Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: The Tathāgata Breaks Down the Marks of Fine Dust and Worlds

Original text of Receiving and Holding the Dharma According to the Teachings, Thirteen: 须菩提。于意云何。三千大千世界所有微尘。是为多不。须菩提言。甚多。世尊。须菩提。诸微尘。如来说非微尘。是名微尘。如来说世界。即非世界。是名世界。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Subhūti, what do you think about this — are all the motes of dust in the trichiliocosm numerous? Subhūti replied: They are extremely numerous, World-Honored One. The Buddha said: Subhūti, all those motes of dust — the Tathāgata says they are not motes of dust; they are merely called motes of dust. The world that the Tathāgata speaks of is not a world; it is merely called a world.

The motes of dust within the trichiliocosm manifest from the seeds of the four great elements contained within the tathāgatagarbha; they do not truly exist. This kind of arising-and-ceasing particulate matter is given the name "motes of dust," so "motes of dust" is a false name, a concept. The same is true of the world: the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma, in accordance with sentient beings' karmic conditions, transmit the seeds of the four great elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — and manifest the world in which sentient beings live. When the conditions are exhausted, the world disintegrates and perishes. Therefore, the world does not truly and really exist; it is merely a name given to the vessel-world (bhājana-loka) in which sentient beings live. All dharmas born of causes and conditions are not truly existent; they are all empty dharmas and false dharmas, merely false names and concepts.

The great thousand-world formed by the combination of countless motes of dust is the external space in which the five aggregates of sentient beings exist; it is the material-form (rūpa) portion of the mundane world. At this point, the Tathāgata has refuted the dharma-marks of this portion of material form. So then, do the five aggregates of the mundane world have any real mark? They have no real mark; they are entirely illusory false marks, falsely named "world," falsely named "mundane world," falsely named "mundane realm," falsely named "five aggregates." Since the five aggregates are false names, then all the endeavors carried out by the five aggregates — generating bodhicitta, benefiting oneself and others by practicing the bodhisattva path, expounding the Dharma to liberate sentient beings, realizing and attaining the Dharma, achieving the bodhisattva fruits as well as the Buddha fruit, and establishing Buddha-lands — all of these are illusory and empty, without any real mark. Then, in this illusory world, what is there for you, me, her, or him to be attached to? What is there to grasp and refuse to let go of?

Why do all these false marks and false names exist? Because of that indestructible vajra mind (vajra-citta); He has accomplished all these dharmas through causes and conditions. Whatever is formed must perish; only what exists originally will never decay and perish. For beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have not recognized the truth, and so they have taken the false marks to be the true reality and grasped at them, hence the suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāra. Now that we have studied and practiced the vajra dharma, we should swiftly realize the true reality, return to true nature, reach the other shore of nirvāṇa, and no longer transmigrate through birth and death.