Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: What Is the Mark of Self?

The self that sentient beings believe in is taking the five aggregates and eighteen realms as the self, believing them to be real, but in fact they are not. The five aggregates include the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of consciousness. The aggregate of form is the physical body, beginning from the fertilized egg after conception, growing into a fetus, infant, child, adolescent, youth, middle-aged person, and elderly person's body. It is constantly changing, arising and ceasing; whatever exhibits the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing is impermanent, false, illusory, and suffering—it is not the real self.

The aggregate of feeling is sensation, mainly referring to the mind consciousness's ability to feel suffering, pleasure, and neither-suffering-nor-pleasure. When the eye sees forms there is feeling; when the ear hears sounds there is feeling; when the nose smells scents there is feeling; when the tongue tastes flavors there is feeling; when the body feels tangibles there is feeling; when the mind discerns dharmas there is feeling. These feelings arise and cease, changing without stop. When suffering feelings are too many, the mind becomes numb and no longer feels the suffering, thus turning into a neither-suffering-nor-pleasure feeling. When suffering decreases a little, the mind feels happy—for example, if one is beaten thirty strokes a day, and one day it is reduced to fifteen strokes, one becomes happy; when pleasure is too much, it is no longer pleasurable and becomes neither-suffering-nor-pleasure. The aggregate of feeling disappears at death, in coma, upon entering the concentration of no-perception, upon entering the cessation of perception and feeling, and in dreamless sleep; it is impermanent and changing, arising and ceasing, suffering, and not the real self.

The aggregate of perception is the mind taking on marks as perception—discerning, discriminating, planning, intending, deliberating, and judging; in short, it is all deluded thinking. Perception exists in five situations: when the eye sees forms there is perception, discerning blue, yellow, red, and white, long and short, square and round, coarse and fine, with mental analysis, deliberation, judgment, and so on. When the ear hears sounds there is perception, discerning the pitch, coarseness, and distance of sounds—male voices, female voices, animal sounds, cosmic sounds, the sounds of valleys and rivers—and simultaneously analyzing, inferring, judging, and planning. When the nose smells scents there is perception, discerning the kinds, degrees, directions, and distances of fragrant and foul odors, with analysis, deliberation, judgment, planning, and so on. When the tongue tastes flavors there is perception, discerning sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and so on. When the body feels tangibles there is perception, and when the mind discerns dharmas there is even more perception. This aggregate of perception ceases at death, in coma, upon entering the concentration of no-perception, upon entering the cessation of perception and feeling, and in dreamless sleep. It is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, illusory, and unreal; it is suffering, and what is suffering is not the self.

The aggregate of volitional formations refers to the flow of time, the transformation of space, and the change of location, including bodily, verbal, and mental actions. All moving, non-stationary activities belong to the aggregate of volitional formations: breathing, heartbeat, pulse, the flow of blood, the movement of limbs, coming and going, stopping and proceeding, speech, mental activities, and all such conditioning. Seeing forms with the eye is volitional formation; hearing sounds with the ear is volitional formation; smelling scents with the nose, feeling tangibles with the body, and discerning dharmas with the mind are all the aggregate of volitional formations. It ceases upon entering nirvāṇa and in the moment of death. It too is arising and ceasing, changing moment by moment without stop—impermanent, illusory, suffering, and unreal—therefore it is not the self.

The aggregate of consciousness includes the six consciousnesses: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness, which mainly perform the function of discrimination and discernment. The eye consciousness discerns the outward appearance of material sense-objects, the coarse part, while the mind consciousness simultaneously discerns the subtle marks; the ear consciousness discerns sound objects, discriminating the general, coarse part, while the mind consciousness simultaneously makes fine discriminations; the nose consciousness smells scents, discerning the coarse marks, while the mind consciousness discerns the subtle marks; the tongue consciousness tastes flavors, discerning the coarse marks, while the mind consciousness discerns the subtle marks; the body consciousness feels tangibles, discerning the coarse marks, while the mind consciousness discerns the subtle marks. The aggregate of consciousness ceases in dreamless sleep, coma, the concentration of no-perception, the cessation of perception and feeling, and the moment of death. It is subject to arising, ceasing, change, and impermanence—illusory, suffering, and unreal—therefore it is not the self. In short, the five aggregates are subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

The eighteen realms include the six faculties, six sense-objects, and six consciousnesses. The six faculties are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and manas faculties. The eye faculty is divided into the gross physical faculty and the supreme faculty (indriya), composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. The grape-like structure on the outside of the body is called the gross physical faculty, also known as the external eye faculty. At the back of the head, connected by the optic nerves, the occipital cortex of the brain that governs vision is the supreme faculty, on which the eye consciousness depends, and there the eye consciousness arises. If the supreme faculty is damaged, even if the eye faculty is intact, one cannot see forms—this is called being blind with open eyes. The eye faculty is formed in the fertilized-egg stage by the tathāgatagarbha absorbing the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind (nutrients) from the mother's body. It is a dharma of arising and ceasing, an impermanent dharma, an illusory dharma, and suffering—therefore it is not-self.

The ear faculty is divided into the gross physical faculty and the supreme faculty. The part visible on the outside of the body, shaped like a newly rolled leaf, is called the gross physical faculty. The auditory cortex at the back of the brain, connected by the auditory nerves, is called the supreme faculty, on which the ear consciousness depends, and there the ear consciousness arises. The ear faculty is formed in the embryo by the tathāgatagarbha absorbing nutrients from the mother's body. It is a dharma of arising and ceasing, an impermanent and illusory dharma, suffering and not-self.

The nose faculty is divided into the gross physical faculty and the supreme faculty. The gross physical faculty is on the surface of the body, like a pair of olfactory bulbs or a hanging gallbladder; it is the receiver of odors. After receiving odors, they are transmitted by the olfactory nerves to the cerebral cortex, where the nose consciousness arises, enabling the discrimination of fragrant and foul. The cerebral cortex at the back of the head is the supreme faculty, governing the sense of smell, on which the nose consciousness depends. The nose faculty is also formed in the fertilized-egg stage by the tathāgatagarbha. It is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, illusory, and suffering—it is not the self.

The tongue faculty is composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, transformed and generated by the tathāgatagarbha in the fertilized-egg stage, and is divided into the gross physical faculty and the supreme faculty. On the outside of the body, visible upon opening the mouth, the half-moon-shaped part is the gross physical faculty, the receiver of taste; it transmits via the gustatory nerves to the cerebral cortex, where the tathāgatagarbha generates the tongue consciousness to discriminate the various taste objects. The cerebral cortex at the back of the head is the supreme faculty. The tongue faculty is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory and impermanent, suffering—therefore it is not-self.

The body faculty is created by the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, an aggregation of thirty-six substances. The twelve external features: hair, body hair, nails, teeth, eye discharge, tears, saliva, spittle, feces, urine, grime, and sweat. The twelve bodily vessels: skin, flesh, blood, muscle, sinews, vessels, bones, marrow, fat, grease, brain, and membranes. The twelve internal organs: liver, gallbladder, intestines, stomach, spleen, kidneys, heart, lungs, raw-digesting organ, cooked-digesting organ, red phlegm, and white phlegm. The skin and muscles of every part, down to the internal organs, all have sensation, transmitted by the nerves to the spinal cord and then to the cerebral cortex, where the body consciousness is produced so that tangibles can be felt. The cerebral cortex is the supreme faculty, located at the back of the head; if this part is damaged, the entire body becomes paralyzed and the person becomes a vegetable. The gross physical faculty is like a barrel of flesh, visible to the human eye, and is called the gross physical faculty. The body faculty is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, illusory, and suffering—therefore it is not-self.

The manas is a spiritual entity, a mind, not matter. It has existed since beginningless kalpas and ceases when an arhat enters nirvāṇa. It is constantly conjoined with afflictions; all its mental activities are about "I" and "mine." It possesses the constant, examining, and deliberating (manasikāra) function of discernment. It constantly grasps the first six consciousnesses as an external self and constantly grasps the eighth consciousness as an internal self; it is the defiled manas. Moment by moment it deliberates and exercises mastery, making decisions, with very strong grasping. It relies on the six consciousnesses to discriminate specific sense-objects, and is the root cause of generating delusions and creating karma. Only through cultivation, changing its defiled nature into a pure nature and eradicating its grasping at self, can liberation be attained. It too is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, empty, and suffering—it is also not the self.

Next are the six sense-objects of form, sound, scent, taste, tangibility, and dharma. Form objects are divided into external and inner material sense-objects. External form objects are composed of the combined four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, including the cosmic inanimate world—Mount Sumeru, the heavenly palaces of various heavens, the seven golden mountains, the four great oceans, the four great continents, and so on—created jointly by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma, constituting the living environment of sentient beings. Only with an environment can sentient beings with karmic conditions be reborn there to receive karmic retribution; when the conditions cease, the cosmic inanimate world gradually deteriorates, and sentient beings are reborn into other inanimate worlds with which they have karmic connections. Therefore external form objects are subject to arising, ceasing, change, and impermanence; they are illusory dharmas, empty and not-self.

The inner material sense-object is produced when a sentient being's tathāgatagarbha, through the eye faculty, contacts the external form object and generates an identical shadow signal, which is transmitted through the retina and optic nerves to the cerebral cortex, forming a false form identical to the external form—this is the inner material sense-object. It is also a shadow, not real matter; real material form cannot contact the eye faculty, nor can it be transmitted through the retinal nerves to the back of the head. Moreover, if the eye faculty could contact physical forms, it would certainly be damaged: if the eye faculty contacts a knife tip, the eye would certainly be pierced by it; if the eye contacts fire, the eye would certainly be burned by it; if the eye contacts sand, the sand would blind the eye. Therefore the inner eye faculty does not contact physical forms yet sees; what it contacts are the four great subtle particles radiated by the forms—shadows.

This principle is similar to that of a video camera: external forms are converted by the camera into inverted images within the machine, and when seen by the naked eye they become upright images again, making one feel one is seeing real form objects—but in fact those are shadows and photographs, just like the form objects seen on television. Sentient beings have never, since beginningless kalpas, seen the real external form objects. Therefore the inner material sense-objects that sentient beings see are illusory and empty, also suffering and not-self.

Sound objects are divided into external and inner sound objects. External sound objects are produced by cosmic valleys, rivers, and various materials, jointly transformed and created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to conditions and karmic conditions; sound objects emitted by sentient beings are generated by each sentient being's own tathāgatagarbha. They are also composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind; they are material, arising and ceasing, illusory, impermanent, empty, suffering, and not-self. The inner sound object is produced when the tathāgatagarbha, through the ear faculty, contacts the external sound object and manifests an identical shadow, which is transmitted through the auditory nerves to the cerebral cortex, the supreme faculty; when faculty and object contact, the tathāgatagarbha produces the ear consciousness to discriminate the sounds. In fact, this sound is manifested by one's own tathāgatagarbha—false, illusory, arising and ceasing, impermanent, suffering, and not-self. This principle is similar to a tape recorder: the sounds we hear from a tape recorder resemble the real sounds outside the recorder, but in fact they are only images.

Scent objects are divided into external and inner scent objects. External scent objects are composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, jointly transformed and created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to karma and conditions; the scent objects of a sentient being's own body are created solely by that being's own tathāgatagarbha. The inner scent object is produced when the tathāgatagarbha, through the nose faculty, contacts the external scent object and manifests a similar shadow, which is transmitted through the nasal nerves to the cerebral cortex at the back of the head, contacting the nose's supreme faculty; the tathāgatagarbha produces the nose consciousness to discriminate—in fact it is only discriminating a false image. Both external and inner scent objects are subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, empty, and suffering—not mine. Sentient beings do not know this and grasp at them incessantly.

Taste objects are divided into external and inner taste objects. External taste objects are material, composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, jointly transformed and created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to karma and conditions; they are subject to arising, ceasing, and change—impermanent, illusory, suffering—therefore not-self. The inner taste object is produced when the tathāgatagarbha, through the tongue faculty, contacts the external taste object and manifests a similar shadow, which is transmitted through the gustatory nerves to the cerebral cortex, contacting the tongue's supreme faculty; the tathāgatagarbha produces the tongue consciousness, which has the function of discrimination, but what is discriminated is only an illusory false image. The inner taste object is illusory, impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

Tangible objects are divided into external and inner tangible objects. External tangible objects are composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, jointly transformed and created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to karma and conditions; they exhibit arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing—impermanent, illusory, suffering—therefore not-self. The inner tangible object is produced when the tathāgatagarbha, through the body, contacts the external tangible object and manifests a similar shadow, which is transmitted through the nerves to the back of the head, contacting the body's supreme faculty; the tathāgatagarbha produces the body consciousness to discern. The inner tangible object is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, impermanent, suffering, and not-self. Sentient beings, ignorant, mistakenly take them as real and grasp at them incessantly.

Dharma objects are also divided into external and inner mental sense-objects. External dharma objects are composed of the subtle particles of the four great elements; they are the form-marks, expressive marks, and non-expressive marks manifested upon the five sense-objects—form included in the dharma āyatana—jointly manifested by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma. External dharma objects are then transmitted together with the five sense-objects into the supreme faculty, where the tathāgatagarbha transforms them into the inner mental sense-object, which contacts the manas; then the tathāgatagarbha produces the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) to discriminate the inner mental sense-object. Therefore both external and inner dharma objects are illusory, subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

The six consciousnesses are the aggregate of consciousness: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness, all born from the tathāgatagarbha when the six faculties contact the inner six sense-objects. If the manas has no interest in the six sense-objects, the tathāgatagarbha does not give rise to the six consciousnesses, resulting in phenomena of inattention such as looking without seeing and hearing without listening. When one enters the concentration of no-perception or the cessation of perception and feeling, the mind consciousness also does not manifest, and sentient beings know nothing at all, without the slightest discrimination.

In summary of the above, the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen realms of sentient beings are entirely subject to arising, ceasing, and illusory transformation. The body of the five aggregates is like a puppet in a shadow play, an electric doll, a character in an animated cartoon, like images of cats and dogs formed by clouds in the sky, like characters on television—extremely unreal. Sentient beings, ignorant, are lost in and attached to them, falsely creating bodily, verbal, and mental actions, unable to escape the six paths of saṃsāra. If one wishes to transcend the ocean of suffering in saṃsāra, one should frequently, according to the above content, engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and contemplation of the illusory nature of the five aggregates and eighteen realms; then one can attain the fruits of the Small Vehicle, or even awaken and enter the Mahāyāna dharma path, realizing the true tathāgatagarbha.

From the mark of self, it can be seen that the mark of person and the mark of sentient being are also impermanent, suffering, empty, and not-self—all are illusory transformations.