Although Bodhisattvas take numberless beings to extinction, there are actually no living beings taken across. That is the manifestation of the perfect substance and the great function of prajña. The substance of real mark prajña is without the slightest inequality. As is said later in the sutra, “This dharma is level and equal with no high or low.” The function of contemplative prajña originally is without a mark; as the text later says, “Those who have relinquished all marks are called Buddhas.”

If a Bodhisattva crosses living beings over and yet attaches to a self who takes them across, the four marks are not yet empty, and the false mind is not yet subdued. Such a person turns his back on prajña and becomes involved in the four marks that unite to form a self. The mark of self is the root of all marks. If one can turn the illusion of self around, then he can take living beings across to nirvana. He can separate himself from the four marks, subdue his mind, and thereby become a true Bodhisattva.