The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (135)

The mind dharmas include the seven consciousnesses and the mental factors (caittas) of the seven consciousnesses. To sum it up, they are the eighteen dharmas of the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses of sentient beings, the twelve dharmas of the twelve sense bases (āyatana), and the dharmas of the five aggregates (skandha). All these dharmas exist, arise and cease, change, and function within the one true dharmadhātu, the tathāgatagarbha; all are born, manifested, and sustained by the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Because they are all born and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, they are dharmas subject to arising and ceasing, dharmas lacking self-mastery (avaśatā), dharmas that cannot be masters of themselves—dharmas possessing the nature of non-self. A dharma possessing the nature of self, however, does not arise, cease, or change; it can be the master of itself; it can exist independently by itself; it does not need other conditions to endure forever; and it is perfectly endowed with all merits and functions.

A dharma without self does not possess these qualities. A dharma without self cannot exist independently; it must rely on external conditions in order to exist and function, and it also needs the tathāgatagarbha to continuously transmit seeds to sustain its existence and operation; otherwise it would perish. Therefore, all dharmas in the threefold world are subject to arising, ceasing, and change, and are all without self. As for the supramundane dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, although it has a partial nature of self—being able to exist independently, needing no external conditions, neither arising nor perishing, being at ease and self-governing—it still contains the defiled karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses. These karmic seeds are subject to arising, ceasing, and change, and they drag the tathāgatagarbha into undergoing transformation as well, so that the merits and functions of the tathāgatagarbha are also affected to some degree.

Because the seeds within the tathāgatagarbha at this stage are subject to perfuming by the seven consciousnesses, and since the seeds within can be perfumed, the tathāgatagarbha as a whole is not immutable, and thus it is not entirely possessed of the nature of self. From another perspective, the tathāgatagarbha itself also has the flowing forth of its own consciousness seeds; only through these consciousness seeds arising, ceasing, and changing moment by moment can the existence and operation of the tathāgatagarbha be sustained. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha is also not entirely possessed of the nature of self; it still has the nature of non-self.

Only the Dharmakāya Buddha at the buddha-stage, the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), is completely possessed of the nature of self. At that time, the arising, ceasing, and changing of the karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses has ended; the undefiled consciousness is no longer perfumed, no longer changes, and has no seeds of arising and ceasing; the flowing forth of the consciousness seeds of one's own mind has also stopped, and there is no phenomenon of momentary arising and ceasing. Therefore, the undefiled consciousness at the buddha-stage is the complete and thorough nature of self, entirely self; its merits and functions can be brought into full play, no longer obstructed and limited by the defiled karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses, and the mental factors (caittas) increase from the original five to twenty-one. Hence it is the complete, thorough, and ultimate nature of self.

Because bodhisattvas have realized the non-self of all dharmas and can patiently accept that there is no self in all dharmas, they have attained the profound wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti), and the merits they receive are extremely numerous, immense, and profound—beyond the reach of calculation and analogy. With this profound wisdom of the seed-consciousness (ālaya) of mere-consciousness (vijñapti-mātra), bodhisattvas gradually enter the buddha-stage, with both merit and wisdom perfectly complete, becoming honored by the threefold world, the teacher of the assemblies of humans and gods, endowed with the merits and benefits of the ten epithets. They can establish lands in worlds throughout the ten directions, manifest the attainment of buddhahood, and extensively deliver measureless sentient beings. Therefore, when a bodhisattva realizes the non-self of all dharmas, the merits and benefits of the wisdom of patience with the non-arising of dharmas far surpass the merit and virtue of a bodhisattva's generosity (dāna) of the seven treasures; the difference between them is incomparable and beyond words.