Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Receiving and Holding the Dharma According to the Teachings, Thirteen

Original text: 尔时。须菩提白佛言。世尊。当何名此经。我等云何奉持。佛告须菩提。是经名为。金刚般若波罗蜜。以是名字。汝当奉持。

Explanation: At this time Subhūti said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, how should this sūtra be named? How should we uphold and practice it? The Buddha told Subhūti that this sūtra is called the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā. Because this name encapsulates the entire Diamond Sutra, you should properly understand the principles within it, and then thoroughly comprehend and uphold it.

Subhūti asked the World-Honored One to name this sūtra and inquired how to practice and uphold it. The World-Honored One said: This sūtra is called the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā. Only after fully understanding the meaning of this name can one practice and uphold it. The meaning of the sūtra's title has already been explained at the beginning of this text. The diamond is the hardest treasure in the world; nothing can destroy it, and conversely, it can destroy everything. It is used as a metaphor for our true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. No matter what power anyone uses, this mind can never be destroyed. Apart from it, all worldly dharmas are transformed and generated by it, all possess the nature of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing, and all are unreliable dharmas.

Why is prajñāpāramitā also an empty mark?

Original text: 所以者何。须菩提。佛说般若波罗蜜。即非般若波罗蜜。是名般若波罗蜜。

Explanation: Why is this said? Subhūti, the Mahāyāna dharma of prajñāpāramitā that the Buddha taught to sentient beings is not an actually existent prajñāpāramitā; there is not truly a prajñāpāramitā. It is provisionally named prajñāpāramitā, and its dharma-mark is also empty.

Prajñāpāramitā is an Indian term; translated into Chinese it means "great wisdom reaching the other shore," a metaphor for the state of nirvāṇa of the vajra mind or the prajñā mind, which does not enter the shore of birth-and-death. Both this shore and the other shore are states, provisional names, not entities, not true reality; there is no substantial mark of this shore or the other shore. Therefore prajñāpāramitā is an empty mark, provisionally named prajñāpāramitā. By the same reasoning, the six pāramitās are also empty marks, without real substance, not true reality; pāramitā is a provisional name, and the six perfections likewise have no substantial essence or mark—they are empty marks of arising, ceasing, and change conjured forth by the vajra mind. Upon reaching the shore, one abandons the raft; after attaining buddhahood and completing cultivation, there is no longer any need to practice the dharma of the pāramitās.

All dharmas that can be established and exist only by relying on the vajra mind are conjured empty marks and false appearances, without substance or an independent self-nature. The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra was evolved from the vajra mind; only by cultivating in accordance with prajñāpāramitā can sentient beings attain the buddha path. After attaining buddhahood, one discards the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, no longer needing to study or rely on it. The appearance of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra was proclaimed by the buddhas in accordance with sentient beings' ripened conditions for study. If the conditions are not complete, the buddhas do not speak the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, and this sūtra has no cause to appear before sentient beings. Therefore the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra is an interpretation and annotation of the nature of the vajra mind, not the vajra mind itself; thus it is not true reality but a false appearance. And the principles expounded in the sūtra, named prajñāpāramitā, likewise do not represent the vajra mind itself; therefore they are also not true reality but an empty mark. For such an empty mark, the name prajñāpāramitā was given.

The meaning of prajñā is great wisdom, referring mainly to the wisdom inherently possessed by the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. For example, His wisdom capable of transforming and generating all dharmas, His wisdom of not entering birth-and-death yet manifesting the mark of arising and ceasing, His wisdom of being able to generate all dharmas without mixing with any dharma, and His various kinds of wisdom of the middle way that does not abide in either extreme. These wisdoms are utterly different from the wisdom of the seventh and sixth consciousnesses. The wisdom of the seventh and sixth consciousnesses corresponds to worldly dharmas. Even the wisdom of eliminating self-view, the wisdom of realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the wisdom of knowing the seed functions of the tathāgatagarbha, and the wisdom of the Buddha's wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) are all generated through later cultivation, not innately possessed original wisdom, and differ greatly from the inherent wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the wisdom of prajñā still refers to the wisdom of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. The body of the five aggregates has birth and death; the ten thousand dharmas, indeed hundreds of thousands of dharmas, all arise and cease and are unreliable. Only the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, has no arising or ceasing and is not on this shore of birth-and-death; it is expediently called the other shore. The title of the entire Diamond Sutra contains these principles. Only after realizing them can one truly comprehend them thoroughly and then practice and uphold them.

The Buddha said prajñāpāramitā is not prajñāpāramitā; it is named prajñāpāramitā. The name "prajñāpāramitā, the great wisdom on the other shore," is used to summarize the nature of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha truly and really exists, but that name does not truly and really exist; it is a provisional name given by the World-Honored One. He has countless provisional names, all used to manifest the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The Sixth Patriarch said: "I have a thing: no head, no tail, no name, no character, no back, no front—do you all recognize it?" Shenhui said: "It is the source of all buddhas." The Sixth Patriarch said: "I told you it has no name and no character, yet you still call it the source-source buddha-nature." At such a moment, one should use zen repartee to hint at the source of all buddhas, not speak a name, for the name is not He. The ten thousand dharmas are all just names, not actually existent; the tathāgatagarbha does not belong to the arising-and-ceasing ten thousand dharmas, and therefore is an actually existent dharma.

Original text: 须菩提。于意云何。如来有所说法不。须菩提白佛言。世尊。如来无所说。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think? Has the Tathāgata spoken any dharma? Subhūti said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, the Tathāgata has spoken nothing; the Tathāgata has not spoken any dharma.

The World-Honored One clearly taught the Buddha-dharma for forty-nine years; why then does he say he has not spoken any dharma? The Buddha has three bodies: the Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifested body. The Dharmakāya Buddha is the Buddha's vajra mind; He is formless and markless, without eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind, without the five aggregates and eighteen realms. Since there is no body of the five aggregates, He cannot speak dharma. The Sambhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya, however, have bodies of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, and can therefore speak dharma with mind and mouth. The Sambhogakāya Buddha resides in the heavenly palace of the eighteenth heaven of the form realm, teaching the great bodhisattvas on the bhūmis the content of cultivating the wisdom of the varieties of paths.

In order to fulfill sentient beings' wish to seek the dharma, the manifested Buddha appears in buddha-form in accordance with sentient beings' faculties to deliver sentient beings and proclaim the Buddha-dharma. The Nirmāṇakāya can divide into countless bodies, going to worlds in the ten directions to transform and deliver sentient beings, expounding the Buddha-dharma. But the Sambhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya are manifested by the Dharmakāya Buddha; apart from the Dharmakāya Buddha, there is also no Sambhogakāya Buddha or Nirmāṇakāya. When these latter two kinds of buddhas speak dharma, they cannot depart from the Dharmakāya Buddha. Therefore, whenever a buddha speaks dharma, there is the buddha who speaks dharma and the buddha who does not speak dharma; the buddha who speaks dharma cannot depart from the buddha who does not speak dharma. Thus Shākyamuni Buddha taught dharma for forty-nine years yet said he had not spoken a single word. Here the Tathāgata refers to the Dharmakāya Buddha, and the Dharmakāya Buddha does not speak dharma. Having understood the concept and meaning of the three bodies of the Buddha, one will know whether the Buddha has spoken dharma or not. Therefore, saying that the Buddha has spoken dharma is slandering the Buddha, and saying that the Buddha has not spoken dharma is also slandering the Buddha.