The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Yogācāra 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 for sentient beings the principles of the true reality of the tathāgatagarbha, then all of this person's roots of goodness and merit, all of his wisdom and virtue, and all the endeavors he undertakes for sentient beings—the Tathāgata knows and sees them all completely, without omission or error, without concealment. Because the Tathāgata knows and sees all completely, everything this person does is never done in vain; not the slightest bit will be buried or lost. He will in the future accomplish immeasurable, uncountable, boundless, and inconceivable merit.

Why is it that the Tathāgata knows and sees completely the merit of this person's receiving, upholding, reading, and reciting 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 hand to the Dharmakāya Buddha (dharma-kāya-buddha). The Tathāgata's physical body, possessing immeasurable supernatural powers and virtues, observes with the Buddha-eye and thus knows and sees completely all the merit of this person's receiving, upholding, reading, and reciting of the Diamond Sutra, and knows and sees completely all the merit and virtue of this person's delivering of immeasurable sentient beings, without a single omission. Because the Buddha possesses immeasurable wisdom and possesses the wisdom of all aspects (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 light illuminates the great trichiliocosm without omission.

As for the Dharmakāya Buddha, because He follows this person at all times and in all places, everything this person does is necessarily accompanied and protected by the Dharmakāya Buddha. The Dharmakāya Buddha is this person's tathāgatagarbha; because the tathāgatagarbha knows this person's mental activities, cooperates with him to accomplish all endeavors, and also records and stores the karmic seeds of sentient beings. Therefore, everything this person does is known and seen completely by the tathāgatagarbha, and the karmic seeds are all stored away; in the future, all of this person's karmic rewards of merit will be realized, so that none of his efforts are made for nothing, and he will ultimately be able to perfectly attain buddhahood.

The World-Honored One said: Those who can receive, uphold, read, and recite the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, and who can extensively proclaim it for sentient beings, are all able to shoulder the Tathāgata's family enterprise, and in the future will also ultimately accomplish anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Why is this said? Why is this sutra spoken for those who have generated the great-vehicle bodhi mind, and for those of the most supreme vehicle? Subhūti, if a person delights in the lesser dharmas of humans and gods, he certainly grasps at the view of self, the view of person, the view of sentient beings, 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 (pañcaskandha), with the aim of enabling the five aggregates to ascend to the heavens to enjoy pleasures and to enjoy the retributive 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 (dāna), and that there is merit to be obtained.

Such a person will not accept in faith what the Tathāgata has taught; he will not accept the true dharma spoken in the Diamond Sutra—no mark of self, no mark of person, no mark of sentient beings, no mark of life span—and will not accept that the vajra mind (Vajracitta) of true reality, which is apart from the four marks, is the true self. He will not read and recite the Diamond Sutra, still less will he awaken to the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha of true reality, and still less will he expound the Mahāyāna dharma of true reality for other sentient beings. As for those of the small vehicle who delight in and cling to their own liberation, because their minds are also attached to the four marks, mistakenly seeing that there is a self of the five aggregates, they fear that their own five aggregates, the self, will again suffer and transmigrate; they hurriedly enter nirvāṇa to escape birth and death in the three realms, unwilling to turn their minds back to the study and cultivation of the Mahāyāna bodhisattva dharma. Therefore, they too will not come to listen to, receive, and recite this sutra, and of course they are even less able to expound this sutra for others.