The Inner Meaning of the Diamond Sutra

Prajñā is the great transcendent wisdom, utterly different from worldly wisdom, and therefore it is not translated simply as "wisdom." Worldly wisdom is the wisdom for surviving within the world of the three realms: the wisdom in the human realm of the desire realm in the various fields of politics, economics, humanities, science and technology, education, society, philosophy, and so on; the wisdom of the devas of the desire realm who at all times enjoy pleasures and the freedom of supernormal powers; the wisdom of the devas of the form realm, who abide in sublime states of meditative concentration (dhyāna), with no distinction of male and female and no need for food or drink, but who simply enjoy the bliss of dhyāna; and even the wisdom of the devas of the formless realm, who, though without physical bodies, possess profound dhyāna, their minds abiding in samādhi enjoying the blessings of meditative concentration. All of these belong to the scope and wisdom-realm of the three realms of existence, and none of them transcends birth-and-death and saṃsāra.

But the transcendent wisdom—prajñā—is neither inside nor outside the three realms; it is not subsumed under the dharmas of the three realms. Therefore prajñā is not directly translated as "wisdom," lest worldly people mistakenly say, "We too have wisdom—lofty wisdom in the fields of politics, economics, culture, psychology, and every profession." But all these kinds of wisdom belong to the conditioned, impermanent dharmas of the mundane world; they are produced by the prajñā wisdom of the vajra mind, and only by relying on this prajñā wisdom can they exist and develop. The prajñā wisdom of the vajra mind is measureless and boundless in its vastness—the universe and empty space are within it. Measureless buddha-lands, measureless worlds of the lotus treasury, and measureless oceans of worlds are all established within empty space, all conjured forth jointly by the vajra-mind tathāgatagarbha of measureless, boundless sentient beings; this is called the one true dharma realm. The ten dharma realms (the four sagely and six ordinary realms) are all produced by Him.

No matter how far humanity's spacecraft can fly, however far, they cannot fly beyond empty space, and empty space does not lie outside the vajra prajñā mind. One buddha-land is called one trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold great thousand world), comprising one billion of each of the southern Jambudvīpa, the northern Uttarakuru, the western Aparagodānīya, and the eastern Pūrvavideha; likewise there are one billion each of the four great oceans, the seven golden mountains, the hells, Mount Sumeru, the moon palace, and the sun palace; and one billion each of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the Yāma Heaven, the Tuṣita Heaven, the Nirmāṇarati Heaven, the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven, and the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm—all manifested by the vajra prajñā mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Where could a spacecraft possibly fly to? Moreover, without the tathāgatagarbha, sentient beings could not exist at all—let alone be able to manufacture things like spacecraft. Even commerce and politics, bearing and raising children to propagate descendants—all undertakings of every kind would have to cease. Yet prajñā wisdom can give rise to the myriad dharmas, trillions of dharmas, measureless dharmas. The wisdom and imagination of the mind consciousness of worldly sentient beings cannot conceive of it; only a Buddha can completely and thoroughly understand the wisdom, functions, seeds, and virtues-marks of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore the Buddha is called the one of omniscience/wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā).

Pāramitā means "reaching the other shore." That shore has no birth-and-death, no suffering, no pleasure, and no feelings of any kind. Our shore of the five aggregates is this shore of birth-and-death, where birth and death follow one another without end, with the three sufferings (the suffering of suffering, the suffering of volitional formations, the suffering of deterioration), the eight sufferings (the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death; the suffering of association with the hateful; the suffering of separation from the beloved; the suffering of not obtaining what one seeks; the suffering of the blazing of the five aggregates), and measureless, boundless afflictions, delusions, karmic actions, and sufferings. The five aggregates remain on this shore, arising and ceasing, ceasing and arising; because sentient beings cannot see through this, they never feel weary of it, have no mind of renunciation, and do not wish to escape the ocean of suffering that is birth-and-death.

But the vajra mind, the tathāgatagarbha, on that other shore has never had the suffering and peril of birth-and-death. It existed from before beginningless kalpas, has never ceased for even a single instant, and will never cease in the future. It has no lifespan—to speak of it as having immeasurable longevity is still to speak of something measurable; it is immeasurable beyond the immeasurable, with neither lifespan nor life. It does not undergo suffering. When sentient beings fall into the Avīci hell, their physical bodies become as vast as the hell itself, with instruments of torture applied to every part, the pain so great that the only thought remaining is the wish to die—yet his tathāgatagarbha does not feel the slightest pain, for it has no feelings corresponding to worldly dharmas, and therefore it has no suffering. When sentient beings ascend to the heavens to enjoy pleasures, the tathāgatagarbha never enjoys anything; it does not even glance at them (for it has no eyes), it does not know or discriminate them, and it has no physical body with which to enjoy them. When the devas listen with their ears to celestial music, it does not listen; when they smell celestial fragrances with their noses, it does not smell; when their tongues taste nectar, it does not taste; when they enter jeweled pools to bathe, it does not touch; when the devas recall the past and look forward to the future, it does not think.

Such a pure mind, which creates not the slightest worldly karmic action (and yet it is not that it does not act: everything the five aggregates need is provided by Him, everything is transformed and generated by Him; He selflessly gives everything, yet never seeks the slightest reward)—how could it have birth-and-death? Whoever creates bodily, verbal, and mental actions undergoes birth-and-death; He does not undergo the suffering of birth-and-death. The body of the five aggregates creates karmic actions life after life, and of course it must have birth-and-death, with sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). Only by understanding the tathāgatagarbha and realizing its pure, unconditioned nature can one escape the suffering of birth-and-death, reach the other shore of nirvāṇa, and attain the bliss of quiescence and coolness.