The Essence of the Heart Sutra

Section 4  The True Mind Is Empty and Quiescent, Without Aging and Death

Sutra text: 【（如来藏）乃至无老死。亦无老死尽。】 This means that the tathāgatagarbha never ages; He has no time or lifespan, no past, present, or future. He is eternal yet ever new—a true Buddha of Infinite Life.

I. The Tathāgatagarbha Is Fundamentally Without Birth and Death

The five aggregates and eighteen realms are arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing moment after moment; the physical body constantly changes and ages. That is the result of the tathāgatagarbha transmitting the four great elements—the seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind—instant by instant, causing the tissues and cells to metabolize moment by moment, and thus we gradually grow up and grow old. The tathāgatagarbha knows the karmic seeds of sentient beings, and at the corresponding time it manifests a physical body corresponding to those karmic seeds, consistent with the karma; it is the tathāgatagarbha that makes us grow old bit by bit. The five aggregates and physical body change because the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with karmic seeds and various ever-changing conditions, outputs the corresponding seeds of the four great elements. All the changes of the physical body are the functions of the tathāgatagarbha's four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind. When the body becomes unhealthy, it is because the tathāgatagarbha, knowing the karmic seeds, transmits to us discordant seeds of the four great elements. The reason the four great elements are discordant is the karma we created in the past and the retribution we should receive. If it is wholesome karma, wholesome retribution will be brought about; then the seeds of the four great elements output by the tathāgatagarbha will be harmonious, and the body will be healthy; the retribution for unwholesome karma is an unhealthy body. When some people contract various serious illnesses, it is all the result of heavy killing karma in past lives and of forming unwholesome connections with sentient beings. All karmic seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and when the conditions ripen, the karmic retribution manifests.

So where does birth and death come from? It is manifested and illusorily displayed by the tathāgatagarbha; without the tathāgatagarbha there would be no birth and death. But the tathāgatagarbha manifests all dharmas in accordance with sentient beings' karmic seeds of birth and death, completely according with conditions and not acting as a master. However, some minor illnesses are not necessarily caused by karma from past lives; perhaps due to transformations of external conditions, the tathāgatagarbha responds to such changes, the four great elements are temporarily discordant, and illness appears. This discordance is a change in the proportional structure of the seeds transmitted by the tathāgatagarbha, so the condition of some part of the physical body changes; it is also self-invited. Health and illness are also transformations of consciousness-only: only the tathāgatagarbha, the manas, and the six consciousnesses—these three transformative-agency (parināma) consciousnesses—working in combination to transform and create, will produce the various illnesses of the five aggregates and physical body.

All dharmas cannot be separated from the conscious mind that creates all dharmas; this is "all dharmas are consciousness-only." For example: getting angry, becoming inflamed and falling ill, and various other dharmas are all created by one's own conscious mind. When encountering the same situation, others do not get upset while you do; with different mental attitudes, the manifested appearances differ, and the feelings differ. The five aggregates and physical body grow old moment by moment; this is the appearance manifested by the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with karmic conditions. He knows when white hair will grow, when wrinkles will appear, when bodily functions will decline, and when death will occur—He knows all of this, yet the conscious, perceiving mind cannot know it.

The tathāgatagarbha is neither old nor young, because He has no mark of a lifespan. He is neither a child, nor an adult, nor an elderly person. Saying He is 100 years old is wrong; ten thousand years old is wrong; even countless years is wrong, because He has always existed and will never die. For us to cultivate and become Buddhas requires three great incalculable kalpas, and even these incalculable kalpas are still measurable, because Buddhahood can ultimately be accomplished. Once Buddhahood is attained, the incalculable kalpas come to an end. But the tathāgatagarbha truly has no measure; He has no ending, will never cease and become extinguished, and therefore no measure can be used to compare with Him.

Amitābha Buddha of the Land of Bliss (sukhāvatī) in the West is also called the Buddha of Infinite Life. Although Amitābha Buddha is of infinite life, His lifespan is still measurable. When Amitābha Buddha's conditions in the Land of Bliss come to an end, He will step down, and then Bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara) will succeed Him as Buddha. So Amitābha Buddha's lifespan is still finite. After stepping down, He will go to other Buddha-lands with which He has connections and continue to be a Buddha, and He can simultaneously be a Buddha in countless worlds to deliver sentient beings. Śākyamuni Buddha has countless Buddha-lands; He has countless Nirmāṇakāya Buddhas (nirmāṇa-kāya-buddha) and innumerable emanations, delivering sentient beings in countless lands. After attaining Buddhahood, a Buddha will not perish, nor will He ever change back into a sentient being—that is absolutely impossible; He merely changes to another Buddha-land to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings.

Śākyamuni Buddha's adorned Sambhogakāya Buddha (saṃbhoga-kāya-buddha) body is right now teaching the Dharma in the Akaniṣṭha Heaven to those bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi to the tenth bhūmi. That Sambhogakāya Buddha's lifespan is seven million asaṃkhyeya kalpas, whereas for us to become Buddhas requires only three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas—the Buddha's Sambhogakāya has a lifespan as long as seven million asaṃkhyeya kalpas. Although this time is very long, it still has an end; and after it ends, what then? There are still more Buddha-lands to go sustain. Why are there so many lands? Because the tathāgatagarbha is formless and markless, without boundaries, the Buddha-lands and the Buddha's emanations are infinite and boundless.

Since the tathāgatagarbha has no aging and death, there is no dharma of extinguishing aging and death—that is, there is no ending of aging and death. The aging and death of the five aggregates exist because of the tathāgatagarbha, who can manifest the retribution of the karmic actions of birth and death created by the five aggregates. The appearance of birth and death is because ordinary sentient beings have karmic conditions of birth and death. Bodhisattvas who have no karma of birth and death, having made the pure great vow never to enter nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha will accord with these karmic conditions and power of vows, manifesting for sentient beings these illusory appearances of birth and death. Since the tathāgatagarbha has no aging and death, there is no dharma of "ending of aging and death," and there is no need to eliminate the phenomenon of aging and death. The purpose of the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses in cultivation is to hope that the five aggregates will never age or die and will not be bound by aging and death; but the tathāgatagarbha has no thought of eternal life without aging—He is inherently eternal and unaging, without the appearance of time passing through moment-by-moment change, without arising, ceasing, and metabolism, forever unaging, undying, and never perishing.

II. Relying on the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination to Extinguish Aging and Death and Enter Nirvāṇa

The content related to ignorance and aging-and-death is the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination, the middle vehicle dharma cultivated by pratyekabuddhas. Pratyekabuddhas are further divided into condition-realized (pratyaya-realized) and solitary-realized ones. What is the difference between them? Solitary-realized pratyekabuddhas, because they cultivated the Way life after life and have very deep roots of goodness, when there is no Three Jewels present in the world, can still give rise to the mind for cultivating the Way. Seeing a single arising-and-ceasing phenomenon in the world, they become alert, recognizing that these arising-and-ceasing phenomena in the world must certainly all have causes and conditions, and so they go into the mountains to investigate the origins and workings of these phenomena of arising and ceasing, and thereby resolve the great problem of birth and death.

(1) Forward Deduction of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination

When a solitary-realized pratyekabuddha cultivates the Way alone deep in the mountains, he observes and discovers that every dharma arises from causes and conditions. Investigating each of the twelve links of dependent origination, he awakens to dependent origination and emptiness of nature—dharmas produced by causes and conditions are themselves empty. He exhausts the ignorance of one thought, severs the manas's grasping at self, and extinguishes himself into nirvāṇa. A condition-realized pratyekabuddha is born in an age when there is a Buddha; he follows the Buddha's teachings to cultivate, investigating each arising link and ceasing link of the twelve links of dependent origination, and realizes dependent origination and emptiness of nature.

The twelve links of birth-and-death in the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination: ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ) — formations condition consciousness — consciousness conditions name-and-form — name-and-form condition the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) — the six sense bases condition contact — contact conditions feeling — feeling conditions craving — craving conditions grasping (upādāna) — grasping conditions existence — existence conditions birth — birth conditions aging-and-death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa).

1. Ignorance: it means not understanding, that is, foolishness. This has already been discussed earlier and will not be repeated here.

2. Ignorance conditions volitional formations: the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination is twelve links of the chain of birth and death. Because all sentient beings have ignorance, with ignorance they will create various bodily, verbal, and mental actions; thus the entire chain is initiated by ignorance. "Ignorance conditions volitional formations"—this "conditions" means to produce, generate, draw, and initiate. Bodily formations are the actions and creations of the body; verbal formations are various linguistic creations; mental formations are various mental activities, the various thoughts and ideas in the mind. As long as ignorance is not severed, the creation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions will not stop.

3. Formations condition consciousness: while bodily, verbal, and mental karma are constantly being created, the six consciousnesses are necessarily involved, ceaselessly discerning and continuously operating. Because the six consciousnesses refuse to become still, the manas also clings and grasps without cease; since the manas cannot sever its grasping nature, it cannot extinguish itself.

4. Consciousness conditions name-and-form: for the seven transforming consciousnesses to operate normally, they must depend on the physical body. Thus after death an intermediate body (antarā-bhava) appears; in the intermediate body, the manas refuses to extinguish itself and still clings to the physical body, so it drags the eighth consciousness along to take rebirth. After conception, there is a fertilized egg, and the name-and-form five aggregates gradually come into being. Because of ignorance there is name-and-form in the next life—this is the principle of ignorance conditioning formations, formations conditioning consciousness, and consciousness conditioning name-and-form.

5. Name-and-form conditions the six sense bases: at the instant of conception into the fertilized egg, the first six consciousnesses all cease. The manas and the eighth consciousness enter the womb; the manas is "name," the fertilized egg is "form"—this is the initial name-and-form. The tathāgatagarbha absorbs the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind from the mother's body to transform and generate the fertilized egg; the fertilized egg gradually develops and grows, producing a head, limbs, and the five internal organs and six bowels. After the body faculty slowly takes shape, the eye, ear, nose, and tongue faculties are also transformed and generated. Once the six faculties are complete, the tathāgatagarbha can, through the six faculties, transmit the external six sense objects into the internal six faculties, manifesting the inner six sense-object aspects (nimitta); thus the six sense bases arise—this is the principle of name-and-form conditioning the six sense bases.

6. The six sense bases condition contact: when the fetus is four or five months old, the tathāgatagarbha can produce the mind consciousness. When the six faculties contact the six sense objects, the tathāgatagarbha will produce the six consciousnesses, and the six consciousnesses can contact the six sense-object aspects—this is the six sense bases conditioning contact.

7. Contact conditions feeling: when the six consciousnesses contact the six sense objects, feelings arise. The eye seeing form has feeling (when the fetus develops to a certain stage, it can perceive the brightness and darkness of light), the ear hearing sounds has feeling, the nose smelling scents, the tongue tasting flavors, the body feeling touch, and the mind cognizing dharmas all have feeling. This is contact conditioning feeling.

8. Feeling conditions craving: feeling is divided into painful feeling, pleasant feeling, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling (upekṣā-vedanā). When the six consciousnesses have feeling, thoughts and emotions of craving and attachment arise—this is feeling conditioning craving. Sometimes sentient beings even develop craving for painful feelings. Why? Because the nature of the manas is to cling to all dharmas. For example, our Sahā world, this evil world of the five turbidities, is so full of suffering; the World-Honored One urges sentient beings to seek rebirth in the Land of Bliss in the West, yet many are still unwilling to go. When elderly people are told to quickly make the vow seeking rebirth, they will say, "I still have things unfinished; let me finish my affairs first, then I'll seek rebirth," and they keep waiting until the time of death without finishing their affairs, still clinging and unable to let go.

Our world is so painful, and the Land of Bliss is so blissful, yet sentient beings have no sincere wish to seek the Land of Bliss. This psychological state of sentient beings is ignorance; because of ignorance there is craving—craving in happiness and craving in suffering alike. It is precisely because of the manas's ignorant clinging that beings crave the dust and toil of birth and death before their eyes. Our Sahā world is so full of suffering, yet countless sentient beings still cling to it, unwilling to leave—this is because ignorance is deep and heavy. This is feeling conditioning craving.

9. Craving conditions grasping: with feeling, craving arises; once craving arises, sentient beings will grasp at and seize all the states they crave, always wanting to own and possess all people, affairs, things, and objects. As long as one has not cultivated to the level of the third or fourth fruit, sentient beings all have craving; it is only that the objects, scope, and degree of craving differ. Those who have attained meditative concentration (samādhi) or have already realized the fruits, if at the end of life they lack the ability to enter nirvāṇa, it is also because of craving and the manas's clinging: craving not fully severed, either craving the various meditative states of the form realm or craving those of the formless realm, they cannot escape saṃsāra and attain liberation from birth and death. Once sentient beings have craving, they certainly want to obtain, possess, grasp, and seize; in this way, the worldly dharmas of the three realms will be produced endlessly, and sentient beings will undergo birth and death here like a whirling fire-wheel, transmigrating without rest—this is craving conditioning grasping.

10. Grasping conditions existence: with grasping, the dharmas of the three-realm existences arise—this is grasping conditioning existence. The three-realm world in which we live is produced precisely because of the manas's unceasing grasping. If we no longer crave and grasp, these worldly dharmas will no longer appear.

11. Existence conditions birth: after we crave and grasp, there are the three-realm worlds of the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm; with an environment and space for existence, our lives can appear and we can survive here—this is existence conditioning birth.

12. Birth conditions aging-and-death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress: once life appears, there are aging, illness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress; immeasurable and boundless afflictions all appear—this is birth conditioning aging, illness, and death.

That sentient beings have the birth of the five aggregates and the production of these living environments of the three realms has its fundamental cause in the ignorance within our minds. If all ignorance is extinguished, craving for the three realms will be exhausted; then, like arhats and pratyekabuddhas, one will have the ability to enter nirvāṇa, extinguishing the entire five aggregates and eighteen realms so they are never born again; no dharma of the three realms will manifest, and everything in the three realms comes to an end.

(2) Reverse Deduction of the Ten Links of Dependent Origination

The above is the forward deduction of the twelve links of dependent origination cultivated and realized by pratyekabuddhas. There is also a reverse deduction of the ten links of dependent origination, deducing backward from birth, aging, and death all the way back to the source of life—the tathāgatagarbha.

Where do our birth, aging, and death come from? Why are there birth, aging, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress? The pratyekabuddha reflects: because this life-form—the birth and existence of the five aggregates—exists, there are aging, illness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. This is "aging-and-death conditions birth";

They further reflect: where does the life-form come from? It is because there is this living environment of the three realms that the life-form can be born—this is "birth conditions existence";

Where does the living environment of the three realms come from? It comes from the mental activity of grasping at the dharmas of the three realms, seizing and possessing them—this is "existence conditions grasping";

What gives rise to grasping? Only because of craving for the dharmas of the three realms is there grasping—this is "grasping conditions craving";

What gives rise to craving? Because there is feeling toward the contacted dharmas, there is craving—this is "craving conditions feeling";

What gives rise to feeling? Because the six faculties contact the six sense objects and cognize the six sense objects—this is "feeling conditions contact";

What gives rise to contact, and where does contact come from? Because there are the six sense bases—this is "contact conditions the six sense bases";

What gives rise to the six sense bases, and where do they come from? Because there is the fertilized egg of name-and-form are there the six sense bases—this is "the six sense bases condition name-and-form";

Where does the fertilized egg of name-and-form come from? The pratyekabuddha infers that there must be a fundamental limit (bhūta-koṭi)—the conception consciousness—that gives birth to name-and-form. Thus he arrives at a conclusion: consciousness conditions name-and-form, and name-and-form condition consciousness.

Observing forward the twelve links of the birth-and-death chain of existence is the gate of transmigration—with this, there is that. Deducting backward through the ten links of existence to seek the root of aging and death, extinguishing this by first extinguishing that, is the gate of cessation. When the deduction reaches the conception consciousness, the Ālayavijñāna (tathāgatagarbha), it can proceed no further, because the tathāgatagarbha is the fundamental limit and source of all dharmas; no dharma can go beyond Him. Therefore one can only turn back at consciousness and stop at the Ālayavijñāna tathāgatagarbha; there is no dharma that could produce the Ālayavijñāna—the tathāgatagarbha precedes even what precedes heaven and earth. The tathāgatagarbha produces name-and-form; name-and-form and the tathāgatagarbha have a relationship of mutual dependence: apart from the tathāgatagarbha, name-and-form cannot be born and cannot exist; apart from name-and-form, the tathāgatagarbha cannot manifest either, because apart from name-and-form the tathāgatagarbha cannot be found.

The consciousness in "formations condition consciousness" and "consciousness conditions name-and-form" within the twelve links of dependent origination is the impermanent six consciousnesses. In the reverse deduction of the ten links, the consciousness in "consciousness conditions name-and-form" and "name-and-form condition consciousness" refers to the conception consciousness—the tathāgatagarbha. Name-and-form come from the tathāgatagarbha; without the tathāgatagarbha there would be no fertilized egg; without the fertilized egg there would be no name-and-form; without name-and-form there would be no six sense bases; without the six sense bases there would be no contact; without contact there would be no feeling; without feeling there would be no craving; without craving there would be no grasping; without grasping there would be no three-realm existence; without existence there would be no birth; without birth there would be no aging, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress.

This dharma of dependent origination, deduced forward and backward, was realized by solitary Buddhas only after cultivating for many years deep in the mountains. They all had the mind of renunciation, all wanted to extinguish suffering, their minds were very pure, and their meditative concentration was excellent, so their contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and reflection were very deep and subtle. If we were to cultivate the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination, we would have to pay a far greater price than the pratyekabuddhas of past lives, spending more time and energy, because our faculties are too poor, our mind of renunciation is weak, our resolve seeking liberation is not firm, and our meditative concentration is not very good. If a bodhisattva, after seeing the mind, further contemplates the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination in detail from the perspective of the Mahāyāna dharma, carefully verifying it, the wisdom obtained then will surpass that of the pratyekabuddhas. By the same token, when bhūmi-level bodhisattvas further engage in contemplative practice of the Four Noble Truths, the wisdom of the Mahāyāna Four Noble Truths obtained is also beyond comparison for arhats. Because the followers of the two vehicles do not realize ultimate reality and can only practice contemplation within the aggregates, sense fields, and realms, the wisdom they obtain can only count as conventional truth, whereas the Mahāyāna dharma of the Four Noble Truths and of dependent origination is profound and exceedingly profound.

Solitary Buddhas have deep roots of goodness. In circumstances where there is no Buddha, no Dharma, and no noble saṅgha appearing in the world, they go to the deep mountains to cultivate on their own; through reflection and verification, they attain the path-fruit of the solitary Buddha. Then the six superknowledges manifest, and they fly through the air, coming and going freely. When they deliver sentient beings, it is mainly by means of superknowledges. Seeing that the pratyekabuddha's superknowledges are so vast, sentient beings become envious and give rise to the resolve to follow and cultivate the Way—this is how pratyekabuddhas deliver people. Because they have cultivated in the deep mountains for many years, their meditative concentration is quite high; after realizing the fruit, superknowledges appear immediately, and they can inspire other sentient beings with connections to enter the Buddhadharma and cultivate.

Pratyekabuddhas have realized the principle that consciousness conditions name-and-form and name-and-form condition consciousness, understanding that it is the tathāgatagarbha that, relying on various conditions, produces the name-and-form five aggregates, after which the various phenomena of birth, aging, illness, and death appear. They realize that all dharmas arise from causes and conditions, have no self-nature, and are dependently originated and empty of nature. Thereupon they exhaust the afflictions of the view of self and grasping at self, attain the pratyekabuddha's fruit, and when their worldly conditions are exhausted, they realize nirvāṇa and leave this three-realm world. Arhats and pratyekabuddhas, when their lifespans end, will all enter nirvāṇa without remainder; therefore arhats and pratyekabuddhas will not remain in the human world to transmit the dharma of the path of liberation; they do not wish to remain in the world to transmit the Dharma and deliver the deluded masses—except that those of the first fruit who undergo seven more returns between the human and heavenly realms, when returning from the heavens to the human world, may transmit the Dharma and deliver sentient beings according to the Four Noble Truths they have cultivated and realized, according with conditions; or those of the second fruit, the sakṛdāgāmin, when returning to the human world, can only transmit the dharma of the Four Noble Truths within one lifetime and then enter nirvāṇa; the śrāvaka third-fruit persons go to the five Pure Abodes (ākaniṣṭha heavens) to take rebirth in later lives and then enter nirvāṇa, and they also cannot propagate the Dharma and deliver the multitude; only enlightened bodhisattvas can propagate the Dharma and deliver sentient beings life after life.

If sentient beings only study the Small Vehicle and Middle Vehicle dharmas, without a compassionate mind, only seeking personal liberation and having no pity for sentient beings, then in the end there will be no one in this world to transmit the Dharma; with no sages to transmit the Dharma and propagate the Way, all sentient beings will remain in the great darkness of ignorance, unable to attain liberation. Bodhisattvas have a compassionate mind, vowing never to take nirvāṇa, never to take extinction, life after life in this three-realm world benefiting themselves and benefiting others, transmitting the Dharma and delivering people, while themselves cultivating with courageous diligence. In the end, they not only accomplish the Buddha Way themselves but also lead sentient beings together onto the path to Buddhahood—this is the character of the bodhisattva! The capacity of mind of arhats and pratyekabuddhas is far inferior to that of bodhisattvas; they only care about their own escape from suffering and pay no heed to whether sentient beings escape this ocean of saṃsāra and karma; it is enough for them that they themselves can leave the three realms. However, after they enter nirvāṇa without remainder, when conditions ripen in the future, they must still emerge from the state of nirvāṇa, return to the Sahā world, turn their minds toward the Great Vehicle, study and cultivate the Mahāyāna, and then extensively deliver immeasurable sentient beings.