The Profound Consciousness-Only Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (81)

Original text: 何以故。须菩提。如来说第一波罗蜜。即非第一波罗蜜。是名第一波罗蜜。须菩提。忍辱波罗蜜。如来说非忍辱波罗蜜。是名忍辱波罗蜜。

Explanation: The World-Honored One taught: Why is it said that one who has departed from the four marks is foremost and rare, most difficult to encounter? Subhūti, when the Tathāgata speaks of the foremost pāramitā, there is also no true mark of a foremost pāramitā; it is merely given an expedient name, called the foremost pāramitā. When bodhisattvas cultivate the six pāramitās, they can see the mind and realize its nature, reaching the farther shore of nirvāṇa. However, these six pāramitās are also without mark; they are not truly existent marks. They are all illusory marks of arising and ceasing conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha, existing in dependence upon the true reality of the tathāgatagarbha. Moreover, it is only by relying on the illusory body of the bodhisattva's five aggregates that the six pāramitās can be cultivated. Since the body of the five aggregates is not real and is an illusory mark, then the six pāramitās cultivated in reliance upon the body of the five aggregates are, of course, even more so illusory marks, even more so without mark. Therefore the Buddha said: the foremost pāramitā is not the foremost pāramitā; there is no true self-nature of a foremost pāramitā—it is merely named the foremost pāramitā.

The World-Honored One continued: Subhūti, as for the pāramitā of forbearance (kṣānti-pāramitā), the Tathāgata says it is not a truly existent pāramitā of forbearance; therefore the pāramitā of forbearance is also without mark, not a truly existent ultimate reality, and thus it is provisionally named the pāramitā of forbearance. What is called the pāramitā of forbearance is in fact merely one or countless false phenomenal appearances, none of which is ultimate reality itself. These false phenomenal appearances are the marks of the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, manifested through the operation of the seven consciousnesses, and they are all marks born and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. On the surface they appear to exist, but in essence they do not exist; they stand in a relationship of neither one nor different with the tathāgatagarbha.

Because the cultivation of these pāramitās of forbearance is a dharma of arising, ceasing, and change, not constant and unchanging: one act of forbearance is accomplished and then ceases; then another act of forbearance arises and again ceases. Countless acts of forbearance constitute the bodhisattva's pāramitā of forbearance, and by relying on this, the bodhisattva can reach the farther shore of birth and death.

Acts of forbearance are the actions of the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses. The five aggregates themselves are already without mark; the seven consciousnesses arise, cease, and change moment by moment, and the six consciousnesses cease once every day—all are false and unreal. How much more so the acts of forbearance that exist in dependence upon the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses—they are even more so without mark, even more so false and illusory. Therefore the pāramitā of forbearance has no self-nature; it is not self-existent. It is merely a superficial appearance, merely a name—a false action and fabrication designated by a name. Its essence is precisely the tathāgatagarbha.