where expereinces alone are the language. You will have passed one of the three Last Conceptualizations of Function, Essence and Non-Form and will have unified those three experiences.
After experiencing the state beyond the Emptiness of Emptiness, for example, one is unified with Essence precidely as Linji states:
"The reality of mind has no FORM but pervades the ten directions. In the eyes it is called seeing, in the ears it is called hearing, in the nose it smells, in the mouth it speaks, in the hands it grips and in the feet it steps. Basically it is a single spiritual light, differentiated into a sixfold combination. Once the whole mind is nothing, you are liberated wherever you are."
That is ESSENCE, and with that there is the Moulding with FUNCTION.
Dwelling there in that area of the mind where Consciosness cannot reach, you will have passed beyond the natural Experiences of Function, Essence and No-form.
There you encounter, when all is in place, the "Awakening", which is an experience where the impulses of Life are physiologically present as TRUE AWARENESS and innate attention as TRUE MINDFULNESS, there being no contents whatsoever.
Without opposition, Gladness, when others are truly Glad; Compassion that stems from the Mother Principle not Cognition, and Benevolent Affect will automatically arise within consciousness as experiences accompanying natural and correct Attitudes, Intentions and Readiness to respond.
All intentions and final actions will be tempered by True Equanimity.
Yet all is not complete. You will walk with nobility within Stained Samsara with the conduct befitting a Bodhisattva, although you will not ever be a Bodhisattva, for they do not exist.
Furthermore, your path will not include helping Sentient Creatures, for sentient creatures do not exist.
In the Diamond Sutra the Buddha speaks of this.
"Subhuti, do not say that the Buddha has the idea, 'I will lead all sentient beings to Nirvana.' Do not think that way, Subhuti. Why?
"In truth there is not one single being for the Buddha to lead to Awakening.
"If the Buddha were to think there was, he would be caught in the idea of a self, a person, a living being, or a universal self. Subhuti, what the Buddha calls a self essentially has no self in the way that ordinary persons think there is a self.
"Subhuti, the Buddha does not regard anyone as an ordinary person. That is why he can speak of them as ordinary persons."
THE IMPORTANT UNDERSTANDING HERE AND NOW
All intentions and performed actions that benefit sentient beings and any gladness, compassion or benevolent affect received by apparent individuals are naturally directed by the Awakened person towards all sentient creatures at that moment. It is important to understand this.
The creation in your mind of sentient individuals separates them from the Oneness and is evidence of Duality in the mind.
Buddha further declared:
"Furthermore Subhuti, what I have attained in total Awakening is the same as what all others have attained.
It is undifferentiated, regarded neither as a high state, nor a low state. It is wholly independent of any definite or arbitrary conceptions of an individual self, other selves, living beings, or a universal self.
"Subhuti, when someone is selflessly charitable, they should also practice being ethical by remembering that there is no distinction between one's self and the selfhood of others."
One cannot then, being inseparable from others, be a Bodhisattva although all intentions and actions may be with natural virtue and correct.
There is no Self that can be or become a Bodhisattva.
Yet all is not yet complete.
HABIT STRENGTH PERSISTS.
The apparent human creature is a complex bio-system and when the mind itself has set conceptualization aside as the prime mover of the system there still remain, stored in memory, habits with great habit strength. They might be quite simple and unobtrusive or they may enter as a consequnce of a stimulus and be recognized as not useful in an Awakened person.
What the Awakened person, faced by habits, does not do is attempt to eliminte those habits. It stands to reason that any attempt to eliminate habits must have an Identity presence. The Awakened person is free from this and must simply allow the habits to run their course, permitting the natural system to eliminate them.