Why Are All Dharmas Empty in Nature?

The Heart Sutra Original Text: Sariputra, 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. Sariputra, all dharmas are empty in nature: neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor 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 dharmas; no realm of sight, up to no realm of mind consciousness. There is no ignorance, nor is there cessation of ignorance, up to no old age and death, nor is there cessation of old age and death. There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path. There is no wisdom, nor is there any attainment.

Explanation: Why does the Heart Sutra contain all these "no's"? How can this be understood through the lens of Consciousness-Only? If we explain this passage using the principle of the seven great seeds in Consciousness-Only, it becomes easier to comprehend. The five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations, consciousness) and all dharmas are generated from the seven great seeds within the Tathāgatagarbha. From the perspective of worldly phenomena, it seems as if there are five aggregates and their functional activities, but in essence, they are all the seven great seeds of the Tathāgatagarbha and their functions; thus, they are all the functional activities of the Tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the worldly appearances of the five aggregates are actually illusory appearances, all empty, and substantially non-existent. Thus, while the form aggregate superficially appears to have the worldly phenomena of arising and ceasing, fundamentally, the arising of the form aggregate is the transformation of the seven great seeds, and the cessation of the form aggregate is still the 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, consciousness) are also like this—all are the ceaseless transformations of the seven great seeds; the four aggregates have no actual substance whatsoever.

The functional activities of the seven great seeds are the functional activities of the Tathāgatagarbha. The Tathāgatagarbha uses the seven great seeds as raw materials, like an artist wielding a brush, transforming them to manifest 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 arisen nor ceased. The dharmas of the five aggregates cannot be spoken of as defiled or pure, because the raw material is the pure seven great seeds; the appearances of the five aggregate dharmas are empty. Since they are empty, any statement about them is mere conceptual proliferation. Therefore, the empty nature of the five aggregate dharmas is neither increasing nor decreasing; it has never arisen nor ceased; it has never changed. The Tathāgatagarbha, this supramundane dharma appearance, is also of empty nature. It does not possess any characteristic found within the mundane world; thus, it is also neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Therefore, within this empty-natured mind, this empty-appearance mind of the Tathāgatagarbha, there is no dharma whatsoever: 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 dharmas; no eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, or mind consciousness; no ignorance. Nor is there cessation of ignorance; no suffering, cause of suffering, cessation of suffering, or path; no twelve links of dependent origination; up to no wisdom nor any attainment. Yet, all mundane dharmas, in their ultimate basis, 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 originally non-illusory Tathāgatagarbha to become an illusory dharma. "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 see the Tathāgata 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. But from the perspective of the One True Dharma Realm, the One True is all true; there is no falsehood. False dharmas are true dharmas; illusory appearances are actually the true dharma, the Tathāgatagarbha. They are dharmas within the One True Dharma Realm, all possessing the nature of Tathāgatagarbha. Only by seeing dharmas in this way is it ultimate. Having studied and applied Consciousness-Only, one will feel that all previous learning was not ultimate; Consciousness-Only is the most ultimate Buddhadharma.