The Essential Purport of the Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā Sūtra)

Looking at the Diamond Sutra as a whole, its purport is to break through marks, break through marks, break through marks—breaking through all marks. It begins by breaking the four marks, and breaks through all dharma-marks. The scope of these dharma-marks is boundless and immeasurable: whatever sentient beings can touch, see, think of, imagine, or discuss is a non-mark, including all dharmas and all marks in the mundane world and the three realms—the mark of self, the mark of person, the mark of sentient being, the mark of life span, the mark of the śrāvaka, the mark of the pratyekabuddha, the mark of the bodhisattva, the Buddha's thirty-two marks and his complete physical form, the mark of the Tathāgata, the mark of the great body; the mark of lands, the mark of dust motes, the mark of worlds, the mark of the one composite; the mind-marks of sentient beings, the mark of bodhisattvas' bodhicitta, the mark of bodhisattvas adorning lands, the mark of bodhisattvas delivering sentient beings, the mark of all Buddhas preaching the Dharma, the mark of all Buddhas attaining the Dharma, the mark of all Buddhas attaining bodhi, the mark of the bodhisattvas' six pāramitās; and even the mark of prajñā-pāramitā, the mark of Buddha-dharma, the mark of the true reality of all dharmas, and so on and so forth. All marks are non-marks—non-non-marks; not dharma, not non-dharma.

Upon what basis are all these marks broken? The basis is the unborn and unceasing vajra mind. Because this indestructible vajra mind exists, all the dharma-marks it gives rise to are non-marks, and to state it more comprehensively, they are also non-non-marks. Therefore, the vajra prajñā mind is also called the great dhāraṇī gate of one mark and no-mark, which upholds all marks and embraces all dharmas, causing all dharmas to be without self-nature and without self-mark—all dharmas are not dharma and not non-dharma; the world is empty, void, and illusorily empty.

The process and result of breaking through marks in the Diamond Sutra echo from afar Guanyin Bodhisattva's Dharma gate of perfect penetration through the ear faculty: it empties everything that can be emptied, leaving only the vajra prajñā mind that can never be emptied no matter what—on the other shore, yet not the other shore, nor not the other shore—solitary and without companion, yet it is the one true dharma realm.

The Diamond Sutra also echoes from afar all the prajñā sūtras and Mahāyāna sūtras, mutually corroborating one another without the slightest discord: apart from emptiness there is only emptiness; emptiness carried to its end is non-emptiness, non-non-emptiness. Can worldly people understand and accord with this? If they do accord with it, are there still any marks in their minds, is there still anything they grasp? Of course, in between lies a path of actual realization spanning three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, requiring the breaking of marks one by one—breaking them all and restoring the original state, returning home to sit in stability, yet by then there is no home to return to, no ground to sit on, and no body with which to sit. Is this not a naked, utterly empty great Dharma gate of liberation? It certainly is—having been liberated from the bondage of all dharmas. So may worldly people quickly break through all kinds of marks! Quickly free themselves from all kinds of entanglements! Quickly cast off every burden!