Chapter Thirteen   Section Twelve: Reverence for the True Teaching

Original Text: Furthermore, Subhūti, wherever this sūtra is expounded, even a mere four-line verse of it, know that this place should be venerated by all beings in the world—gods, humans, and asuras—as they would venerate a stūpa or temple of the Buddha. How much more so if there is someone who can receive, uphold, read, and recite it in its entirety. Subhūti, you should know that such a person has attained the supreme, foremost, and most rare Dharma. Wherever this sūtra is present, there is the Buddha. It should be revered as one would revere the Buddha’s disciples.

Explanation: Furthermore, Subhūti, wherever the Diamond Sūtra is being expounded, even a mere four-line verse from it, it should be known that all beings in the world—gods, humans, and asuras—should come to make offerings to that place, just as they would make offerings to a stūpa or temple of the Buddha. How much more so if there is someone who is fully capable of receiving, upholding, reading, and reciting the Diamond Sūtra. Subhūti, you should know that this person has already attained the supreme, foremost, and most rare Dharma. Wherever this sūtra is present, there is the Buddha, and it should be revered like the Buddha’s disciples revere the Buddha.

Why does the Buddha say that wherever the Diamond Sūtra or its four-line verses are expounded, offerings should be made, and it should be venerated like a Buddha stūpa? This statement contains a great secret of the Dharma, a profound and esoteric meaning. If explained clearly and truthfully, this secret would be revealed, leading to serious consequences. Therefore, it can only be lightly touched upon here, not deeply expounded. In the Dharma, it is said: All phenomena are manifestations of the mind alone, transformed by consciousness. Nothing can be accomplished without the mind, and the mind that accomplishes things is not singular; both the true and the deluded participate together. Among them, the first transforming consciousness is the eighth consciousness, the diamond mind. It is the primary consciousness that generates all phenomena; Dharma-seeds are directly output from it. It possesses the five universal mental factors: contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition. It contacts the seeds, focuses the mind on the seeds, receives the seeds, discerns the seeds, and then outputs the seeds, manifesting phenomena corresponding to those seeds.

The second transforming consciousness is the mental faculty (manas). It first relies on the seeds, giving rise to the intention to create karmic actions. However, it cannot perform specific actions itself; it requires the third transforming consciousness, the mind consciousness, to carry out the specific execution according to its intentions. Upon knowing this, the eighth consciousness cooperates with the mental faculty and the mind consciousness to accomplish the desired actions. Therefore, wherever the Diamond Sūtra or its four-line verses are expounded, read, or recited, there is the presence of the diamond mind—this Buddha. Thus, offerings should be made. The offerings are made to the diamond mind, while the five-aggregate body is like a Buddha stūpa, within which the diamond mind—the Buddha—resides and upholds. Hence, making offerings to a place where the Diamond Sūtra is expounded is like making offerings to a Buddha stūpa. If there is someone who can fully receive, uphold, read, and recite the Diamond Sūtra, offerings should be made all the more.

What constitutes fully receiving and upholding the Diamond Sūtra? It refers to one who has realized the diamond mind. Such a person fully comprehends the entirety of the diamond mind, understands how the diamond mind produces the five aggregates, the eighteen elements, and the great chiliocosm, and knows the various functional seeds contained within the diamond mind. By this stage, one is already a Bodhisattva on the bhūmis (stages), and of course, should be venerated even more. One who has not realized the diamond mind cannot fully receive, uphold, read, and recite the diamond mind; their understanding of the nature of the diamond mind is vague and unclear—how could they fully receive and uphold it?

The Buddha tells Subhūti that this person who has realized the diamond mind and attained the wisdom of consciousness-only and seeds has already achieved the supreme, foremost, and most rare Dharma. Those who have cultivated to this level are, of course, extremely rare; there are not many in a great chiliocosm. A trichiliocosm is like a pyramid. At the pinnacle is the Buddha—only one, with no second or third. The Buddha’s right and left hands are the Bodhisattvas of Equal Enlightenment. Below them are the Bodhisattvas of the tenth bhūmi, ninth bhūmi, down to the first bhūmi, and further down to the seventh abiding Bodhisattvas who have just attained awakening. The lower the level, the more numerous they are; the higher the level, the fewer. Those who have just encountered the Buddha Dharma are the vast majority. Those who have never encountered the Buddha Dharma are even more numerous, and the beings in the three lower realms are beyond calculation. Among the immeasurable number of people who resolve to cultivate the Buddha Dharma, very few attain awakening, and those who enter the bhūmis (Bodhisattva stages) are exceedingly rare. Therefore, those who can fully receive, uphold, read, and recite the Diamond Sūtra should be venerated even more, and the merit generated from such veneration is immense.

The Buddha says that wherever the Diamond Sūtra is present, there the Buddha is present. The Diamond Sūtra is the diamond mind, and the diamond mind is the Buddha. Moreover, the formation and proclamation of this Diamond Sūtra cannot be separated from the diamond mind; the Buddha is still present, as it is all formed and manifested by the diamond mind. Therefore, it should be revered like the Buddha’s disciples revere the Buddha.