The Profound Meaning of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra from the Consciousness-Only Perspective (Second Edition)

Chapter One  The Content and Overview of the Diamond Sutra

The Content of the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

Prajñā is the great wisdom that transcends the world, utterly different from worldly wisdom, and therefore it is not translated as "wisdom." Worldly wisdom is the wisdom for surviving within the world of the three realms: the wisdom in the human world of the desire realm in the various fields of politics, economics, humanities, science and technology, education, society, philosophy, and so on; the wisdom of the devas of the desire realm, who at all times enjoy pleasures and are at ease with superknowledges; the wisdom of the devas of the form realm, who abide in sublime states of meditative concentration (dhyāna), with no distinction of male and female and no need for food or drink, but only enjoying the bliss of dhyāna; and even the wisdom of the devas of the formless realm, who, though without physical bodies, possess profound dhyāna, their minds abiding in samādhi enjoying the blessings of concentration—all of these belong to the domain and wisdom-realm of the three realms of existence, and none of them transcends birth-and-death and saṃsāra.

But the transcendent wisdom—prajñā—is neither inside nor outside the three realms, and is not subsumed under the dharmas of the three realms; therefore prajñā is not directly translated as "wisdom," lest worldly people misunderstand and say, "We also have wisdom—lofty wisdom in the fields of politics, economics, culture, psychology, and every profession." But all these kinds of wisdom belong to the impermanent conditioned dharmas of the world that arise and cease; they are produced by the prajñā wisdom of the vajra mind (vajra-citta), and only by relying on prajñā wisdom can they exist and develop. The prajñā wisdom of the vajra mind is measureless and boundless in its vastness; the universe and empty space are within it. Measureless buddha-lands, measureless worlds of the lotus treasury, and measureless oceans of worlds are all established within empty space, all jointly manifested by the vajra minds—tathāgatagarbhas—of measureless, boundless sentient beings; this is called the one true dharma realm, and the ten dharma realms (the four sagely and six ordinary realms) are all produced by Him.

No matter how far humanity's spacecraft can fly, however far, they cannot fly beyond empty space, and empty space does not extend beyond the vajra prajñā mind. One buddha-land is called one trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold great world system), comprising one billion each of the southern Jambudvīpa, the northern Uttarakuru, the western Aparagodānīya, and the eastern Pūrvavideha; likewise there are one billion each of the four great oceans, the seven golden mountains, the hells, Mount Sumeru, the moon palace, and the sun palace; and one billion each of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the Yāma Heaven, the Tuṣita Heaven, the Nirmāṇarati Heaven, the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven, and the first-dhyāna heaven of the form realm—all are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, the substance of the vajra prajñā mind. Where could a spacecraft possibly fly to? Moreover, without the tathāgatagarbha sentient beings could not exist, let alone be able to make things like spacecraft; even commerce and politics, bearing and rearing children and propagating descendants—all undertakings whatsoever would have to cease. But prajñā wisdom can produce the myriad dharmas, trillions of dharmas, measureless dharmas—wisdom that the mind consciousness of worldly beings cannot imagine. Only a Buddha can completely and thoroughly understand the wisdom, functions, seeds, and virtues-marks of the tathāgatagarbha; therefore the Buddha is called the possessor of omniscience (sarvākārajñatā).

Pāramitā means "reaching the other shore." That shore has no birth and death, no suffering-feeling, blissful feeling, or any feeling at all. Our shore of the five aggregates is this shore of birth and death, being born and dying over and over without end, with the three sufferings (the suffering of suffering, the suffering of conditioned states, and the suffering of deterioration), the eight sufferings (the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death; the suffering of association with the hateful; the suffering of separation from the beloved; the suffering of not getting what one seeks; and the suffering of the blazing of the five aggregates), as well as measureless, boundless afflictions, delusions, karmas, and sufferings. The five aggregates are on this shore, arising and ceasing, ceasing and arising; because sentient beings cannot see through this, none of them ever feels weary of it, none has the mind of renunciation, none wishes to escape the ocean of suffering of birth and death.

But the tathāgatagarbha, the substance of the vajra mind, on that shore has never had the suffering and peril of birth and death; it existed from before beginningless kalpas, has never ceased for even a single instant, and in the future will never cease. It has no lifespan; even to speak of it as "infinite life" is to make it finite—He is infinite and again infinite, with neither lifespan nor life. He does not undergo suffering. When sentient beings fall into the Avīci hell, their physical bodies are as vast as the hell itself, with instruments of torture applied to every part, the pain so great that they have only the single thought of begging for death; yet his tathāgatagarbha does not feel the slightest pain, for He has no feelings corresponding to worldly dharmas, and therefore He has no suffering. When sentient beings ascend to the heavens to enjoy pleasures, the tathāgatagarbha never enjoys anything—He does not even glance at it (for He has no eyes); He does not know it or discriminate it, and has no physical body with which to enjoy it. When the deva's ears hear celestial music, He does not listen; when the nose smells celestial fragrances, He does not smell; when the tongue tastes ambrosia, He does not taste; when entering the jeweled pools to bathe, He does not touch; when the deva-son recollects the past and looks forward to the future, He does not think.

Such a pure mind, which does not create the slightest worldly karmic action (and yet it is not that He creates nothing—all that the five aggregates need is provided by Him, everything is transformed and generated by Him; He selflessly gives everything, yet never seeks the slightest reward)—how could He have birth and death? Whoever creates bodily, verbal, and mental actions undergoes birth and death; He does not undergo the suffering of birth and death. The body of the five aggregates creates karmic actions life after life, and of course it must have birth and death, with sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). Only by understanding the tathāgatagarbha and realizing His pure, unconditioned nature can one escape the suffering of birth and death, reach the other shore of nirvāṇa, and attain the bliss of quiescence and coolness.

An Overview of the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

The Diamond Sutra is the essence of the six hundred fascicles of the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra; the entire text expounds the true substance and nature of the indestructible vajra mind. The diamond (vajra) is the hardest treasure in the world—no one, with whatever force, can destroy it; on the contrary, it can destroy everything. Likewise, the tathāgatagarbha, like the vajra, cannot be destroyed, yet can annihilate all dharmas. How does He annihilate them? Because the indestructible vajra mind exists, even though all dharmas exist, they are still empty; and if the tathāgatagarbha withdraws the seeds of the seven great elements, all dharmas vanish immediately, and even the marks of illusory existence are extinguished. The World-Honored One's use of the nature of the vajra as a metaphor for the true-suchness mind-substance of every sentient being could not be more apt. The unborn-and-undying nature of the true-suchness mind-substance far surpasses the durability of the diamond; the diamond is a worldly material form, and when the world is destroyed, it too no longer exists. But the vajra mind, the tathāgatagarbha, is not destroyed along with the world, because the vajra mind tathāgatagarbha does not fear water—floods cannot submerge Him; does not fear fire—fire cannot burn Him; does not fear wind—wind cannot blow Him apart; the three calamities can do nothing to Him, and even the most modern weapons can do nothing to Him. The vajra minds of all sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions are all like this—unborn and undying, never destroyed.

Because the vajra mind exists, there is the birth and perishing of the five-aggregate physical bodies of sentient beings, life after life. Unless sentient beings eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), extinguish self-grasping, and completely sever all craving and attachment toward the three realms (the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm), and at the end of life enter nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), extinguishing the five aggregates and eighteen realms, only then will the five aggregates of future lives never arise again. But the substance of the vajra mind still does not perish; it exists independently, by itself, not relying on external conditions. Therefore the vajra mind is called the self-sufficient mind—it can exist alone without depending on other conditions, and needs no one to give birth to or manifest it. But although bodhisattvas attain the fruit of liberation, they do not enter the final station; bodhisattvas before the seventh bhūmi do not realize the fourth fruit, and so will not enter nirvāṇa without remainder; bodhisattvas must still, life after life, use the five-aggregate body to cultivate the buddha-path, benefiting themselves and benefiting others, until they become Buddhas, never ceasing their conduct of benefiting others.

Why can sentient beings who study Buddhism and cultivate practice become Buddhas? It is because of the cooperation of this vajra mind, which can store the seeds of wholesome karma; when the seeds are perfectly matured, one becomes a Buddha. Even bacteria too small to be seen by the naked eye possess this vajra mind. This mind is the true substance for becoming a Buddha, the Dharmakāya that gives birth to all dharmas. One sentient being has one vajra mind, and one vajra mind can accomplish one Buddha; since the worlds of the ten directions have measureless, boundless sentient beings, in the future there will be measureless, boundless World-Honored Buddhas. A physical body held and sustained by a vajra mind is called a sentient being, having the life activities of the five aggregates and bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Objects without a vajra mind operating in them personally, without consciousness-seeds being generated, are called insentient things; mountains, rivers, the great earth, flowers, grass, and trees have no five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, consciousness) and no bodily, verbal, or mental actions; they are not sentient beings, and therefore cannot become Buddhas.

The vajra mind is not the same as what the non-Buddhists call the soul or the like. Non-Buddhists also believe that sentient beings all have a mind-substance that never perishes and can go to future lives; but the mind-substance they refer to is, in terms of its nature, the mind consciousness, which arises and ceases and changes, which is suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self, and which has very strong discriminative tendencies toward good and evil; therefore it is not the ever-enduring vajra mind. The mind consciousness has times of ceasing: it ceases in sleep, ceases in a faint, ceases in the meditative absorption of no-perception, ceases also in the meditative absorption of cessation, and ceases even more at death. Since it can cease, it is not a real dharma and cannot go on to future lives.

The nature of the vajra mind is utterly different from the mind consciousness: it never perishes or is lost, not even for a single instant—otherwise sentient beings would die on the spot. He does not discriminate wholesome from unwholesome, true and false, good and bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha), or you, me, him, or it; He always accords with the mental activities of sentient beings, cooperates with the seven consciousnesses, makes great generosity (dāna) to sentient beings, seeks no reward whatsoever, and works throughout the future without dwelling in any dharma—selfless and without self. This is the Buddha-mind. He has measureless names; the definitive Buddhist sūtras everywhere describe Him, saying He is the mind of intrinsically pure self-nature, the tathāgatagarbha, the Ālayavijñāna, the Ādānavijñāna (retributive consciousness), the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), the eighth consciousness, true suchness, ultimate reality (dharmatā), the true limit, the fundamental limit, the unbounded, the one true dharma realm, and so on—too many to enumerate.

He pervades all the stages (the nine stages of the three realms), pervades all the places (the twelve sense bases, ṣaḍāyatana), pervades all the realms (the eighteen realms), pervades all times, and also pervades all dharmas. On whichever dharma He does not operate, that dharma does not exist. The worlds of the ten directions are all manifested by Him; there is not a single dharma not contained within His mind-substance. He is the Tathāgata Buddha; the myriad dharmas do not escape the palm of the Tathāgata Buddha's hand. The Buddha said in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: empty space is produced within your mind, just as a single cloud appears in the great sky—then how great must this mind be! But if there is a "great," it is still small; He is neither great nor small.

To realize where this mind appears, where it exists, and how it operates—that is the Chan school's enlightenment. If one merely understands the principles by following the words of the texts, without knowing exactly where He is, unable to observe how He operates and how He gives rise to the five aggregates, then it does not count as enlightenment; it is merely a similar understanding at the level of the mind consciousness. How should one, in studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, realize the vajra mind and clearly know the function of this mind? One must use the method of investigating Chan. Of the seventeen hundred public cases (gong'an) of the Chan school, every single one is a finger pointing at Him. From the records of the public cases of the great masters from the time of the Buddha and patriarchs down through the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, all are fingers pointing at the moon, with every sentence never departing from this mind.