Commentary on the Diamond Sutra: Chapter Four, Wonderful Practice of Non-Abiding

This chapter explains how bodhisattvas practice generosity (dāna), which yields the greatest and most supreme merit. A bodhisattva's giving to sentient beings is a wondrous practice, bringing immeasurable merit, yet the mind does not abide within it. The fundamental hallmark of a bodhisattva is giving to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings; cultivating the Mahāyāna bodhisattva path is primarily based on giving. Bodhisattvas have the four means of embracing (catvāri-saṃgraha-vastūni): giving, kind words, benefit and joy, and working together—using these four methods to embrace sentient beings and thereby deliver them. If one only cares about liberating oneself from birth and death to attain liberation, that is a self-liberator, not a bodhisattva. Being a bodhisattva means not acting solely for oneself, but also for sentient beings to leave suffering and attain happiness, and for the Buddha-dharma to be transmitted forever. The practice of giving serves two purposes: first, to personally accumulate merit as provisions for advancing along the path; second, to embrace sentient beings—giving to sentient beings creates affinities with them, so they become willing to heed the bodhisattva's teachings and follow along to learn.

The first of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās is giving, which is divided into three kinds: giving of wealth, giving of fearlessness, and giving of Dharma. As taught in the Bodhisattva Upāsaka Precepts Sūtra, giving to animals yields a hundredfold retribution; giving to ordinary people, including evil people and precept-breakers, yields a thousandfold retribution; giving to precept-holders yields a ten-thousandfold retribution; giving to those free of desire, including non-Buddhists who have attained the first dhyāna, yields a millionfold retribution, because attaining the first dhyāna severs the desire-mind, and at the end of life one will be reborn in the form realm—this is virtue, and one with virtue is worthy of offerings. Giving to those at or above the stage of srotāpanna-approachment—śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas—yields immeasurable retribution, and the difference between immeasurable and immeasurable is vast.

The causes, conditions, and karmic retribution of giving are realized through the tathāgatagarbha. The entire process of the act of giving is held and recorded by the tathāgatagarbha; when conditions mature, the tathāgatagarbha outputs this karmic seed, and sentient beings receive the blessings. Generally, this retribution is received in future lives, called retributive karma of a different maturation (vipāka), but if the karma is very great, it can ripen within present-life conditions, and then the flowering retribution (puṣpa-phala) is received in this life. The karma created by sentient beings never disappears without cause; wholesome karma, unwholesome karma, and neutral (avyākṛta) karma are all collected and output by the tathāgatagarbha, never confused, never lost. Generally, once wholesome and unwholesome karma has been fully retributed, the karmic seed disappears; unwholesome karma one has created can also be eliminated through repentance of transgressions. After attaining realization of the fruits or seeing the mind and seeing the nature, the karma leading to the three evil destinies can be eliminated, and one will not fall into the three evil destinies in future lives. Whichever karma is stronger is retributed first; practitioners should always keep wholesome karma greater than unwholesome karma, so that unwholesome karma temporarily goes unretributed, and after a very long time, the karmic seed withers. For example, sentient beings who have committed the five rebellious acts but are reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) at the lowest of the low grade (adhamādhamavarga) spend twelve great kalpas within the lotus flower with no opportunity to create karma; the karmic seeds slowly wither, and once the mind is purified, they emerge from the lotus flower.

The giving of fearlessness includes saving the lives of sentient beings, relieving their hardships and perils, and removing psychological obstacles; it can yield the retributions of health and longevity, peace and happiness, smooth success in all matters, and wealth and honor. Sometimes giving of wealth contains giving of fearlessness, and giving of fearlessness contains giving of wealth. Giving of Dharma yields retribution in both merit and wisdom, and also the retribution of giving of fearlessness. Expounding the sūtras and speaking the Dharma on behalf of the Buddha is direct giving of Dharma; printing sūtra texts, protecting the Saṅgha jewel in propagating the Dharma, and so on, is indirect giving of Dharma. But it is best to have cultivated realization and attained the eye of the Path, having opened the wisdom of both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna, so that one will not speak the fundamental Buddha-dharma incorrectly, will not mislead sentient beings in the wrong direction of practice, and even less will sever sentient beings' dharmakāya wisdom-life; only then should one personally expound the sūtras and speak the Dharma to guide sentient beings—this is the best. When sentient beings support a Dharma master in propagating the Dharma, they must also possess the eye of Dharma-selection, which is one of the seven factors of enlightenment, the ability to discern right from wrong in the Dharma; otherwise, if the fundamental Buddha-dharma is propagated or assisted in propagation incorrectly, the retribution is also very heavy.

When sentient beings have not opened the eye of the Path, they often take the wrong as right and the right as wrong, confused and inverted, or they only recognize famous teachers, not knowing there is a great difference between famous teachers and enlightened teachers—having the Way does not necessarily mean having fame, and having fame does not necessarily mean having the Way. Only by distinguishing famous teachers from enlightened teachers can one rely on the Dharma and not on persons. The merit of propagating the true Dharma is great, but if it is propagated incorrectly, the erroneous seeds planted in sentient beings' minds will sprout badly and bear bad fruit life after life, and even when a good teacher (kalyāṇamitra) comes, it is hard to correct, because sentient beings are dominated by first impressions. Moreover, the true Buddha-dharma is hard for sentient beings to resonate with, differing from the habitual affairs and principles that sentient beings generally recognize, so sentient beings will develop rejection, and their psychology is hard to turn around—propagating the Dharma must be done with great care.

Original text:复次。须菩提。菩萨于法。应无所住行于布施。所谓不住色布施。不住声香味触法布施。须菩提。菩萨应如是布施。不住于相。

Explanation: Furthermore, Subhūti, a bodhisattva, with regard to the Dharma, should practice giving without abiding anywhere—the so-called giving without abiding in form, giving without abiding in sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. Subhūti, a bodhisattva should give in this way, with the mind not abiding in any mark whatsoever.

This passage is the World-Honored One instructing the bodhisattvas that when practicing giving, they should not abide in the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas; giving should not be for seeking the conditioned worldly blessings of the three realms, not for seeking the pleasures of the five desires such as wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, not seeking sentient beings' gratitude or repayment, not for ascending to heaven to enjoy blessings—the bodhisattva's mind should abide nowhere, like the tathāgatagarbha. When the tathāgatagarbha gives, it abides in no dharma whatsoever; the six faculties and six sense objects are what He provides to us, the six consciousnesses are what He manifests for us, enabling us to have the five aggregates and live in the world. If not for Him, we could hardly do anything at all; it is He who gives us lifespan, warmth, and the conscious mind. If He left the body, we would die on the spot—lifespan gone, the body cold and stiff, breathing, heartbeat, and pulse ceasing instantly, and the blood no longer flowing.

He is our life-faculty, a great giver, yet He seeks nothing from us—not even a word of praise does He need; singing His praises, He does not listen, let alone feel joy. Because He has no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; no eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, or mind consciousness, He has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, no views, discriminations, or delusions. In contrast, it is our deluded mind—the seven consciousnesses—that has the view of self, self-love, and self-conceit, deluded discriminations, the view of grasping views and the view of holding precepts and prohibitions, as well as the sixty-two views and such wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi). Having views is wrong—it is the deluded mind; having no views is right—it is the true mind. Therefore, bodhisattvas practicing giving should learn from the tathāgatagarbha, not abiding in any mark whatsoever.

Original text:何以故。若菩萨不住相布施。其福德不可思量。

Explanation: Why should a bodhisattva give without abiding in marks? If a bodhisattva gives without abiding in marks, the merit attained is beyond conception and measure.

Giving while abiding in marks, the mind is limited by the marks, the mind's capacity is small, and the merit is finite; if the mind does not transcend the marks of the six sense objects, one cannot attain liberation, much less become a Buddha. The mind that gives is the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, primarily the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; it is the manas, the seventh consciousness, that decides to give. He deliberates (manasikāra) on whether to give, what to give, how much, and to whom, and then He makes the decision as the master; while the analysis, reasoning, judgment, and observation before giving are all done by the mind consciousness, which reports the results to the manas and persuades Him; after the manas deliberates, sometimes He acts accordingly, sometimes not. That is why we sometimes feel we should do this and not that, yet in actual practice we do the opposite, and even we ourselves feel helpless—it is because the manas does not necessarily follow the guidance of the mind consciousness.

After studying Buddhism, one feels that eating meat is bad and one should be vegetarian, yet upon seeing meat one wants to eat it and cannot control oneself, because the manas always acts in accordance with His own habitual tendencies and is not easily changed. One clearly agrees to donate a hundred yuan, yet when actually taking out the money, one hesitates—at the time of agreeing, it was the mind consciousness that, after analysis, felt it should be done; at the time of taking out the money, the manas is the master, and the manas, with a heavy sense of self, is unwilling to give outwardly; only through long-term cultivation, guidance, and persuasion by the mind consciousness can a transformation possibly occur. Therefore, when the manas changes, everything changes, and the karmic retribution becomes different. When a bodhisattva gives without abiding in marks, the merit is immeasurable and boundless. The merit of the tathāgatagarbha is beyond what can be spoken—the universe and empty space belong to Him, the trichiliocosm belongs to Him, the worlds of the lotus treasury belong to Him, the ocean of worlds belongs to Him, the Buddhas' thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks belong to Him—no dharma does not belong to Him, yet He needs nothing at all; His merit is great beyond measure and bound.