Why Can One Not See the Tathāgata by Bodily Marks?

The Buddha replied: The bodily marks that the Tathāgata speaks of are not bodily marks (they are merely called bodily marks). Whether it is the bodily marks of sentient beings or the bodily marks of the Tathāgata, none of them is real, neither arising nor ceasing, forever unchanging; they are provisionally named bodily marks, and therefore they cannot represent sentient beings, nor can they represent the Tathāgata. If one takes bodily marks as sentient beings and bodily marks as the Tathāgata, then when the bodily marks cease, the sentient beings vanish, and the Tathāgata also disappears. Yet the Tathāgata is eternal and unchanging, never ceasing.

The Tathāgata is also the nature-attribute of a Buddha, the true suchness mind-essence of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. He is without marks, without the characteristics of a physical body, without bodily marks. Therefore, taking bodily marks as the Tathāgata is a great misunderstanding; in this way one cannot see the Tathāgata. To see the Tathāgata, one must, through bodily marks, see the nature-attribute, and see the markless true essence. The markless is real; the marked is false, provisionally named, provisionally called bodily marks. Then how does this bodily mark come about? It is the retributive body of the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics, brought about by the wisdom, merit, and virtue accumulated through the Buddha's cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, manifested by the Buddha's true suchness undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). It is a body of arising and ceasing that comes from nonexistence into existence; therefore it is illusory and unreal—it is not the Tathāgata, not the true Buddha.

Then how can one see the Tathāgata, see the true Buddha? The Buddha gave a four-line verse as the answer: All marks are false and illusory; if one sees that all marks are no-marks, then one sees the Tathāgata. The answer is the result; the process of obtaining the answer is Chan investigation (canchan). The prerequisite is the full possession of precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, the perfection of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, and even more, the full possession of the Small Vehicle's thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, because if the Small Vehicle cannot realize it, the Great Vehicle certainly cannot realize it either.

"All marks" refers to all marks: the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of sentient beings, the mark of a life span, the marks of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), marks of events, marks of objects, marks of mind, marks of dharmas—without exception they are all no-marks, all false and illusory, not truly existing; they are produced and conjured forth by the vajra mind (vajra-citta); they are false marks. If one wishes to see the Tathāgata, to see the vajra prajñā mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), one must, through Chan investigation, investigate on all marks what the essence of these marks actually is, why all these marks exist, and why all these marks arise and cease. When the investigation is thorough and one realizes the vajra prajñā mind, one will know that all these marks are empty and without self-nature, that none of them is the mark of the essence, that there is no mark of substance, no mark of the essence itself—all are the functions and operations of the vajra mind.

It is like the wind blowing and the tree swaying: the tree itself cannot sway; the phenomenon of swaying is not a phenomenon of the tree itself but the force of the wind's action. Thus when the mark of the wind blowing appears and the wind is realized, the mark of the tree swaying is broken through. Likewise, within all marks one can realize the vajra mind and the wondrous true suchness nature, thereby breaking through all marks and realizing that all marks are no-marks; yet this vajra mind is markless, and the wondrous true suchness nature is also markless. This is the profound meaning of what the Buddha said: if one sees that all marks are no-marks, then one sees the Tathāgata. If one sees all marks as all marks, that is an ordinary person with flesh eyes; if one sees that all marks are not all marks, yet are provisionally called all marks, that is a sagely bodhisattva. Although all marks are provisionally named all marks, the false marks still exist, the illusory functions still exist, and cannot be entirely extinguished; therefore all marks are no-marks, and not no-marks—free from the four propositions, cut off from the hundred negations.