The Essence of the Heart Sutra

Section 2: Bodhisattvas Can Gradually Become Free of Obstructions Only by Relying on the Tathāgatagarbha, Which Is Beyond Birth and Death

Sutra text: 【依般若波罗蜜多故。心无挂碍。】 After a bodhisattva attains realization, by relying on the tathāgatagarbha, this mind of great wisdom, he can reach the shore of nirvāṇa that is beyond birth and death, and from then on there are no more obstructions in his mind. The tathāgatagarbha of every sentient being originally has no birth or death and is not on this shore of birth and death; therefore it is called pāramitā. Bodhisattvas cultivate the six pāramitās precisely in order to cross the bitter ocean of birth and death and reach the other shore of nirvāṇa. But the precepts sutras say: some people cultivate the six pāramitās with pāramitā and can reach the other shore; some people cultivate the six pāramitās without pāramitā and cannot reach the other shore. Why is this said? Because whether one can reach the other shore depends on what mind one uses to cultivate the six pāramitās.

After realization, the bodhisattva, having prajñā-pāramitā to rely on, gradually has no more obstructions in his mind. Because his own tathāgatagarbha originally has no birth or death, although the five-aggregate bodies of lifetime after lifetime do have birth and death, the five aggregates are not truly existent—even birth and death are illusory. The arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the five aggregates and eighteen realms are illusory false appearances, yet they are also the nirvāṇa-appearance of the tathāgatagarbha. Although the five aggregates have birth and death, the bodhisattva can rely on the tathāgatagarbha and gradually eliminate the defiled seeds, ultimately being able to extinguish the segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) of the five aggregates. The bodhisattva can not only eliminate segmented birth-and-death but also eliminate transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa), thereby reaching the ultimate nirvāṇa of neither arising nor ceasing. The bodhisattva knows and realizes this, and will no longer worry about what to do after death or what to do about suffering; he has no obstruction regarding this problem of birth and death, no longer fears the suffering of birth and death, and does not think about how to live more comfortably and at ease. Relying on vast power of vows, he fearlessly and vigorously travels back and forth through the six destinies to save sentient beings with whom he has affinities.

After a bodhisattva attains realization, when the seven consciousnesses transform their basis to the tathāgatagarbha, he no longer worries about how the five aggregates will in the future leave suffering and attain happiness, or how to obtain benefits in all worldly dharmas. Because the tathāgatagarbha is the true self, He is inherently complete with all dharmas and needs no benefit from any worldly or supramundane dharma. The tathāgatagarbha is intrinsically pure and eternally abiding in nirvāṇa; the five aggregates are what He illusorily manifests, like bubbles in the great ocean—bubbles arise and burst, yet the ocean has never undergone arising or ceasing, and its water neither increases nor decreases. When the bubbles burst, they arise again; as long as there is seawater, there will always be bubbles. The great ocean is the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings, and the bubbles are the five aggregates of sentient beings. Therefore, when one truly relies on the tathāgatagarbha, the five aggregates also have no birth and death, and thus the bodhisattva no longer has any obstruction regarding birth and death.

Since the true self, the tathāgatagarbha, has no birth and death and does not transmigrate through the six destinies, He has no suffering. Relying on this true self, what obstruction could a bodhisattva still have? Therefore, after becoming a Mahāyāna bodhisattva, one no longer fears the birth and death of the five aggregates, and vows to take on a physical form in every lifetime to broadly benefit sentient beings, delivering oneself and delivering others. The bodhisattva should think this way: in any case, I originally have no birth and death, will not fall into the three evil destinies, and have no suffering at all—why not illusorily manifest countless physical forms to universally deliver sentient beings!

Through cultivating the bodhisattva path, the illusory suffering of the bodhisattva's five-aggregate body becomes less and less, and finally can all be extinguished. Because bodhisattvas broadly practice the bodhisattva path, their merit becomes ever more vast, the enjoyment of their physical bodies becomes ever more at ease, their majesty and virtue among the assembly grows ever greater; they do not fear manifesting in the six destinies to deliver beings, and will not disregard sentient beings for the sake of personal enjoyment, so they can broadly practice the bodhisattva path without any worries behind them. Those who have not seen the mind, not attained enlightenment, and not realized the tathāgatagarbha do not understand the principle that the tathāgatagarbha is without suffering, and so they have very many obstructions—worrying about what to do if they fall into the three evil destinies after death, what to do if they suffer in the six destinies, what to do about transmigration. The non-Buddhists, on the other hand, worry about annihilation after death, that there will be no more self; they fear that the entire self will completely vanish and perish, and so they grasp the spiritually aware mind consciousness as the self, hoping it will never perish, and grasp the various meditative states of the mind consciousness as nirvāṇa states.

If ordinary Buddhist learners do not believe that the tathāgatagarbha is unborn and unceasing, although they may sometimes say with their mouths that death would be good, and that everything ending once and for all would be even better, in their hearts they are actually still afraid of death. They do not know what state follows death, and they also fear everything ending once and for all; they fear annihilation, not knowing that since beginningless kalpas, the true self has never died—what dies are only the various false appearances He manifests. Therefore they have extremely many obstructions. Transmigration through the six destinies is a false appearance; birth and death are false appearances; karma is also a false appearance. The truth is the ultimate reality, which can never be annihilated; only illusory false appearances can vanish and perish. For example, the five aggregates are illusory and can be destroyed and perish; karmic actions are illusory, arising and then ceasing.

Whatever can arise, cease, and change is false existence, illusory existence, temporary existence—not truly and really existent. This is the truth. As long as there is arising there is ceasing; without arising there is no ceasing. The five aggregates and the material world have arising and ceasing, while the mind of ultimate reality, the tathāgatagarbha, is unborn and unceasing, forever unchanging. The arising, ceasing, and changing of the physical body has never stopped for even a single instant: from nothing at all to a fertilized egg the size of a needle tip, then becoming a physical body of over a hundred jin, then gradually aging, developing diseases, until death and disappearance. The constant changes in bodily condition show that this physical body is not real. The conscious mind also changes from thought to thought, and is even more illusory: one has just formed a plan and soon changes it; one has just made a vow and in a moment regresses—such is the impermanent changeability of the conscious mind. Only after relying on the tathāgatagarbha, when the conscious mind has acquired a certain degree of wisdom and meditative power, does it become somewhat more reliable; only the conscious mind of those with cultivation and realization is somewhat more dependable and stable.

What is constantly changing is the deluded mind, consisting mainly of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, never changes and has none of these thoughts and mental notions. Some will say: when I enter meditative concentration, my mind no longer changes and has no thoughts—this is the true mind, and realizing this unmoving mind is enlightenment. When sitting in meditation, is this thought-free mind the true mind? It is definitely not, because before entering concentration there were still deluded thoughts, and after a while when one emerges from concentration, deluded thoughts appear again—showing that this mind is subject to change. A mind that can change is illusory; it is the deluded mind. Only that mind which has never had thoughts or delusions, and will never in the future have deluded thoughts, is the true mind. To discern the true mind from the deluded mind, one must follow the principle of the unborn and unceasing: whatever is impermanent and changing, subject to arising and ceasing, is the deluded mind; only what is eternally constant and immovable in suchness (tathatā-acalita) under all circumstances is the true mind.