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

Chapter 28: No Cessation, No Annihilation, Twenty-Seven

Original text: 须菩提。汝若作是念。如来不以具足相故。得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。须菩提。莫作是念。如来不以具足相故。得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

Explanation: Subhūti, if you have such a thought in your mind, believing that the Tathāgata did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi because of possessing the complete marks, then quickly extinguish this thought. Subhūti, do not have such a thought, believing that the Tathāgata did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi because of possessing the immeasurable adorned major and minor marks. Subhūti, it is precisely because the Tathāgata possessed the immeasurable adorned major and minor marks that He attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Because sentient beings have shallow wisdom, they cannot comprehensively and harmoniously understand all dharmas, and their views become biased and deficient. Therefore, when sentient beings see the World-Honored One breaking through the four marks, breaking through the marks of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, and also breaking through the thirty-two marks of the Tathāgata, some people will think that the Tathāgata attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi as if He could attain bodhi and accomplish the Buddha Way without possessing all the marks; that those marks are optional and unimportant, and one can become a Buddha even without complete marks; that one can become a Buddha even without perfecting all merits; or they think that buddhahood is not accomplished in terms of marks, that marks are unimportant and optional; that becoming a Buddha does not require all marks, does not require the marks of the five aggregates, does not require the thirty-two marks; that the Buddha has no body of the five aggregates and is only a mind. All such thoughts and views are slandering the Buddha, similar to the thought of annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), harming oneself and others, and one's practice will not achieve success. The Tathāgata had to address these wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) and correct them, so as to protect sentient beings' views from being biased, and to walk in what is correct and true.

Why is it the thought of annihilatory emptiness to believe that the Tathāgata could attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi without possessing all the marks? Because with such a thought, one would neglect or deny the existence and functioning of the mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), the tathāgatagarbha, and deny the real existence of the tathāgatagarbha's functions and roles—this is annihilationism. Every bodhisattva, when practicing the bodhisattva path at the causal stage, stores every wholesome karma he cultivates as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha. When the conditions are complete, he will sequentially receive the retributions of wholesome karma, great and small, and even the retribution of buddhahood is inexhaustible, and the retributions become ever more supreme. These retributions include the adornment and major and minor marks of the bodhisattva's physical body of the five aggregates, include the environment in which the bodhisattva lives and the Buddha-land he inhabits, include all the disciples and close relatives under the bodhisattva's seat, include all the bodhisattva's meditative concentrations (samādhi) and immeasurable supernatural powers; most importantly, they include the bodhisattva's boundless wisdom and virtues and abilities, as well as the purification and transformation of the karmic seeds in the bodhisattva's tathāgatagarbha.

Thus, when the bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, the karmic seeds have been completely transformed and purified without remainder, and ignorance has been severed without remainder; therefore the eight consciousnesses can be transformed into the four wisdoms. When the four wisdoms are perfectly luminous, the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) manifests. The Buddha's four wisdoms are the Buddha's eight consciousnesses. Since the Buddha has eight consciousnesses, He has the five aggregates; otherwise the eight consciousnesses would have no place of support. The Buddha's five aggregates are complete with the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks because of the Buddha's cultivation of wholesome dharmas throughout three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas; all the seeds of wholesome karma are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and when the conditions ripen and He becomes a Buddha, the seeds manifest, so that the appearance of the five aggregates is extremely adorned with major and minor marks, perfectly complete with the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks, incomparable and supremely excellent.

If one says that when the Buddha attained buddhahood, He did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi by means of the complete adorned major and minor marks, there is a great fault. First, it would cause sentient beings to mistakenly believe that the Buddha does not possess the seeds of wholesome karma cultivated over immeasurable kalpas. In fact, during the Buddha's cultivation over immeasurable kalpas, He perfectly cultivated all wholesome karma, and the seeds are all stored in the Buddha's tathāgatagarbha, so that upon attaining buddhahood He would resonate with the most supreme adorned major and minor marks. Second, it would cause sentient beings to mistakenly say that even after attaining buddhahood, the adorned major and minor marks were not resonated with, perhaps because the Buddha's tathāgatagarbha did not store the seeds of wholesome karma. But the fact is that as long as the tathāgatagarbha exists, it naturally and invariably stores the seeds of wholesome karma without the slightest omission.

Third, it would cause sentient beings to mistakenly say that neither the Buddha nor sentient beings have a tathāgatagarbha, that the tathāgatagarbha is only an expedient teaching, and therefore it did not store all the seeds of wholesome karma cultivated by the Buddha during His practice, so that when the Buddha attained buddhahood, He did not possess the adorned major and minor marks. Based on the above faults, we should say that the Buddha attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi because of possessing the complete marks.

If one says that when the Buddha attained buddhahood, He did not resonate with the retribution of the seeds of wholesome karma, that there were no seeds of wholesome karma, then it is tantamount to saying that the Buddha fundamentally has no tathāgatagarbha. This is the most fundamental and most serious false teaching and wrong view, the fundamental thought of annihilationism, extremely harmful to people, and such wrong views should be quickly eliminated. One should firmly believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists and has real functions and roles, capable of storing the seeds of wholesome karma cultivated by Buddhas and bodhisattvas over immeasurable kalpas; in the future when they attain buddhahood, these seeds of wholesome karma will all manifest, and the Buddha will receive the supreme retribution of adorned major and minor marks and attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. If there were no tathāgatagarbha, the seeds of wholesome karma could not be stored, and at the time of attaining buddhahood the seeds of wholesome karma could not manifest; the Buddha could not possess the complete marks, and then He would not yet be a Buddha and would not yet have attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

By now everyone should understand: if one says that when the Buddha accomplished the Buddha Way, He did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi because of possessing the thirty-two marks, that is annihilationism denying the real existence of the tathāgatagarbha, and it would entail immeasurable great faults. Therefore, the World-Honored One, in the manner of exhorting Subhūti, indirectly exhorted all sentient beings not to have the thought of annihilationism, and not to think that the Buddha attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi not by means of possessing the complete marks. One should say that the Buddha attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi because of possessing the complete marks; only thus does it accord with the Buddha's teaching, fit the essence of the Buddha-dharma, and not contradict the Mahāyāna dharma of ultimate reality.

Original text: 须菩提。汝若作是念。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。说诸法断灭。莫作是念。何以故。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。于法不说断灭相。

Explanation: Subhūti, if you have such a thought in your mind, believing that a person who has raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi would say that all dharmas are annihilatory emptiness, fundamentally nonexistent, that at the time of buddhahood there are no dharmas and one does not possess the marks of all dharmas, then you should quickly eliminate such a thought and not have such a notion. Why should one not have such a notion? Because a person who has raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is able to raise the mind for buddhahood precisely because he believes in and accepts the mind of ultimate reality that is never annihilated; he would not again say that all dharmas are annihilated.

A person who genuinely aspires to become a Buddha has, at this point, fulfilled the conditions of a bodhisattva at the stage of faith; he has already become firmly convinced, without doubt, that every sentient being has the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which is unborn and undying; he believes that all the Buddhas of the ten directions have the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and that only by cultivating in accordance with this tathāgatagarbha can one attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. He believes that he himself also has the existence of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and that in the future he can also realize the tathāgatagarbha and, like all the Buddhas, become a Buddha; the sentient beings of the worlds in the ten directions, because they have the unborn and undying vajra mind (vajra-citta), the tathāgatagarbha, can all likewise become Buddhas. Because he gives rise to such faith, the ten stages of faith are fulfilled, and he enters the ten stages of abiding and begins to cultivate the six pāramitās, the bodhisattva practices. If one does not believe that one's own body has a tathāgatagarbha, does not believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists, then his faith in the Buddha, in the Dharma, and in the Three Jewels is not yet fulfilled, the cultivation of the ten stages of faith is not yet complete, and he cannot genuinely raise the resolve for the path toward buddhahood.

A person whose ten stages of faith are not fulfilled cannot yet believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists; they often think that the tathāgatagarbha is merely a false name, just a concept. They think that the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha means the tathāgatagarbha does not exist, that the concept of the tathāgatagarbha is an expedient fabrication of all the Buddhas. Because they cannot correctly understand the meaning of what the Buddha taught, they misunderstand all the definitive, ultimate dharma (nītārtha) taught by the Buddha as the Buddha's expedient teachings, expedient dharmas. They merely have not openly said that the Buddha was toying with sentient beings for fun—ordinary people dare not say this openly—but in substance that is exactly what it means. This thought is slandering the Buddha and slandering the Dharma, treating all the Buddha's definitive and ultimate teachings as the Buddha's non-definitive, non-ultimate dharmas, gravely distorting the Buddha's true meaning. The evil karma of sentient beings slandering the Buddha and the Dharma exists universally; this is not surprising—it is all due to sentient beings' cultivation over the kalpas being too short and their merit being insufficient.

As long as one denies the true existence of the tathāgatagarbha, that it is truly existent, that is annihilatory emptiness rhetoric, and the harm is extremely great. Because without the tathāgatagarbha, all dharmas could not arise; they would all be annihilated, and everything would end once and for all. Those who hold annihilationism often say that all dharmas arise through dependent origination and are empty in nature, that all are produced by causes and conditions, that all are empty, and that no dharma is real. But since all are empty and there is no real tathāgatagarbha dharma existing, then from what do all dharmas arise? One cannot say that an empty dharma possessing nothing can give birth to another empty dharma possessing nothing—there is no such principle. Just as a turtle's hair, being an empty, non-existent dharma, cannot give birth to an empty, non-existent dharma such as a rabbit's horns, because neither has any substance. Only a dharma that has substance and self-nature can give birth to dharmas without substance and without self-nature. A dharma without substance and without self-nature cannot give birth to other dharmas—this is the principle of how things naturally and invariably are; there is nothing more to explain.

If all dharmas arise through dependent origination and are empty in nature, and there is no substantial dharma of the tathāgatagarbha existing, then the five-aggregate worlds of sentient beings would cease and never arise again, there would be no birth in future lives, and one could certainly not cultivate to become a Buddha. To put it in the most extreme case, even if there were the birth of five aggregates in a future life, because there would be no tathāgatagarbha to store sentient beings' karmic seeds, the wholesome karma cultivated by sentient beings would be wasted in vain, and the seeds could not be collected and stored. If the seeds of wholesome karma cannot be collected and stored, cultivation is useless and will not produce the retribution of wholesome karma in future lives, let alone resonate with the more perfect retribution of wholesome karma at the time of attaining buddhahood; there would be no Buddha's thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks, no Buddha's various supreme merits and functions, no Buddha's Buddha-lands in the ten directions, no Buddha's adorned Sambhogakāya, no Buddha's immeasurable Nirmāṇakāya, no Buddha's immeasurable supernatural powers and powers of the path, no doctrine of transforming consciousnesses into wisdoms, and even less would there be the Buddha's wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā).

Why is it said that without the existence of a substantial tathāgatagarbha, the consciousnesses cannot be transformed into wisdoms? Because if the wholesome karmic seeds resulting from the seven consciousnesses' lifetime of cultivation, in which the mental activities are transformed from defiled to pure, cannot be stored, then in the next life they would still be defiled; the cultivation would be done in vain, with no real benefit, and the defiled nature of the seven consciousnesses would not have undergone transformation. Then at the stage of buddhahood, there would still be defiled seven consciousnesses; the karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses would not have transformed and the mental activities would not have been purified, and one could not become a Buddha. Therefore, without the true existence of a substantial tathāgatagarbha performing its corresponding meritorious functions, sentient beings cannot attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, a person who has genuinely raised the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi does not speak of the mark of annihilation with regard to dharmas, does not say that the tathāgatagarbha is merely a hypothetical, false dharma, and does not say that there is no true existence of the mind-body of the tathāgatagarbha.