The Profound Meaning of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (Second Edition)
Chapter 8 No Attainment, No Teaching, Seven
Original text:须菩提。于意云何。如来得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提耶。如来有所说法耶。
Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think? Has the Tathāgata attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi? Has the Tathāgata spoken any dharma?
Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment — attaining the supreme, true awakening and realization, exhausting all ignorance, with the mind filled entirely with light and awakening, thereby realizing ultimate bodhi, accomplishing the Buddha path, and fulfilling the Buddha fruit. Since there is no fixed dharma called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, there is likewise no truly fixed, unchanging one who becomes a Buddha; all dharmas are formed through causes and conditions. The dharma the Buddha speaks is also formed through causes and conditions, according with the conditions of sentient beings: when there is the cause of sentient beings wishing to become Buddhas, the Buddha expounds a dharma that enables them to become Buddhas. When the conditions differ, the dharma the World-Honored One teaches differs. Therefore, the dharma the Buddha teaches should in the end no longer be grasped, because it is not a dharma that is fixed, forever imperishable, and unchanging. Any dharma that can be spoken is not the originally existing, fixed, unchanging dharma of true suchness (tathatā), yet these dharmas also cannot be generated apart from the self-nature of true suchness.
Then who accomplished the Buddha path and attained the Buddha fruit? A bodhisattva of wondrous awakening (sādhumatī) is the final-body bodhisattva before becoming a Buddha; in order to become a Buddha, he comes to the human world and accomplishes the path through the eight manifestations. When entering the mother's womb, the bodhisattva's material body perishes, and the manas together with the vipāka-consciousness — the eighth consciousness — enters the womb. At birth, the six faculties are complete, the six consciousnesses are complete (humans have no eye consciousness within the first seven days), the five aggregates are complete, and outwardly he is no different from ordinary beings. This new set of five aggregates is no longer the five aggregates of the wondrous-awakening bodhisattva; the material body and the six consciousnesses have all been replaced, and only the manas and the vipāka-consciousness remain the original ones, continuing on. Then he leaves home to cultivate the path. When he greatly awakens and sees his nature upon beholding the morning star at night, the ignorance of the seven consciousnesses is exhausted; the sixth consciousness transforms into wondrous observational wisdom (pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna), the manas transforms into the wisdom of equality (samatā-jñāna), and then the first five consciousnesses transform into the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna). When all seven consciousnesses have completed their transformation, the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored within the eighth consciousness — the vipāka-consciousness — are exhausted, and it becomes the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna), also called the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). When all eight consciousnesses have completed their transformation, the Buddha path is fulfilled, the Buddha fruit is attained, and he is called a Buddha.
Let us then contemplate: who accomplished this Buddha path, and who attained the Buddha fruit? First, the Buddha's undefiled consciousness is a mind that attains nothing; it itself does not wish to attain anything, and even if it did, there would be nowhere to put it — nothing can be attained. He has no thoughts, no mental activities, and never considers himself to be real, to be a Buddha, or to be such-and-such. All names are given to Him by people; what He is or is not — He has no such concepts. He also does not grasp at any dharma whatsoever, whether wholesome or unwholesome, defiled or undefiled. Because He does not grasp, He is never perfumed or stained, and has no ignorance; because He does not grasp, He does nothing and becomes nothing. Therefore He does not take the fruit of Buddhahood or act as a Buddha. If we say He is the Buddha, that too is a title conferred upon Him by people, not something He claims or confers upon Himself.
Next, consider the Buddha's five aggregates. The five aggregates of sentient beings are called the five coverings (skandhas); "covering" means to obscure and block, blocking sentient beings from recognizing the true principle and thereby giving rise to wrong views. But the Buddha's five aggregates do not obscure the Buddha's wisdom; the Buddha has already attained ultimate awakening, so they are called the five aggregates. The five-aggregate body of a Buddha is adorned with the thirty-two major marks and eighty minor marks, extremely sublime, yet it must also perish at parinirvāṇa. A dharma of arising and ceasing is not the Buddha; it cannot take the Buddha fruit or act as the Buddha. Although the Buddha's aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness can grasp, they are also conditioned dharmas of arising and ceasing, all of which must perish at parinirvāṇa; these four aggregates are not the Buddha and cannot act as the Buddha. Although the manas can continue forever into future lives, forever retained without perishing, it is still of a nature of arising and ceasing and can perish; it is only deliberately not extinguished so that the Buddha's material body and five aggregates can arise forever. Moreover, the manas alone, even with the wisdom of equality, cannot act as the Buddha. Thus bodhi is something unattained, and so there is no fixed dharma that can be called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.
Original text:须菩提言。如我解佛所说义。无有定法。名阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。也无有定法。如来可说。何以故。如来所说法。皆不可取。不可说。非法。非非法。一切圣贤。皆以无为法而有差别。
Explanation: Subhūti said: As I understand the meaning of what the Buddha has taught, there is no fixed dharma called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, nor is there any fixed, determinate dharma that the Tathāgata can expound. Why is this so? Because the dharmas the Tathāgata teaches are all not to be grasped and cannot be spoken; they are neither dharma nor non-dharma. All sages and noble ones differ by virtue of the unconditioned dharma (asaṃskṛta-dharma).
Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is also called unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment, which means accomplishing the Buddha path. But becoming a Buddha is not a dharma that exists innately and unchangingly; it is accomplished later through cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas. Therefore it is also subject to arising and ceasing, going from nonexistence to existence; hence it is not a fixed dharma, nor a truly existent dharma.
The Tathāgata likewise has no fixed dharma to teach. Why say this? Because the Tripitaka and twelve divisions of scriptures the Tathāgata taught over forty-nine years in the Sahā world cannot be grasped as truly existent; indeed, all the dharmas the Tathāgata taught in the worlds of the ten directions cannot be grasped as truly existent. Why can they not be grasped as truly existent? Because the dharmas the Buddha taught all appeared through various causes and conditions; without causes and conditions, these dharmas would not exist, and the Buddha would not teach any dharma. So the dharma the Buddha speaks is also subject to arising and ceasing and cannot be grasped as truly existent and unchanging. Even the great matter of the Buddha delivering sentient beings requires the ripening and completeness of causes and conditions, requiring sentient beings' conditions of merit, good roots, and the aspiration for liberation, and so forth; lacking even one condition, the Buddha cannot deliver sentient beings. And the dharma taught to deliver beings is determined according to conditions, according to sentient beings' indriya, merit, and wisdom. Therefore there is no fixed dharma to be taught.
A fixed dharma is a dharma that is unchanging, originally existing, that does not turn with causes and conditions, does not vary with causes and conditions — a truly real, immutable dharma, applied identically to all sentient beings regardless of their capacities, regardless of their faculties, and regardless of what conditions arise. Clearly, reality is not like this; such a dharma does not exist. Dharmas produced by causes and conditions, not innately existing, are not fixed dharmas. Therefore it is said that the Tathāgata, in delivering sentient beings, has no fixed dharma to teach. The dharma the Tathāgata teaches arises from nonexistence into existence, exists and then is gone, and is abandoned upon reaching the shore; it is also an empty dharma. Hence it is merely named "dharma"; in reality, dharmas have no self-nature, no self-substance to speak of — therefore it is "not dharma." Yet it is also not entirely non-dharma, for after all it has an illusory function: the provisional dharma can be used provisionally and borrowed; sentient beings can use it to become Buddhas and then discard it after attaining Buddhahood. So the dharma the Buddha teaches is also "not non-dharma" — it is not that it is not dharma.
Since all the dharmas the Tathāgata teaches are "not dharma," dharmas produced by causes and conditions with no fixed dharma, then when the Tathāgata teaches different dharmas to beings of different indriya according to different conditions, and sentient beings cultivate and study them, they realize the unconditioned dharma at different levels — including the unconditioned of the Great, Middle, and Small Vehicles, and even within the same vehicle there are differences in the unconditioned dharma. Thus sages and noble ones of different levels and different distinctions are accomplished; all sages and noble ones, because of differences in good roots, merit, and conditions, differ by virtue of the unconditioned dharma they have realized.
Why does the Tathāgata have no fixed dharma to teach?
When the Buddha comes into the world to teach the dharma, he always teaches according to causes and conditions. The Buddha observes sentient beings' conditions and teaches whatever dharma matches whatever condition — teaching the dharma according to the faculties. At the very beginning after the Buddha's attainment of the Way, he first taught the Avataṃsaka Sūtra in the various heavens, delivering the great bodhisattva disciples who had followed him in cultivation for countless kalpas, while the śrāvaka disciples of the Sahā world were as if deaf and mute. The Buddha then returned to the human world to teach the Small Vehicle Āgama sūtras to the śrāvaka disciples seeking liberation, letting them achieve results in their cultivation, and then turned them back to the Mahāyāna dharma for further study. Because the beings of the Sahā world have shallow faculties and all seek liberation, wishing to leave suffering and attain bliss, the Buddha taught the three vehicles of dharma in the Sahā world.
But in other Buddha lands, the Buddha teaches only the one vehicle — the one Buddha vehicle — delivering beings of bodhisattva disposition to accomplish the Buddha path. When the Buddha teaches, he always relies on a condition: when an event or phenomenon appears, the Buddha teaches a dharma; sometimes disciples ask questions. There is always a premise before a dharma is taught; dharmas taught without any cause are extremely rare — those are especially important dharmas, but even they match beings' faculties. So the Buddha's teaching is never fixed; dharmas are formed by causes and conditions, not fixed. All dharmas, no matter in which Buddha land they are taught, are used to remedy beings' sickness of ignorance and sickness of foolishness: when there is that kind of ignorance, the Buddha teaches that kind of dharma; when ignorance is exhausted, the dharma is no longer of use. Therefore the Buddha's dharma is like a raft used to cross a river — abandoned upon reaching the shore.
Since dharmas exist in dependence on causes and conditions, they are illusory and empty, to be used for a time and then discarded; therefore they must not be grasped as real. But while ignorance still exists, one must hold onto them and use them as tools. For example, with the dharma of the Four Noble Truths, after attaining the fruits and liberation, this dharma is of no more use to the arhat; then cultivating as a pratyekabuddha one uses the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination. After attaining the fruit of a pratyekabuddha, the dharma of dependent origination is also of no more use, and one must then cultivate the bodhisattva's six pāramitās. After seeing the mind and seeing the nature, the six pāramitās of the outer gate are of no more use, and one cultivates the six pāramitās of the inner gate. Then one enters the first bhūmi. After entering the bhūmis, the six pāramitās of the inner gate are of no more use, and one cultivates the ten pāramitās. After becoming a tenth-bhūmi bodhisattva, the ten pāramitās must also be abandoned. After cultivating the dharmas of the stages of equal awakening (samatā-saṃbodhi) and wondrous awakening (sādhumatī) to fulfill the Buddha path, all dharmas are no longer needed; everything is abandoned, and the mind is empty without any dharma.
Because all dharmas have been fully cultivated, only after becoming a Buddha can one expound them for sentient beings. Therefore all the dharmas the Tathāgata teaches are not originally existing, fixed, unchanging dharmas; they are all empty, not real dharmas. But they are also not non-real dharmas, because sentient beings, relying on these dharmas, can realize the real dharma — the unconditioned dharma — and moreover, when the Buddha expounded these dharmas, he never departed from the real dharma of true suchness; it is precisely because the dharma of true suchness was functioning here that the Buddha could expound them. These dharmas all come from the Buddha's own mind of true suchness, flowing forth from true suchness; they are a part of true suchness, in a relationship with true suchness of neither one nor different.
Why do all the sages and noble ones who have realized the unconditioned dharma still have differences?
The sages and noble ones include the śrāvaka arhats from the first fruit to the fourth fruit, the pratyekabuddhas who have realized the dharma of dependent origination at various grades, and the bodhisattvas from the seventh abode of seeing the mind up to wondrous awakening. Śrāvakas of the first and second fruits are sages (śreṇa); those of the third and fourth fruits and the pratyekabuddhas are noble ones (ārya); bodhisattvas before the first bhūmi are sages, and from the first bhūmi onward they are all noble ones. What they realize is all the unconditioned dharma, yet the content and levels of these unconditioned dharmas differ greatly. A first-fruit person realizes the emptiness and selflessness of the five aggregates, severs the three fetters, and from then on does not enter the three evil destinies — having no activity with respect to the paths of the three evil destinies. This is the initial unconditionedness of the five aggregates.
A second-fruit person, having realized the emptiness of self regarding the person, has reduced mental activities, attenuated afflictions, a somewhat purified mind, and somewhat more unconditionedness. A third-fruit person further realizes the illusoriness of the five aggregates; the meditative concentration of the form realm manifests, and attaining the first dhyāna, he extinguishes greed and desire, severs hatred and resentment, severs afflictions so the mind is pure, and no longer creates unwholesome karma — the seven consciousnesses begin their true unconditionedness. A fourth-fruit person is further unconditioned: he extinguishes the conceit "I am," severs craving for the form realm and the formless realm, exhausts afflictions, attains liberation by wisdom, is unconditioned with respect to the three realms, and can use the wisdom of liberation to transcend the three realms. An arhat liberated by concentration can enter the fourth dhyāna, with breath and pulse both ceased, realizing immovable unconditionedness (āniñjya); entering the concentration of no perception, he realizes the cessation of the aggregate of consciousness and the mind attains unconditionedness. An arhat liberated in both ways can enter the cessation of perception and feeling (saṃjñā-veditā-nirodha) anytime and anywhere, extinguishing the feeling and perception mental factors of the manas, realizing the unconditionedness of the cessation of perception and feeling, and can at any time attain nirvāṇa and leave the three realms. Because śrāvakas realize the selflessness of the five aggregates, their mental activities become ever more unconditioned and ever more pure, and the unconditionedness among them differs greatly.
Pratyekabuddhas include the solitary realizers (pratyekabuddhas who awaken alone) and the conditional realizers (those awakened by conditions). The solitary realizer, through the good roots cultivated life after life, at a time when there is no Buddha and no dharma abiding in the world, upon seeing a single phenomenon of arising and ceasing in the world, is stirred to deep contemplation; he goes alone to a quiet place to cultivate the path, investigating the source of these phenomena of arising and ceasing, probing the dharma of the twelve links and the ten links of dependent origination, and finds that the root of sentient beings' birth-and-death transmigration is ignorance, with the source being the eighth consciousness mind, and attains the fruit of a pratyekabuddha. The conditional realizer cultivates following the Buddha and, hearing the Buddha teach the dharma, awakens to the twelve links and ten links of dependent origination and attains the fruit. Their wisdom of the unconditioned dharma is deeper than that of the śrāvaka arhats, and the fruit-stage, wisdom, and supernatural powers of pratyekabuddhas also differ in shallow and deep levels — that is, the degree of unconditionedness of their mental activities differs.
The bodhisattvas realize the eighth consciousness by seeing the mind, realizing the unconditionedness of true suchness, and at the same time realize the emptiness of self regarding the person, knowing that the eighth consciousness has never arisen or perished since beginningless kalpas, and that within the worldly dharmas of the three realms it gives rise to no mental activity — unconditioned and selfless — while the five aggregates are produced by the eighth consciousness and are empty in essence. In subsequent cultivation, the mind gradually turns pure. Cultivating to the tenth abode, one realizes the contemplation that the five aggregates are like illusions and all dharmas are like illusions. At the ten practices, one realizes the contemplation of mirages — all dharmas are as unreal as a mirage. At the ten dedications, one realizes the contemplation of dreamlikeness: the activities of the five-aggregate bodies life after life are like being in a dream, and the cultivation and practice of the bodhisattva path life after life are also like being in a dream. First-bhūmi bodhisattvas realize that all dharmas are as unreal as reflections in a mirror, up through the tenth bhūmi, equal awakening, and wondrous awakening, where the realization of the unconditioned dharma grows ever greater, wisdom ever deeper, and the powers of supernatural knowledge ever vaster. As for the ultimate unconditionedness of the Buddha stage, it goes without saying — it surpasses all śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas.
From the above, because cultivators practice different dharmas, the unconditioned dharma they realize differs; the degree and essence of unconditionedness differ, their mental activities and mental capacities differ, their merit differs, their progress on the path differs, their states of supernatural powers and meditative concentration differ, and their wisdom differs even more. If one does not stop cultivating and cultivates to the Buddha stage, upon reaching the endpoint everything is complete; the supernatural powers, wisdom, and merit of all are without difference — it can be said that all Buddhas are identical in their path.
