The Tenets of the Diamond Sutra

Looking at the Diamond Sutra as a whole, its purport is to break through marks, break through marks, break through marks — to break through all marks. It begins with breaking the four marks, and breaks through all dharma-marks. The scope of these dharma-marks is boundless and immeasurable: whatever sentient beings can touch, see, think of, imagine, or discuss is a non-mark, including all dharmas and all marks within the mundane world and the three realms — the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of sentient beings, the mark of a life span, the mark of śrāvakas, the mark of pratyekabuddhas, the mark of bodhisattvas, the Buddha's thirty-two marks and His complete bodily form, the mark of the Tathāgata, the mark of the great body; the mark of lands, the mark of dust motes, the mark of worlds, the mark of a composite whole; the marks of sentient beings' minds, the mark of bodhisattvas' aspiration of bodhicitta, the mark of bodhisattvas adorning lands, the mark of bodhisattvas delivering sentient beings, the mark of Buddhas expounding the Dharma, the mark of Buddhas attaining the Dharma, the mark of Buddhas attaining bodhi, the mark of the bodhisattvas' six pāramitās; and even the mark of prajñāpāramitā, the mark of Buddha-dharma, the mark of the true reality of all dharmas, and so on and so forth. All marks are non-marks, non-non-marks; not dharma, not non-dharma.

And upon what basis are all these marks broken through? The basis is the unborn and unceasing vajra mind. Because this indestructible vajra mind exists, all the dharma-marks it gives rise to are non-marks — or, to put it more comprehensively, non-non-marks. Therefore, the vajra mind of prajñā is also called the great dhāraṇī gateway of one mark and no-mark: it upholds all marks and embraces all dharmas, causing all dharmas to be without self-nature and without self-mark; all dharmas are not dharma and not non-dharma; the world is empty, void, and illusorily empty.

The process and result of breaking through marks in the Diamond Sutra echo from afar the Guanyin Bodhisattva's gateway to perfect penetration through the ear faculty, emptying out everything that can be emptied, leaving only the vajra mind of prajñā that can never be emptied no matter what — at the other shore, yet not the other shore, not not the other shore, solitary and without companion, yet it is the one true dharma realm.

The Diamond Sutra also echoes from afar all the prajñā sūtras and Mahāyāna sūtras, mutually corroborating one another with not the slightest discord — apart from emptiness there is only emptiness; when emptiness reaches its end, it is not emptiness, not non-emptiness. Can worldly people understand and awaken to this? If they awaken to it, are there still any marks left in their minds, any attachment to anything at all? Of course, in between lies a path of realization spanning three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, requiring the breaking through of marks one by one, breaking through them all and restoring the original state, returning home to sit in stability — yet by then there is no home to return to, no ground to sit on, and no body to sit there either. Is this not a naked, utterly empty gateway to great liberation? It certainly is — having been liberated from the bondage of all dharmas. So may worldly people quickly break through all kinds of marks! Quickly escape all kinds of entanglements! Quickly cast off every burden!