The Essence of the Heart Sutra
Chapter 8: The Essential Teaching of Buddhist Practice and Realization
Sutra Text: ["Therefore, know that Prajñāpāramitā is the great divine mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the supreme mantra, is the unequalled mantra. It can eliminate all suffering; it is true and not false. Therefore, the mantra of Prajñāpāramitā is spoken. The mantra is spoken thus: gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā."]
Section 1: Tathāgatagarbha is the Essential Mantra of Buddhist Practice and Realization
Sutra Text: ["Therefore, know that Prajñāpāramitā is the great divine mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the supreme mantra, is the unequalled mantra."]
Here, the World-Honored One praises the immeasurable merits of Tathāgatagarbha, revealing that Tathāgatagarbha is the essential outline and core of all Buddhist practice and realization. Because with Tathāgatagarbha as the fundamental reality, the Three Baskets (Tripiṭaka) and Twelve Divisions of Scriptures, the immeasurable Buddha-lands of the ten directions and three times, and the five-aggregate worlds of sentient beings are all derived. This great wisdom of Tathāgatagarbha is incomparable; it is a great divine mantra, possessing immeasurable supernatural powers, functions, and virtues.
It is formless and without appearance, truly empty, possessing nothing, yet it can utilize its great elemental nature to manifest immeasurable world-oceans. It has no six sense faculties, six sense objects, or six consciousnesses; no five aggregates; no Four Noble Truths of the liberation path; no Twelve Links of Dependent Origination; no Six Perfections of the Bodhisattva; no wisdom, whether worldly, supramundane, or transcending both; not a single dharma can be spoken of it, not a single dharma can be attained from it. Although it possesses nothing, it can manifest immeasurable dharmas; not a single dharma exists apart from it, not a single dharma can be found outside its essential mind.
Itself formless and without appearance, intangible and invisible, yet all formed and appearing dharmas are manifested by it. Every dharma is provided by it for us; it is too marvelous, too extraordinary. It provides us with mountains, rivers, and the great earth; it provides us with the universe and starry sky; it offers us the Buddha-lands; it provides us with the living environment of the three realms; it supports the life, work, and study of our five aggregates. All dharmas are provided by it. Whatever needs we have, it knows; every mental action it knows. Without us calling out, it cooperates diligently to fulfill them. This "non-thing" is truly divine; not even a dust-sized particle of matter exists within it, yet it can manifest a trichiliocosm, manifest immeasurable trichiliocosms. The entire void is contained within its mind. Regardless of which Buddha-land or which Buddha, all are born from it. It is utterly miraculous. Therefore, Tathāgatagarbha is called the great divine mantra.
Tathāgatagarbha is the great bright mantra. This brightness stands in contrast to ignorance. Tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance; it is entirely the great wisdom of prajñā. Among all worldly dharmas, it is not deluded by a single one. It stores all karmic seeds created by sentient beings, then, based on these seeds, manifests the retributive body (the five aggregates and eighteen elements) and the supporting environment (the living conditions). It knows whether to create a human body, an animal body, a hungry ghost body, a heavenly body, or a hell body. It knows where the head should be, where the nose should be, where the limbs should be; the shape of the body, its length, shortness, thickness, color – it knows all and arranges everything perfectly, without the slightest error.
It will certainly present the karma of sentient beings completely and without error. It will not happen that a sentient being who created animal karma manifests a heavenly body and environment; nor that a sentient being who cultivated the ten wholesome actions, performed good deeds, and accumulated virtue, who should ascend to heaven to enjoy blessings, is instead given a hell body. It absolutely does not allow cause and effect to become disordered, and it has never been disordered. When Tathāgatagarbha realizes karmic retribution, it never errs; when manifesting the five aggregates and eighteen elements of sentient beings, it does not err; when manifesting the supporting living environment for sentient beings, it does not err. Whatever retribution a sentient being should receive, it will certainly create the corresponding environment and five-aggregate body. It manifests all this entirely based on the karmic conditions of sentient beings.
If there is a karmic connection with the Sahā world, it causes the five aggregates to be born in the Sahā world, to survive in that environment. If one should ascend to heaven to enjoy blessings, it causes the five aggregates to be born in the heavenly realm. When the karmic conditions for the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss ripen, it causes the five aggregates to be born in the Pure Land, simultaneously participating in manifesting the Pure Land's living environment. When sentient beings are about to be reborn at death, the great lotus held by Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva is manifested by Tathāgatagarbha based on the pure karma cultivated by that sentient being.
Tathāgatagarbha possesses great wisdom; there is not a single dharma it does not illuminate. It is truly the great bright mantra, the essential core sustaining the five-aggregate world of sentient beings, sustaining the myriad dharmas of the three realms. It knows when sentient beings are born; it knows when sentient beings die. It knows the appearance of sentient beings' five aggregates; it knows their supporting retribution. It knows the mental actions of sentient beings; it knows their karmic conditions. Tathāgatagarbha understands the mental actions of sentient beings: if a sentient being wants to go east, it knows; if a sentient being wants to go west, it also knows; if a sentient being wants to ascend to heaven, it knows; if a sentient being is to enter hell, it also knows. It knows when sentient beings need food, clothing, shelter, or objects. There is not a single dharma it does not know. After knowing, it complies and cooperates.
However, there are things it does not know. It does not know the objects of the six dusts (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, mental objects); it does not perceive form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. When form comes, it does not know what form it is; when sound comes, it does not know what sound it is; when taste comes, it does not know what taste it is; when touch comes, it does not know what kind of touch it is. Therefore, regarding any realm, it is not attached or defiled; it remains unmoving, as it is. Yet, it is not completely unknowing; otherwise, it could not manifest anything. Although it has no concept of the six dusts, it knows the seeds of the six dusts and manifests the six dusts needed by sentient beings based on the seeds and karmic conditions. When the eye sees a flower, it relies on the external flower and, like a mirror reflecting an image, manifests the image of the flower to provide for our need. The internal six dusts cognized by the six consciousnesses are all manifested by it in this way. But Tathāgatagarbha is not entirely unknowing; it has its own known dharmas, its own portion of understanding. Therefore, Tathāgatagarbha is called the great bright mantra.
Tathāgatagarbha is the supreme mantra, the unequalled mantra. Within the mundane and supramundane, there is no dharma higher, more noble, or surpassing Tathāgatagarbha. Tathāgatagarbha is the fundamental reality of all sentient life, the source of all dharmas. Tathāgatagarbha is the Dharma-body Buddha. The Dharma-body Buddha is the most honored and noble, the unequalled one. The perfect Reward-body Buddha and the pure Emanation-body Buddha, which exist based on the Dharma-body, are equally the most honored and unequalled. If someone claims their practice is higher than the Buddha's, that sentient beings learning Buddhism should first take refuge in them and only later take refuge in the Buddha, such thinking is ignorance, inversion, and delusion.
Tathāgatagarbha stands alone, supreme within the three realms, not paired with any dharma. There is nothing equal to Tathāgatagarbha, let alone superior to it. In the entire world, no dharma can compare to Tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, to describe the essential mind of Tathāgatagarbha, one truly cannot find any similar thing for analogy, because anything that can be found belongs to the false dharmas within the three realms. Tathāgatagarbha does not belong to the dharmas within the three realms; there is nothing equal or similar to it. When absolutely necessary, sometimes space is used as a metaphor, but it can only metaphorically represent Tathāgatagarbha as being pure and non-active like space, unmoving towards the objects of the six dusts like space. However, space is inert emptiness, a false dharma, containing nothing within it, whereas Tathāgatagarbha has a true essence and function.
Although Tathāgatagarbha has no form, it is a truly existing dharma, the dharma of true reality. Space is different from Tathāgatagarbha. If one says space is Tathāgatagarbha, that is the view of the Space Heretics, not the teaching of the Buddha. Many people studying the Buddha Dharma misunderstand the Buddha's teachings, thinking they understand, then expound based on their own misunderstandings, turning the Buddha Dharma into non-Buddhist doctrines. With insufficient merit and wisdom, they misinterpret the sutra's meaning, taking their own understanding as the Buddha's meaning, thus slandering the Buddha and the Dharma. The principles of the Buddha Dharma are extremely profound; they are not accessible to those with shallow wisdom and meager merit.
Section 2: Relying on Tathāgatagarbha Eliminates All Suffering
Sutra Text: ["(Therefore, know that Prajñāpāramitā) can eliminate all suffering; it is true and not false."] Why can Prajñāpāramitā eliminate all suffering? Because this Prajñāpāramitā is not on the shore of birth and death; it has no birth, therefore no suffering of aging, sickness, or death. Furthermore, because Tathāgatagarbha has no five aggregates of sensation, nor does it interact with the objects of the six dusts, it fundamentally has no sensation; so where could suffering come from? The threefold world fundamentally does not exist for it; therefore, it does not perceive any suffering within the world. After realizing Tathāgatagarbha, the five-aggregate body and mind rely on Tathāgatagarbha, and suffering gradually ceases. Ultimately, upon attaining Buddhahood, all suffering is eliminated, and one realizes the eternal, blissful, self, and pure.
Tathāgatagarbha has no suffering sensation; this is true and not false. The extinction bliss of the Buddha stage is true and not false. The false five aggregates have the three kinds of suffering; what suffers is not the true self, because it is not real. The true self – Tathāgatagarbha – has no suffering. The false self of the five aggregates is subject to birth, death, change, and impermanence; impermanence is suffering, and suffering is not the self. The essence of Tathāgatagarbha is eternally abiding and unchanging; therefore, it is without suffering. Without suffering is the self; the self is without suffering. Therefore, the mind that can feel suffering is the deluded mind subject to birth and death, not the true mind. The deluded mind of the seventh consciousness relies on the true mind of Tathāgatagarbha, gradually achieving non-action, eliminating the old seeds of suffering within Tathāgatagarbha, no longer accumulating new seeds of unwholesome karma. The karmic retribution of suffering from the five aggregates becomes less and less, and finally, all suffering is eliminated. Therefore, Tathāgatagarbha can eliminate all suffering; this is true and not false.
Section 3: The Heart Mantra in the Heart Sutra
The heart mantra in the Heart Sutra: ["gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā!"]
Finally, the World-Honored One summarizes and proclaims the Prajñāpāramitā mantra. This mantra is the essential mantra of the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra is a sutra that describes the overall characteristics of Tathāgatagarbha. Tathāgatagarbha is the essential outline and core of the Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions of Scriptures; without Tathāgatagarbha, there would be no Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions. Out of great compassion for sentient beings, Śākyamuni World-Honored One, from within his own true suchness mind, revealed the Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions, using them to gather and guide immeasurable sentient beings back to the Buddha Dharma, enabling them to attain liberation and reach ultimate nirvāṇa. The Heart Sutra is the essential core of the Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions, comprehensively summarizing the entire principle of practice and realization from the beginning of an ordinary person's cultivation to the attainment of Buddhahood.
The World-Honored One also summarized the Heart Sutra into a mantra to encapsulate and condense the meaning of the entire Heart Sutra. This mantra is the essential mantra of the Heart Sutra. All sutras and mantras exist based on Tathāgatagarbha. Every Buddha relies on this great ocean of perfect enlightenment to expound immeasurable Buddha Dharma and liberate immeasurable sentient beings. When a Buddha, in certain sutras, wishes to proclaim a mantra, this mantra represents the essential core of the entire sutra, summarizing all its meaning; it is also called a dhāraṇī.
The content of the Heart Sutra's essential mantra: "gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā!" This mantra is a transliteration of ancient Indian Sanskrit. It corresponds to two meanings in modern Chinese: One is: "Go, go! Go to the other shore! Go to the other shore of nirvāṇa! Quickly accomplish the complete and ultimate path of bodhi!" The other meaning is: "Go, go! Take refuge in Pāramitā! Transfer reliance to Pāramitā! Ultimately, you will accomplish the complete and ultimate path of bodhi!" Both meanings, both translations, are consistent with the meaning of the mantra.
In learning and practicing Buddhism, starting from blind faith in the Three Jewels, progressing to reverent faith, then to correct faith in the Three Jewels, one then begins to cultivate and learn Prajñāpāramitā. Afterwards, one will realize Tathāgatagarbha. As we increasingly contemplate and understand the various active and inactive natures of Tathāgatagarbha, the deluded mind of the seventh consciousness will transfer its reliance. It will then possess the compassionate mind, the vow mind, and the inactive nature of a Bodhisattva. After the seeds within the mind-ground are purified, one will accomplish the Buddha fruit and realize the ultimate great nirvāṇa.
The inactive nature of Tathāgatagarbha is manifested in that it has no seeing, hearing, feeling, or knowing nature. Towards the objects of the six dusts, it does not discriminate, does not stir thoughts, is not attached or defiled, does not grasp, and does not create any karma of greed, hatred, or delusion. The active nature of Tathāgatagarbha is manifested in its ability to perfectly accomplish all dharmas, manifesting the five aggregates, eighteen elements, and the material world of sentient beings, yet without grasping at an "I" doing this, without seeking any reward; it is completely selfless. While Tathāgatagarbha accomplishes the six consciousnesses discriminating the dharmas of the six dusts, its own mind is pure and inactive.
Tathāgatagarbha not only bestows upon us the six sense faculties but also bestows the six dusts, and then bestows the six consciousnesses. Only then can we have all the activities of the five aggregates and be complete, normal people. Tathāgatagarbha uses the five universal mental factors to accomplish all this. When it contacts form, it first applies attention (manasikāra), directing the mind to the form-dust. Then it contacts the form-dust, receives the form-dust (vedanā), cognizes the form-dust (non-discriminative like the six consciousnesses), and finally decides to manifest it. This entire process is completed extremely quickly, with great precision and accuracy. When we contact a tree, it manifests the image of the tree; when we contact a flower, it manifests the image of the flower; when we contact a person, it manifests the image of the person. Yet it always manifests faithfully according to karmic results, without selfishness, without personal intention, impartially and selflessly.
Tathāgatagarbha is like a camera, transforming the external form-object into an image for us to discriminate. Tathāgatagarbha possesses the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind) as seeds, enabling direct contact with the external form-dust. Through the eye faculty and optic nerves, it transmits to the subtle material faculty (indriya, the brain/nervous system), generating the internal perceived aspect of the form-dust. When the subtle material faculty contacts the internal perceived aspect, Tathāgatagarbha generates eye consciousness, and simultaneously mind consciousness arises. Eye consciousness and mind consciousness then contact the internal perceived aspect and begin to discriminate, knowing "this is a tree," "this is a flower," "that is a person." After discrimination, feelings arise. All the form-dusts of people, objects, and events we see are images manifested by Tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, all dharmas are false, like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows. When we see a person, what we actually see is that person's shadow. But we have always mistaken it for real, giving rise to various erroneous views and feelings, unaware that we are performing all kinds of discrimination and thinking towards illusory shadows in space. Therefore, sentient beings have all kinds of inversions and continuously undergo the suffering of birth, death, and rebirth.
It is the same when we hear sounds. Tathāgatagarbha, through the ear faculty and sound-dust, directly contacts the external sound-dust, transforming it into a false internal perceived aspect of sound-dust. Then, through ear consciousness and mind consciousness discriminating, we hear the sound. Similarly, the smell-dust discriminated by nose consciousness, the taste-dust by tongue consciousness, the touch-dust by body consciousness, and the dharma-dust by mind consciousness are not the real external objects; they are all internal six dusts manifested by Tathāgatagarbha. Since beginningless kalpas, we have never contacted the true external realms; everything we contact is manifested by Tathāgatagarbha. This is the true meaning of "All dharmas are created by mind alone." "All appearances are illusory" also speaks of this principle.
It is in this way that Tathāgatagarbha accomplishes the five aggregates and eighteen elements of sentient beings. Although it accomplishes all dharmas, its mind is ultimately selfless – both active and inactive. Our learning and practice of Buddhism is precisely to transfer reliance to its selfless nature, to eternally benefit sentient beings without resentment or regret. Although Tathāgatagarbha can actively manifest all dharmas, its nature is incomparably pure, unattached to, unaverse to, ungrasping, and unrelinquishing of any dharma. When we transfer reliance to this inactive pure nature within its active dharmas, the mind of the seventh consciousness will gradually eliminate all defilements. When the eye sees form, knowing what the form-dust is suffices; do not give rise to mental actions like greed or hatred. When the ear hears sound, knowing what the sound is suffices; do not give rise to feelings of dislike, aversion, joy, or pleasure. This is transferring reliance to the pure nature of Tathāgatagarbha. Whenever the six faculties encounter the six dusts, the six consciousnesses will arise to discriminate the six dusts. Knowing the falsity of the six dusts, do not stir thoughts, do not vainly give rise to various thoughts, do not calculate personal gains and losses. Face and handle all people, affairs, and objects with an undefiled mind. This is practice.
Even if the transference of reliance is successful, the discriminative nature of the seventh consciousness still exists; otherwise, one could not practice, work, or live. Even a Buddha must discriminate the objects of the six dusts, because the Enjoyment Body Buddha (Sambhogakāya) and Emanation Body Buddha (Nirmāṇakāya) must also respond to the six dusts; they cannot be ignorant of them, or they would be unable to save sentient beings. But the seventh consciousness mind of a Buddha is already without ignorance and defilement, completely pure like the essential body of Tathāgatagarbha. We transfer reliance to the pure nature and equal nature of Tathāgatagarbha, and we must also transfer reliance to its selfless, dedicated spirit of offering. It bestows all dharmas upon us: if the five aggregates are needed, it gives the five aggregates; if the six faculties are needed, it gives the six faculties; if the six dusts are needed, it gives the six dusts; if the six consciousnesses are needed, it gives the six consciousnesses. Yet it seeks not the slightest reward; it asks nothing of us. We should learn from it, saving sentient beings without seeking reward. Cultivating merit in this way will actually accelerate its accumulation.
The merits of Tathāgatagarbha are immeasurable and boundless. After awakening, through gradual contemplation and practice, the mind of the seventh consciousness slowly transfers its reliance. As defilements decrease, the nature of the mind changes. After complete transference of reliance, Buddhahood is attained. Learning and practicing Buddhism requires daily encountering conditions and objects, comparing them with the nature of Tathāgatagarbha, perfuming and transforming the seeds of one's own mind, until all ignorance is completely removed and the seeds are thoroughly purified. Only then is the practice spanning three great asamkhyeya kalpas considered complete.
Upon perfecting the Ten Faiths, one enters the First Abode and begins practicing the Six Perfections externally. At the Seventh Abode, one clearly realizes the mind (awakens) and enters the internal practice of the Six Perfections. After perfecting the Three Worthy Stages (Ten Abodes, Ten Practices, Ten Dedications), possessing the wisdom of the general characteristics (sāmānyalakṣaṇa) and specific characteristics (svalakṣaṇa), one enters the First Ground to cultivate the wisdom of the path (mārgajñatā). After perfecting the Ten Grounds, one becomes an Equal Enlightenment Bodhisattva (Samyaksaṃbuddha). An Equal Enlightenment Bodhisattva cultivates merit for one hundred kalpas; when merit is perfected, one becomes a Wonderful Enlightenment Bodhisattva in the final body, awaiting the appropriate causes and conditions in the Tuṣita Heaven to descend and become a Buddha. Throughout the fifty-two stages of the Bodhisattva path, spanning three great asamkhyeya kalpas, what is relied upon, depended upon, realized, practiced, and learned is the self-nature pure mind – the eighth consciousness, Tathāgatagarbha. Throughout the three great asamkhyeya kalpas, the Bodhisattva traverses immeasurable Buddha-lands, draws near, and makes offerings to immeasurable, countless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Yet all this is illusory activity performed within one's own true suchness Dharma-body. All the wisdom the Bodhisattva learns is inherently possessed by one's own Tathāgatagarbha. Tathāgatagarbha is the most ultimate, complete true Buddha. To study the Heart Sutra is to grasp the essence of this mantra: "Cultivate Tathāgatagarbha! Realize Tathāgatagarbha! Transfer reliance to Tathāgatagarbha! Only then can you become the complete, ultimate Buddha! Only then can you perfectly accomplish all wisdom (sarvajñatā) and attain ultimate nirvāṇa!"
