Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: The Causes and Conditions of the Dharma Assembly, One

Original text: 如是我闻。一时。佛在舍卫国祗树给孤独园。与大比丘众千二百五十人俱。

Explanation: The Diamond Sutra was narrated by Ānanda recounting the prajñā sūtra he had originally heard from the Buddha. It opens with "Thus have I heard," indicating that Ānanda personally heard the Buddha proclaim it and is now recounting it. The Buddha has the thirty-two marks; the Buddha's cousin Nanda has thirty-one marks; Ānanda's appearance also closely resembles the World-Honored One. When Ānanda compiled the sūtras, if he did not say "Thus have I heard," people might suspect that the World-Honored One had returned to teach the Dharma in person, or suspect that Ānanda was teaching it himself. To avoid misunderstanding, he used "Thus have I heard," so that people would know Ānanda was recounting the Dharma the Buddha had proclaimed while alive, and would accept it in faith without doubt. At the Dharma assembly when the World-Honored One was about to enter parinirvāṇa, Ānanda asked the Buddha what should be used as the opening when compiling sūtras in the future, and the World-Honored One said to use "Thus have I heard."

When the Buddha taught sūtras, regarding time he only said "at one time," without specifying a particular time, because what is a certain date in India is a different date in other countries, yet another date in each of the heavens, and yet another on other celestial bodies—all different—so the time is not specifically indicated. Next, the location was the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika Park in Śrāvastī, and the audience was the Buddha's constant followers, one thousand two hundred fifty-five great bhikṣus.

These so-called great bhikṣus, except for Ānanda, had all realized the fourth fruit of arhatship. They cultivated the Small Vehicle Dharma of the Four Noble Truths—suffering, origination, cessation, and the path—as well as the Middle Vehicle's twelve links of dependent origination: ignorance conditions (gives rise to) volitional formations (karmic actions); formations condition consciousness (the six consciousness minds); consciousness conditions name-and-form (the fertilized egg together with the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness); name-and-form condition the six sense bases (the entrances of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind); the six sense bases condition contact (the six faculties contacting the six sense objects); contact conditions feeling (feelings of suffering, bliss, or neither suffering nor bliss); feeling conditions craving (greedy craving); craving conditions grasping (grasping (upādāna), view-grasping, self-grasping, etc.); grasping conditions existence (existence in the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm); existence conditions birth (the birth of a life); birth conditions aging, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). They cultivated the Small Vehicle and Middle Vehicle Dharmas within the four Āgama divisions, realizing from the first fruit to the fourth fruit, as well as the fruit of the pratyekabuddha.

The first fruit is the elimination of self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), acknowledging that the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) and eighteen realms (six faculties, six objects, six consciousnesses) are suffering, empty, impermanent, and not-self. In this way the three fetters that bind oneself (self-view, view-grasping, and precept-grasping) are severed, the karmic offenses of the three evil destinies are extinguished, and one no longer descends into the three evil destinies to receive retribution; after seven more returns among humans and gods, one enters nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). Cultivating upward from the first fruit, when the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion become attenuated, one realizes the second fruit, and after one more return among humans and gods enters nirvāṇa without remainder. Further cultivating the first dhyāna and eliminating the minds of greed and hatred, one realizes the third fruit; in later lives one reaches the heavens of the non-returners to realize the fourth fruit and enter nirvāṇa without remainder, or realizes the fourth fruit in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) and enters nirvāṇa without remainder. The third-fruit practitioner cultivates further in depth, eliminating the conceit of "I" (feeling that there is an "I" or that "I am useful"—both are conceit), and eliminating the subtle fetters of craving for the three realms, no longer even craving the states of meditative concentration (samādhi) or the celestial form body. With self-grasping fully severed, the manas, the seventh consciousness, no longer grasps at the five aggregates, eighteen realms, or the world of the three realms; at the end of life one will extinguish oneself entirely, never to be reborn, leaving only the tathāgatagarbha—this is called entering nirvāṇa without remainder. Thus all suffering is extinguished and there is no longer any suffering to depend upon; this is called the extinction of suffering. As for Ānanda, in order to serve as the Buddha's attendant, he could have realized the fourth fruit but did not, because the Buddha would not use a fourth-fruit great arhat as his personal attendant.

Original text: 尔时。世尊食时。著衣持钵。入舍卫大城乞食。于其城中。次第乞已。还至本处。饭食讫。收衣钵。洗足已。敷座而坐。

Explanation: At this time, when the meal hour approached midday, the World-Honored One put on his robe, took up his alms bowl, and entered the great city of Śrāvastī to beg for food. After begging door to door in sequence through the city of Śrāvastī, he returned to his original dwelling. After the World-Honored One finished eating, he put away his robe and bowl, washed his feet, and sat down cross-legged.

These were merely the World-Honored One's daily trivial matters, the same every day, as worldly as can be. Since he begged for food, ate, and washed his feet like this every day, why was this written into the sūtra, and at the opening at that? When teaching other sūtras it is not described, yet it is described precisely when teaching the Diamond Sutra—moreover at a Dharma assembly proclaiming the Great Prajñā, of which the Diamond Sutra is the essence. The World-Honored One never spoke meaningless trivialities when teaching the Dharma, except under special conditions; even a smile would not appear casually.

This narration of daily activities is itself the hidden meaning, revealing a truth and manifesting the real nature of all dharmas. A person of the very highest faculties and keenest wisdom, reading only this far, can awaken to the truth and the real nature, and the entire purport of the Diamond Sutra and the six hundred fascicles of the Great Prajñā Sūtra runs through it; such a person becomes a bodhisattva of true meaning. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says that all dharmas are created by mind alone—created by the mind of the tathāgatagarbha alone. Are the World-Honored One's daily trivial matters not a part of the myriad dharmas? Is there not the operation of the World-Honored One's true mind therein? The answer is affirmative. All dharmas arise from the coalescence of the real and the deluded: with only the true mind, nothing can be accomplished; with only the deluded mind, the deluded mind does not stand either. It must be the true and deluded minds in coalescence that together manifest the myriad dharmas. Therefore, within our impermanent, arising-and-ceasing, empty and illusory phenomenal world, the prajñā true mind is always operating. For example, in our daily eating, drinking, and bodily functions, speech, laughter, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, there must simultaneously be the participation of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha; otherwise not a single dharma could be established.

The seventeen hundred koans of the Chan school all point to this truth. Therefore the Chan masters skillfully set up devices, using various methods of hinting and prodding—glances, gestures, laughter, scolding, raising or lowering the fly whisk—to guide students to awakening. For instance, Deshan's staff (striking back and forth) and Linji's shout (great shouts and small shouts) were all acts of compassion. If they came to me, I would kick them; after being kicked, those whose conditions had ripened could realize the vajra prajñā mind. Yunmen, on the other hand, had his foot crushed by his master with a gate; after letting out a great cry, he awakened. Such examples are too numerous to list. Upon awakening one realizes the patience of non-arising, and the wisdom of the real nature is developed, knowing the falsity of self, persons, and sentient beings—that they are never truly born—and that the tathāgatagarbha itself also does not arise. Accepting this principle is the patience of non-arising; it is just very hard to endure!

The first Chan koan in the Buddhist history of our Sahā world was personally demonstrated by the World-Honored One. At the assembly on Vulture Peak, after the devas made their flower offering, the World-Honored One, before the assembly of humans and devas, held up that flower and smiled without speaking, plainly manifesting His own true mind to everyone. But none among the assembly of humans and devas knew what medicine the World-Honored One was selling, while Mahākāśyapa, at a single glance, awakened and discerned it; with the eye of wisdom he beheld the World-Honored One's true mind, knew what medicine was in the World-Honored One's gourd, and broke into a smile. The World-Honored One knew that Mahākāśyapa had awakened to the bodhisattva Dharma and become an arhat-bodhisattva, and he proclaimed to the assembly: "I have the wondrous mind of nirvāṇa, the real nature without marks, established not on written words, a special transmission outside the teachings, entrusted to Mahākāśyapa." Thus Kāśyapa became the first patriarch of the Chan school in the Sahā world.

What is the wondrous mind of nirvāṇa? Nirvāṇa is the state of the tathāgatagarbha's non-arising and non-ceasing; the wondrous mind means the subtle vajra mind (Vajracitta). Although the vajra mind, the tathāgatagarbha, is empty as mind, without a single dharma, it can manifest the myriad dharmas; though it does not have even the size of a speck of dust, it can manifest the universe and space—this is truly wondrous, hence it is called the wondrous mind. The real nature means that the vajra prajñā mind is an actually existing, correct and true principle-substance that never ceases. "Without marks" means this mind has no marks whatsoever: it has no form mark, so He cannot be seen; no sound mark, so He cannot be heard; no scent mark, so He cannot be smelled; no taste mark, so He cannot be tasted; no touch mark, so He cannot be touched; no dharma mark, so He cannot be discriminated. The Heart Sutra says He has no five aggregates, no six faculties, six objects, six consciousnesses, no Four Noble Truths or twelve links of dependent origination (from ignorance to aging and death), no...—in short, not a single dharma, yet all the myriad dharmas arise and exist in dependence upon Him.

"A special transmission outside the teachings" means that the Chan Dharma of seeing one's true mind and seeing one's nature lies outside the sūtra-piṭaka of the three collections and twelve divisions; apart from the mark of written words, it can be transmitted separately and independently, pointing people to awakening without using language and writing. The World-Honored One did not utter a single word yet caused Mahākāśyapa to awaken to the Way, whereas the scriptural teachings must use language and writing to teach and guide. In the land of the Buddha Gandhakūṭa, the Buddha and the bodhisattvas sat around eating together; the Buddha sniffed the fragrance of the food with his nose, and the bodhisattvas, seeing this, awakened to the Way—no teaching of Dharma was needed. However, although the Chan school does not establish written words, it is not that it does not use language and writing; Chan also uses language and writing to guide, and some have awakened through reading the sūtras.

Some say Mahākāśyapa saw the Buddha's true mind upon the flower and thus awakened. But if the true mind were upon the flower, that flower would be dancing with joy and leaping about; it would be a sentient being with joys and sorrows, and could become a Buddha—but in fact it is not. If the true mind were upon the flower, it would have nothing to do with the World-Honored One; the World-Honored One would be neither a Buddha nor a sentient being, and could not hold up the flower and smile. Then where is the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha? This is a secret, requiring one's own diligent investigation. A ready-made answer does nothing to help open wisdom. Nevertheless, some devices can still be skillfully set up to lead people to awakening. While the World-Honored One was alive he set up many such devices, enabling disciples to awaken to the Way and to pass them on to later generations.

Once the World-Honored One led his disciples to a mound of earth and stopped, then bowed to the mound—the play had begun. Ānanda, not knowing what play the World-Honored One was performing—perhaps feigning ignorance—asked: "World-Honored One, why do you bow to that mound of earth?" The World-Honored One pointed at the mound with his finger and said: "The Buddhas of the three times are all buried in that mound of earth." World-Honored One, what medicine are you selling in that gourd of yours! Although we are future Buddhas, we have not yet become Buddhas—how could we be buried? The present Buddhas are all teaching sentient beings in their own Buddha-lands and are not buried! As for the ancient Buddhas, they could not be buried here either! But where is "here"? When the conditions of one's six pāramitās as a bodhisattva are complete and conditions ripen, one will be able to investigate it out.

Once, just as the World-Honored One had settled on the Dharma seat, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva came over, struck the lectern with a wooden clapper, and said: "The World-Honored One has finished teaching the sūtra." With that the World-Honored One rose from his seat—and indeed the teaching was finished; the great Dharma of the tathāgatagarbha had been transmitted. In fact, the moment the World-Honored One entered the lecture hall and pushed open the door, the Dharma was already fully taught; he could perfectly well have turned around and left the hall, leaving the disciples gaping in astonishment. Fu Dashi in the time of Emperor Wu of Liang, as well as the Chan masters of the Tang dynasty, performed similar tricks; ordinary people simply cannot see through the mechanism here—only bodhisattvas with deep roots of goodness can comprehend it.

The second patriarch of the Chan school was Ānanda. After the World-Honored One's parinirvāṇa, Ānanda asked Mahākāśyapa: "Besides transmitting to you the golden-threaded robe, what else did the World-Honored One transmit to you?" He was asking about the tathāgatagarbha. Kāśyapa called out: "Ānanda!" (This is exactly what is transmitted!) Ānanda did not understand and casually answered: "Yes!" Having answered, he should have understood, yet he still did not. Kāśyapa, having no alternative, continued: "Go and knock down the flagpole in front of the gate." Hearing this, Ānanda thought: I ask about the hidden meaning and you tell me to knock down the flagpole? As his mind turned, suddenly he saw it—so that's how it is!—and he greatly awakened, thus becoming the second patriarch of the Chan school. From then on the twenty-eight patriarchs of India passed it down generation after generation, all the way to the Sixth Patriarch of the Great Tang, and on until the end of the Ming dynasty; after that, those who awakened became extremely rare and isolated—but there are still some now, for the Buddha will never abandon the sentient beings of this world.

This first chapter of the Diamond Sutra is itself a Chan koan: the World-Honored One transmitted the Dharma without opening his mouth to speak. It is only far too hard to comprehend—only those of the very highest faculties can understand it. The object of all Chan investigation is the tathāgatagarbha. In the worlds of the ten directions, whichever Buddha-land it may be, it is this mind that is awakened to. Where is He, how does He operate, how does He produce the myriad dharmas, how does He give birth to the five aggregates and eighteen realms—apart from this, all has deviated from the direction.