The Essence of the Heart Sutra
Section One: Freedom and Lack of Freedom
What is "freedom" (自在)? The first meaning of freedom refers to a dharma that can exist independently on its own, without depending on any dharma or any condition. What dharma, then, can exist independently on its own? Only the self-natured pure mind, the tathāgatagarbha, can exist independently without depending on other conditions; therefore He is free, inherently able to exist by Himself. The second meaning of freedom refers to the ability of the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses to act without hindrance, unbound by karmic obstructions and karmic conditions. That is the realm of sages whose minds have attained liberation. Ordinary people's five aggregates are all bound by karmic conditions and bound by the realms of the six sense objects; endowed fully with the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, they cannot be free. In our study of Buddhism and cultivation, among the fifty-two stages that one must pass through from the initial stage of faith-stage bodhisattvas to buddhahood, the higher the stage, the more freedom the seven consciousnesses attain. When one is about to become a Buddha, the first seven consciousnesses are all transformed into wisdom, and one becomes completely and thoroughly free, just like the tathāgatagarbha.
1. The Lack of Freedom of Ordinary Sentient Beings
"Freedom" in the Buddhadharma differs from "freedom" in worldly affairs. In worldly terms, freedom generally means that a person is unbound by external conditions and is free and at ease—able to do whatever one wants and obtain whatever one desires, following one's heart's wishes without obstruction. But in worldly affairs, there is no true freedom at all, because there are all kinds of constraints and restrictions in many respects; complete freedom is impossible—at the very least, one must depend on the tathāgatagarbha at every instant in order to exist and function.
The lack of freedom of sentient beings is, first, lack of freedom over birth. We cannot manage to be born in a pure Buddha-land; we cannot manage to be born in the heaven realm to enjoy pleasures; we cannot manage to be born into a family of powerful and blessed parents; even when we wish to obtain a human body to practice the Buddhadharma, there is no guarantee. We cannot be masters of our birth, and we cannot be masters of not being born either; we are completely blown about by the winds of karma, drifting through saṃsāra in the three realms and six paths, undergoing suffering.
Second, lack of freedom over death. When the time to relinquish the lifespan arrives, we cannot manage to live even one second longer; we cannot manage to relinquish life early, nor can we delay it; when impermanence arrives, no matter how much we cling to worldly relatives and possessions, unable to let go of anything, we still have to let go and depart this world.
Third, lack of freedom over blessings. In this world we pursue the enjoyment of material life, but without laboring, there are no clothes or food and drink; without cultivating blessings, there is no enjoyment of any material things. Only by seeking in accordance with cause and effect and according to the Dharma can one ensure that one's resources and enjoyments—food and drink, clothing, bedding, and so on—will not be lacking.
Fourth, lack of freedom over the body. There are many wealthy and powerful people in the world who, in the eyes of ordinary people, stand high above and should be free and happy. But in reality, they live more arduously than ordinary people, because power and wealth are impermanent: when they do not have them, they chase after them desperately; when they have them, they must find ways to hold on to them, constantly worrying that others will take them away, engaging in open and covert struggles for power and position. Even the most powerful kings cannot do as they please without restraint. Ordinary people are even less free: within organizations they are constrained by rules and regulations and by national laws; at home they are constrained by the family; when going out there is traffic control; and if they commit crimes, they are imprisoned and lose their personal freedom.
Fifth, lack of freedom with respect to the three evil paths. Animals mostly rush about busily their whole lives for food and reproduction, or fight and kill one another, or are enslaved by humans and killed for food; beings in the hungry ghost path are severely lacking in food, clothing, and bedding, suffering misery all day long; beings in the hell realms experience pure suffering without any happiness, and their only hope is to die quickly and be free of the pain, but as long as their karmic offenses have not been exhausted, the retribution will not cease. Beings in the three evil paths wish to be liberated from suffering and to transcend the three evil paths, but they are constrained by karmic retribution and cannot leave the three evil paths unless the retributive suffering is fully exhausted. Beings in the three good paths delight in the life of the good paths and the heavenly realms, yet at death, constrained by karmic retribution, they too cannot avoid falling into the three evil paths to suffer. Therefore, beings of the six paths are not free with respect to the three evil paths and cannot be their own masters or make their own choices.
Sixth, lack of freedom in the heavens. The heaven realm is the place most coveted by beings of the six paths, the place they feel is most blissful; but even one as honored as Śakra, Lord of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, is not free. When the heavenly blessings or heavenly lifespan of devas are exhausted, they still must transmigrate, and perhaps they will fall according to karmic force into the three evil paths to suffer—this is what devas are most reluctant to face. They all want to escape the transmigration of the six paths, or to enjoy pleasures in the heavens forever, but they cannot be their own masters; even knowing they are about to be reborn in the three evil paths, they still cannot hold on to their heavenly lifespan. If Śakra were not a bodhisattva's manifestation, he would be an ordinary being, not as free as an arhat in the human world, not as free as a bodhisattva, and even less free compared with a Buddha. Therefore, as long as one has not realized liberation, whether as a human or as a deva, one is not free.
2. The Fundamental Freedom of the Self-Natured Pure Mind
Why do we say that our self-natured pure mind, the tathāgatagarbha, is inherently free and forever free? Because He need not be born and will never perish; He can exist without depending on any dharma. He has no six faculties, does not face the six sense objects, and has no discriminating nature of the six consciousnesses; He does not discriminate the six sense objects and the myriad dharmas, and therefore He will not give rise to any afflicted mental activities toward the realms of the six sense objects. He has no afflictions of greed, anger, or delusion; He creates no evil karma and no wholesome karma either, and therefore He does not transmigrate through birth and death following karmic activities. He has no eye faculty, does not correspond to form objects, and does not discriminate form objects, so He is not deluded by, swayed by, or bound by form—He is free with respect to form. He has no ear faculty and does not face sound objects; whether one praises Him or insults Him, He does not hear it, and therefore He does not give rise to various afflictions amid sound objects—He is free with respect to sound. It is the same with scent objects, taste objects, and touch objects. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha, amid the realms of the six sense objects, is forever suchness unmoved, forever free.
The seven consciousnesses of sentient beings inevitably give rise to seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing regarding the six sense objects, and amid the six objects they are not free: the eyes seeing form are deluded by form, the ears hearing sound are swayed by sound, and the nose smelling scents, the tongue tasting flavors, and the body feeling touches are all bound. The seven consciousnesses cannot leave the realms of the six sense objects: seeing form, they abide in form; hearing sound, they abide in sound; smelling scent, they abide in scent; tasting flavor, they abide in flavor; feeling touch, they abide in touch; knowing dharma, they abide in dharma. The tathāgatagarbha, however, gives rise to no seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing regarding the six sense objects; He does not adhere to, stain with, stick to, or bind to the dharmas of the six objects, and therefore He is free amid the six sense objects.
All dharmas lack self-nature and are not free; they cannot exist independently apart from the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha, however, possesses genuineness, suchness, and non-dependence-on-others; He is not born from others and never perishes, and therefore He is free. The five-aggregate self cannot exist independently apart from the six sense objects; if even one faculty is lacking, one is a disabled person, discriminating one sense object less, and one's mind suffers one more measure of pain. When the six faculties can no longer contact the six objects, the five aggregates inevitably relinquish their lifespan and become a corpse. Therefore, if sentient beings seek liberation without relying on the tathāgatagarbha, they will forever be bound by the five aggregates and, within the three realms and six paths, will be unable to escape the suffering of birth and death.
Because the tathāgatagarbha does not give rise to seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing regarding the six sense objects, and does not discriminate the six objects, He has neither painful nor pleasant feeling; when the six consciousnesses undergo suffering and happiness, He does not undergo suffering or happiness, and therefore He is free. However, since the tathāgatagarbha is a consciousness, He has the functions of recognition and discrimination; in fact, He also has feeling and perception, but these feeling and perception differ greatly from the feeling and perception of the first seven consciousnesses. Unenlightened students easily misunderstand this and easily confuse it. Even bodhisattvas possessing prajñā wisdom of general characteristics and wisdom of specific characteristics can only follow the sacred teachings and infer it from principle; those who can truly directly realize it are bhūmi-level bodhisattvas possessing the wisdom of the varieties of paths. After enlightenment, bodhisattvas study the one hundred dharma gates, the thousand dharma gates, and the ten thousand dharma gates, and study Yogācāra scriptures; they can gradually experience the deeper and subtler characteristics of the tathāgatagarbha, and will discover that His characteristics are completely and utterly different from those of our aware mind—this is a matter known only through personal realization.
3. The Liberating Freedom of Sages and Saints
Ordinary sentient beings, through the cultivation of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings, can gradually lead the five aggregates of body and mind toward freedom, even attaining complete freedom. The five aggregates of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas are free, but the levels of freedom differ, and the differences are great.
First, let us discuss the freedom of śrāvakas. Śrāvakas who have eradicated the view of self and realized the first fruit have somewhat more freedom of mind compared with ordinary beings. They know that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are illusory, so their attachment to the six sense objects will lessen; gradually cultivating to become second-fruit practitioners, they gain one measure of freedom amid the realms of the six sense objects. Next, having realized the third fruit up to the arhat of the fourth fruit, their craving for the three realms is extinguished; they are completely unbound by worldly dharmas of the three realms, their minds attain liberation, and inwardly they are even more free. When an arhat has not yet entered nirvāṇa without remainder, although a body of the five aggregates still exists, he can see forms without attaching to forms and hear sounds without attaching to sounds; his mind does not stick to the six objects, and their bondage to him is very slight, so he is relatively free amid the six objects. Arhats with superknowledges are even more free: having cultivated the divine eye, they can see the realms of the heavens, the realms of hell, and the realms of beings in other worlds. An arhat liberated in both ways not only has the divine eye but also the divine ear, knowledge of others' minds, recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti), psychic power of unimpeded action, and the knowledge of the exhaustion of outflows. With these six superknowledges, there is nothing he does not know or understand; ascending to the heavens and descending into the earth, he is omnipotent, and his five aggregates of body and mind are extremely free. With respect to birth and death, he is also very free compared with ordinary beings: an arhat at the end of life can extinguish the manas if he wishes, can extinguish the five aggregates if he wishes, can live long if he wishes, can enter nirvāṇa if he wishes, and can forever avoid birth and death transmigration in the world of the three realms.
Pratyekabuddha sages (those born in ages without a Buddha are solitary realizers) contemplate and deliberate on the twelve links of dependent origination, eradicating the view of self, self-grasping, and craving for the three realms, and ultimately can escape birth and death in the three realms and enter nirvāṇa without remainder. Therefore, with respect to the myriad dharmas of the six objects and the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, pratyekabuddha sages are free, and with respect to birth and death they are also relatively free. Compared with śrāvaka sages, pratyekabuddha sages have somewhat deeper and broader wisdom, but compared with bodhisattvas, their minds are still not free enough; they still fear the bondage of birth and death in the three realms. Both pratyekabuddha sages and śrāvaka sages share a common characteristic: they cannot realize the inherently free self-natured pure mind—the tathāgatagarbha. Only when future conditions ripen, when they turn their minds to study the Mahāyāna and again see the mind, realizing the original mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and become Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, can they be somewhat more free.
The minds of bodhisattvas are much freer than those of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, because they have realized that all myriad dharmas are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha and do not truly exist, and therefore they fear no dharma whatsoever. What the Heart Sutra describes is the wisdom realm of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, profound and again profound. Such bodhisattvas have long since awakened to the true mind; their meditative concentration and wisdom are both extremely deep and subtle; they can freely observe and deliberate on the profound meanings of the Buddhadharma with an unimpeded mind; they can at any time and place directly realize how their own true mind operates, how it concords with the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses to produce the myriad dharmas, and they can also observe the functional characteristics of the tathāgatagarbha of other beings in the six paths.
After seeing the mind, bodhisattvas discover that they themselves and all sentient beings have a true-suchness mind substance operating at every moment; this mind inherently exists and can exist independently without depending on any external conditions. After bodhisattvas acknowledge and take refuge in this true principle, the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses can gradually become free of marks, free of attachment, and unstained by the myriad dharmas, and their minds thereby gain a measure of freedom. Enlightened bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who have cultivated the four dhyānas and eight absorptions can come and go at will among the Buddha-lands of the ten directions, and can manifest different kinds of material bodies according to conditions to benefit sentient beings—a freedom far beyond what śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas can compare with.
After attaining the bhūmis, bodhisattvas cultivate the four dhyānas and eight absorptions; at the full-mind stage of the third bhūmi they cultivate superknowledges, and their superknowledge realms are vastly more excellent than those of arhats—with a mere thought they can manifest thousands upon thousands of mind-made bodies. Cultivating to the eighth bhūmi, a bodhisattva can manifest a trichiliocosm at will and can also have countless transformation bodies; if an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva wishes to move the Earth to another star system, he can move it there immediately, and sentient beings would not perceive it; when bodhisattvas see sentient beings living in hardship, their compassion operates, and they can manifest countless foods, drinks, and clothing to aid impoverished beings. If a bodhisattva wishes to deliver beings with a Buddha body, he can manifest a Buddha's form body, displaying the eight marks of becoming a Buddha to deliver sentient beings. Whatever body beings need in order to be delivered, the bodhisattva can manifest that body according to conditions—a level of freedom immeasurably higher, which śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas cannot match. Cultivating to the stages of equality (saṃbhāva-vakrānta) and wondrous enlightenment, bodhisattvas are even more free; the most free of all are naturally the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten directions—for a Buddha, there is no dharma in which He is not free.
As practitioners in the Dharma-ending age, we should take bodhisattvas as our model, constantly observing where we are not free, and give rise to the mind of renunciation, the mind weary of birth, death, and afflictions. Only with this mind of weariness can the mind of cultivating the Path arise, and only then can practice be accomplished. Bodhisattvas who have already achieved initial accomplishment should continually examine their own areas of freedom and lack of freedom, and should wisely understand the enormous gap between themselves and the realm of Buddhahood; they should take the Buddha's ultimate liberating great freedom as their final goal and cultivate with courageous diligence; they should compassionately pity sentient beings who transmigrate through birth and death, undergoing all kinds of suffering without freedom, and make great vows to rescue beings throughout the future until all together accomplish the Buddha Way.
