The Essence of the Heart Sutra

Section One: The True Mind Is Empty and Quiescent, Without the Five Aggregates

In the Saṃyukta Āgama, the Buddha repeatedly taught that "五阴非我、不异我、不相在," and at times also said that the twelve sense bases and eighteen elements are all "非我、不异我、不相在." This means that the five aggregates, twelve sense bases, and eighteen elements are not the real self, not the true mind tathāgatagarbha; yet one also cannot say that the five aggregates, twelve sense bases, and eighteen elements and the tathāgatagarbha are two separate things. Within the five aggregates there is no mark of the tathāgatagarbha, and within the mind-substance of the tathāgatagarbha there is also no mark of the five aggregates.

The sutra text "是故空中无色。无受想行识。" — the so-called "in emptiness there is no form" means that within the mind-substance of the empty-nature tathāgatagarbha there is no aggregate of form. The tathāgatagarbha itself is formless and without marks, without length or shortness, largeness or smallness, without blue, yellow, red, or white — not even empty space exists within it. If the tathāgatagarbha had an aggregate of form, we could see the tathāgatagarbha with our eyes and touch it with our hands, and realizing the tathāgatagarbha would then be far too easy. If the tathāgatagarbha had an aggregate of form, it would have length, breadth, squareness, roundness, size, and spatial position — where within the tathāgatagarbha would the five-aggregate body be placed? Would it have to overlap with the tathāgatagarbha? And what would lie outside the tathāgatagarbha's aggregate of form? Would it be within empty space or outside empty space? It would certainly be within empty space; then empty space would be larger than the tathāgatagarbha and would surround it, meaning empty space was not produced by the tathāgatagarbha — this contradicts the Buddha's statement in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra that empty space is within the tathāgatagarbha like a single cloud within the great void. Therefore, saying that the tathāgatagarbha has an aggregate of form is erroneous; the tathāgatagarbha has no aggregate of form.

"空中无受想行识" follows the same principle: apart from having no aggregate of form, the mind-substance of the tathāgatagarbha also has no aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, or consciousness. The tathāgatagarbha is apart from seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing; toward the myriad dharmas of the six sense objects it does not see, does not hear, does not taste, does not touch — for the natures of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are all functions of the six consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha holds neutral feeling toward all dharmas, but its neutral feeling differs from the neutral feeling of the mind consciousness. The neutral feeling of the mind consciousness is that when the consciousness engages with mental objects, it does not feel pain or pleasure; whereas the neutral feeling of the tathāgatagarbha is that the tathāgatagarbha fundamentally does not comprehend what the six sense objects even are, does not know right from wrong, good from bad, beautiful from ugly, and has no afflictions of its own and no nature of self, and therefore does not give rise to feelings of pain or pleasure toward the realms of the six sense objects. Its neutral feeling is far more profound and subtle than that of the mind consciousness, very difficult to truly understand; the two differ greatly, and it also differs greatly from the neutral feeling of the manas. The tathāgatagarbha also does not discriminate the realms of the six sense objects; it does not know form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas, does not know east, south, west, or north, has no analysis, planning, or scheming regarding the six sense objects, and has none of the thoughts and ideations of the mind consciousness.

The deluded mind discriminates; all of the first seven consciousnesses discriminate — only the discrimination of the seventh consciousness, the manas, is not specific and detailed, yet it still has a rough, overall discriminating and cognizing nature. The deluded mind exists precisely to discriminate the realms of the six sense objects, while the true mind does not discriminate them. But when the deluded mind discriminates the six sense objects, there is the cooperation of the true mind which does not discriminate; thus when we discriminate, at the same time there is a non-discriminating true mind existing simultaneously. The two operate in harmonious conjunction, running in parallel without conflict.

The tathāgatagarbha has no aggregate of volitional formations, because it has no aggregate of form and no aggregate of consciousness, and thus there is no creation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, no movement or activity, no change or flux, and no arising and ceasing, replacing one another, thought after thought. Within the tathāgatagarbha there is no aggregate of consciousness; the aggregate of consciousness is the seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the realms of the six sense objects, while the tathāgatagarbha does not see, hear, be aware of, or know the six sense objects. Since the tathāgatagarbha has no aggregate of consciousness like that of the six consciousnesses, it likewise has no aggregates of feeling, perception, or volitional formations like those of the six consciousnesses. Although the tathāgatagarbha also has the five universally present mental factors — the mental factors of feeling, perception, and volition — these differ greatly from the mental factors of feeling, perception, and volition of the six consciousnesses and the seventh consciousness. The mental factors of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses carry the nature of ignorance and afflictions, have a nature of self and grasping, have subjectivity, and have psychological tendencies of liking and disliking, and are not impartial; whereas the mental factors of the tathāgatagarbha operate like wood or stone, unaffected by sense realms, without a nature of self or grasping, and without subjectivity or psychological tendencies of liking and disliking.

When an arhat extinguishes the five aggregates and enters nirvāṇa without remainder, within that nirvāṇa without remainder the seven consciousnesses are extinguished and only the tathāgatagarbha abides alone. If the tathāgatagarbha had the five aggregates, then within this nirvāṇa there would be the movement of form and mind. Not only could all the Buddhas locate the arhat's tathāgatagarbha, even enlightened bodhisattvas could locate the arhat's tathāgatagarbha, and even ordinary beings could locate the arhat's tathāgatagarbha — which would be equivalent to locating the arhat himself. But in reality, after an arhat enters nirvāṇa, even the supernatural powers of all the Buddhas of the ten directions cannot find him, because the tathāgatagarbha is formless and without marks: the eyes cannot see it, the ears cannot hear it, the nose cannot smell it, the tongue cannot taste it, the body cannot touch it, and thought and imagination cannot conceive it. Therefore, to summarize: the tathāgatagarbha has no five aggregates (in terms of functions and effects).