Lecture on the Diamond Sutra: The Mark of a Bodhisattva Adorning the Buddha-Land Is Also Empty

Chapter Ten: The Adornment of Pure Lands, Original text: 须菩提。于意云何。菩萨庄严佛土不。不也。世尊。何以故。庄严佛土者。即非庄严。是名庄严。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think about this matter? Do bodhisattvas adorn buddha-lands? Subhūti replied: Bodhisattvas do not adorn buddha-lands. Why is this said? Because the so-called adornment of buddha-lands is not something with real substance and true actuality; it is merely an adornment in name and appearance—the phenomena are illusory and transformed.

Speaking in terms of worldly dharmas and appearances, all of a bodhisattva's cultivation—the practice of the six pāramitās and ten pāramitās—is the adornment of buddha-lands, and all of a bodhisattva's endeavors to deliver sentient beings are the adornment of buddha-lands. The seeds of cultivation and the seeds of delivering sentient beings are retained within one's own mind, the tathāgatagarbha. When the seeds have accumulated to their maximum, the causes and conditions for attaining buddhahood ripen, and then these seeds are used to manifest and transform into an adorned buddha-land. Therefore all bodhisattva conduct is the conduct of adorning buddha-lands. So, do bodhisattvas adorn buddha-lands? Of course they adorn buddha-lands.

However, applying the World-Honored One's universal golden phrase, it is: the so-called adornment is not adornment; it is merely called adornment. This means that when bodhisattvas adorn buddha-lands, there is no true mark of adornment. All of a bodhisattva's conduct is empty and illusory—appearance exists but principle does not; the existence is false existence, and the appearance is also empty. There is no substantive, genuine matter of adornment; in substance everything is true suchness, the one true dharmadhātu, the vajra prajñā mind of true reality, and everything else is empty, illusory, and unreal. Apart from the never-perishing vajra mind (Vajracitta), all dharmas are name-marks and false appearances, and must not be grasped as truly existent. Bodhisattvas perform the great buddha-work within a dream, all doing so with an empty mind and a mind of no attainment—doing yet not doing, never attaching, never craving fame, reputation, or offerings, and never seeking recompense. Ordinary beings are just the opposite: their minds always have attainment, seeking, and expectation; their minds are not empty, and they cling to appearances.

How adorned a buddha's land is depends on what the great vows the Buddha made during his cultivation specifically were, and on what his actions and deeds were during the process of cultivation—that is, what seeds are contained within the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). Thus a bodhisattva's cultivation over three countless kalpas is precisely the adornment of his own future buddha-land. This method of adornment is fundamentally not a worldly method of adornment, and so bodhisattvas do not adorn buddha-lands. This method of adornment does not truly exist; it is merely giving this method a provisional name, calling it "adornment," that is all.

Why is this adornment not real? Because the pure great vows that bodhisattvas make are made by the manas and the mind consciousness, which are illusory dharmas; once made, they cease. Therefore making vows is a dharma of arising and ceasing, not a real dharma that is originally existent and never perishes. All the actions and deeds of bodhisattvas while practicing the bodhisattva path are dharmas of arising and ceasing, all having already vanished and perished. The deeds of the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, life after life, have all perished. All of the bodhisattva's myriad practices of the six pāramitās and ten pāramitās are performed by the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses; they are dharmas of arising and ceasing, and the bodhisattva's conduct is a dharma of arising and ceasing—all have perished. Because these methods of adornment through the bodhisattva practices of the six and ten pāramitās are not real dharmas, not dharmas that exist forever without perishing, not dharmas that are originally existent, they are not true adornment.