The Profound Meaning of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (Second Edition)

Chapter 20: The Merit of Universal Transformation, Nineteen

Original text: 须菩提。于意云何。若有人满三千大千世界七宝。以用布施。是人以是因缘。得福多不。如是。世尊。此人以是因缘。得福甚多。须菩提。若福德有实。如来不说得福德多。以福德无故。如来说得福德多。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think about such a matter? If someone takes the seven treasures filling the trichiliocosm (three thousand great thousand worlds) and uses them all for giving (dāna), because of this karmic condition of giving, would the merit this person obtains be abundant? Subhūti replies: It would be very abundant, World-Honored One; because this person takes such giving as cause and condition, his future retribution will be merit that is extremely abundant. The World-Honored One says to Subhūti: If the merit obtained by sentient beings had real existence, the Tathāgata would not say that the merit he obtains is abundant; because merit has no real existence, no substance, no self-nature, it is precisely for this reason that I say the merit this person obtains from giving the seven treasures filling the trichiliocosm is very abundant.

Why does the World-Honored One say that merit has no real existence? Borrowing the World-Honored One's own words: so-called merit is not merit, and is therefore called merit. Merit belongs to worldly dharma; it has no self-nature and is merely a name. Let us see in what form merit manifests. Giving brings blessings; giving includes the giving of wealth, the giving of Dharma, and the giving of fearlessness. Money and valuables belong to material things, which are material form (rūpa-dharma); the giving of fearlessness belongs to mental dharma, being the spiritual realm of the mind consciousness, and does not go beyond the realms of the six sense objects. When sentient beings give and cultivate blessings, it is the five-aggregate body that gives away the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas that it possesses, for the five-aggregate body of the other party to enjoy. The six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas belong to worldly dharma; when one gives worldly dharma, the retribution will likewise be a return of worldly dharma—this is what is called merit.

Now the return of worldly dharma is nothing more than wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, and the forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches within the world of the three realms. Concretely, it manifests as worldly dharmic blessings such as reputation, power, status, retinue, money, enjoyment of the physical body, health, longevity, and so forth. With these worldly dharmas, once enjoyed, the merit disappears; enjoying a bit of merit makes a bit of it disappear, and when it is all finally enjoyed, the merit is completely exhausted. Therefore worldly merit has a time when, once enjoyed, it is used up; thus the merit that sentient beings possess and enjoy is of a nature of arising and ceasing, and hence is not real. What is real can never be exhausted through enjoyment—just like the Buddha's merit, which can never be exhausted, because that is not merely merit within the worldly world.

As for the non-reality of merit among worldly dharmas, viewed from another angle: all merit is dharma produced by causes and conditions. Giving is the cause for obtaining the fruit of blessings, and within this so-called cause there is, moreover, primarily the true cause of the tathāgatagarbha present. When giving is made as a cause, the tathāgatagarbha manifests the five-aggregate body to concretely carry out the act of giving, and at the same time the tathāgatagarbha stores the karmic seeds of the giving. Afterwards, the tathāgatagarbha relies on various conditions—for instance, for this person to get rich, the conditions for wealth must manifest; to gain power and influence, the conditions for gaining power must manifest; to obtain a retinue, the conditions for obtaining a retinue must manifest; to attain longevity, the conditions for longevity must manifest; to gain fame, the conditions for fame must manifest. When such conditions are complete and manifest, the tathāgatagarbha outputs the karmic seeds, and this person will obtain the corresponding retribution of merit.

These retributions are also obtained by the five-aggregate body manifested in cooperation with the tathāgatagarbha, and enjoyed by the five-aggregate body. Every minute detail involves the assistance of the tathāgatagarbha; all are conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha, and every detail is illusory and unreal. So, speaking of the whole, all the actions of giving, all the processes of obtaining merit, these causes and effects, are all conjured and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and therefore are entirely illusory and unreal. It is precisely because of this that the Buddha says that when sentient beings cultivate blessings through giving, the merit they obtain is abundant—only illusory dharmas have the notion of quantity, more and less; in the dharma of ultimate reality, there is no number, no more or less, no big or small, no long or short, no square or round... These merits appear on the surface to exist, but the existence is false existence, merely dazzling people's eyes; in their essence, they are all the tathāgatagarbha.

Then, as for the merit obtained from the giving of Dharma—is it real? Is it of the nature of merit? Can it be exhausted through enjoyment? What merit does the giving of Dharma obtain? The merit obtained from the giving of Dharma includes two aspects: one is that one will obtain merit among worldly dharmas, obtaining superior forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and dharmas; the other is that one will obtain the merit of supramundane dharma. And the merit of supramundane dharma will continuously accumulate until buddhahood is achieved; that merit will never disappear and can never be exhausted. The giving of Dharma can obtain supramundane wisdom, enable the realization of the supramundane ultimate-reality dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, whereby wisdom is continuously enhanced, ascending from bhūmi to bhūmi, and ultimately one can perfect the fruit of bodhi. Therefore, a great part of the merit obtained from the giving of Dharma possesses the nature of merit and has real existence, being far more excellent than the giving of the seven treasures of the trichiliocosm.