The Profound Meaning of Vijnapti-mātratā in the Diamond Sutra (50)

Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is the supreme, perfect enlightenment, signifying the attainment of the ultimate genuine awakening and realization. It eradicates all ignorance without the slightest trace of defilement, filling the mind entirely with clarity and awareness, thereby actualizing perfect bodhi, accomplishing the Buddha Way, and perfecting the Buddha fruit. Since there is no fixed dharma called Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, there is no truly fixed, unchanging Buddha. All dharmas arise from causes and conditions. The Dharma expounded by the Buddha also arises from causes and conditions, adapting to the conditions of sentient beings. When there is a cause—sentient beings aspiring to Buddhahood—the Dharma enabling them to achieve Buddhahood is expounded; as conditions differ, the Dharma spoken by the World-Honored One also differs. Therefore, the Dharma spoken by the Buddha should ultimately not be grasped, for it is not an eternally indestructible and unchanging dharma. Any dharma that can be articulated is not the inherently fixed and unchanging Dharma of true suchness, yet it cannot arise apart from true suchness and inherent nature.

Then who accomplishes the Buddha Way and attains the Buddha fruit? The Wonder Enlightenment Bodhisattva is the final-stage bodhisattva before Buddhahood. To attain Buddhahood, they descend to the human realm and manifest the eight phases of attaining Buddhahood. At the moment of entering the mother’s womb, the bodhisattva’s physical body perishes. The mental faculty (manas) and the retribution consciousness (the eighth consciousness) enter the womb. At birth, the six sense faculties are fully formed, the six consciousnesses are complete (though humans lack visual consciousness within the first seven days), and the five aggregates are fully present. Outwardly, they appear no different from ordinary sentient beings. This new set of five aggregates is no longer that of the Wonder Enlightenment Bodhisattva—the physical body and the six consciousnesses are replaced; only the mental faculty and the retribution consciousness remain the same, continuing in continuity. Then, after renouncing worldly life and cultivating the Way, upon seeing a star at dawn and experiencing great enlightenment and realization of true nature, the ignorance of the seven consciousnesses is completely eradicated. The sixth consciousness transforms into the wisdom of wonderful observation, the mental faculty transforms into the wisdom of equality, and then the first five consciousnesses transform into the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done. Once all seven consciousnesses are transformed, the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored within the eighth consciousness (retribution consciousness) are extinguished, and it becomes the great mirror-like wisdom, also known as the immaculate consciousness. When all eight consciousnesses are fully transformed, the Buddha Way is perfected, the Buddha fruit is attained, and the being is called a Buddha.

Let us then analyze who accomplishes Buddhahood and who attains the Buddha fruit. First, the Buddha’s immaculate consciousness is a mind that attains nothing. It inherently seeks nothing; even if it were to attain something, there is nowhere to place it, and nothing can truly be attained. It has no thoughts, no mental activities. It never considers itself to be real, to be a Buddha, or to possess any specific qualities. All names are ascribed to it by others; concepts of what it is or is not do not exist within it. Furthermore, it grasps onto no dharma whatsoever—neither good nor evil, defiled nor undefiled. Because it does not grasp, it is never tainted and is free from ignorance; because it does not grasp, it does not act and does not become anything. Therefore, it does not take the fruit of Buddhahood upon itself, nor does it act as a Buddha. If it is said to be the Buddha, that is a designation imposed upon it by others; it is not self-proclaimed or self-acknowledged by itself.