There is a story of Manjushri carrying a sword to kill Gautama and Angulimala beheading Shakyamuni, to remind us that the Buddha is not an object that our mind can grasp. The three vehicles—Śrāvaka, Pratyekabuddha, and Bodhisattva—and the five natures, sudden, gradual, perfect, and separate teachings are only “medicine for illness,” arising and opposing each other in a moment, not absolute truth. When we chase after them, we only embrace images created by our mind, not touching the reality of non-self and non-person.

1. The five natures (Gotra) are the inherent qualities, the lineage of each person:
   1. Fixed Bodhisattva nature—the altruistic mind is already present;
   2. Fixed Śrāvaka nature—practicing for oneself and then withdrawing;
   3. Fixed Pratyekabuddha nature—self-awakening without a teacher;
   4. Indeterminate three vehicles—possessing all three seeds, arising according to conditions;
   5. Sentient beings without nature—seemingly without seeds, drifting in birth and death.

In the Avataṃsaka Sutra, five hundred Bodhisattvas, burdened with guilt, were guided by the Buddha and Manjushri to enact the play of “killing” the Buddha in order to cut off attachment to self, let go of wrong notions of “self” and “person,” and open the path of liberation.