Patriarch's Teachings: Direct Interpretation
Chapter One: The Dharma Verses of the Seven Buddhas
I. The Dharma Verse of Vipaśyin Buddha
Original Text: The body arises from the formless, like illusions manifesting various forms;
The illusory mind and consciousness are originally nonexistent; sin and merit are both empty, with nothing to abide in.
Explanation: (1) The body arises from the formless. The physical body is the form aggregate (rūpa-skandha), which obscures the consciousness of sentient beings, causing them to mistake the false for the real. Sentient beings have always regarded this physical body as the self, as real. "Formless" refers to the ālaya-vijñāna, the eighth consciousness, the tathāgata-garbha. This is the true mind, formless and without characteristics, devoid of the appearances of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas, without any appearance within the three realms. It is like space yet is not space. Space is non-dharmic, an illusory appearance; this mind is truly existent, the true reality (dharmatā), possessing a real essence and function.
The true mind can produce all dharmas, including the physical body. The physical body arises from this mind. Due to the unceasing self-attachment of sentient beings, the mental faculty (manas) clings to the self. After death, there is an intermediate state body (antarābhava). When encountering suitable parents, the mental faculty, together with the eighth consciousness, takes rebirth, forming name-and-form (nāma-rūpa), i.e., the fertilized egg. Because the eighth consciousness possesses the seeds of the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind), upon contact with the four elements in the mother's body, it transforms to produce the fertilized egg, changing every seven days, growing a head, limbs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. Around the fifth month, the cognitive mind arises, enabling discrimination of the living environment. When the six sense faculties are complete, the eighth consciousness emits karmic winds, and the head turns downward to emerge from the mother's womb. The eighth consciousness further absorbs the four great elements, transforming the infant into a child, youth, adult, and finally old age, ending in death. Therefore, the physical body is transformed from the eighth consciousness, yet the eighth consciousness itself is formless. Though formless, it can manifest all appearances.
(2) Like illusions manifesting various forms. The physical body manifested by the eighth consciousness is like an illusion, transforming from nothingness into a fertilized egg, then into an adult-sized body, even manifesting bodies as large as an elephant, a dragon, or a garuḍa. From non-existence to existence, it uses seeds to manifest the physical body of flesh, which is illusory. It is like a magician suddenly conjuring a city in empty space; like a painter freely depicting landscapes and figures on a blank canvas; like white clouds in the sky gathering and dispersing to form a cat, a dog, or a flower. These illusory transformations come and go emptily; they fundamentally cannot be grasped. No matter how much one clings, they ultimately vanish.
(3) The illusory mind and consciousness are originally nonexistent. Sentient beings in the fertilized egg originally lack the six cognitive consciousnesses and have no discriminative nature. Around the fifth month, the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) arises, followed by the ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and body consciousness. Seven days after birth, the eye consciousness becomes capable of discrimination. These discriminative consciousnesses are momentary, arising and ceasing; they are not real. Within a single instant, there are eighty-one thousand instances of seed production and cessation, enabling sentient beings to discriminate the six sense objects. Each seed is transmitted by the ālaya-vijñāna. If even one or several seeds in the middle are not transmitted, the discriminative function of the consciousness ceases to exist. For example, for a lamp to emit light, there must be an electric current formed by electrons. One electron arises and ceases, the next electron immediately arises and ceases; countless electrons connect in succession, forming an electric current that passes through the lamp, causing the bulb to emit light. The seeds of consciousness are like those electrons.
The formation of a stream of water is also the continuous succession of one drop after another; the seeds of consciousness are like those water drops. A water stream is drawn out by a pump; electrons are output by a generator. The ālaya-vijñāna is like a generator and a pump, transmitting one seed of consciousness after another. Eighty-one thousand seeds per instant connect ceaselessly, one after another, forming consciousness, enabling the activity of consciousness and the function of discrimination. If the ālaya-vijñāna departs and ceases to function, consciousness does not arise, discrimination ceases, and the body becomes like a piece of wood.
(4) Sin and merit are both empty, with nothing to abide in. Sinful karmas and meritorious karmas are all created by the deluded mind. Simultaneously with the deluded mind creating bodily, verbal, and mental actions—whether good, evil, or neutral—the ālaya-vijñāna records and stores them all. When, in a future life, the karmic seeds ripen and conditions appear, the ālaya-vijñāna outputs the karmic seeds, and sentient beings experience the retribution. However, the five aggregates experiencing the retribution are not the same as those of the previous life. The creator of karma and the experiencer of retribution are both arising-ceasing, illusory, and unreal. Sinful and meritorious karmas are also arising-ceasing and illusory. Merits are exhausted upon enjoyment; sinful karmas vanish after retribution or repentance. All are conditioned dharmas, impermanent dharmas.
For example, the karma of false speech: before it is created, it does not exist anywhere. After creation, the speech ceases, the karmic action disappears, and after disappearing, it does not go anywhere. Yet the entire behavioral process is fully recorded by the ālaya-vijñāna. False speech is an illusory dharma. Who speaks falsely? The body cannot speak falsely; the mouth cannot speak falsely; the tongue cannot speak falsely—otherwise, a corpse could speak falsely. The tongue consciousness and mental consciousness cannot speak falsely; these two consciousnesses are momentary, arising and ceasing. The mental faculty (manas) cannot speak; it is incapable of false speech. And the ālaya-vijñāna has no mouth or tongue; it certainly cannot speak falsely. There is fundamentally no one who speaks falsely; the karma of false speech is illusory.
Sentient beings are illusory manifestations of the ālaya-vijñāna. Like a robot or a puppet, though they create karmic actions, they themselves are illusory. No one can condemn them, and even if condemned, they do not suffer the punishment. Illusory sentient beings are likewise. The illusory nature of sin and merit can be proven by many facts. Take the example of King Ajātaśatru: after killing his father, his karmic retribution manifested, and he went to see the World-Honored One. The World-Honored One analyzed for King Ajātaśatru the illusory and unreal nature of the dharma called "father": there is no real father, nor a real self. Thus, the act of killing the father is illusory and unreal. After understanding this, King Ajātaśatru's hellish karma vanished. At the end of his life, not only did he not fall into the Avīci hell, he was even reborn in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. This illustrates the illusory nature of sinful and meritorious karmas.
Furthermore, for example, upon attaining the first fruit of arhatship or upon realizing the mind (明心), the sinful karmas from beginningless kalpas leading to the three evil destinies are destroyed. One will never fall into the three evil destinies to experience retribution in the future, suffering only within the human realm. All dharmas, including sinful and meritorious karmas, are arising-ceasing, impermanent, and empty illusions. By deeply analyzing this principle, one will awaken to the principle of the non-arising of the Mahāyāna and become a true meaning bodhisattva (實義菩薩).
II. The Dharma Verse of Śikhin Buddha
Original Text: Borrowing the four great elements to form the body, the mind is originally unarisen, arising due to objects;
If the preceding objects are absent, the mind is also absent; sin and merit are like illusions, arising and ceasing.
Explanation: The physical body of sentient beings is composed of the seeds of the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind). The eighth consciousness, according to the karmic conditions of sentient beings, outputs the seeds of the four great elements and, based on different proportions of the four elements, manifests the different parts of the sentient body. Sentient beings then take the body composed of the four great elements as the self. The eighth consciousness that manifests sentient beings is originally existent, not born later; therefore, it is the unarisen dharma. It is formless and without characteristics, unable to manifest by itself alone. Only when combined with the five aggregates (skandhas) can it manifest upon the five aggregates. It is always together with the five aggregates and eighteen elements (dhātus) it manifests. When objects appear, its existence is present. Therefore, for sentient beings to recognize it and find it, they must seek it amidst various objects and illusory conditions.
If the various objects of the five aggregates disappear—sentient beings see no form, hear no sound, smell no scent, the mental faculty cognizes no dharmas—then the consciousnesses all cease. At that time, the eighth consciousness cannot manifest upon form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. When the six consciousnesses cease, there is no consciousness to recognize the eighth consciousness, so the eighth consciousness temporarily withdraws. Since the physical body is made of the four great elements and the cognitive mind is illusory, the sinful and meritorious karmas created by the five aggregates are also illusory. Phenomenally, they seem to exist, but in reality, they are also unarisen. There is no real existence of sinful or meritorious karma. Therefore, sin and merit are both empty, without self and without what belongs to self.
III. The Dharma Verse of Kaśyapa Buddha
Original Text: The nature of all sentient beings is originally pure, fundamentally unarisen and indestructible;
This very body and mind are illusory births; within illusions, there is no sin or merit.
Explanation: Sentient beings are the five aggregates. The five aggregates are illusory manifestations of the eighth consciousness, non-dual with the eighth consciousness; their essence is the true thusness, the eighth consciousness. The true thusness, the eighth consciousness, is the inherently pure mind, pure in nature since beginningless time, without defilement. Therefore, based on the true thusness itself, the five-aggregate sentient beings born from it are of pure nature; they are the nature of the true thusness tathāgata-garbha.
If one looks separately at each individual five-aggregate sentient being apart from the true thusness eighth consciousness, they are defiled, subject to birth and death, mutable, impermanent, and without self. Because the true thusness eighth consciousness has existed from beginningless kalpas as it is—not born, never destroyed, and will never be destroyed—therefore, based on the eighth consciousness, the five-aggregate sentient beings are also unarisen and indestructible, because their essence is the attribute of the eighth consciousness.
Because the eighth consciousness stores the seeds of the five aggregates, when conditions meet, it produces the five aggregates of sentient beings. The eighth consciousness is eternal and indestructible, so it can forever produce five-aggregate bodies without cessation. Therefore, viewed as a whole and over long kalpas, the five aggregates are continuously indestructible, not ceasing even upon becoming a Buddha. After Buddhahood, they certainly do not cease. Buddhas use these five-aggregate bodies and minds to benefit and delight sentient beings endlessly. If one looks at each individual five-aggregate entity separately, then it is subject to birth and death.
Sentient beings composed of the five aggregates—their form aggregate body and the consciousness aggregates of feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—are all illusory manifestations of the true thusness eighth consciousness according to various conditions, like a phantom conjured by a magician in empty space. Whatever sinful or meritorious karma the phantom creates, its sin and merit are also illusory and unreal, without real retribution of sin or merit. Sentient beings composed of five aggregates are likewise. Illusory sentient beings, whatever sinful or meritorious karma they create, their karma is illusory and unreal. If the body acts, the body is illusory; if the cognitive mind acts, consciousness is illusory and without substantial entity. Since it is illusory and without substantial entity, the sinful or meritorious karma it creates is also illusory and unreal, without real retribution of sin or merit, without an owner; thus, there is no karmic action.
IV. The Dharma Verse of Krakucchanda Buddha
Original Text: The Buddha does not see the Buddha; knowing this is Buddha. If one truly knows, there is no other Buddha;
The wise can know the emptiness of the nature of sin, serenely unafraid of birth and death.
Explanation: True thusness neither sees nor hears; it neither perceives nor knows. True thusness, the self-mind, does not see the self-mind; the self-mind does not know the self-mind; true thusness, the self-mind, is unaware of itself. Therefore, we know that this mind which does not perceive the true thusness self is the Buddha. If someone says true thusness has perception and cognition, can see forms, hear sounds, know the presence or absence of deluded thoughts, enter samādhi or not—this knowing is the knowing of mental consciousness, not true thusness. To mistake this knowing for true thusness means there is no Buddha anymore. The true thusness without perception or cognition is the true Buddha, the true substance of Buddhahood.
The wise can know that all dharmas arise from the true thusness self-mind; they are manifested by it, without real indestructibility. Sentient beings create evil and cultivate good; their actions themselves are also manifested and transformed by true thusness, without any real dharma to be attained. The nature of sin and merit is also empty. All phenomena of birth and death are also illusory appearances manifested by true thusness; there is no real dharma of birth and death to be attained. Birth and death are like illusions and flowers in the sky, fundamentally unobtainable. Therefore, the wise who have attained the Way, the bodhisattvas who realize that all dharmas are like illusions and dreams, are no longer afraid of birth and death. They do not seek nirvāṇa like the arhats, extinguishing birth and death. Within the illusory arising and ceasing of birth and death, bodhisattvas continuously traverse back and forth, self-liberating and then liberating others in various Buddha lands.
V. The Dharma Verse of Śākyamuni Buddha
Original Text: The Dharma fundamentally is non-Dharma; non-Dharma is also Dharma.
Now, when transmitting the non-Dharma, how could any Dharma ever be Dharma?
Explanation: The first line: "The Dharma fundamentally is non-Dharma." The true Buddhadharma is the dharma that is fundamentally existent, originally existent—that is, the dharma of the tathāgata-garbha. This dharma is not born later due to various causes and conditions, nor will it cease in the future when conditions disperse. It is the dharma that neither arises nor ceases. Within this unborn and undying tathāgata-garbha dharma, originally not a single dharma exists. It is as stated in the Heart Sūtra: "No eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas; no eye consciousness realm, up to no mental consciousness realm; no ignorance nor exhaustion of ignorance; no suffering, accumulation, cessation, or path; no..." It possesses none of the worldly dharmas of the three realms.
The second line: "Non-Dharma is also Dharma." This non-dharma tathāgata-garbha is also a kind of dharma—a dharma not belonging within the three realms, a truly existent dharma that can be cognized by sentient beings, realized by them, and observed by them. It is a dharma with its own inherent operational laws, different from the seven evolving consciousnesses. It is a dharma possessing immeasurable merits, possessing the seeds of the five aggregates, eighteen elements, and three realms, capable of producing the threefold world. It is a dharma that can cause sentient beings to cycle in saṃsāra and also enable them to perfect Buddhahood. It is a dharma that truthfully actualizes the causal laws of the threefold world.
The third and fourth lines: "Now, when transmitting the non-Dharma, how could any Dharma ever be Dharma?" I am now transmitting this non-dharma tathāgata-garbha for sentient beings, expounding the three baskets and twelve divisions of the scriptures to liberate sentient beings from the sea of suffering of birth and death, ultimately attaining liberation. Among all the dharmas I transmit, not a single dharma is the tathāgata-garbha dharma itself. They are all expedient means (upāya) pointing to the tathāgata-garbha dharma and temporarily existing dharmas, like rafts for crossing a river. They are also like fingers pointing to the moon; the finger is not the moon itself. Sentient beings use the finger to see the real moon, thereby attaining great wisdom, finally accomplishing the Buddha Way and perfecting Buddhahood.
VI. The Dharma Verse of Śikhin Buddha
Original Text: Raising all wholesome dharmas is fundamentally illusory; creating all evil karmas is also illusory;
The body is like gathered foam, the mind like wind; illusions have no root and no real nature.
Explanation: Whether sentient beings create wholesome or unwholesome karmas, they are all done by the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses. The five-aggregate body has no self-nature; it cannot exist or function alone. It must rely on the eighth consciousness, which, according to the karmic conditions of sentient beings, transmits the seeds of the seven great elements and karmic seeds, enabling the various physical and mental activities of the five aggregates. Therefore, the eighth consciousness is the seed-basis (bīja-āśraya) for the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses, as well as their fundamental basis (mūla-āśraya). Without the eighth consciousness, there are no five aggregates or seven consciousnesses. With the eighth consciousness, all dharmas can exist and function. The entirety of the five-aggregate body is an illusory manifestation of the eighth consciousness. Therefore, all wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions created by the five-aggregate body are fundamentally unreal, like flowers in the sky or the moon reflected in water.
It is like assembling sheets of iron into a robot, setting some programs, and controlling it manually; then the robot can operate and work. Everything the robot does is illusory because the robot itself does nothing; it has no self-nature. It is a composite false appearance without real function. If a robot kills someone, the court will not convict the robot. Even if imprisoned, the robot experiences no real suffering. Therefore, all karmic actions created by five-aggregate sentient beings are entirely illusory, not truly existent.
The five-aggregate physical body is like foam gathered in the great sea, illusory in essence, all being seawater. The seven consciousnesses are also produced and transformed by the eighth consciousness; they are also illusory, without substantial seven consciousnesses. Their essence is the eighth consciousness. Therefore, the seven consciousnesses are like a gust of wind, coming without a trace, leaving without a shadow; their coming and going are the nature of the eighth consciousness.
The five aggregates and seven consciousnesses, illusorily manifested by the eighth consciousness according to the karmic conditions of sentient beings by outputting the seeds of the seven great elements, have no fundamental nature and no substantial entity; they lack independence. They merely arise based on conventional false appearances for some conventional utility, dazzling the eyes of sentient beings, deluding their minds, obscuring their inherent radiance, causing sentient beings to suffer futile fatigue in the illusory sea of birth-and-death karma, unable to attain liberation. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the illusory, recognize the essence, realize the truth, return to the original state, and become Buddhas and Patriarchs.
VII. The Dharma Verse of Krakucchanda Buddha:
Original Text: Seeing the body as unreal is the Buddha's seeing; understanding the mind as illusory is the Buddha's understanding;
Understanding the fundamental emptiness of body and mind, how is such a person different from the Buddha?
Explanation: Another name for sentient beings is the five aggregates and eighteen elements (dhātus). The five aggregates include the form aggregate, feeling aggregate, perception aggregate, mental formations aggregate, and consciousness aggregate. The eighteen elements include the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses. The five aggregates and eighteen elements are formed by the combination of the physical body and the seven consciousnesses. The physical body includes the inner body and outer body. The inner body is the body possessing a lifespan, endowed with the five sense faculties, composed of the seeds of the four great elements. The outer body is the realm of the six sense objects, including form objects, sound objects, smell objects, taste objects, touch objects, and mental objects (dharma objects). The six objects are further divided into internal and external six objects. What sentient beings can cognize and perceive are the internal six objects. The internal six objects are images formed by the eighth consciousness within the subtle sense faculties (indriyas) based on the external six objects through the six sense faculties.
The illusory and unreal nature of the five aggregates and eighteen elements can be realized even by a śrāvaka stream-enterer (初果, srotāpanna). The stream-enterer severs the view of self (sakkāya-diṭṭhi), realizing the physical body is illusory and not self, and the cognitive mind is illusory and not self. The śrāvaka's understanding of the five aggregates as illusory and not-self is extremely superficial, all viewed from the perspective of the conventional truth (saṃvṛti-satya) of illusory appearances. Their perspective is very narrow, and their wisdom is very inferior. Compared to the Buddha's supreme, profound, and ultimate wisdom, it is like the bottom of a well versus the vast sky.
The wisdom state of realizing the body and mind as unreal and illusory has many levels. Śrāvakas from the stream-enterer (srotāpanna) to the arhat with liberation in both ways (ubhatobhāga-vimukta) all realize the five aggregates are unreal and without self. They only realize the non-self of persons (pudgala-nairātmya). Regarding the principle of the non-self and unreality of the five aggregates, their understanding is not yet ultimate; it remains only at the level of recognizing the illusory appearances of the five aggregates.
Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, starting from the stage of realization of the mind (明心見性) at the abiding stage (住位菩薩), up to bodhisattvas before the first bhūmi, all realize the non-self of persons. This realization of the non-self of persons is more ultimate than that of śrāvaka arhats, adding more perspectives. They also observe the illusory and unreal nature of the five aggregates based on the perspective of the tathāgata-garbha, knowing the five aggregates are not the true master, not autonomous dharmas. Therefore, they know the five aggregates are unreal like flowers in the sky, but this is still not completely thorough.
Only upon reaching the stage of Buddhahood, observing sentient beings' physical bodies and the Buddha's immeasurable, billions of transformation bodies with the Buddha-eye, does one see they are all instantaneously manifested by the tathāgata-garbha. The Buddha-eye has not a trace of ignorance obscuring it; its vision is the most thorough and ultimate. The Buddha-eye simultaneously observes the consciousnesses of sentient beings, all transformed instantaneously by the seeds of consciousness output by their tathāgata-garbha, without real functional activity of consciousness; their essence is all the nature of the tathāgata-garbha.
When sentient beings realize the mind and see the nature (明心見性), their wisdom continuously increases and becomes more profound and integrated. They will increasingly be able to deeply and subtly observe the illusory unreality of the five-aggregate body and mind. Their various contemplative wisdoms become deeper and subtler, increasingly penetrating the fundamental nature of sentient beings and their own body and mind: all are the empty-nature mind, the tathāgata-garbha, without a trace of self-existence of the five-aggregate body and mind. When a bodhisattva's wisdom reaches such a state, it approaches the Buddha's wisdom state, and Buddhahood is not far off.
