Commentary on the Diamond Sutra: The Tathāgata's Thirty-Two Marks Are Also Not Marks

Original text of Receiving and Holding the Dharma According to the Teachings, Thirteen: 须菩提。于意云何。可以三十二相见如来不。不也。世尊。不可以三十二相得见如来。何以故。如来说三十二相。即是非相。是名三十二相。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think about this question—can one see the Tathāgata by means of the thirty-two marks? Subhūti replied: No, World-Honored One, one cannot see the Tathāgata by means of the thirty-two marks. Why is this said? Because according to the Tathāgata's intent, the thirty-two marks that the Tathāgata speaks of are not real marks; they are merely provisionally named the thirty-two marks.

Since the thirty-two marks are not real, they are also not the Tathāgata; then there is another true Tathāgata, and we should not take the thirty-two marks to be the Tathāgata, nor should we seek the Tathāgata in the thirty-two marks. The true Tathāgata is hidden behind the thirty-two marks; to behold His true countenance, one must possess immense wisdom and merit. The thirty-two marks are not the Tathāgata; likewise, the five aggregates are not self, not a person, not a sentient being, not a life span. Therefore we should not grasp at and cling to any one aggregate—or all of them—within the five aggregates as self. We must break through the marks of the five aggregates, and thereby break through the marks of self, person, sentient being, and life span.

The Tathāgata has the thirty-two marks and the eighty subsidiary characteristics. The thirty-two marks are not truly existent marks, nor are the eighty subsidiary characteristics truly existent marks; they are all marks that arise from nothing and are empty even when present—marks conjured forth by the Tathāgata's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) from the seeds of wholesome karma accumulated through the Tathāgata's practice over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas. Their nature is empty, and their appearance is also empty; the thirty-two marks are simply false marks. A wheel-turning sage king also has the thirty-two marks; the Buddha's cousin, the monk Nanda, has thirty-one marks; and Māra can also conjure up the thirty-two marks. If one recognizes people by their marks, one can easily mistake them; if the marks perish, the person perishes too—yet in reality the Tathāgata does not perish. Therefore one must discern true marks from false marks, and must break through marks and attachments, in order to grow in wisdom and not be bound by marks.

Original text: 须菩提。若有善男子。善女人。以恒河沙等身命布施。若复有人。于此经中。乃至受持四句偈等。为他人说。其福甚多。

Explanation: Subhūti, if there are good men and good women who give away as many of their bodies and lives as the sands of the Ganges, and if there is again someone who, from this Diamond Sutra, understands and holds even one four-line verse, and expounds it for others, the merit obtained will be even greater than giving away bodies and lives as numerous as the sands of the Ganges.

The World-Honored One has already said twice in the preceding text that the merit obtained from holding this Diamond Sutra and expounding even a four-line verse for others far exceeds the merit obtained from giving the seven treasures of three thousand great thousand worlds, or giving seven treasures as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Here He further emphasizes that it yields more merit than giving away bodies and lives as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Giving the seven treasures and wealth is external giving of wealth; giving one's own body is internal giving of wealth. Giving internal wealth yields far more merit than giving external wealth—the two cannot be compared. This is because external wealth exists dependent on internal wealth: when external wealth is lost, it can be regained; but when internal wealth is lost, there is nothing left at all.

Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have firmly clung to their own bodies and lives, unwilling to let their bodies and lives suffer the slightest harm—let alone give them away and relinquish them. Unless one is a great bodhisattva who has made pure great vows, this is extremely difficult to accomplish. Because a bodhisattva of the stage of near-perfection (samantabhadraka) still lacks the merit required to become a Buddha, in order to attain Buddhahood sooner, he devotes one hundred kalpas exclusively to cultivating merit, giving away his own internal wealth. Whatever part of the body sentient beings need, he gives that part; whatever they ask for, he gives it. Even in times of famine, he transforms into a great body and lets sentient beings eat it, relieving their hunger. Only after accumulating enough merit for Buddhahood in this way does one become a candidate Buddha, waiting in the inner court of Tuṣita Heaven for the conditions to ripen, then descending to the human world to accomplish the eightfold manifestation of a Buddha's path and perfectly achieve the fruit of Buddhahood.

Although giving away one's body and life is so important and its merit so great, the World-Honored One says it still does not surpass the merit obtained from holding this Diamond Sutra and expounding a four-line verse for sentient beings. This is because holding the Diamond Sutra and seeing one's true mind and one's nature is the foundation for attaining the Buddha Way; after awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature, one's wisdom can grow ever deeper and broader, and ultimately one can possess the wisdom of the Buddha stage. However, the merit from giving both external and internal wealth should be fully complete. Without the merit obtained from giving external wealth, one's merit will be incomplete, and with incomplete merit there is no way to awaken to the true mind and see one's nature, and no way to become a bhūmi-stage bodhisattva and progress upward step by step in cultivation. And by giving internal wealth—completely relinquishing the self, this small self—one reaches thorough selflessness, and only then can one realize the ultimate great self, as well as the self of permanence, bliss, self, and purity at the Buddha stage.

The World-Honored One repeatedly speaks of the importance of giving. Giving of wealth, giving of fearlessness, and giving of Dharma are all very important. Without the merit cultivated through the first two kinds of giving, one cannot carry out the giving of Dharma, because a giving of Dharma practiced without having realized the Dharma often misleads sentient beings—yielding not only no merit but also karmic retribution of wrongdoing. Therefore practitioners should be adept at cultivating the practice of giving; this is the foremost content to be cultivated among the bodhisattva's six perfections and the myriad practices of the ten perfections.