The Profound Meaning of Yogācāra in the Diamond Sutra (122)

The merit gained from upholding, practicing, and reciting the Diamond Sutra is indeed beyond description and expression. To convey even a fraction of its vastness, let us consider a small example, so that all may understand its boundless, immeasurable, and inconceivable nature. For instance, after a bodhisattva realizes the true reality of prajna and cultivates the four dhyanas and eight samadhis based on the Tathagatagarbha, they manifest hundreds, thousands, millions, or billions of manomaya-kayas (mind-made bodies) to benefit and bring joy to countless beings, liberating them from the suffering of birth and death. This merit is truly priceless, beyond compare, and incalculable. It is inexhaustible for all eternity and will increase limitlessly.

In contrast, the merit gained from making offerings as vast as Mount Sumeru filling a great chiliocosm is also immense and beyond calculation, yet it remains finite and can be exhausted. This merit cannot counteract unwholesome karma. Moreover, due to ignorance, one might use such merit to commit grave unwholesome deeds while enjoying blessings, thus falling into retribution according to those unwholesome actions. When unwholesome deeds are committed, this merit diminishes and is eventually exhausted through various means. However, the merit gained by a bodhisattva from reciting, upholding, and practicing the Diamond Sutra not only remains undiminished but increases, accumulating more and more, growing ever greater.

As the bodhisattva's wisdom continuously increases, their merit multiplies countless times. When a bodhisattva attains the fruition of the eighth ground (bhumi), merely by a single thought, they can manifest a great trichiliocosm filled with the seven precious things, exceeding Mount Sumeru by countless times, and offer it all to sentient beings. The merit from this is beyond calculation. Furthermore, the bodhisattva manifests countless more material necessities desired by beings, offering them to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings. The merit from this is also incalculable. Add to this the bodhisattva’s manifestation of innumerable emanations, going to the ten directions to liberate boundless and limitless sentient beings. The merit from this need not be calculated, for it is fundamentally beyond calculation, unimaginable, and inconceivable.

This is the merit attained by an eighth-ground bodhisattva, or the merit attained by bodhisattvas before the eighth ground. None of this merit can be calculated. Then, when a bodhisattva further cultivates to the fruition of an equal enlightenment bodhisattva, for one hundred kalpas, they manifest countless great-bodied beings to feed immeasurable sentient beings, relieving their hunger. The merit gained from this is even more unimaginable. Advancing further to the fruition of Buddhahood, liberating immeasurable sentient beings throughout the ten directions, the merit gained is such that even if all sentient beings combined tried to calculate it, they could not fathom it. All words fail to express it. Therefore, the World-Honored One said that the merit of those who uphold, practice, and recite the Diamond Sutra, or even a four-line verse from it, surpasses the merit of those who make offerings of the seven precious things by immeasurable hundreds of thousands of millions of times—nay, far beyond that. The two are truly incomparable.