The Profound Meaning of Vijñaptimātratā in the Diamond Sutra (Part 23)

When the Buddha was approaching parinirvana, there was a 120-year-old practitioner of non-Buddhist paths who had been Ānanda's father for five hundred lifetimes. He had attained the concentration of neither perception nor non-perception but still remained in the human realm. The Buddha instructed Ānanda to summon him. Upon meeting him, the Buddha revealed that even within that profound concentration, subtle thoughts persisted, and that the most subtle perceiving mind was still not the true self. Only by extinguishing it could one transcend the three realms, attain liberation, and end the cycle of birth and death. Upon hearing this, the elder instantly realized the fourth fruition of arhatship. He addressed the Buddha, saying, "I cannot bear to witness the Buddha's parinirvana. I shall depart first." With these words, he entered parinirvana without residue.

Parinirvana without residue means sentient beings have eradicated the view of self and self-attachment, harboring no further attachments. They willingly relinquish their five aggregates and the eighteen elements (comprising the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six sense consciousnesses). Thus, suffering has no basis to rely upon, and they depart from suffering, abandoning it. By extinguishing all suffering, they attain liberation beyond the three realms, leaving only the ālaya-vijñāna to exist alone, with no sense of an individual self remaining. Bodhisattvas liberate all sentient beings within the three realms—spanning the four modes of birth, nine abodes, and twenty-five categories—instructing them to attain the four fruitions of arhatship, end birth and death, and upon the termination of their lives, all enter parinirvana without residue, achieving liberation.

The World-Honored One further expounded: "Thus, having liberated immeasurable, countless, boundless sentient beings, in reality, no sentient being has been liberated." Having liberated so many beings, yet not a single one has been liberated—what does this mean? "Liberation" (mièdù) here refers precisely to entering parinirvana without residue as explained earlier. It means completely abandoning and extinguishing the self constituted by the five aggregates and the eighteen elements of the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six sense consciousnesses. Once this is done, there are no sentient beings. Where the five aggregates exist, there are sentient beings; without the five aggregates, they are not called sentient beings. Without the eighteen elements, they are also not called sentient beings. Hence, no sentient being has been liberated. The ālaya-vijñāna that remains alone is also not a sentient being. Therefore, not a single sentient being has been liberated; no sentient being has attained liberation. Even when the five aggregates and eighteen elements have not yet been extinguished, there are likewise no sentient beings, because the appearance of the five aggregates and eighteen elements is illusory. Their existence is provisional, not real—a temporary existence. There is no "sentient being" among sentient beings to speak of. All are merely the manifestations of the Tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature), all are the nature of the Tathāgatagarbha. The Tathāgatagarbha itself requires no liberation. Therefore, liberating immeasurable numbers of sentient beings actually means not liberating a single one. Bodhisattvas should liberate sentient beings in this manner, without harboring the notion of liberating sentient beings.