The Essence of the Heart Sutra
Section Three: The Bodhisattva Attains Nirvana Through Right Knowledge and Right Enlightenment
Sutra Text: ["Because there is no obstruction, there is no fear. Far removed from inverted views and dreamlike thoughts, one attains Ultimate Nirvana."]
I. The Bodhisattva Fears Not Birth and Death to Rescue Sentient Beings
After realizing the true reality, the Bodhisattva gradually gains the wisdom to transcend birth and death, gradually dispelling the fear associated with the birth and death of the five aggregates. They no longer fear drifting within the six realms alongside sentient beings. The Bodhisattva knows that to achieve their future Buddha Land, they must widely liberate sentient beings and bring benefit and happiness to all beings. Therefore, the Bodhisattva dares to make vows, using countless future lifetimes of the five-aggregate bodies for self-benefit and benefiting others. They do not, like Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas, take extinction early due to fear of the suffering of birth and death in the six realms, entering the Nirvana Without Remainder. The Bodhisattva does not take the Nirvana Without Remainder. For the sake of attaining Buddhahood and the liberation of sentient beings, relying on the Nirvana True Mind, the Tathagatagarbha, they are not obstructed by the afflictions of the five-aggregate birth and death, never extinguishing the five-aggregate body, and never departing from the three realms to avoid suffering.
The Bodhisattva also does not fear descending into the three evil paths to liberate beings, knowing that the three evil paths are an illusion. They simply utilize this illusion to perform vast dreamlike Buddha-deeds. When Śākyamuni Buddha was a Bodhisattva, due to great compassion for the suffering of sentient beings, he frequently descended into hell realms to liberate beings. Śākyamuni Bodhisattva relied on the power of his vows to rescue beings in hell; he did not create hellish karma, thus there was no karmic retribution of hell, and the suffering retribution of hell could not afflict the Bodhisattva's physical body. If a Bodhisattva, out of pity for sentient beings, resolves to endure their hellish suffering on their behalf, the moment he generates that resolve, the hell guards strike him dead with a single blow, and the Bodhisattva emerges from hell.
In the future, if we encounter the conditions and resolve to become a horse to liberate those fellow practitioners among the horse kind—because they created evil karma in past lives leading to rebirth as horses, yet the causes and conditions for their liberation have matured—would we dare to do so? Many say they dare not. Not daring is normal because one does not yet possess that capability and resolve; there are still many worries in the heart. After attaining realization and cultivating to a certain level where one gains that capability, one will then possess that courage. At that time, even if you are reborn in a horse womb and become an animal, you will not experience the same suffering retribution as other horses. Just like Śākyamuni Buddha, who, to liberate five hundred Bodhisattvas who had fallen among horses, went to receive offerings at a patron's house. The patron neglected the offering, so the Buddha ate horse fodder for three months. Yet, the same horse fodder tasted to the Buddha more exquisite than heavenly delicacies because the Buddha's karmic retribution is incomparably supreme; whatever food He eats becomes the most delicious. The Bodhisattva diligently cultivates without cease, advancing stage by stage, and their karmic retribution becomes increasingly supreme. To rescue sentient beings, they no longer fear birth and death.
II. Sentient Beings Invert Reality, Mistaking the False for True
Relying on the birthless and deathless Tathagatagarbha, the Bodhisattva has no fear and gradually distances themselves from all inverted dreamlike thoughts, attaining a clear and wise mind. Sentient beings have eight types of inversions: (1) Taking suffering as happiness and happiness as suffering; (2) Taking emptiness as existence and existence as emptiness; (3) Taking the impermanent as permanent and the permanent as impermanent; (4) Taking the non-self as self and the self as non-self. These four unfold into eight kinds of inverted wrong views.
When the Buddha first began teaching, He first spoke the conventional truth, telling sentient beings that the five aggregates are suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. Approaching His Nirvana, He taught the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, expounding the true ultimate truth—the permanence, bliss, self, and purity of the Buddha stage. Superficially, this seems contradictory, but both are truths, merely at different levels, both used to counteract sentient beings' inverted views. Sentient beings take the suffering of the five aggregates as happiness, the non-self five aggregates as self, the impermanent conscious mind as permanent, and the impure physical body as pure. They cling greedily to the five aggregates, unwilling to relinquish them. These are the four inversions.
The other four inversions are taking the Buddha stage's permanent, blissful, self, and pure Nirvana Mind as impermanent, non-self, suffering, and impure.
(1) Sentient beings take the impermanent as permanent, clinging to the conscious mind that cannot go to future lives as a truly permanent self. The conscious, knowing mind is discontinuous, arising and ceasing, ungraspable. Yet sentient beings take it as an eternal, indestructible true self, believing the soul is immortal and can go to future lives. Clinging to this as real, they become eternalist heretics, unable to escape the cycle of birth and death. Heretics, unaware of the true reality of the indestructible Tathagatagarbha, cling to nihilism or eternalism, believing that after death there is annihilation, everything becomes nothing, or taking the conscious mind as an eternal, permanent dharma. Due to these wrong views, they cannot attain liberation. They believe the subject of rebirth is the soul, which is the arising-and-ceasing conscious mind. The Buddha taught that the subject of sentient beings' rebirth is the indestructible Tathagatagarbha. The soul-consciousness they speak of ceases in five situations: during dreamless sleep, unconsciousness, the state of no-perception, the state of cessation, and at death. When an Arhat enters Nirvana, consciousness also ceases. Since the soul is a mind that can cease, it is not the subject of rebirth. Therefore, believing the soul is indestructible is the eternalist heresy; believing sentient beings become nothing after death, with no indestructible mind continuing to future lives, is the nihilist heresy. These are all inverted wrong views.
(2) Sentient beings take non-self as self, taking the non-self five aggregates and eighteen elements as self and what belongs to self, unaware that they arise and cease, change and alter instantaneously, not being the true self. The true self is eternally indestructible, unchanging, permanently existing without suffering. Because sentient beings have ignorance within, they take this false self of the five aggregates as the true, eternally unchanging self. Thus, they create immeasurable evil karma of body, speech, and mind; every thought arises for the sake of the false self of the five aggregates, giving rise to various inverted thoughts, constantly safeguarding their own interests. All this is taking non-self as self, hence the endless flow of birth and death.
(3) Sentient beings take suffering as happiness, revolving through the six realms life after life, experiencing immeasurable misery. Due to ignorance, unaware that the six realms are suffering, they instead regard it as happiness, clinging greedily to the sea of suffering, unwilling to abandon it, like maggots in a cesspool unaware of the filth. Even obtaining a human body, busily toiling through a lifetime, involves more suffering than happiness. Strangely, the vast majority do not perceive it as suffering but cling to the suffering, unwilling to abandon it. Sentient beings are accustomed to suffering, taking it as happiness, unaware of the truth of suffering, unaware of liberation. This is all due to the obscurations of beginningless kalpas of ignorance; this is the root cause of suffering in the cycle of the six realms. To rescue them and eradicate this ignorance, only by expounding the Buddha's principles of liberation can sentient beings with affinities generate the mind for cultivation, enabling them to distance themselves from inversions and attain liberation.
Some who study and practice Buddhism, although understanding the principle that the five aggregates are false, have not lessened their attachment to their own five aggregates at all. When relinquishing the body at death, they absolutely refuse to let go of the physical body, unable to exhale their last breath for a week or even half a month. Even though body and mind suffer greatly, they still wish to preserve the dying physical body, unwilling to seek rebirth in the Pure Land. Some commit all manner of evils for the sake of wealth, reaping so much suffering retribution, yet still unwilling to abandon their evil habits. All these people fail to realize that the five aggregates are fundamentally suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self; unaware that beyond these six realms there are the more liberated realms of the Four Holy States; unaware of pursuing the supreme state of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
(4) Sentient beings take the impure as pure. In the world of the five aggregates, everywhere is filthy and foul. The body has nine orifices constantly exuding impurities. From head to toe, from skin to internal organs, everything is bacteria: tears and eye discharge, nasal mucus and boogers, saliva in the mouth—all are bacteria. Skin, flesh, tendons, bones, marrow, blood, brain matter—all are bacteria. The Buddha said the bodies of sentient beings are like large, mobile dung buckets, extremely filthy; the internal organs reek of excrement, urine, foul odors, and putrid discharges. The physical body is so filthy, yet sentient beings are unaware, clinging greedily to it, deludedly attached. The seven consciousnesses are also filthy and impure, defiled over countless kalpas: greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and countless wrong views and afflictions stain their minds, long-steeped to become seeds. Yet sentient beings are deludedly attached to their minds, unaware of introspecting. This is due to ignorance. Our ignorance is too deep; it requires countless kalpas of cultivation and study of the Buddha Dharma to gradually eradicate this ignorance bit by bit. When ignorance is completely eradicated, one becomes a fundamentally pure, undefiled Buddha.
III. Why the World-Honored One First Spoke of Non-Self and Later Spoke of Self
Before manifesting Nirvana, Śākyamuni Buddha taught permanence, bliss, self, and purity in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. Yet, upon attaining enlightenment, He taught suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. This is not a contradiction in His teaching. Because sentient beings all have the wrong view of taking the five aggregates as self, and due to this wrong view cannot attain liberation, the Buddha first taught the Dharma of non-self to enable sentient beings to eradicate the wrong view of self, first resolving the problem of birth and death. Heretics believe there is a self within the five aggregates, or that the soul is immortal and can continue to future lives, or take various states of consciousness in meditative concentration as the true self. To refute heretical views, the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, enabling sentient beings to realize the non-self of the five aggregates. Heretics said, "When the Śramaṇa Gautama taught non-self, we could still tolerate it." When the Buddha approached Nirvana and taught permanence, bliss, self, and purity, saying that the Dharma of non-self is conventional truth, while the ultimate truth is that there is a self—the Tathatā Mind of the Buddha stage is the truest self, eternally unchanging—the heretics were bewildered upon hearing this, saying the Śramaṇa Gautama was speaking inverted teachings.
In reality, the Buddha first taught non-self to refute the heretical view of taking the five aggregates as self. Then, the Buddha could teach the true Dharma—the great Nirvana of the Buddha stage, which is the self of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Why did the Buddha teach that there is a self? Because the Buddha's Tathagatagarbha, the Stainless Consciousness, is the completely perfect, ultimate self, possessing the nature of a true, eternal self. The Stainless Consciousness no longer contains seeds of arising, ceasing, changing, or defilement; the suffering of segmental birth and death is gone, the suffering of changeable birth and death is also gone. This is the true, permanent self. The Buddha's Stainless Consciousness possesses twenty-one mental factors and can independently accomplish all deeds; that is the true, real self. Hearing that the Buddha Dharma contained a true self to be sought, and that cultivation did not end in the annihilation of becoming nothing, heretics came in droves to the Buddha to leave home, following the Buddha to study the Mahayana Dharma.
The "permanence" in permanence, bliss, self, and purity means the Tathagatagarbha Stainless Consciousness at the Buddha stage has neither the suffering of changeable birth and death nor segmental birth and death. It has no seeds of arising, ceasing, and changing; it forever ceases to be influenced or altered, hence it is called permanent. The Tathagatagarbha of sentient beings still contains seeds of arising, ceasing, and change; the suffering of segmental birth and death is not exhausted, the suffering of changeable birth and death is still latent, and there are extremely many seeds of ignorance, so it is not permanently unchanging. The Tathagatagarbha of sentient beings is constantly being influenced; studying heretical teachings influences it to form seeds, studying wholesome teachings also influences it to form seeds. Wholesome and unwholesome seeds continuously undergo change; it is fundamentally not permanent.
The "bliss" in permanence, bliss, self, and purity refers to the Stainless Consciousness at the Buddha stage. It has no suffering-feeling, is not directed towards any state, abandons all feelings, is tranquil and undisturbed. That is true bliss, the ultimate bliss of extinction. The bliss-feeling of worldly dharmas is always accompanied by suffering-feeling. As long as the Tathagatagarbha contains seeds of defilement and afflictions of the seven consciousnesses, it is not stainless, because the produced seven consciousnesses are not pure, not tranquil, hence not true bliss. The bliss of the Stainless Consciousness transcends all characteristics, abiding in pure extinction, without the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, or the suffering of decay.
The "purity" in permanence, bliss, self, and purity means the Stainless Consciousness at the Buddha stage is ultimately pure, having eradicated all defiled seeds, completely transforming them into pure karmic seeds, eradicating afflictions and habitual tendencies of afflictions, eradicating all ignorance, already being ultimately pure. In the Tathagatagarbha of sentient beings, because the karmic seeds created by the seven consciousnesses all exist and are stored, the Tathagatagarbha possesses the nature of the Ālayavijñāna (Storehouse Consciousness). The Tathagatagarbha before the eighth ground Bodhisattva stage possesses the nature of the Ālayavijñāna, indicating it contains seeds of afflictions and their habitual tendencies. Through cultivation, Bodhisattvas eliminate the defiled karmic seeds within the Ālayavijñāna, storing pure karmic seeds instead. Finally, the Ālayavijñāna can transform into the pure, undefiled Stainless Consciousness.
After the Buddha taught the true Dharma of permanence, bliss, self, and purity, the heretical leaders could not endure it, saying, "Gautama, when you taught suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, we could still tolerate it because it was similar to our Dharma. Now you teach permanence, bliss, self, and purity—there is a self—and as a result, our disciples are leaving home under you. This we cannot endure." Then they went to debate the Dharma with the Buddha, but the Buddha, with a few words, enabled them to attain the fruits [of enlightenment]. Throughout His life, the Buddha taught the Dharma, liberating countless heretics. When the six heretical teachers contended with the Buddha, hundreds of millions of heretical disciples were all liberated by the Buddha.
Approaching Nirvana, the Buddha was still liberating those heretics. Many of those heretics were the Buddha's disciples in past lives; He had previously taken them as disciples among the heretics, and finally, they all returned to the Buddha Dharma, attaining the fruits of Arhatship and Bodhisattvahood. Some attained Arhatship very quickly; the Buddha resolved it with just a few words. Yet in this Dharma-ending age today, how difficult it is for us to attain even the first fruit! Many practice for a lifetime without a trace [of attainment]. Why is the gap so large? Because most heretics during the Buddha's time were weary of suffering and possessed the mind for liberation; their meditative attainments were also very high, having completed the Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment, and their afflictions were subdued. They only needed to faithfully accept the Buddha's words and contemplate the principles of the Four Noble Truths slightly to attain the fruits.
However, no matter how heretics cultivate, without the Buddha's guidance, they cannot eradicate the view of self and remain forever in the cycle of the six realms. Once the Buddha expounds to them that the mind in meditative concentration is the arising-and-ceasing conscious mind, not the Nirvana Mind, and they contemplate and accept this, they eradicate the view of self and attain the pure Dharma eye. Some immediately became great Arhats with the three clear knowledges and six psychic powers. Without that crucial word of instruction from the Buddha, they would forever revolve in the six realms. Even if born in the highest heaven of Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception, entering concentration for eighty thousand great kalpas enjoying bliss, once the blessings are exhausted, evil karma manifests, and they fall into the three evil paths to suffer. Therefore, to escape the suffering of birth and death, one must study the Buddha Dharma, learn the Four Noble Truths of the liberation path of the Āgamas, learn the principles of Prajñā, the methods of realizing the mind and seeing the nature. The true Buddha Dharma is the Tathagatagarbha Dharma, the ultimate path to liberation and Buddhahood.
The above explains inversions. Sentient beings also have dreamlike thoughts; they are all within the great dream of birth and death. At enlightenment, they awaken a little from the dream of birth and death, but not yet completely. Only the Buddha thoroughly awakens from the great dream of birth and death, attaining ultimate liberation, realizing the supreme great Nirvana. Ordinary sentient beings life after life are within the great dream of birth and death, deluded and inverted, with false thoughts and attachments. The great Bodhisattvas, like the Buddha, also perform vast dreamlike Buddha-deeds.
IV. The Four Kinds of Nirvana for the Sages of the Three Vehicles
Sentient beings have long abided within the great dream of birth and death since beginningless kalpas, muddled and unaware, not knowing awakening. After realizing the mind, the Bodhisattva gains the initial awakening wisdom, beginning to awaken gradually from the dream of birth and death, though not yet completely. Only upon becoming a Buddha does one thoroughly awaken from the great dream of birth and death, hence the Buddha is called the Ultimately Awakened One. The Bodhisattva knows this world is like an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and is already somewhat awakened. Although the awakening is not yet perfect or complete, they are no longer like ordinary sentient beings who are completely deluded and inverted, falsely clinging to the five-aggregate world as truly existent. Therefore, after realization, the Bodhisattva gradually has no obstruction regarding the five-aggregate world. Relying on this unobstructed mind of Prajñāpāramitā, there is then no fear; they distance themselves from all inverted dreamlike thoughts and ultimately attain the Ultimate Nirvana of the Buddha stage.
Nirvana has four kinds in total:
(1) The Nirvana of the Intrinsically Pure Mind. This is the nirvanic nature inherently possessed by the Tathagatagarbha itself. Nirvana: 'Ni' means not born, 'vana' means not extinguished; not born and not extinguished is Nirvana. The Tathagatagarbha is the birthless and deathless nirvanic mind-substance. It is not born dependent on other dharmas, originally present, never extinguished, inherently the nature of the Middle Way Nirvana. Therefore, the first kind of Nirvana is called the Nirvana of Intrinsic Purity. Seventh Stage (Bhūmi) Bodhisattvas realize it upon enlightenment and realization of the mind.
(2) Nirvana With Remainder. This is the Nirvana attained by Third Fruit (Anāgāmin) and Fourth Fruit (Arhat) practitioners. Fourth Fruit Arhats eradicate the view of self, eradicate attachment to the three realms, and attain liberation of mind. However, having a physical body active in the world, they still inevitably experience subtle suffering. This suffering exists dependent on the Arhat's five-aggregate body; as long as there is a five-aggregate body, there is suffering. For example, when it's hot, they still feel stifled by the heat and still avoid the sun's rays; when it's cold, they still feel cold; when mosquitoes bite, they still feel pain and itch; when hit by a stone, they still feel pain. The suffering experienced by the physical body belongs to subtle suffering, also called residual suffering. Therefore, the state attained by Fourth Fruit practitioners is called Nirvana With Remainder. Nevertheless, their minds are already liberated, without attachment to the threefold world. At life's end, they have the capability to extinguish themselves and not be reborn. The mind is liberated. Before entering the Nirvana Without Remainder, while lifespan exists, it is Nirvana With Remainder.
(3) Nirvana Without Remainder. Fourth Fruit Arhats eradicate the view of self, completely exhausting the four abiding ignorances. Among them, Wisdom-Liberated Arhats must wait until the end of their lifespan to extinguish their own five aggregates and eighteen elements, leaving only the Tathagagarbha alone. This is "not leaving yet leaving." Simultaneously-Liberated Arhats can extinguish the five aggregates and eighteen elements at any time, leaving only the Tathagatagarbha alone. When the Arhat extinguishes the five aggregates, suffering ceases because without the five aggregates, suffering cannot be felt. The remaining Tathagatagarbha has no feeling and no suffering. This state of the Tathagatagarbha alone existing is Nirvana Without Remainder.
Pratyekabuddhas, although Middle Vehicle sages with wisdom superior to Arhats, still enter Nirvana Without Remainder after relinquishing their lifespan. While their five aggregates exist, they abide in the state of Nirvana With Remainder.
(4) Non-abiding Nirvana. Non-abiding Nirvana is the ultimate, perfect liberation state attained by all Buddhas—liberated everywhere, bound nowhere. The Buddha is the ultimately great liberated one. He neither abides in birth and death nor abides in Nirvana; He does not abide in the extinction state of nothingness. Although the Buddha attains Non-abiding Nirvana and gains ultimate liberation, He does not, like Arhats, extinguish the body and annihilate consciousness, becoming inactive. The Buddha does not extinguish His own five-aggregate body to dwell alone in the extinction state, useless. He still uses the five-aggregate body to liberate immeasurable sentient beings and will moreover use immeasurable five-aggregate bodies as manifestations to liberate beings.
The Buddha has no birth and death, does not abide in birth and death, yet can expediently manifest immeasurable arising-and-ceasing transformation bodies according to conditions, solely to benefit sentient beings and liberate them from suffering. The physical body manifested by the Buddha is called the Body of Liberation. It is not bound by any ignorance or affliction. The liberation attained by Arhats lacks form; there is no five-aggregate body. If they were to manifest a physical body again, it would still entail changeable birth and death. Therefore, the Arhat's liberation is not ultimate. Abiding in Non-abiding Nirvana, the Buddha can universally appear before all sentient beings, responding to conditions to liberate the deluded masses. When the conditions for teaching the Dharma in one world are exhausted, He manifests in other worlds. Although manifesting physical bodies in immeasurable Buddha Lands, He abides in no dharma whatsoever. Therefore, the Buddha attains Non-abiding Nirvana.
The Buddha attains all four kinds of Nirvana. Attaining these four kinds of Nirvana, one thoroughly distances oneself from inverted dreamlike thoughts and becomes a perfectly complete Buddha, the World-Honored One. The Arhat's Nirvana is not yet ultimate; they still have inverted dreamlike thoughts, have not yet thoroughly awakened from the great dream of birth and death, still believe birth and death are real, and thus fear birth and death, single-mindedly seeking to enter Nirvana. Although Arhats extinguish the five-aggregate body, they have not truly liberated birth and death; they have only eliminated the karmic seeds of segmental birth and death within the Tathagatagarbha. The seeds of changeable birth and death remain within the Tathagatagarbha. Therefore, their liberation is not ultimate; their Nirvana is not ultimate. Only the great Nirvana of the Buddha is ultimately permanent, blissful, self, and pure.
