Why Are All Dharmas Marks of Emptiness?

Original text of the Heart Sutra:色不异空，空不异色，色即是空，空即是色，受想行识也复如是，舍利子，是诸法空相不生不灭，不垢不净，不增不减。是故空中无色，无受想行识，无眼耳鼻舌身意，无色声香味触法，无眼界，乃至无意识界，无无明，也无无明尽，乃至无老死，也无老死尽，无苦集灭道，无智也无得。

Explanation: Why does the Heart Sutra contain all these "no's"? How can they be understood through Yogācāra? If this passage is explained using the principle of the seven great element seeds of Yogācāra, it becomes easy to understand. The dharmas of the five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness—are generated by the seven great element seeds within the tathāgatagarbha. From the perspective of worldly dharma-marks, it seems that the five aggregates and their functions exist; but in essence, they are all the seven great element seeds of the tathāgatagarbha and their operations, and therefore are all functions of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus the worldly appearance of the five aggregates and dharmas is in fact false appearance, all empty, and in reality nonexistent. Therefore, although the aggregate of form superficially exhibits worldly phenomena of arising and ceasing, at its root the arising of the aggregate of form is merely the transformation of the seven great element seeds, and the ceasing of the aggregate of form is likewise merely the transformation of the seven great element seeds. From beginning to end it is all the functioning of the seven great element seeds, and there is no real aggregate of form to speak of. By the same token, the four aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are also like this—they are all the ceaseless transformations of the seven great element seeds, and the four aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness have nothing to do with it.

Moreover, the functions of the seven great element seeds are precisely the functions of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha uses the seven great element seeds as raw material, splashing ink freely to transform and manifest the manifold world of the five aggregates. But no matter what, the marks of the world are all empty; the dharmas of the five aggregates have never arisen and never ceased, and the dharmas of the five aggregates cannot be spoken of as defiled or pure, because the raw material is the pure seven great element seeds. The marks of the dharmas of the five aggregates are empty; since they are empty, whatever one says about them is conceptual proliferation (prapañca). Thus the empty mark of the dharmas of the five aggregates is neither increasing nor decreasing—it has never moved, never arisen, and never ceased. And the supramundane dharma-mark of the tathāgatagarbha is also an empty mark, possessing no appearance whatsoever found in the world; He too neither arises nor ceases, is neither defiled nor pure (na saṃkleśo na vyavadānam), neither increases nor decreases.

Therefore it is said that within this emptiness-natured mind, this empty-marked mind of the tathāgatagarbha, there are no dharmas at all: no aggregate of form, no aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind, no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma, no eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, or mind consciousness, no ignorance. Nor is there any cessation of ignorance, no suffering, origination, cessation, or path, no twelve links of dependent origination, and ultimately no wisdom and no attainment. All worldly dharmas, in the final analysis, are the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, all attributes of the tathāgatagarbha.

To see marks is already a mistake; to see marks is the mind grasping at itself with its own mind, causing the tathāgatagarbha, which is not illusory, to become an illusory dharma. "If one sees that all marks are no-marks, one then sees the Tathāgata"—if one sees that the five aggregates are not the marks of the five aggregates, that there are no marks of the five aggregates, then one has seen the Tathāgata Buddha—the tathāgatagarbha. Merely seeing that marks are illusory is still not a sufficient level; from the perspective of Yogācāra dharma, illusory dharmas are simply empty—there are no such things as illusory dharmas. From the perspective of the one true dharma realm, when the one is true, all is true—there is no falsity; false dharmas are true dharmas. The illusory marks are in fact the true dharma, the tathāgatagarbha, dharmas of the one true dharma realm, possessing the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Only seeing in this way is ultimate. Having studied Yogācāra and applied Yogācāra, one will come to feel that everything learned previously was not ultimate, and that Yogācāra is the most ultimate Buddhadharma.