The Profound Meaning of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (Second Edition)
Chapter Twelve The Merit of Nonaction Surpasses All, Eleven
Original text: 须菩提。如恒河中所有沙数。如是沙等恒河。于意云何。是诸恒河沙。宁为多不。须菩提言。甚多。世尊。但诸恒河尚多无数。何况其沙。
Explanation: Subhūti, suppose there were as many Ganges rivers as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River—what do you think? Would the grains of sand in all those Ganges rivers be many? Subhūti said: Very many, World-Honored One. Those Ganges rivers alone are already countless, let alone the sand grains within them.
Original text: 须菩提。我今实言告汝。若有善男子。善女人。以七宝满尔所恒河沙数、三千大千世界。以用布施。得福多不。须菩提言。甚多。世尊。佛告须菩提。若善男子。善女人。于此经中。乃至受持四句偈等。为他人说。而此福德。胜前福德。
Explanation: Subhūti, I now tell you truthfully: if there are good men and good women who fill as many three-thousandfold great thousand worlds as there are grains of sand in all those Ganges rivers with the seven treasures and use them for generosity (dāna), would the merit they gain be much? Subhūti said: Very much, World-Honored One. The Buddha told Subhūti: if good men and good women, in this Diamond Sutra, receive and hold even the entire Diamond Sutra or even a four-line verse, and expound it for others, the merit gained thereby far surpasses the aforementioned merit of giving the seven treasures.
The earlier part of this chapter is easy to understand, but the latter part—that the merit of receiving and holding the Diamond Sutra and expounding it for others surpasses the merit of giving the seven treasures—is not easy to understand, so let us look at why this is so. The merit of giving the seven treasures is all conditioned merit; such merit can be consumed and enjoyed to exhaustion, and for the most part it is enjoyed within worldly dharmas. When one lacks the aspiration for the Path and lacks wisdom, great merit can easily lead to committing great evil karma, and one will then undergo the retribution of that great evil karma.
Take, for example, the demon king Pāpīyas: when he was a human, the blessings he cultivated were very great, and after death he was born in the highest heaven of the desire realm—Paranirmitavaśavartin—to become its heavenly lord, governing the sentient beings of the desire realm. He always wishes for the beings under his control to become ever more numerous, and is unwilling for them to decrease. If a practitioner of the Path attains the first dhyāna, he comes to obstruct them; even when the Buddha is expounding the Dharma, he goes to create obstacles, because he does not want sentient beings to leave the desire realm and escape his control. In the Dharma-ending age, in order to destroy the Dharma, he often takes on various appearances and infiltrates Buddhism to undermine the Dharma, declaring the true Dharma false and the false Dharma true. Sentient beings cannot discern this, and practicing in accordance with it, none can attain liberation—all remain under the demon king's control. When Pāpīyas's demonic blessings are exhausted, he will fall into hell to undergo evil retribution. Thus having blessings without wisdom and without the Path is not a good thing either.
Now, reciting the Diamond Sutra and realizing the vajra mind (vajra-citta)—that merit is boundless and immense, and one can obtain immeasurable majesty, virtue, and benefit. First, one eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), severs the three fetters, will never fall into the three evil destinies to suffer, and gains the merit and benefit of liberation; second, one's wisdom becomes ever deeper and sharper, and with wisdom there will be more and greater merit; third, one possesses the precepts of meditative concentration (samādhi) and the precepts of the Path, no longer creating evil bodily, verbal, and mental actions; suffering feelings diminish ever more, the wholesome dharmas one cultivates grow ever more numerous, and happy feelings grow ever greater—happiness in the heavens and among humans is inexhaustible.
Fourth, one's lifespan grows ever longer; if one is a bodhisattva in the heavens practicing the bodhisattva path, one's lifespan ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of years, and in other Buddha lands it is also extremely long. When one cultivates to the eighth bhūmi as a bodhisattva, one can sever segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa), and one's lifespan is no longer segment by segment, period by period—one's lifespan can be endlessly long. Fifth, one can alter the structure of the four great element seeds at will, and can manifest at will all material things: the necessities of sentient beings' lives, the seven treasures and hundred treasures, mountains, rivers, and the great earth, even great thousand worlds. Sixth, one can attain profound dhyāna, give rise to immeasurable superknowledges and meditative absorptions (samādhi), manifest countless emanated bodies, and liberate immeasurable multitudes of beings. Seventh, one can transform supremely splendid material wealth to vastly benefit the multitude, and can even transform three-thousandfold great thousand worlds, practicing the bodhisattva path to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings. Eighth, one ultimately accomplishes the Buddha Way, perfects bodhi, and becomes the Honored One of the three realms, with merit and wisdom inexhaustible and endless.
After receiving and holding the Diamond Sutra and attaining realization, one's wisdom grows ever vaster, and one gains the ability to expound the Buddha-dharma for others so that they too can attain realization. The merit of the dharma-giving itself is very great, and when sentient beings benefit, the merit becomes even greater. Throughout the three immeasurable kalpas of accomplishing the Buddha Way, by delivering sentient beings from the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death, and forming karmic bonds with immeasurable sentient beings, one will in the future have numerous disciples who follow and learn, and can thereby establish one's own Buddha land. The establishment of a land must be composed of disciples at various levels; without disciples one cannot establish a land, much less accomplish the Buddha Way. Only by leading disciples in cultivation, and only when the disciples have achieved accomplishment, can one's own cultivation advance to the next stage and attain a higher fruit. Therefore, receiving, holding, and reciting the Diamond Sutra and realizing the vajra mind (vajra-citta)—this merit is boundlessly vast.
The vajra mind (vajra-citta) is also a mind of nonaction, without mental activity of the three realms' dharmas, doing nothing. Precisely because it does nothing, it can do everything and accomplish all dharmas. The merit contained within the mind of nonaction is immense; it can never be erased, cannot be destroyed by anyone, and cannot be taken away by anyone. How supreme, then, is this merit of nonaction—it is beyond words, far surpassing the conditioned merit of giving the seven treasures; it is incomparable and ineffable.
