Diamond Sutra: The Profound Meaning of Consciousness-Only (130)

Original text:须菩提。汝若作是念。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。说诸法断灭。莫作是念。何以故。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。于法不说断灭相。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said to Subhūti: Subhūti, if you have this thought in your mind—that those who have already given rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi claim that all dharmas are annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), that fundamentally nothing exists, that at the time of buddhahood there are no dharmas at all and the marks of all dharmas are not complete—then quickly extinguish such a thought; do not hold such a notion. Why should one not hold such a notion? Because one who has given rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi does so by having faith in and accepting the mind of ultimate reality that never perishes; such a person would never again say that all dharmas are annihilated.

One who genuinely aspires to become a Buddha has, at this point, already fulfilled the conditions of the ten stages of faith (daśa-śraddhā) bodhisattva, and will have unshakable conviction that every sentient being possesses the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which neither arises nor perishes; he believes that the Buddhas of the ten directions all possess the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and that only by cultivating in accordance with this tathāgatagarbha can anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi be accomplished. He believes that he himself also possesses the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, that in the future he will be able to realize the tathāgatagarbha, and that just like all the Buddhas he can attain buddhahood; the sentient beings of the worlds in the ten directions, because they possess the unborn and unperishing vajra mind (vajra-citta), the tathāgatagarbha, can likewise all attain buddhahood. Because he gives rise to such faith, the ten stages of faith are fulfilled, and he enters the ten stages of abiding (daśa-vihāra) and begins to cultivate the bodhisattva practices of the six pāramitās. If one does not believe that one's own body possesses the tathāgatagarbha, does not believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists, then his faith in the Buddha, in the Dharma, and in the Three Jewels is not yet fulfilled, his cultivation of the ten stages of faith is not yet complete, and he cannot genuinely give rise to the resolve for the Path seeking buddhahood.

Those who have not fulfilled the ten stages of faith cannot yet believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists; they often think that the tathāgatagarbha is merely a provisional term, just a concept. They believe that the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha is equivalent to the tathāgatagarbha not existing, and that the concept of the tathāgatagarbha is merely a skillful, provisional teaching invented by all the Buddhas. Because they cannot correctly understand the meaning of what the Buddha taught, they misinterpret all the definitive Mahāyāna dharma (Mahāyāna-nītārtha-dharma) taught by the Buddha as the Buddha's skillful, provisional teachings, expedient dharmas. They merely refrain from openly saying that the Buddha was just playing with and teasing sentient beings—ordinary people would not dare say such a thing publicly—but in substance this is exactly what they mean. This kind of thinking is slandering the Buddha and slandering the Dharma, treating all the Buddha's definitive and ultimate teachings as the Buddha's non-definitive, non-ultimate dharmas, and gravely distorting the true meaning of the Buddha. The evil karma of sentient beings slandering the Buddha and the Dharma exists universally, and it is not surprising; it is all because sentient beings have cultivated for too short a time across kalpas and their merit is insufficient.