An Overview of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

The Diamond Sutra is the essence of the six hundred volumes of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra. Its entire text expounds upon the true nature of the indestructible vajra mind. Vajra is the hardest treasure in the mundane world, impervious to destruction by any force; conversely, it can destroy all things. Similarly, the Tathagatagarbha is indestructible like vajra, yet capable of annihilating all dharmas. How does it annihilate? With the presence of the indestructible vajra mind, all dharmas, though seemingly existent, are ultimately empty. If the Tathagatagarbha withdraws the seven great seeds, all dharmas instantly vanish, and even the illusory appearances cease. The World-Honored One’s analogy of the vajra nature to the true suchness mind-essence of every sentient being is most apt. The unborn and unceasing nature of the true suchness mind-essence far surpasses the solidity of vajra. Vajra is a mundane material form; when the world perishes, it too ceases to exist. Yet the vajra mind, the Tathagatagarbha, does not perish with the destruction of the world, for it fears not water—water cannot drown it; fears not fire—fire cannot burn it; fears not wind—wind cannot damage it. The three calamities cannot affect it, nor can the most modern weapons. The vajra minds of all sentient beings throughout the ten directions are likewise—unborn, unceasing, eternally indestructible.

Because the vajra mind exists, sentient beings undergo the repeated birth and death of the five skandhas’ form bodies life after life. Only when sentient beings sever the view of self, eradicate self-attachment, and exhaust all greed and clinging to the three realms (the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm) do they, at life’s end, enter the remainderless nirvana, extinguishing the five skandhas and eighteen elements, ensuring that the five skandhas of future lives never arise again. Yet the vajra mind-essence itself remains indestructible, existing alone, independent of external conditions. Therefore, the vajra mind is called the sovereign mind—it requires no dependence on other conditions to exist alone; it needs no one to birth or manifest it. However, Bodhisattvas, though realizing the fruit of liberation, do not enter the final stage. Before the seventh ground, if they do not attain the fourth fruit, they will not enter the remainderless nirvana. Bodhisattvas continue to utilize the five skandhas’ form bodies life after life to cultivate the Buddha Way, benefiting themselves and others, until Buddhahood, never ceasing their acts of benefiting others.

Why can sentient beings cultivate the Buddha Way and become Buddhas? It is because of the cooperation of this vajra mind, which stores the seeds of wholesome karma. When the seeds fully ripen, Buddhahood is attained. Even bacteria invisible to the naked eye possess this vajra mind. This mind is the true substance of Buddhahood, the Dharma Body that gives birth to all dharmas. One sentient being has one vajra mind; one vajra mind can accomplish one Buddha. Throughout the ten directions, there are immeasurable, boundless sentient beings; thus, in the future, there will be immeasurable, boundless Buddha World-Honored Ones. Physical bodies sustained by a vajra mind are called sentient beings, possessing the life activities of the five skandhas and bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Objects without a separate vajra mind performing functions directly, or without consciousness-seeds giving rise to them, are called insentient things. Mountains, rivers, earth, flowers, plants, and trees lack the five skandhas (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) and have no bodily, verbal, or mental actions; they are not sentient beings and therefore cannot become Buddhas.

The vajra mind differs from entities like the soul posited by non-Buddhist paths. Non-Buddhists also believe that sentient beings possess an eternally indestructible mind-essence that can go to future lives. However, the mind-essence they refer to, in terms of its nature, is the conscious mind—subject to birth, cessation, and change; characterized by suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self; strongly discriminating good and evil. Therefore, it is not the eternally abiding vajra mind. The conscious mind ceases—it ceases during sleep, during coma, upon entering the state of no-thought, upon entering the state of cessation, and certainly upon death. Since it can cease, it is not a true dharma and cannot go to future lives.

The nature of the vajra mind is utterly distinct from consciousness; it never perishes, not even for an instant—otherwise, sentient beings would instantly die. It does not discriminate good or evil, right or wrong, self or other. It always accords with the mental actions of sentient beings, cooperates with the seven consciousnesses, performs great acts of giving for sentient beings without seeking any reward, works ceaselessly throughout the future without abiding in any dharma, selfless and egoless—this is the Buddha mind. It has innumerable names. Definitive meaning sutras everywhere describe it, calling it the inherently pure mind, Tathagatagarbha, Alaya-vijnana, maturing-consciousness, immaculate consciousness, eighth consciousness, true suchness, true reality, ultimate reality, fundamental reality, boundless, the one true Dharma Realm, and so on—too numerous to list.

It pervades all places (the three realms and nine stages), pervades all bases (the twelve sense bases), pervades all elements (the eighteen elements), pervades all times, and pervades all dharmas. Any dharma without its functioning does not exist. The worlds of the ten directions are all manifested by it; not a single dharma lies outside its mind-essence. It is the Tathagata Buddha; no dharma has ever gone beyond the palm of the Tathagata Buddha’s hand. The Buddha states in the Shurangama Sutra: “Space within your mind is like a single cloud dotting the vast clear sky.” How immense, then, must this mind be! Yet speaking of it as large or small is inadequate—it is neither large nor small.

Realizing where this mind appears, where it abides, and how it functions constitutes the awakening in Chan Buddhism. If one merely intellectually understands the principle without knowing its specific location, unable to observe how it functions or how it gives rise to the five skandhas, this is not awakening but merely a conceptual understanding at the level of consciousness. How can one practicing the Buddha Way realize the vajra mind and understand its functions? One must use the method of Chan investigation. The over seventeen hundred gongans of the Chan school are each fingers pointing to it. From the time of the Buddha’s presence in the world down to the records of the great masters of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the gongans are all fingers pointing to the moon—every sentence points to this mind.