The example of the raft shows dharmas should be treated as provisional, as means to an end. The same holds good of emptiness too, the negation of dharmas. This corollary has elsewhere been illustrated by the simile of medicine which can heal any ill

Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-coginition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known, Subhuti, they are to the Tathagata.

But to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhammas and the Sangha and to see with real understanding the four noble truths

From the Dharma should one see the Buddhas, From the dharma-bodies come their guidance. Yet dharma's true nature cannot be discerned and no one can be conscious of it as an object

And again, Subhuti, suppose a woman or a man were to renounce all their belongings as many times as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges ; and suppose that someone else, after taking from this discourse on dharma but one stanza of four lines,

You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together.