The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Yogācāra Perspective (141)

Original text: 须菩提。若善男子。善女人。以三千大千世界碎为微尘。于意云何。是微尘众宁为多不。甚多。世尊。何以故。若是微尘众实有者。佛即不说是微尘众。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said to Subhūti: If good men and good women were to grind this trichiliocosm into fine dust particles, what do you think—would these dust particles be numerous? Subhūti replied: Very numerous, World-Honored One. Why are the dust particles very numerous? Because if these dust particles truly existed, if they were really existent, the Buddha would not call them dust particles.

How large is a trichiliocosm? Counting it up, it seems to include a billion or tens of billions of earths, a billion or tens of billions of Mount Sumerus, a billion or tens of billions of Trāyastriṃśa heavens, a billion or tens of billions of desire-realm heavens, a billion or tens of billions of first-dhyāna heavens, a billion or tens of billions of four great oceans, a billion or tens of billions of seven golden mountains—all of them numbering in the billions or tens of billions, extremely vast. A trichiliocosm is boundlessly immense, immeasurably vast. If it were ground into fine dust, how many dust particles would there be? It would simply be impossible to calculate, because the trichiliocosm itself is already enormous; when such an enormous physical entity is broken into fragments, with spaces added in between, the resulting dust particles would occupy an area and volume even greater than that of the trichiliocosm itself. Therefore, once the trichiliocosm is ground into fine dust, there is no need to count the number of those dust particles—they simply cannot be counted.

The Buddha said: A good man or good woman grinds a trichiliocosm into fine dust—what is your opinion? Would the number of these dust particles be very many? Subhūti said: It would simply be too many—there would be no need to count them, for no matter how one counted, one could never finish. Even if we ground a single person's body into fine dust, the number of dust particles would be uncountable; if the body of a small animal were ground into fine dust, the number of dust particles would likewise be uncountable. What is meant by "fine dust"? It is the dispersal of an object, dividing it into the most minute and subtle form, so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, until it finally becomes a particle of the smallest unit—this is what is called fine dust. At that point it is still a tiny particle composed of the four great elements, an extremely minute, extremely minute small particle, almost approaching empty nothingness, yet it still possesses material form. These small particles are also produced by the tathāgatagarbha, formed from the four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind—extremely minute, extremely minute, almost nonexistent, yet still existent, still dust-matter composed of the four great elements.

With such a vast number of dust particles, would that not be too many? Subhūti said: Too many. Why so many? Why is it called "many"? The Buddha said: If these dust particles were truly existent, the Buddha would not call them dust particles. Because Subhūti had heard the World-Honored One expound this Diamond Sutra, he had already understood the true meaning of the Dharma the World-Honored One was teaching, and so he said: If these dust particles were genuinely and truly existent, if they were unborn and unceasing, truly existing dust particles, then the Buddha would not call them "dust particles" (the word "particles" represents multiplicity, meaning an extremely great quantity).