The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Perspective of Yogācāra (135)

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

Dharmas of non-self do not possess these qualities. Dharmas of non-self cannot exist independently; they need to rely on external conditions in order to exist and function, and they also require the tathāgatagarbha to continuously transmit seeds to sustain their existence and operation; otherwise they would cease. 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 possesses a certain aspect of the nature of self—being able to exist independently, requiring no external conditions, neither arising nor perishing, being at ease and autonomous—yet 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 its merits and functions are also somewhat affected.

Because the seeds within the tathāgatagarbha at this stage are subject to the perfuming of the seven consciousnesses, and since the seeds within it can be perfumed, the tathāgatagarbha as a whole is not immutable, and thus it does not fully possess the nature of self. On the other hand, the tathāgatagarbha itself also has its own seeds of consciousness flowing forth; it is only through the momentary arising, ceasing, and changing of these seeds of consciousness that the existence and operation of the tathāgatagarbha can be sustained. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha is also not fully possessed of the nature of self; it is still of the nature of non-self.

Only the Dharmakāya Buddha at the buddha-stage, the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), fully possesses 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 seeds of consciousness of the mind itself 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 constrained and limited by the defiled karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses. Its mental factors 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 accept that there is no self in any dharma, they attain the profound wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas, and their merits and benefits are extremely numerous, immense, and profound—beyond the reach of reckoning and simile. Bodhisattvas will, by means of this profound seed-wisdom of consciousness-only, 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 with the seven treasures; the difference between them cannot be compared and is beyond words.