Patriarch's Teachings: Direct Interpretation
Chapter One: The Verses of Dharma Transmission of the Seven Buddhas
I. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Vipaśyin
Original text:身从无相中受生，犹如幻出諸形象；
幻人心识本来无，罪福皆空无所住。
Explanation: (1) The body receives birth from within the formless. The physical body is the aggregate of form, which can obstruct the mind consciousness of sentient beings, causing them to take the false as the true. Sentient beings have always believed that this physical body is the self, that it is real. "Formless" refers to the Ālayavijñāna, the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. This is the true mind, without form or appearance, having no marks of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas, having no mark whatsoever within the three realms, resembling empty space yet not being empty space. Empty space is a dharma-less thing, a false appearance; this mind truly exists, is the mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), possessing true essence, nature, and function.
The true mind can generate all dharmas, including the physical body; the physical body receives birth from within this mind. Because sentient beings' grasping at self is unceasing, and the manas clings to itself, after death there is an intermediate body (antarā-bhava). Upon encountering karmically connected parents, the manas together with the eighth consciousness enters the womb, forming nāma-rūpa, that is, the fertilized egg. Because the eighth consciousness possesses the four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, upon contact with the four great elements in the mother's body, it transforms into the fertilized egg, which changes every seven days, growing the head, limbs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. At around five months, the conscious mind emerges and can then discriminate its living environment. When the six faculties are complete, the eighth consciousness blows the wind of karma, and the head turns downward to exit the mother's womb. The eighth consciousness then continues to absorb the four great elements, transforming the infant into a child, a youth, an adult, and an elderly person, until finally death. Therefore, the physical body is transformed and born from within the eighth consciousness, and the eighth consciousness is formless—formless, yet it can transform and produce all forms.
(2) Like illusions manifesting various forms. The physical body manifested by the eighth consciousness is just like something conjured by illusion—from nothing at all to a fertilized egg and then to a physical body as large as an adult's, even producing bodies as large as an elephant, a dragon, or the great golden-winged garuḍa bird. From nonexistence to existence, using seeds to manifest a flesh body—this is conjured by illusion. It is like a magician suddenly conjuring a city wall in empty space; like a painter freely depicting landscapes and figures on a blank canvas; like white clouds in the sky gathering and dispersing to form a cat, a dog, or a flower. These illusory things come from emptiness and go to emptiness, utterly impossible to grasp; no matter how one clings to them, they will ultimately vanish and depart.
(3) The illusory person's mind consciousness is originally nonexistent. Sentient beings within the fertilized egg originally have no six consciousness minds and no discriminating nature; only at around five months does the mind consciousness arise, followed by the ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and body consciousness; only seven days after birth can the eye consciousness discriminate. These discriminating consciousness minds arise and cease moment by moment and are not real; within a single instant there are eighty-one thousand seed arisings and ceasings, enabling sentient beings to discriminate the six sense objects. Each seed is transmitted by the Ālayavijñāna; if one or several seeds fail to be transmitted in the middle, the discriminating nature of the consciousness mind ceases to exist. For example, a lamp must have electric current to shine; the current is formed by electrons—one electron arises and ceases, the next electron immediately arises and ceases, and countless electrons connect in succession to form a current which, passing through the lamp, makes the bulb shine. The seeds of mind consciousness are just like those electrons.
The formation of a stream of water is likewise formed by drop after drop of water connected without interruption; the seeds of mind consciousness are just like those water drops. The water flow is guided out by a pump; the electrons are output by a generator. The Ālayavijñāna is like the generator and the pump, transmitting out consciousness seed after consciousness seed—eighty-one thousand consciousness seeds in one instant, connected one after another without interruption, successively forming the consciousness mind, and only then is there the activity of the consciousness mind and the function of discrimination. If the Ālayavijñāna departs and stops working, the consciousness mind is no longer born, discrimination is also absent, and the body is like a piece of wood.
(4) Sin and merit are both empty, abiding nowhere. Sinful karma and meritorious karma are both created by the deluded mind. While the deluded mind creates bodily formations, verbal formations, and mental formations—whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neither wholesome nor unwholesome—the Ālayavijñāna records and stores them all. When in the next life the karma seeds ripen and karmic conditions appear, the Ālayavijñāna outputs the karma seeds, and sentient beings undergo retribution; yet the five aggregates undergoing that retribution are no longer those of the previous life. Both the karma creator and the retribution receiver are arising-and-ceasing, illusory, and unreal, and sinful karma and meritorious karma are likewise arising-and-ceasing and illusory; once the merit is enjoyed it is gone, and once the sin has been retributed or repented, it disappears—all are conditioned dharmas, impermanent dharmas.
For example, the karma of false speech: before it is created, it is not stored anywhere; after it is created, the words are gone and the karmic action has vanished; after vanishing, it has not gone anywhere. But the entire course of the action is completely recorded by the Ālayavijñāna. The dharma of false speech is illusory—then who tells the lie? The body cannot tell lies, the mouth cannot tell lies, the tongue cannot tell lies—otherwise dead people could also tell lies. The tongue consciousness and the mind consciousness cannot tell lies, and these two consciousnesses arise and cease thought after thought; the manas also cannot speak and cannot tell lies. And the Ālayavijñāna has no mouth and no tongue, and even less can it tell lies. There is fundamentally no one who tells lies; the karma of false speech is therefore illusory.
Sentient beings are conjured forth by the Ālayavijñāna, and a conjured, false person, like a robot or a puppet, although it creates karmic actions, is itself also illusory; no one can pass judgment on them, and even if judged, they would not undergo it—the conjured sentient beings are just like this. The illusory nature of sin and merit can be proven by many facts. Take the case of King Ajātaśatru: King Ajātaśatru killed his father, and when his karmic retribution manifested, he went to see the World-Honored One. The World-Honored One analyzed for King Ajātaśatru the illusory unreality of the dharma of "father"—there is no real father and no real self—so the dharma of killing one's father is illusory and unreal. After Ajātaśatru understood this, his hellish sinful karma disappeared; at the end of his life, not only did he not fall into the Avīci hell, he was even reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī). This shows the illusory nature of sinful and meritorious karma.
Furthermore, for one who attains the first fruit of the arhat path, or one who has seen the mind, the sinful karma of the three evil destinies accumulated over beginningless kalpas is eliminated, and in the future they will never fall into the three evil destinies to undergo retribution, only suffering in the human realm. All dharmas, including sinful and meritorious karma, are arising-and-ceasing, impermanent, empty, and illusory. By deeply analyzing this principle, one will awaken to the Mahāyāna principle of non-arising and become a bodhisattva of true meaning.
II. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Viśvabhū
Original text:假借四大以为身，心本无生因境有；
前境若无心也无，罪福如幻起也灭。
Explanation: The physical body of sentient beings is constituted by the four great element seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind. The eighth consciousness, in accordance with sentient beings' karmic conditions, outputs the four great element seeds, and according to the different proportions of the four great elements manifests the different parts of sentient beings' physical bodies, and sentient beings take the physical body composed of the four great elements as the self. The eighth consciousness that manifests sentient beings originally exists and is not born later; therefore it is an unborn dharma. He is formless and markless, and cannot manifest by Himself alone; only when conjoined with the five aggregates can He manifest on the body of the five aggregates. He is always together with the five aggregates and eighteen realms that He Himself manifests; when sense objects appear, there is His existence. Therefore, if sentient beings wish to recognize Him and find Him, they must seek Him amid the various sense objects and deluded conditions.
If the various sense objects of the five aggregates disappear—sentient beings' eyes do not see forms, ears do not hear sounds, noses do not smell scents, and the mind does not think of dharmas, with all consciousness minds extinguished—then the eighth consciousness cannot manifest upon form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas. When the six consciousnesses cease, there is no consciousness mind to recognize the eighth consciousness, and the eighth consciousness temporarily abides in concealment. Since the physical body is created by the four great elements and the consciousness mind is illusory, the sinful and meritorious karma created by the five aggregates is also illusory; from the phenomenal perspective it seems to exist, but in truth it too is unborn, and no real sinful or meritorious karma exists. Therefore sin and merit are both empty, without self and without possessions of self.
III. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Kāśyapa
Original text:一切众生性清净，从本无生无可灭；
即此身心是幻生，幻化之中无罪福。
Explanation: Sentient beings are the five aggregates, and the five aggregates are what the eighth consciousness conjures forth, standing in a relationship of non-duality with the eighth consciousness; their essence is all the true suchness of the eighth consciousness. And the true suchness of the eighth consciousness is the self-natured pure mind, intrinsically pure from the beginning, without any defilement. Therefore, in terms of the true suchness self-essence, the five aggregates of sentient beings born from Him are of a pure nature, being the tathāgatagarbha nature of true suchness.
If one sets aside the true suchness of the eighth consciousness and looks separately at each individual five aggregates of each sentient being, they are however defiled, arising-and-ceasing, mutable, impermanent, and selfless. Because the true suchness of the eighth consciousness has existed thus naturally (dharmatā) since beginningless kalpas, was not born, has never ceased, and never will cease. Therefore, in terms of the eighth consciousness, the five aggregates of sentient beings are also unborn and unceasing, because their essence is the attribute of the eighth consciousness.
Because the eighth consciousness stores the seeds of the five aggregates, upon encountering conditions it will produce the five aggregates of sentient beings; and since the eighth consciousness endures without ceasing, it will forever be able to produce the bodies of the five aggregates without interruption. Thus, viewed as a whole and over long eons, the five aggregates are permanently existing and unceasing, continuing even until buddhahood; after attaining buddhahood they will cease even less, and the buddhas use these five aggregates of body and mind to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings without end. Only when looking separately at each individual five aggregates are they arising-and-ceasing in nature.
The sentient beings composed of the five aggregates—their body of the aggregate of form and the mind consciousnesses of the four aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness—are all conjured forth by the true suchness of the eighth consciousness in accordance with various conditions, just like the illusory person conjured by a magician in empty space. And whatever sinful or meritorious karma the illusory person performs, that sinful and meritorious karma is also illusory and unreal, without real retribution of sin or retribution of merit. The sentient beings of the five aggregates are likewise: for the conjured sentient beings, whatever sinful or meritorious karma they perform, that karma is illusory and unreal. If it is done by the body, the body is illusory; if done by the consciousness mind, the consciousness is also conjured without real substance. Since it is conjured without real substance, the sinful and meritorious karma it performs is also illusory and unreal, without real retribution of sin or retribution of merit; without an owner, there is no karmic action.
IV. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Kanakamuni
Original text:佛不见佛知是佛，若实有知别无佛；
智者能知罪性空，坦然不怖于生死。
Explanation: True suchness has no seeing and no hearing, no awareness and no knowing; the true suchness mind does not see its own mind, the self-mind does not know the self-mind, and the true suchness mind is not aware of itself. Then we know that this mind which does not see its own true suchness is the Buddha. If someone says that true suchness has knowing and seeing, can see forms and hear sounds, can know whether there are or are not wandering thoughts, can enter or not enter meditative concentration—this knowing is the knowing of the mind consciousness, not true suchness. If one takes this knowing to be true suchness, then there is no longer any Buddha; only the true suchness without knowing and without seeing is the true Buddha, the true essence for attaining buddhahood.
A person of wisdom is able to know that all dharmas are manifested and revealed by the true suchness self-mind, and have no real imperishable nature. When sentient beings commit evil or cultivate goodness, those actions themselves are also manifested and transformed by true suchness, with no real dharma to be obtained; the nature of their sin and merit is also empty. All phenomena of birth and death are also illusory appearances manifested by true suchness, with no real dharma of birth and death to be obtained; birth and death are like illusions, dreams, and flowers in the sky, utterly unobtainable. Therefore the wise who have attained the path, the bodhisattvas who have realized that all dharmas are like illusions and dreams, will no longer fear birth and death, and will not, like the arhats, seek nirvāṇa to extinguish birth and death. The bodhisattvas continuously travel back and forth through the illusory arising and ceasing of birth and death, delivering themselves and then being able to deliver others in the various buddha lands.
V. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Śākyamuni
Original text:法本法无法，无法法亦法；
今付无法时，法法何曾法。
Explanation: The first line, "The dharma of dharmas is the dharma without dharmas": the true Buddha-dharma is the dharma that is originally existent, originally possessed—that is the dharma of the true suchness tathāgatagarbha. This dharma is not a dharma born later from various causes and conditions, nor a dharma that will perish in the future when conditions disperse; He is a dharma that neither arises nor ceases. Within this unborn, unceasing dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, there originally exists not a single dharma, just as stated in the Heart Sūtra: "no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; no realm of eye consciousness up to no realm of mind consciousness; no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance; no suffering, origination, cessation, or path; no..." He has not a single worldly dharma of the three realms.
The second line, "Yet this dharma without dharmas is also a dharma": this dharma of the tathāgatagarbha without dharmas is also a dharma—a dharma that does not belong within the three realms, a dharma that truly exists and can be recognized by sentient beings, realized by sentient beings, and observed by sentient beings; a dharma with its own inherent operating principles, different from the seven transforming consciousnesses; a dharma possessing immeasurable merits; a dharma possessing the seeds of the five aggregates, the eighteen realms, and the three realms, and capable of producing the worlds of the three realms; a dharma that can both cause sentient beings to transmigrate and enable sentient beings to perfectly attain buddhahood; a dharma that truly realizes the laws of cause and effect of the worlds of the three realms.
The third and fourth lines: "Now, when I transmit this dharma without dharmas, when has any dharma ever been a dharma?" I am now transmitting this dharma without dharmas, the tathāgatagarbha dharma, to sentient beings, expounding the Tripiṭaka and the twelve divisions of teachings, in order to deliver sentient beings from the ocean of suffering of birth and death and to attain ultimate liberation. Of every dharma I transmit, not one dharma is the tathāgatagarbha dharma itself; all are expedient dharmas pointing toward the tathāgatagarbha dharma, temporarily existent dharmas, like a raft for crossing the river. It is also like the finger pointing at the moon: the finger is not the moon itself, but by pointing at the moon with the finger, sentient beings can realize and see the true moon, thereby gaining great wisdom and ultimately perfectly accomplishing the Buddha Way and perfecting the fruit of buddhahood.
VI. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Śikhin
Original text:起诸善法本是幻，造诸恶业亦是幻；
身如聚沫心如风，幻出无根无实性。
Explanation: Whether sentient beings create wholesome or unwholesome karma, it is all done by the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses. The body of the five aggregates has no self-nature and cannot exist and operate independently; it must rely on the eighth consciousness, in accordance with sentient beings' karmic conditions, transmitting the seeds of the seven great elements and the karma seeds, before there can be the various bodily and mental activities of the five aggregates. Therefore the eighth consciousness is the seed basis of the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses, and also the root basis. Without the eighth consciousness there would be no five aggregates and seven consciousnesses; only with the eighth consciousness can all dharmas exist and operate. The whole body of the five aggregates is conjured forth by the eighth consciousness, so all the wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions created by the body of the five aggregates are fundamentally unreal, like flowers in the sky and the moon in water.
It is like a pile of sheet metal made into a robot: install some programs, control it manually, and the robot can operate and work. Then everything the robot does is illusory, because the robot itself cannot do anything and has no self-substance; it is a false appearance assembled together, without real function. If a robot kills someone, the court would not convict the robot of a crime; even if thrown into prison, the robot would undergo no real suffering retribution. Therefore all karmic actions created by the sentient beings of the five aggregates are entirely illusory, not really existent.
The physical body of the five aggregates is like the foam gathered together in the great ocean—illusory in essence, all being seawater. The minds of the seven consciousnesses are also transformed and born by the eighth consciousness, also illusory; there is no substantial seven-consciousness mind, and its essence is the eighth consciousness. Therefore the minds of the seven consciousnesses are like a gust of wind, coming without a shadow and leaving without a trace; their coming and going are all the nature of the eighth consciousness.
The physical body, the five aggregates, and the seven consciousnesses conjured forth by the eighth consciousness, which outputs the seeds of the seven great elements in accordance with sentient beings' karmic conditions, have no fundamental nature, no substantial nature, and no self-mastery (avaśatā). They merely serve some worldly uses based on worldly false appearances, dazzling the eyes of sentient beings, deluding the minds of sentient beings, obscuring the self-natured luminosity of sentient beings, causing sentient beings to toil in vain within the illusory ocean of saṃsāra and karma, unable to attain liberation. Therefore it is necessary to remove the illusory, recognize the essence, know the truth, return to simplicity and truth, and become a buddha or a patriarch.
VII. The Verse of Dharma Transmission of Buddha Krakucchanda:
Original text:见身无实是佛见，了心如幻是佛了；
了得身心本性空，斯人与佛何殊别。
Explanation: The alternative name for sentient beings is the five aggregates and eighteen realms. The five aggregates include the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of consciousness; the eighteen realms include the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses. The five aggregates and eighteen realms are formed by the conjunction of the physical body and the seven consciousnesses. The physical body includes the inner body and the outer body: the inner body is the body possessing one period of life and possessing the five sense faculties, composed of the four great element seeds; the outer body is the realms of the six sense objects, including form objects, sound objects, smell objects, taste objects, touch objects, and dharma objects, and the six sense objects are further divided into inner six sense objects and outer six sense objects. What sentient beings can discriminate and cognize are the inner six sense objects, which are images formed in the supreme faculty (indriya) by the eighth consciousness, based on the outer six sense objects through the six faculties.
The illusory unreality of the five aggregates and eighteen realms can be realized even by a person of the first fruit of the Small Vehicle. The srotāpanna of the first fruit eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), understanding that the physical body is illusory and not the self, and that the consciousness mind is illusory and not the self. The Small Vehicle practitioners' cognition that the five aggregates are illusory and not the self is extremely shallow; they all view the five aggregates from the perspective of the false appearances of conventional truth, with a very narrow vision and very inferior wisdom—compared with the Buddha's supreme, profound, ultimate wisdom, it is like the bottom of a well compared with the vast sky.
The wisdom realm of realizing that body and mind are unreal and illusory must be divided into many levels. From the first fruit of the Small Vehicle to the fourth fruit of the completely liberated great arhat, all have realized that the five aggregates are unreal and without self; they have only realized the selflessness of persons, and regarding the principle that the five aggregates are without self and unreal, their understanding is not yet ultimate; it still remains at the level of cognition of the false appearances of the five aggregates.
Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, beginning from the abiding-stage bodhisattvas who have seen the mind and the nature, up to the bodhisattvas before the first bhūmi, have all realized the selflessness of persons. This cognition of the selflessness of persons is more ultimate than that of the Small Vehicle arhats, adding angles of observation, and also observing the illusory unreality of the five aggregates from the standpoint of the tathāgatagarbha, knowing that the five aggregates are not the true master and are not a dharma of self-mastery; therefore they know the five aggregates are unreal like flowers in the sky, but this is still not ultimate and thorough.
Until one cultivates to the stage of buddhahood, observing sentient beings' physical bodies with the buddha eye, as well as the Buddha's immeasurable hundreds of thousands of kotis of Nirmāṇakāya Buddha bodies—all are manifested instant by instant by the tathāgatagarbha. The buddha eye has not a single trace of obscuration by ignorance, and what it sees is the most ultimate and thorough. The buddha eye can also simultaneously observe the mind consciousnesses of sentient beings, all of which are formed by the moment-to-moment output of consciousness seeds by sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha, without any real functional operation of mind consciousness; their essence is all the tathāgatagarbha nature.
When sentient beings have seen the mind and the nature, and their wisdom continuously grows and becomes perfectly integrated, they will be increasingly able to observe deeply and subtly the illusory unreality of the body and mind of the five aggregates; their various contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdoms become ever deeper and subtler, ever more profoundly knowing that the intrinsic nature of sentient beings and of one's own body and mind is all the emptiness (śūnyatā) mind of the tathāgatagarbha, without a single trace of the self-existence of the body and mind of the five aggregates. When a bodhisattva's wisdom reaches such a realm, it approaches the wisdom realm of the Buddha, and attaining buddhahood is no longer far away.
