Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Why Does One with a Single Thought of Pure Faith Have No Four Marks, No Dharma Mark, and No Non-Dharma Mark?

Those who have pure faith in the Buddha's teaching that "if one sees that all marks are not marks, then one sees the Tathāgata" have extremely deep roots of faith, having already planted deep roots of goodness and merit at the places of immeasurable tens of millions of Buddhas. Only those who have personally realized the vajra mind (vajra-citta), emptied the four marks, and emptied the dharma-marks can attain pure faith. Only after personal realization can one be free of doubt regarding dharma-marks and non-dharma-marks, and only then is one's faith pure. Realized faith is pure faith; faith before personal realization contains varying degrees of doubt and is not pure or clean. After personally realizing the vajra mind, there will be no mark of self, no mark of person, no mark of sentient being, and no mark of life span in one's mind, for one directly observes that all these marks are illusory false marks conjured up by the vajra mind, and therefore they are all empty.

The four marks are relatively coarse and shallow, and the observational wisdom required need not be too deep and subtle. The dharma-marks are even more subtle than the four marks, requiring even deeper and more subtle observational wisdom. Therefore, the wisdom of no four marks is shallower than the wisdom of no dharma-marks, belonging to the prajñā wisdom of the three stages of worthies (trīṇi-bhāvanā-mārga-stages), while "no dharma-marks and also no non-dharma-marks" belongs to the Consciousness-Only seed-wisdom attained after entering the bhūmis. The four marks fall within the scope of sentient beings' five aggregates (pañca-skandha). Although dharma-marks do not exceed the scope of the five aggregates, they are extremely subtle and difficult to observe—for example, all the customs and conventions of the world, all rules, regulations, and legal systems, all norms and standards of human behavior, the various ideas and concepts of humanity, the academic and technical knowledge of every discipline and field, all phenomena of the natural world, as well as the various practice principles, concepts, ideas, and cognitions within Buddhism—these dharma-marks are so numerous, so broad, deep, and subtle that many of them cannot even be articulated; they all belong to the realm of Consciousness-Only seed-wisdom. And all these dharma-marks are non-dharma-marks; they are merely called dharma-marks.

One who can generate pure faith in a single thought regarding the profound dharma principles spoken by the Buddha has not only no four marks in the mind, but has also broken through the dharma-marks, and has even broken through the non-dharma-marks; the mind is extremely pure, grasping at and attaching to no marks whatsoever, and the wisdom is very deep and sharp. Ordinary sentient beings who have not broken through the four marks may also believe the profound dharma principles spoken by the Buddha, but because they have not realized them, their minds harbor doubt, and their faith is not realized faith, so it is not very pure. Bodhisattvas who have only broken through the four marks have realized the Dharma and possess realized faith, but they still have dharma-marks not yet broken through; their realization is insufficient and incomplete, and their faith is likewise not pure enough. Only when the dharma-marks and non-dharma-marks are broken through, and the mind is extremely empty and pure without attaching to marks, is one truly a bodhisattva of pure faith.

If there is grasping and attachment in a person's mind, then there are the four marks, because grasping exists only when there is a self; if there is no self, who would grasp? Therefore, as long as a person grasps at marks, there are the marks of self, person, sentient being, and life span. If one grasps at dharma-marks, there are the marks of self, person, sentient being, and life span; if one grasps at non-dharma-marks, there are the marks of self, person, sentient being, and life span. Therefore, a bodhisattva should not grasp at dharma, nor should he grasp at non-dharma. The Buddha said: The dharma I teach can be likened to a raft; the raft must be used when crossing the water, but upon reaching the shore it must be abandoned, otherwise one cannot get ashore. When dharma is useful, use it; after personal realization, when it is no longer useful, it must be abandoned. Not only must dharma be abandoned, non-dharma must also be abandoned; having dharma or non-dharma in the mind is neither empty nor pure, and one cannot get ashore to nirvāṇa. Dharma is existence; non-dharma is non-existence. Existence is wrong, and non-existence is also wrong; since they are wrong, of course they must be abandoned. Once right and wrong are established and grasped, the four marks are not empty. Since existence is wrong, the non-existence opposed to it is of course also wrong. All dharmas are neither dharma nor non-dharma; only by being free of the four marks and cutting off the hundred wrongs is one ultimately and completely home. This section breaks through the dharma-marks and the non-dharma-marks.

Original text of the Diamond Sutra, Section Six: Proper Faith Is Rare (Faith through Understanding, Six): 以是义故。如来常说。汝等比丘。知我说法。如筏喻者。法尚应舍。何况非法。

Explanation: For this reason, the Tathāgata often says: You bhikṣus should know that my teaching of dharma to deliver people is like the parable of the raft—once the river has been crossed, the raft should be discarded and not clung to any longer. The Buddha-dharma is the same: after attaining buddhahood it is no longer useful; when one is on the verge of becoming a Buddha, one abandons all dharmas and thereby becomes a Buddha. Even this dharma must be abandoned, let alone the non-dharma of annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), which must be abandoned all the more.

Why does the Tathāgata use the raft as a metaphor when teaching the dharma? A raft is used to ferry people across a river; upon reaching the bank, one must abandon the raft to get ashore—one who refuses to leave the raft cannot get ashore. The dharma spoken by the Buddha is the raft; riding this dharma-raft, sentient beings can reach the far shore of great nirvāṇa. If a single dharma still exists unextinguished in a sentient being's mind, that is impurity, that is defilement, that is ignorance, and one cannot perfectly accomplish the Buddha-way and realize great nirvāṇa. One must abandon all dharmas in the mind, attaching to neither existence nor emptiness, becoming empty and pure like the tathāgatagarbha mind, without a single dharma. But before reaching the bank, one must absolutely not abandon the raft—if the ocean of saṃsāra and karma has not yet been crossed, what is the point of abandoning the raft? The Buddha-dharma is medicine, used to treat sentient beings' various afflictive illnesses and illnesses of ignorance. The tathāgatagarbha dharma is a single-flavor powder that cures all the illnesses of ignorance of sentient beings; those who take it will surely remove their ignorance, cross the ocean of saṃsāra and karma, and accomplish the path of nirvāṇa. Only this medicine can save and liberate sentient beings, ferrying them to the far shore of nirvāṇa. Therefore, if sons of the Buddha wish to reach the shore of nirvāṇa, they must abandon all dharmas of existence and dharmas of emptiness—dharma and non-dharma alike.