The Essence of the Heart Sutra

Section 5  The True Mind Is Empty and Quiescent, Without Suffering, Its Accumulation, Cessation, or the Path

Sutra text: 【（如来藏）无苦集灭道。】Suffering, its accumulation, cessation, and the path constitute the doctrine of the "Four Noble Truths" of the liberation path. It includes: the truth of suffering, the truth of the accumulation of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering; "truth" (satya) means true principle. This is the Dharma that sentient beings' five aggregates and seven consciousnesses should cultivate, but the tathāgatagarbha does not need to cultivate it, because the tathāgatagarbha has no suffering, accumulation, cessation, or path.

The truth of suffering is the truth concerning the suffering of the world, including the three kinds of suffering, the eight kinds of suffering, and immeasurable suffering. The three kinds of suffering are the suffering of conditioned states, the suffering of deterioration, and the suffering of suffering. The eight kinds of suffering are birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress, the suffering of not getting what one seeks, the suffering of separation from what one loves, the suffering of association with what one hates, and the suffering of the blazing of the five aggregates; and from these eight kinds of suffering, immeasurable and boundless suffering is further derived. Our suffering is too abundant. If one is a person of wisdom, careful analysis shows that there is not a single place in worldly phenomena that is not suffering—everywhere there is lack of self-mastery, everywhere there is affliction—yet sentient beings still cling to these sufferings and do not want to study Buddhism, cultivate practice, and seek liberation.

How does suffering arise? These sufferings are summoned by the bodily, verbal, and mental actions we have collected and accumulated through our activities. At the very moment bodily, verbal, and mental actions are performed, the tathāgatagarbha stores the karmic seeds; after storing them, when the karmic conditions ripen, the tathāgatagarbha outputs the karmic seeds, and the fruit of suffering manifests. Suffering is summoned by the bodily, verbal, and mental actions that sentient beings have accumulated over immeasurable kalpas; sentient beings create unwholesome karma life after life and receive painful retribution life after life. Studying Buddhism and cultivating practice means making the conditions for great unwholesome karma incomplete, letting the seeds of unwholesome karma gradually wither, so that in the future one receives only a small retribution and thereby eliminates the great unwholesome karma; or one can receive it later when one has the capacity to bear it, which would then be easier. For example, by attaining the initial fruit of the Small Vehicle and eradicating the three fetters, one eliminates the karma of the three evil destinies accumulated over immeasurable kalpas, which is replaced by receiving only a little suffering in the human realm. If sentient beings had to receive retribution one by one for all the karma created over immeasurable kalpas, it could never be fully exhausted by the time of buddhahood; it can only be that as our cultivation gains strength, a portion of unwholesome karma is eliminated—a portion upon attaining the fruits, a portion upon enlightenment, a portion upon entering the first bhūmi, another portion upon attaining meditative concentration (samādhi) through recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), and yet another portion while reciting sutras and mantras—but there are still immeasurable karmic seeds remaining in the tathāgatagarbha, and when conditions ripen in the future, one will receive the retributive fruit.

Sentient beings receive karmic retribution life after life; even while practicing the bodhisattva path they must undergo some suffering of karmic retribution, and once it has been undergone, the karmic conditions are concluded. Before attaining buddhahood, all karmic obstructions must be eliminated. Our cultivation is meant to extinguish the seeds of great unwholesome karma, to make wholesome karma outweigh unwholesome karma, to keep the causes and conditions for painful retribution perpetually incomplete, and to keep the causes and conditions of wholesome karma ever increasing, so that one always receives wholesome retribution; over time, some seeds of unwholesome karma wither away. The more diligent and effective one's cultivation, the more and faster the unwholesome karma is eliminated; when all unwholesome karma has been exhausted, one becomes a Buddha.

Some people who have created the karma of the Avīci hell are reborn in the lowest of the low grade (adhamādhamavarga) into the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) in the West, where they must remain inside a lotus flower for twelve great kalpas of that land; dwelling there for such a long time is precisely to eliminate those seeds of hell karma, so that those afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion never manifest. With no conditions for unwholesome karma to manifest for such a long time, the seeds of unwholesome karma wither. Also, because of the long absence of conditions for creating unwholesome karma, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are gradually suppressed; as the mind gradually becomes pure, one emerges from the lotus flower and beholds the transformation-body bodhisattva to hear the Dharma. How long would twelve great kalpas in the land of bliss equal in the Sāhā world? It is truly impossible to calculate, because one day in the land of bliss is equivalent to one great kalpa in our world. Because of their deep and heavy unwholesome karma, such people, even when the flower opens, cannot see the Buddha and can only see the Buddha's emanation—a bodhisattva—expounding the Dharma for them.

All the various sufferings that sentient beings undergo are summoned forth by the tathāgatagarbha collecting the karmic seeds of actions performed, and letting those seeds become manifest when conditions ripen. To extinguish these sufferings, one must cultivate and study the Noble Eightfold Path, which is: right speech, right action, right livelihood (samyag-ājīva), right conduct, right view/thinking, right effort (samyag-vyāyāma), right meditative concentration (samādhi), and right mindfulness. Both the Great and Small Vehicle Dharmas require cultivating the Noble Eightfold Path, but there are some differences in content and levels. Before ordinary sentient beings have studied the correct principles, most of their bodily, verbal, and mental actions are not right, which is why they need to cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path; only after cultivating it well and attaining the fruits can suffering be extinguished. We should frequently reflect on and examine ourselves against the Buddha's teachings and against the Noble Eightfold Path. Before sentient beings have attained the fruits or seen the mind and attained enlightenment, their bodily, verbal, and mental actions contain extremely many wrongs, and that is why they have feelings of suffering—all summoned by the unwholesome karma created because of a heavy view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and heavy self-grasping.

Why does the tathāgatagarbha have no suffering? Because the tathāgatagarbha never creates wholesome or unwholesome karma, it does not receive the retributive fruits of wholesome or unwholesome karma, and therefore there is no painful retribution and it does not undergo suffering; if it had suffering, the tathāgatagarbha would not be pure. Since the tathāgatagarbha does not create karma of afflictions, it also does not accumulate suffering for its own future lives, and does not summon future feelings of suffering. Because the tathāgatagarbha has no suffering and no accumulation of suffering, it need not extinguish suffering through cultivating the path; it has neither the truth of the cessation of suffering nor the truth of cultivating the path, and does not need to cultivate the Four Noble Truths of suffering, accumulation, cessation, and path. What the tathāgatagarbha collects are the seeds of the karmic actions of sentient beings' five aggregates; it itself has no karmic actions, hence no seeds of karmic actions, and hence no accumulation. The Noble Eightfold Path is to be cultivated by the body of the five aggregates; the tathāgatagarbha never walks the wrong path, and therefore does not need to cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path—He is perfectly complete in all Dharmas.