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

Chapter 32: Not Giving Rise to Views of Dharmas, Thirty-One

Original text: 须菩提。若人言。佛说我见人见众生见寿者见。须菩提。于意云何。是人解我所说义不。不也。世尊。是人不解如来所说义。

Explanation: Subhūti, if someone says that the Buddha also spoke of the view of self, the view of person, the view of sentient beings, and the view of life span, then the view of self, the view of person, the view of sentient beings, and the view of life span would be truly existent. Subhūti, what do you think? Does this person understand the meaning of what I have said? Subhūti replied: This person does not truly understand the meaning of what the World-Honored One has said.

When the World-Honored One expounded the sutras and taught the Dharma, He had to accord with the psychological cognition of sentient beings and use the terms and concepts that sentient beings use; only in this way could His teaching communicate with sentient beings, so that they could understand, and the Buddha could guide sentient beings across into the true meaning of the Buddha's Dharma, ultimately reaching a state identical to that of the Buddha. Because sentient beings have the view of a five-aggregate self, as well as the concept and view of a person, the concept and view of sentient beings, and the concept and view of a life span, and moreover sentient beings' cognition and notions of these concepts are all mistaken and inverted, the World-Honored One had to accord with sentient beings, using terms and concepts identical to their cognition, in order to break their mistaken cognition and correct their inverted views.

Therefore, when the World-Honored One taught the Dharma, He also had to use such terms as the view of self, the view of person, the view of sentient beings, and the view of life span, and He had to explain in detail why the view of self is a wrong view, why the view of person is a wrong view, why the view of sentient beings is a wrong view, and why the view of life span is a wrong view. Only in this way could He break sentient beings' four kinds of inverted wrong views, thereby enabling them to sever the bonds of birth and death within their minds, cut the shackles that bind them, and ultimately attain liberation. If it were not so, how could the World-Honored One extensively deliver sentient beings, enabling them to understand the true Buddha Dharma and thereby benefit themselves and benefit others? Therefore, although the Buddha used such terms as the view of self and the view of person, this does not mean that sentient beings' view of self, view of person, view of sentient beings, and view of life span are truly existent views; these views are also false, provisionally existent, and can be extinguished—they must not be grasped as real.

Original text: 何以故。世尊说我见人见众生见寿者见。即非我见人见众生见寿者见。是名我见人见众生见寿者见。

Explanation: Why is this said? Because the view of self, view of person, view of sentient beings, and view of life span that the World-Honored One spoke of are not truly existent views of self, person, sentient beings, and life span. The so-called view of self, view of person, view of sentient beings, and view of life span do not truly exist; they have no real dharma-mark, and are merely provisionally named the view of self, view of person, view of sentient beings, and view of life span—they are just names.

These few words spoken by Subhūti negate the real existence of the views of self, person, sentient beings, and life span, and they also accord precisely with the prajñā meaning in the preceding part of the sutra. Because these views are not real dharmas, only through cultivation can they be removed and the four marks be broken. Applying that formula: the so-called... is not... is merely named... The meaning of this formula is to negate the true existence of all worldly dharmas; there is no true, substantive world of myriad dharmas—all are false and illusory. Because all are generated and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, all are the seed-functions of the tathāgatagarbha, and in essence all are the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore all myriad dharmas of the world are provisional names without real meaning.

The view of self, view of person, view of sentient beings, and view of life span—these four wrong views—are also among the principle-dharmas of the world's myriad dharmas; they are dharmas that arise later and can be extinguished, dharmas that were nonexistent before and exist afterward, and after existing return to nonexistence. In fact, while they exist, they arise and cease moment by moment; because the speed of arising and ceasing is too fast, sentient beings are unaware of it and mistakenly take them to be truly existent, thus forming various mistaken views and wrong views. These wrong views are all false, illusory appearances and are not real; if they were real, sentient beings could not, through cultivation, eradicate these wrong views and thereby perfect correct views and insight. These wrong views have no self-nature of their own and no autonomy; they all depend on external conditions to exist and are generated by the tathāgatagarbha.

Then what is the view of self? And how does it arise? The view of self is the view concerning the mark of self; the correct view is to regard the mark of self as empty, while the mistaken view is to regard the mark of self as existent. First, regarding the self: the self that sentient beings conceive of refers, first, to the physical body, second, to the six consciousnesses-mind, third, to the seventh consciousness, the manas—or to the five-aggregate self and the self of the eighteen realms formed by combining the three. These selves are all false selves, not real, without substance; all are born of causes and conditions, exist through illusion, scatter when conditions cease, and offer nothing to rely upon.

The aggregate of form is generated by the four-great-element seeds of the tathāgatagarbha, undergoing arising, abiding, alteration, and extinction, mutable and impermanent; phenomenally existent, in essence nonexistent, its substance is the tathāgatagarbha. The aggregate of feeling is the feelings of the six consciousnesses, generated by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting the seeds of the six consciousnesses; arising, abiding, altering, and extinguishing, illusory and unreal, it scatters when conditions cease and offers nothing to rely upon. The aggregate of perception is the grasping and cognizing nature of the six consciousnesses toward the marks of the six sense objects, generated by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting the seeds of the six consciousnesses; it exists through illusion, scatters when conditions cease, and offers nothing to rely upon. The aggregate of volitional formations is the flowing change of the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions, as well as the changes and movements of the physical body, generated by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting the seeds of the seven great elements; arising, abiding, altering, and extinguishing, illusory and unreal, it scatters when conditions cease and offers nothing to rely upon. The aggregate of consciousness is the discriminating nature of the six consciousnesses, generated by the seeds of the six consciousnesses transmitted by the tathāgatagarbha; illusory and unreal, it scatters when conditions cease and offers nothing to rely upon. These four aggregates also have no substantiality and no autonomy; phenomenally existent, in essence nonexistent, their substance is the tathāgatagarbha.

The self that sentient beings conceive of also includes the eighteen realms—the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses; these dharmas are also generated by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting the seeds of the seven great elements, arising and ceasing and mutating, phenomenally existent, in essence nonexistent, their substance all being the tathāgatagarbha. Who is it that regards the five aggregates and eighteen realms as self and thus has the view of self? It is the sixth consciousness and the seventh consciousness. The view of self of the sixth consciousness is called the intermittent view of self; that of the seventh consciousness is called the innately co-arising view of self. Because the existence of the sixth consciousness is segment by segment—it cannot go to future lives, disappearing when a life ends and being born when a life appears—it is intermittent. The seventh consciousness has existed since beginningless kalpas and can go to future lives; only when one attains the fourth fruit of arhatship and severs all grasping does one have the ability to extinguish the seventh consciousness; hence it is called the innately co-arising view of self and innately co-arising self-grasping.

The main bearers of the view of self are these two consciousnesses, and these two consciousnesses can only be born and exist, and function, when the tathāgatagarbha transmits the seeds of consciousness; therefore the sixth and seventh consciousnesses have no autonomy, no substantiality, no self-mastery; they arise, cease, mutate, are illusory and impermanent, and moreover arise and cease and mutate moment by moment. Thus the view of self of the sixth consciousness and the view of self of the seventh consciousness are not truly existent views of self, not views of self with substance; they are illusory views of self, and their essence is the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, naming the view of self of the six consciousnesses and the view of self of the seventh consciousness "the view of self," the view of self is merely a provisional name.

The view of person, view of sentient beings, and view of life span, corresponding to the view of self, follow the same principle: they are all erroneous wrong views arising from the illusory sixth and seventh consciousnesses manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. These wrong views and mistaken understandings are not truly existent either; like a mirage, they are empty, illusory, and unreal. On the surface they appear to exist, in essence they do not; their substance is all the tathāgatagarbha, and there are no truly real such wrong views and mistaken understandings. Just as afflictions are bodhi, the essence of afflictions is the bodhi mind, the tathāgatagarbha; wrong views are also functional operations of the bodhi mind, the tathāgatagarbha, so their essence is also the tathāgatagarbha—apart from this there is nothing else.

Original text: 须菩提。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。于一切法。应如是知。如是见。如是信解。不生法相。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: Those who have given rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi should, toward all dharmas, know them in this way, view them in this way, and give rise to faith and understanding in this way, no longer producing any dharma-mark within the mind, nor grasping any dharma-mark—empty and pure, open and at ease.

Here the World-Honored One exhorts the bodhisattvas who have given rise to the great bodhi mind to, toward all dharmas, trace them to their roots and thoroughly see their source and substance. Deeply knowing the essence of all dharmas, they do not attach to illusory false marks and do not cling to false names. Contemplatively practicing all dharmas again and again, deliberating upon them again and again, like peeling a plantain tree, peeling off the outer skin layer by layer to thoroughly see its innermost, most fundamental core, one then knows that the plantain tree was originally empty and has no substantive appearance of a plantain tree.

Observing all dharmas in this way, one will know that they were originally all empty; there are no substantive dharmas—all are the empty mark of the tathāgatagarbha. Thereupon the mind rests, deluded thoughts are removed, one no longer hopes to seek any dharma-marks, no longer searches outward and begs, and thereby returns to the source of the mind-ground, returns to the home of self-nature. Then the mind will no longer give rise to any dharma-marks; one regards all dharmas as dreams, illusions, and mirages, as mirror images and the moon in water, and will never again take them as truly existent dharmas to grasp and cling to. Thus one will avoid creating the causes of birth and death, extinguish the karmic retribution of birth and death; with ignorance fully severed and the vipāka fruit emptied, the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna) manifests, and one sits in the place of practice amid the worlds of the ten directions, vastly benefiting the measureless, boundless sentient beings with whom one has karmic connections.

Original text: 须菩提。所言法相者。如来说即非法相。是名法相。

Explanation: Subhūti, the so-called dharma-marks that sentient beings speak of, the Tathāgata says, are not truly existent dharma-marks, not real dharma-marks; they are merely names, and therefore are provisionally named dharma-marks.

Dharma-marks include the marks of material form and the marks of mental dharmas within the world of the three realms. The marks of material form are the five faculties, together with the form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas corresponding to the six faculties. Whether the outer aspect of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, or the inner aspect of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, none are truly existent dharma-marks; on the surface they seem to exist, in essence they are empty. These marks of material form are all constructed by the tathāgatagarbha outputting the seeds of the four great elements; therefore they are illusory, like flowers in empty space, like a mirage, like light and shadow, like the moon in water—their essence is all the dharma-marks of the tathāgatagarbha. And the dharma-marks of the tathāgatagarbha are also empty; thus form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, together with the five faculties, are all empty marks. Therefore they are not dharma-marks—there are only names, without substance.

The marks of mental dharmas are the dharma-marks of the seven consciousnesses-mind, together with the marks of the mental factors (caittas) that accompany the seven consciousnesses. The dharma-marks of the seven consciousnesses are formed by the tathāgatagarbha outputting the seeds of consciousness of the seven consciousnesses; the seeds of consciousness are born in an instant and cease in an instant, arising, ceasing, and mutating, illusory and unreal. The operational marks of the seven consciousnesses when they run appear on the surface to exist but are in essence empty, like a mirage that merely dazzles the eyes. Therefore the seven consciousnesses also do not truly exist and have no real dharma-marks; their essence is the empty mark of the tathāgatagarbha.

The operational marks of the seven consciousnesses operate in the form of mental factors, including the five universally present mental factors of attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā), as well as all the other mental factors. As soon as the seven consciousnesses operate, these five mental factors accompany them in manifest activity; other mental factors also sometimes manifest along with the seven consciousnesses—when the seven consciousnesses arise, the mental factors manifest accordingly; when the seven consciousnesses cease, the mental factors cease accordingly. The mind of the seven consciousnesses is subject to arising and ceasing and is illusory, not real; the mental factors are even more subject to arising and ceasing, illusory and not real. Their surface operational marks seem to exist but are in essence empty and illusory, utterly unattainable; their essence is all the empty mark of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore the marks of mental dharmas are also empty, merely a name. Thus when the Buddha speaks of dharma-marks, they are not dharma-marks—not truly existent dharma-marks, merely names. They must not be taken as real, nor grasped.