How Can One Return to the Original Time?

This single image alone can run through the entire Diamond Sutra: the four marks are gone, the three realms are gone, birth and death are gone, the Buddha's form is gone, the Buddha's dharma is gone, nirvāṇa is gone, liberation is gone, this shore is gone, the other shore is gone—everything is gone, leaving only a self-natured pure mind, solitary and silent, not existing within heaven and earth. Thus, attaining buddhahood is attaining nothing; only by attaining nothing can one become a Buddha. Practice is subtraction, a lightening of load; when everything has been subtracted, one becomes a Buddha—even the Buddha himself is subtracted. Practice itself does not exist either; those who study the Buddha and study the dharma are makers of trouble out of nothing, deluded and inverted beings. There is no Buddha to attain, no dharma to learn, and the one who speaks the dharma has no dharma to speak. From now on, if anyone forces the master to expound the dharma, just go up and give them a beating—what is there to talk about?

Classifying the Diamond Sutra among the prajñā scriptures truly underestimates its value. The Diamond Sutra is a genuine scripture for attaining buddhahood, a Yogācāra scripture—empty in one step, a Buddha in one step. Although all dharmas are empty, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment are empty, the bodhisattva's six pāramitās are empty, and the bodhisattva's ten pāramitās are empty, the bodhisattva does not dwell in the unconditioned nor abandon the conditioned—whatever needs to be done, he does it, fulfilling the six and ten pāramitās completely; otherwise there can be no emptiness, no lightening of the load. What does "lightening the load" mean? What is carried on the shoulders, borne on the back, held in the hands, and packed in the mind—all those things crammed full—must be unloaded, thrown away and discarded; all burdens are let go, all dharmas with marks and without marks are emptied out, abandoned and given up. Give, give, give—when giving is exhausted, one returns to the original state: possessing nothing, yet able to have everything.

How can one become empty? Can the mind consciousness ponder over these principles and, once it understands, become empty? Can the mind consciousness make the bordered cage of the hellish three realms vanish and become empty? Does the mind consciousness have such ability? Not at all. So do not use the mind consciousness to blindly ponder, blindly speculate, and blindly fumble about—wasting the mind consciousness costs you nothing.

Once the mind consciousness is set aside, use the manas directly. The moment the manas is engaged, meditative absorption (samādhi) appears; within samādhi all dharmas are empty—even emptiness itself is empty, not even a ghostly shadow is to be seen. Such is the power of the manas. Those who refuse to accept this and cling to the mind consciousness as supreme should go argue with King Yama; King Yama will let you see the real proof. Even the Buddha will not reason with you—only King Yama will receive you. If you cannot wait for King Yama, cause and effect will appear first, and retribution in this life will manifest—that is the most telling evidence. In the final analysis, cause and effect and retribution in this life are simply the tathāgatagarbha running the household and being in charge—the tathāgatagarbha has the final say. Even the Buddha does not have the final say; the Buddha does not manage affairs, and His power is not as great as that of the tathāgatagarbha.