"THE GREAT MASTERS"
Buddhist Metaphysics
What the Buddha Experienced the Moment He Awakened (and Experienced from the Moment He Realized It) is that "That which Is", "That which We Really Are", i.e. Reality as Experience and as "Content of Experience", of Understanding, and not as a conception of some perception, as an objectified information, It is a Unique Reality that is Here, Now (not somewhere else or at some other time, in the future). This Reality (which We Are Ourselves, not something abstract that we perceive or are informed about) is Directly Perceived when we Stand Still and See Within (we will explain what this means below), not by some activity (which is always something "abroad"). Since We Are Already This, This Is Us, not something different. It doesn't happen. You just feel it or you don't. Beings are deluded into thinking they are something else by seeking to become something or by looking somewhere else (and not Within themselves).
This One Reality (which We Are, which is All) is the Assamskrita, the Uncreated, the Unmade, the Uncomposed. It is the True Nature, the True Essence. And This Is Without Properties. It is an Open Vast Living Presence that "Exists" Beyond Space, Evolution, Time, whatever. It is the Dharma, the Foundation of All (the Dharmakaya of later Buddhists).
At the same time, while That Is Thus, Infinite, It "is" at the most infinitesimal point that can be apprehended (by some perception), at infinitely infinitesimal points, everywhere. These Reflections of the Real, the All, in infinite infinitesimal points, everywhere, are the dharmas. Dharma Reflects in infinite dharmas, everywhere. This Everywhere is not Space, it is Beyond Space, precisely because it is everywhere. Space is something closed, something that closes in a perception or is perceived by a perception and has a local meaning even if it seems boundless, or "open".
Reality as experienced and perceived by the Buddha (and those who Experience Reality) is One and Unique and Holographic. The All is Reflected Whole, with all its "Properties" (or "Non-Properties"), everywhere, to the most infinitesimal point. Ontologically speaking there is no difference between the Dharma and its Reflections, the dharmas. It is Without Qualities, “Emptiness” (Sunyata), it is Just Thus (Tathata,”thusness”,”suchness”).
This Holographic Nature of Substance enables the Manifestation of Phenomena (all phenomena of existence, objective and subjective.. The All, the Totality of dharmas, is the Ontological Basis of Phenomena. It is the Original Primal Essence, the Creative "Matter" from that from which Phenomena arise. Phenomena do not arise as ontological transformations of Essence (the Dharmadatu, the totality of dharmas). In fact, from the combination, selections, and "use" of dharmas (called to play a perceptual, mental, or formative role), are caused the Phenomena. In other words, what Appears as Creation (Samsara, with its planes of existence and beings) is not ontological in nature but functional. It is only activity, actions, flow. The Phenomenon, the phenomena, exist only at the moment that manifest. They have been caused by antecedents that are already lost and are lost by transmitting its "momentum" to subsequent ones that are born immediately after. They exist only here, now, in real-time, the absolute present. If we wanted to capture them, to immobilize them, they are already gone and there are only the ashes of memory. Thus, Phenomena as flowing and transitory do not have any essentiality, they have the Nature of Emptiness.
Thus, essentially the One Unique Reality Within Which Manifests the Activities, the Phenomena, the worlds, the existences, Remains One and Unique in its Depth. All Activities, all Phenomena, are not real, they are Only a Dream, an "eye trick". And the Worlds that are created on the Real Ontological Basis follow the same Holographic Paradigm. Even the Natural World that natural scientists investigate. All this has been explained in the context of the Avatamsaka School (and in the Avatamsaka Sutra and other texts, School commentaries). Modern physicists like Bohm and others are trying to apply the Holographic Paradigm to physical reality. This is the only way (for now) some phenomena like the findings of Aspect and others can be interpreted.
In reality, there is no ontological difference between what we experience as Asamskrita, Nirvana, Absolute and Samsara, Creation, Phenomena. They have the same Empty Nature (i.e. something inconceivable by any perception that cannot detect some "characteristics". Even what beings perceive as phenomena, substances, existences, events, experiences, all have the same empty nature.
On the other hand, Reality may be One and all phenomena may emerge (with Activity) from the Unique Ontological Basis as a "Dream", but beings who adopt Activity (Perception, Intellect, Sensation , external experience as the only reality and exclusive source of "information" because they do not feel its One Infinite Nature but are confined to their imaginary local existence they experience duality and separate themselves from the world and others. Beings (humans) live a vivid dream, they have experiences and walk in fictitious reality as the ultimate reality. They should just, as the Buddha taught, give up all these delusive activities and Experience their True Limitless Nature, Within, in Stillness and transcendence of senses, the intellect, perception itself.