The Profound Meaning of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (Second Edition)
Chapter Six: Section on Seeing Reality as It Is
To see reality as it is means to perceive the true Dharma and not the illusory, and not to mistake the illusory for the real. Following the refutation of the four marks in the previous section, this section further refutes all marks, including the physical form of the Buddha, to reveal the Dharma-body of the Tathāgata and to illuminate the reality of Dharma.
Original Text: “Subhūti, what do you think? Can the Tathāgata be seen by means of his physical form?” Subhūti replied, “No, World-Honored One, the Tathāgata cannot be seen by means of his physical form.”
Explanation: Subhūti, what is your view? Is seeing the Tathāgata about seeing his physical form? Is one with a physical form the true Buddha? Is the Tathāgata to be seen through his physical appearance? Subhūti said: “It is not so, World-Honored One. Seeing the Tathāgata is not through his physical form.”
The true Buddha may not possess form, for even demons can manifest the thirty-two marks of a Buddha. That which has form is not the true Buddha-body. The Buddha has three bodies: the Dharma-body (Dharmakāya), the Reward-body (Sambhogakāya), and the Transformation-body (Nirmāṇakāya). The Dharma-body is the true suchness, the essence of reality, which cannot be seen, heard, or touched. It is formless, yet there is no form that is not it. It does not manifest through it, nor is it accomplished by it. The Dharma-body is also called the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, illuminating the great chiliocosm of the ten directions. Not a single Dharma is beyond its radiance; not a single Dharma can escape this mirror—all are but reflections within it. It possesses immeasurable, boundless, and vast wisdom, comprehending all Dharmas and manifesting all Dharmas. Its merits are perfect, and all Dharmas are complete within it. It is also called All-Wisdom (Sarvajñā).
The Reward-body Buddha is the majestic physical form attained by the Buddha through his practice over three great asamkhyeya kalpas. The Reward-body of Śākyamuni Buddha resides in the Akaniṣṭha Heaven, expounding the wisdom of the path (Dharma-jñāna) to Bodhisattvas from the first to the tenth ground, teaching them to cultivate the functional seeds contained within the Tathāgatagarbha. However, Bodhisattvas must possess meditative concentration beyond the fourth dhyāna to be reborn in the highest heaven of the form realm and hear the Buddha’s teachings directly.
The Reward-body has two aspects: the self-enjoyment body and the enjoyment body for others. The self-enjoyment body is for the World-Honored One’s own use, while the enjoyment body for others is manifested for Bodhisattvas. Depending on their level of realization, Bodhisattvas perceive the Reward-body Buddha’s size and form differently. This is due to their own karmic blessings and wisdom, not because the Buddha discriminates. The lifespan of the Reward-body Buddha is seven million asamkhyeya kalpas. One asamkhyeya kalpa encompasses countless great kalpas. One great kalpa consists of four intermediate kalpas: formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness. One intermediate kalpa has twenty small kalpas, and one small kalpa lasts sixteen million eight hundred thousand years. The size of the Buddha’s Reward-body is immensely vast. Compared to the Buddha’s body, the Earth is like a table tennis ball in his hand. A single white curl between the Buddha’s eyebrows, if extended, could encircle five Mount Sumerus.
The Transformation-body (Nirmāṇakāya) is the physical form manifested in response to the capacities of sentient beings in the ten directions, resembling their appearance and lifespan. It undergoes the eight phases of attaining Buddhahood: descending from Tuṣita Heaven, entering the mother’s womb, birth, renunciation, subduing Māra, attaining Buddhahood, turning the Dharma wheel, and entering parinirvāṇa. After renunciation, the World-Honored One manifested actions such as alms-seeking, eating, bathing, sleeping, and daily activities, just like ordinary beings. The Buddha did not need these but deliberately manifested them for sentient beings. Because beings’ capacities are dull, if the Buddha did not appear equal to them, they would not follow his teachings, and the Buddha would be unable to guide them. When the Transformation-body enters parinirvāṇa, it does not extinguish the body and mind like Arhats, who destroy the five aggregates. Instead, it retains the liberated physical body to benefit beings. After passing away in this world, it manifests another physical body in another world. This physical body is liberated, free from afflictions and habits, having severed all ignorance, including momentary ignorance, beginningless ignorance, and dust-like ignorance. Momentary ignorance is fully eradicated only by Arhats of the fourth fruition, enabling them to transcend the three realms. Beginningless ignorance is severed by Bodhisattvas after realization. Sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have been unaware of the reality-mind, the Tathāgatagarbha. After realization, beginningless ignorance is shattered. Dust-like ignorance refers to the countless phenomena, as numerous as dust and sand, that sentient beings do not understand. After enlightenment, ignorance is gradually eradicated until Buddhahood is perfected.
The Transformation-body is the infinite physical forms manifested by the Buddha through his supernatural powers and samādhi, spread throughout the ten directions to liberate those with karmic connections. He manifests whatever form is needed to teach beings, working alongside them. The Reward-body, Transformation-body, and Response-body are all born from the Dharma-body. They are subject to birth, change, and impermanence; they are not the true Buddha. Therefore, to see the Tathāgata, one cannot rely on physical form. The true Buddha is formless; that which has form is not true.
Original Text: “Why? The physical form spoken of by the Tathāgata is not the physical form.”
Explanation: Why is this so? Because the physical form spoken of by the Tathāgata is the form of no-form.
After Subhūti turned his mind to the Mahāyāna, he cultivated the reality of suchness, and his wisdom became profound and sharp, enabling him to deeply comprehend the Buddha’s true meaning. What was the physical form of the Tathāgata mentioned by the World-Honored One in the previous sentence? Subhūti stated that the physical form spoken of by the Tathāgata is the form without physical characteristics—the form of no-form. The Dharma-body Buddha embodies the principle of the Middle Way of the Eight Negations and infinite Middle Ways, possessing true meritorious functions, the virtue of prajñā (wisdom), the virtue of liberation, and the virtue of nirvāṇa. The virtue of liberation means the Dharma-body is unattached to any Dharma, not dwelling in any Dharma, unbound by any Dharma. It is not within the three realms, yet not outside them; not beyond the three realms, yet not within them. It remains unmoving toward all Dharmas. The virtue of nirvāṇa means the Dharma-body possesses the nature of non-arising and non-ceasing, non-coming and non-going, true eternity, quiescence, purity, immutability, and the four virtues of eternity, bliss, self, and purity. The virtue of prajñā means the Dharma-body possesses the great wisdom that gives birth to all Dharmas.
Why can the Tathāgata not be seen by means of physical form?
The Tathāgata is the nature-virtue, the true suchness, the Dharma-body, which has no physical form. Therefore, it cannot be seen by means of physical form. Whether it is the physical form of sentient beings or that of the Tathāgata, none is real, unborn, unceasing, or eternally unchanging. It is provisionally named “physical form.” Thus, the form-body neither represents sentient beings nor the Tathāgata. If one mistakes the physical form for sentient beings or for the Tathāgata, when the form perishes, sentient beings vanish, and the Tathāgata disappears. Yet the Tathāgata is eternally unchanging and never vanishes.
The Tathāgata is also the nature-virtue of the Buddha, the true suchness mind-essence of eternity, bliss, self, and purity. It is formless, without physical characteristics. Therefore, mistaking the physical form for the Tathāgata prevents one from seeing the Tathāgata. To see the Tathāgata, one must perceive the nature-virtue beyond the form, the formless true essence. The formless is true; the formed is false, provisionally named “physical form.” How, then, does this physical form arise? It is the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks of the reward-body, the fruition attained through the Buddha’s practice over three great asamkhyeya kalpas, accumulated through wisdom, merit, and blessings. It is manifested by the Buddha’s true suchness, the undefiled consciousness, arising from nothingness as a birth-and-death entity. Thus, it is illusory and unreal.
How, then, can one see the Tathāgata, the true Buddha? The Buddha provided a four-line verse as the answer: “All phenomena with marks are illusory. If you see all marks as no-marks, then you see the Tathāgata.” The answer is the result; the process to attain it is through Chan investigation (contemplation). The prerequisite is the perfection of precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, the fulfillment of the six pāramitās of Bodhisattvas, and even more so, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment of the Hīnayāna, for if the Hīnayāna cannot realize it, the Mahāyāna certainly cannot.
“All phenomena with marks” refers to every mark: the mark of self, person, sentient being, life-span, the five aggregates, phenomena, objects, mind, and Dharma—without exception, all are no-marks, all are illusory, produced and transformed by the vajra mind. To see the Tathāgata, to perceive the vajra prajñā reality-mind, one must engage in Chan investigation, contemplating the essence of all marks: what these marks truly are, why all marks exist, and why they arise and cease. When contemplation penetrates thoroughly, and one realizes the vajra prajñā mind, one understands that all marks are empty of inherent nature, not the substance itself, but the functional manifestations of the vajra mind.
Just as the wind causes trees to sway—the trees themselves cannot sway; the swaying is not the tree’s own phenomenon but the wind’s force. Thus, when the mark of wind appears, and wind is realized, the mark of tree-swaying is dispelled. Similarly, within all marks, one can realize the formless vajra mind and wondrous true suchness nature, thereby dispelling all marks and realizing that all marks are no-marks. This is the profound meaning of the Buddha’s words: “If you see all marks as no-marks, then you see the Tathāgata.” If one sees all marks as all marks, that is the view of an ordinary person with fleshly eyes. If one sees all marks as not all marks, yet provisionally named “all marks,” that is the view of noble sages and Bodhisattvas. Though all marks are provisionally named “all marks,” the illusory manifestations still exist; the illusory functions are still present. They cannot be entirely extinguished. Thus, all marks are no-marks, yet not non-marks—transcending the four propositions and severing all extremes.
Original Text: “All phenomena with marks are illusory. If you see all marks as no-marks, then you see the Tathāgata.”
Explanation: All phenomena with marks in the world are illusory. If within all marks, one perceives a markless Dharma, then one sees the self-nature Tathāgata. (This is explained from the perspective of prajñā. From the perspective of Vijñānavāda, if one sees all marks as not being all marks, as having no marks, then one sees the self-nature Tathāgata.)
All marks include the forms seen by the eye: the universe, space, mountains, rivers, earth, flowers, plants, trees, birds, beasts, people, and so on; the sounds heard by the ear: human and animal sounds, cosmic sounds, river sounds, sounds of all things, and so on; the various scents smelled by the nose: fragrances, foul odors, sour smells, rotting smells; the tastes experienced by the tongue: sweet, sour, bitter, spicy; the tactile sensations felt by the body: hunger, thirst, cold, heat, softness, hardness, numbness, fatigue, lightness, comfort, restlessness, fullness, pain, and so on; and all mental phenomena discriminated by the mind: good, evil, right, wrong, and so on. To sentient beings, these six dusts (objects of sense) appear real, with real functions. But in truth, from the perspective of ultimate reality, these marks are all illusory, born from and manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha.
Within the Tathāgatagarbha are the seeds of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. These four elements combine in specific proportional structures to manifest the universe, the vessel-world, Mount Sumeru, heavenly palaces, the four continents, the four great oceans, minerals, plants, and so on. Sentient beings’ physical bodies are also transformed by the Tathāgatabarbha. Due to the mental faculty (manas) carrying afflictive habits and attachments from beginningless kalpas, it refuses to extinguish itself, always desiring a physical body to use. After death, there is an intermediate state (antarābhava), where one sees the future parents uniting and rushes to join them. If destined to be male, one develops lust for the future mother; if female, lust for the future father. At the final moment of the parents’ union, joy arises, and the mental faculty along with the Tathāgatagarbha are drawn into the father’s sperm and mother’s blood, forming a fertilized egg that implants in the mother’s womb. The Tathāgatagarbha absorbs nutrients from the mother’s body, continuously transforming the fertilized egg, changing every seven days, developing the head, limbs, five sense organs, and internal organs. After four or five months, consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, and body-consciousness arise. When the body and mind mature, the Tathāgatagarbha blows the karma-wind, turning the fetus head-down to exit the mother’s body as an infant. Through drinking milk and eating food, the Tathāgatagarbha absorbs nutrients to transform the physical body. Thus, the physical body is manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha.
When sentient beings see forms with their eyes, they think they truly see the forms. In reality, they never perceive the external forms directly. What the eye contacts is merely an illusion, a shadow. If the external form truly touched the eye, the form could not be seen. If the eye could truly contact form, seeing a sharp knife would mean the knife’s edge touches the eye, surely piercing it; seeing fire would mean fire contacts the eye, surely burning it; seeing sand would mean sand contacts the eye, surely irritating it. The eye faculty and form cannot actually make contact. Form must be at a certain distance from the eye faculty to transmit the subtle particles of the four elements of the form-dust. The Tathāgatagarbha contacts the external form through the eye faculty, transforming it into an identical shadow, enabling sight. If the form were pressed against the eye faculty, with no space or distance, the form could not be seen. The nose faculty, tongue faculty, and body faculty can directly contact external scents, tastes, and tactile objects without requiring distance or space; their three consciousnesses can thus arise to perceive scents, tastes, and touches.
The shadow seen by the eye-consciousness differs from the external form’s substance; it is not the actual object. It passes through the retina and optic nerves to the subtle root (indriya) governing vision in the back of the brain, where the Tathāgatagarbha produces the eye-consciousness, which then discriminates the form-dust. This form appears identical to the external form but is actually a similar shadow, which sentient beings mistake as real. Similarly, the ear, nose, and tongue faculties do not directly contact external sounds, scents, or tastes; the Tathāgatagarbha contacts them and then manifests them. Whatever is produced is illusory and fabricated. This is the principle that all phenomena are mind-made. In short, all phenomena with marks are illusory. If within the various marks of the five aggregates and eighteen elements, one can find the Tathāgatagarbha—which has no mark and is not a mark—then one sees the Tathāgata, realizing the mind and perceiving reality.
Since all marks are born from and manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha, their functioning cannot be separated from it. When seeing marks, a wise person can discover the reality (Tathatā) coexisting with the marks. Who realizes the reality, the vajra mind? It is the deluded mind. Enlightenment is the deluded mind realizing the true mind. Within the various illusory marks operating in the five aggregates and eighteen elements, the vajra mind can be realized—in raising a hand or moving a foot, in welcoming or seeing off, in chanting the Buddha’s name or prostrating, in hitting or scolding others, the vajra mind is always operating alongside. The Fifth Patriarch said: “If you see the nature, even wielding a sword in battle, you see it.” This is the principle.
The *Vimalakīrti Sūtra* states: “A Bodhisattva’s every step comes from the place of enlightenment.” Tang Dynasty layman Pang said: “Carrying firewood and hauling water—all are supernatural powers and wondrous functions.” Deshan used his staff to hit people to reveal this truth to students; Linji used a shout to point it out; Zhaozhou said: “Go drink tea”; Yongming Chan Master told his disciple: “Go prostrate to the Buddha.” These Chan masters all used skillful means to instruct students. When blessings and conditions were sufficient, students awakened to reality, realizing the great matter.
A disciple once said to his master: “Since I arrived here three years ago, I have never seen you expound the Dharma to me.” The master replied: “Where have I not expounded it? When you bring water, I drink; when you offer food, I eat; when you bow, I return the greeting. Where have I not expounded the Dharma?” The disciple pondered this. The master said: “If you want to see, see! What are you thinking about?” The disciple immediately awakened.
A Chan master often scolded and hit a disciple. One day, the disciple could bear it no longer and said: “Why do you always hit or scold me?” The master pointed at him and said: “You dare slander me?” Raising his hand to strike, the disciple cried for help. The master covered his mouth with his hand, and the disciple suddenly awakened. How skillfully this master taught! A thousand samādhis are contained within such actions.
A disciple asked his master about the Dharma. The master said: “Go till the land.” The dull disciple did not understand but went to till the land. After finishing, still unenlightened, he asked again about the Dharma. The master said: “Go sweep the courtyard.” The dull disciple went to sweep, sweeping back and forth until suddenly he understood: “So this is it!” He awakened. That sweeping was not in vain. Sweeping holds mysteries; everywhere there are secrets, if one knows how to contemplate, apply the right mind, and find the right path. In our daily lives, the Tathāgatagarbha’s presence is everywhere, manifesting a mark that is no-mark. Finding it is seeing the Tathāgata.
