Platform Sutra attributes the real merits and nirvāna to the dharmakāya that contains the inherent mind and nature, so that it does not regard the resurrection and eternity of human body as the purpose of religious practice like what the Bible of Christianity does, but on the other hand, it does not regard body and the whole material world as the evil, dark and real obstacle in religious practice from the position of soul-body dualism. Furthermore, the inherent mind and nature in Platform Sutra also differs from the Christian Biblical concept of God that is a "wholly other" beyond the humankind, so that the purpose of Zen practice is not to seek the protection and salvation of an everlasting creator, but to discover the real empty self that has neither birth nor death and can produce all dharma.