The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Yogācāra Perspective (100)

Original text: 佛言。如是如是。须菩提。实无有法如来得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。须菩提。若有法如来得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提者。然灯佛则不与我授记。汝于来世。当得作佛。号释迦牟尼。以实无有法得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。是故然灯佛与我授记。作是言。汝于来世。当得作佛。号释迦牟尼。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: It is so, it is so. Subhūti, there truly is no dharma by which the Tathāgata attains anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, nor does the Tathāgata attain buddhahood by relying on any dharma. If there were a dharma, or many dharmas, upon which the Tathāgata could rely to attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, then Dīpaṃkara Buddha would not have given me the prediction, saying: In a certain kalpa of the future, you will accomplish the fruit of buddhahood, and your buddha name will be Śākyamuni Buddha. The prediction also covered such matters as what the buddha-land would be like, what the disciples would be like, how the Buddha-dharma would spread, and so on. The World-Honored One further said: Because within His mind He truly held that the Tathāgata has no dharma to rely upon and yet can realize anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, therefore Dīpaṃkara Buddha gave me the prediction, saying: At a certain time in the future, you will become a Buddha, and your buddha name will be Śākyamuni Buddha.

The Tathāgata here explicitly refers to the World-Honored One Buddha possessing a body of the five aggregates, and implicitly refers to the true mind, the tathatā mind-essence, the vajra mind (Vajracitta). The Buddha's indestructible vajra mind, from beginningless kalpas until now, has never attained a single dharma—even the dharma of attaining buddhahood, He does not attain. Because He is not a mind of acquisition, not a greedy mind, and He Himself is perfectly endowed with all dharmas, lacking not even one dharma; everything that exists in the world comes forth from this mind. As for the Buddha-dharma, the tathatā mind-essence also does not attain it; He has never studied the Buddha or studied the Dharma, yet the Buddha and the Dharma both refer to Himself, so there is no need for Him to study Himself.

He neither cultivates precepts, meditation, and wisdom, nor extinguishes greed, anger, and delusion, nor breaks through ignorance, because He Himself is fully endowed with precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and He Himself has no ignorance, greed, anger, or delusion. He also need not eliminate the four marks or the eight marks, because He Himself has not a single mark, does not crave or cling to any mark, and does not correspond to any mark; on the contrary, He can transform and create immeasurable, boundless numbers of marks. Therefore the Tathāgata truly has no dharma by which He attains anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

As for the Tathāgata possessing a body of the five aggregates, relying upon the formless, true Tathāgata mind-essence, He also does not attain a single dharma, nor does He attain the Buddha-dharma; within and without, body and mind are utterly bare and starkly pure, without a single dharma. Corresponding with the tathatā mind-essence, He relinquishes all dharmas and all marks—even the Buddha-dharma is relinquished entirely—and only then can He attain buddhahood. If there is a single dharma in the mind that is not empty and pure, the Buddha Way cannot be accomplished. Although He accomplishes the Buddha Way and attains the fruit and stage of a Buddha, in reality there is no fruit of buddhahood to be attained; even the dharma of "not attaining" is not attained. Whatever dharma is attained, whatever dharma has marks, is entirely empty and illusory. Only in this way can one become a Buddha, and only such is the World-Honored One.