Why Are All Dharmas Empty in Nature?

The Heart Sutra Original Text: Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form. Form is precisely emptiness, emptiness is precisely form. Sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are also like this. Shariputra, all dharmas are empty in nature: not born, not destroyed, not defiled, not pure, not increasing, not decreasing. Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception, mental formations, or consciousness; no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects; no realm of sight, up to no realm of mind consciousness; no ignorance, nor extinction of ignorance, up to no old age and death, nor extinction of old age and death; no suffering, its arising, its cessation, or the path; no wisdom, and no attainment.

Explanation: Why are there all these "no's" in the Heart Sutra? How can this be understood using Consciousness-Only (Vijñaptimātratā)? If we explain this passage using the principle of the Seven Great Seeds, it becomes easy to understand. The five aggregates (skandhas) of form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness, along with all dharmas, are generated by the Seven Great Seeds within the Tathāgatagarbha. From the perspective of conventional phenomena, it seems as if there are the five aggregates and their functions. However, in essence, they are all the functions of the Tathāgatagarbha's Seven Great Seeds. Therefore, they are all functions of the Tathāgatagarbha. Thus, the conventional appearances of the five aggregates are actually illusory, empty, and fundamentally non-existent. Therefore, while the form aggregate appears conventionally to have the phenomena of arising and ceasing, fundamentally, the arising of the form aggregate is a transformation of the Seven Great Seeds, and its ceasing is also a transformation of the Seven Great Seeds. From beginning to end, it is all the functional activity of the Seven Great Seeds; there is no real form aggregate to speak of. Similarly, the other four aggregates—sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—are also like this. They are all nothing but the ceaseless transformations of the Seven Great Seeds; the four aggregates have no independent reality.

The functional activity of the Seven Great Seeds is the functional activity of the Tathāgatagarbha. The Tathāgatagarbha uses the Seven Great Seeds as the fundamental substance, wielding them like ink and brush, transforming and manifesting the diverse world of the five aggregates. Yet, no matter what, the appearances of the world are empty. The dharmas of the five aggregates have never been born and never cease. The dharmas of the five aggregates cannot be spoken of as defiled or pure because their fundamental substance is the pure Seven Great Seeds. The appearances of the five aggregate dharmas are empty; since they are empty, any talk about them is mere conceptual elaboration. Thus, the empty nature of the five aggregate dharmas is neither increasing nor decreasing; it has never moved, never been born, and never ceased. Moreover, this Tathāgatagarbha, as a supramundane dharma appearance, is also of empty nature. It possesses none of the characteristics found within the mundane world. It is also unborn, unceasing, undefiled, unpurified, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Therefore, within this empty-nature mind, this empty-appearance mind of Tathāgatagarbha, there are no dharmas: no form aggregate, no aggregates of sensation, perception, mental formations, or consciousness; no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects; no realm of eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, or mind consciousness; no ignorance. Nor is there the extinction of ignorance; no suffering, its arising, its cessation, or the path; no Twelve Links of Dependent Origination; up to no wisdom and no attainment. All conventional dharmas, ultimately, are the dharmas of the Tathāgatagarbha; they are all attributes of the Tathāgatagarbha.

Perceiving appearances is erroneous. Perceiving appearances is the mind grasping at the mind itself, causing the inherently non-illusory Tathāgatagarbha to appear as illusory dharmas. "If you see all appearances as non-appearances, then you see the Tathāgata" — if you see the five aggregates not as the appearances of the five aggregates, without the appearances of the five aggregates, then you perceive the Buddha — the Tathāgatagarbha. Merely recognizing appearances as illusory is not sufficient at this level. From the perspective of Consciousness-Only Dharma, illusory dharmas are emptiness; there are no illusory dharmas. From the perspective of the One True Dharma Realm, the One True is all true; there is no illusion. Illusory dharmas are true dharmas; illusory appearances are actually the true dharma Tathāgatagarbha. They are dharmas within the One True Dharma Realm, possessing the nature of Tathāgatagarbha. Only when seen this way is the realization complete. Having studied and applied Consciousness-Only, one will feel that all previous learning was incomplete; Consciousness-Only is the most ultimate Buddhadharma.