Diamond Sutra Commentary: The Tathāgata Breaks the Marks of Dust Particles and the World

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 of 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 these motes of dust—the Tathāgata says they are not motes of dust; they are merely called motes of dust. The Tathāgata says the world is not the world; it is merely called the world.

The motes of dust within the trichiliocosm manifest from the seeds of the four great elements stored within the tathāgatagarbha; they do not truly exist. This kind of arising-and-ceasing granular 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 tathāgatagarbha of beings who share collective karma, in accordance with beings' karmic conditions, transmits the seeds of the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—and manifests the world in which beings live. When the conditions are exhausted, the world scatters, breaks apart, and perishes. Therefore the world does not truly and really exist; it is merely a name given to the vessel-world in which beings live. Dharmas born of causes and conditions are all non-existent in reality; they are all empty dharmas and false dharmas, merely a false name and a concept.

The great trichiliocosm formed by the combination of countless motes of dust is the external space in which the five aggregates of 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, 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 "secular realm," falsely named "five aggregates." Since the five aggregates are false names, then all the endeavors carried out by the five aggregates—generating bodhicitta, practicing the bodhisattva path to benefit oneself and others, expounding the Dharma to deliver sentient beings, realizing and attaining the Dharma, accomplishing the bodhisattva fruits and 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 (Vajracitta). He has accomplished all these dharmas through causes and conditions; whatever comes into being must perish, whereas only what exists originally does not perish. For beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have not recognized the truth, and so they have taken the false marks to be the truth 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 quickly realize the true mark, return to the true nature, reach the other shore of nirvāṇa, and no longer transmigrate through birth and death.