The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Mind-Only Perspective (90)

Original text:若有人能受持读诵。广为人说。如来悉知是人。悉见是人。皆得成就不可量。不可称。无有边。不可思议功德。如是人等。则为荷担如来阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。何以故。须菩提。若乐小法者。著我见人见众生见寿者见。则于此经。不能听受读诵。为人解说。须菩提。在在处处。若有此经。一切世间天人阿修罗。所应供养。当知此处。则为是塔。皆应恭敬。作礼围绕。以诸华香而散其处。

Explanation: If there is a person who can receive, uphold, read, and recite the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, and extensively expound to sentient beings the principle of the ultimate reality of the tathāgatagarbha, then all of this person's roots of goodness and merit, all of his wisdom and virtuous accomplishments, and all the endeavors he carries out for sentient beings—the Tathāgata knows and sees them all, without omission or error, and nothing is hidden. Because the Tathāgata knows and sees all, everything this person does will not be done in vain; not the slightest bit will be buried or lost. In the future he will accomplish immeasurable, uncountable, boundless, and inconceivable merit.

Why does the Tathāgata know and see all the merit of this person's receiving, upholding, reading, and reciting of the Diamond Sutra, and all the merit he creates for sentient beings? Here, "Tathāgata" refers on the one hand to the Tathāgata's physical body, and on the other to the Tathāgata's Dharma body. As for the Tathāgata's physical body, because it possesses immeasurable supernatural powers and virtues, and because He observes with the Buddha-eye, He knows and sees all the merit of this person's receiving, upholding, reading, and reciting of the Diamond Sutra, and knows and sees all the merit and virtue of this person's delivering of immeasurable sentient beings, without a single omission. This is because the Buddha possesses immeasurable wisdom and possesses omniscience (sarvākārajñatā); there is not a single dharma in the world or beyond the world that He does not know, not a single dharma that He does not see; His perfect radiance illuminates the great trichiliocosm, leaving nothing out.

As for the Tathāgata's Dharma body, because it follows this person at all times and in all places, everything this person does is necessarily attended to and protected by the Tathāgata's Dharma body. The Tathāgata's Dharma body is precisely this person's tathāgatagarbha, because the tathāgatagarbha knows this person's mental activities, cooperates with him to complete all his endeavors, and also records and stores the karmic seeds of sentient beings. Therefore, everything this person does is known and seen by the tathāgatagarbha, and the karmic seeds will all be stored away; in the future, all of this person's karmic rewards of merit will come to fruition, so that his efforts will not be in vain, and in the end he will be able to perfectly attain buddhahood.

The World-Honored One said: Those who are able to receive, uphold, read, and recite the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, and who are able to extensively proclaim it to sentient beings, can all shoulder the family enterprise of the Tathāgata, and in the future will also ultimately accomplish anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Why is this said? Why is this sutra spoken for those who have given rise to the bodhicitta of the Great Vehicle, and spoken for those who have given rise to the aspiration of the highest vehicle? Subhūti, if a person delights in the lesser dharmas of humans and gods, then he certainly grasps at the view of self, the view of person, the view of sentient being, and the view of life span; he will cultivate the minor wholesome dharmas of humans and gods for the sake of the illusory five aggregates, with the aim of having the five aggregates ascend to the heavens to enjoy pleasures and reap the karmic rewards of wealth and honor. He will see that there is a self who can enjoy pleasures, that there are persons who will receive generosity, and that there is merit to be obtained.

Then he will not believe and accept what the Tathāgata has taught, will not believe and accept the true dharma spoken in the Diamond Sutra—no mark of self, no mark of person, no mark of sentient being, no mark of life span—and will not believe and accept that the vajra mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), which is free of the four marks, is the true self. He will not read and recite the Diamond Sutra, still less will he realize the tathāgatagarbha of ultimate reality, and still less will he expound the Great Vehicle dharma of ultimate reality to other sentient beings. As for those of the Small Vehicle who delight in and cling to their own personal liberation, because their minds are also attached to the four marks, and they mistakenly perceive that there is a self of the five aggregates, they fear that their five-aggregate self will again suffer and transmigrate, and so they hurriedly enter nirvāṇa and leave the birth-and-death of the three realms, unwilling to turn their minds back to the study and practice of the Great Vehicle bodhisattva dharma. Therefore, they will not come to listen to, receive, and recite this sutra, and of course, even less will they be able to expound this sutra for others.