The Profound Yogācāra Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (119)

Original text: 以无我无人无众生无寿者。修一切善法。即得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: If sentient beings, within their minds, do not abide in the mark of self, the mark of a person, the mark of sentient beings, or the mark of a life span, and cultivate all wholesome dharmas of the mundane and supramundane with a mind of no mark of self, no mark of a person, no mark of sentient beings, and no mark of a life span, they will attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Shortly after the opening of the Diamond Sutra, the World-Honored One already dismantled the four marks for sentient beings. Only a bodhisattva who has shattered the four marks can accord with the principle and essence of the diamond-like prajñā, can accord with the real nature of all dharmas, can accord with suchness, and ultimately will accord with anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Because sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have constantly been attached to the four marks and failed to accord with the principle and essence of emptiness (śūnyatā), for the sake of these four marks they have committed vast, boundless evil karma, sinking kalpa after kalpa in the ocean of saṃsāra and karma, suffering immeasurably with no prospect of escape. The root of this lies precisely in the malady of clinging to the four marks. Out of great compassion, the World-Honored One, in order to dig out the root of sentient beings' disease of grasping at and clinging to marks, skillfully devised various expedient means to dismantle the four marks of sentient beings; with no four marks, one can escape the great fiery pit of birth and death.

Why can being without the four marks allow one to escape the great fiery pit of birth and death? From the perspective of the Hīnayāna teachings, as long as sentient beings can shatter the mark of self, they will escape the three evil destinies. When they cultivate to the point of being able to eliminate attachment to their own five-aggregate body as well as to the worldly dharmas of the three realms, they will have the ability to escape the birth-and-death cycle of the six destinies, thereby escaping the fiery pit of segmented birth-and-death and gaining temporary rest. When sentient beings continue advancing along the bodhisattva path and the Buddha path, they will gradually shatter various attachments to dharmas, sever the various forms of transformational birth-and-death, and realize the true purity of nirvāṇa; from then on there will be no more birth and death, and only then will they have truly and completely escaped the great fiery pit of birth and death.

The starting point for entering the bodhisattva path and the Buddha path is to realize the vajra-prajñā true-mind essence, the tathāgatagarbha, which is originally without the four marks. Cultivating in accordance with this essence that is without the four marks, the mind becomes increasingly pure, and one will shatter the marks of all conditioned dharmas of the world, not even clinging to the mark of suchness itself. The mind becomes empty and pure, utterly empty and pure, without the slightest remaining existence of or attachment to any dharma-mark. Only thus can one thoroughly and completely accord with the true-mind essence of suchness, and ultimately will perfectly accomplish the Buddha path and attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore the World-Honored One said that by being without self, without person, without sentient beings, and without life span, and cultivating all wholesome dharmas, one accords with the essence and nature of suchness and can thereby accomplish anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.