Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: How Bodhisattvas Subdue Their Minds

The Orthodox Doctrine of the Great Vehicle, Three: This chapter mainly discusses bodhisattvas breaking the four marks and eradicating the view of self regarding persons. This is the foundation and correct path of Mahāyāna bodhisattva practice, most crucial, hence this chapter is called the Orthodox Doctrine. Bodhisattvas teach, transform, and liberate the four kinds of birth, nine realms of existence, and twenty-five categories of sentient beings of the three realms, all entering nirvāṇa without remainder, yet they should not give rise to thought that is not in accord with reality, thinking that these sentient beings were liberated by me, that I have delivered so many sentient beings. A bodhisattva who thinks this way is not a true bodhisattva; a true bodhisattva should use the prajñā wisdom of ultimate reality that has been realized to break the four marks, with no mark of self, no mark of person, no mark of sentient being, and no mark of life span in the mind.

How do bodhisattvas subdue their minds?

Original text: 佛告须菩提。诸菩萨摩诃萨应如是降伏其心。

Explanation: The Buddha said to Subhūti: All bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should subdue their own minds in this way.

Mahā, in Chinese means "great." The great bodhisattvas in the sutras generally refer to bodhisattvas who have seen the mind and attained enlightenment and above, possessing the virtues of a sage. Strictly speaking, only bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis and above can be called great bodhisattvas, Mahāyāna bodhisattvas of the Dharmakāya, who have realized one part or more of the Buddha's Dharmakāya, possess one part or more of the wisdom of the tolerance of the non-arising of dharmas, possess one part or more of the wisdom of the varieties of paths, and possess the virtues and mental disposition of a noble one; they are also called partial realization of buddhahood.

The Buddha said that bodhisattva-mahāsattvas should subdue their own minds in this way, and the mind that can be subdued is certainly the deluded mind; the true mind has never given rise to thoughts, has no views or ideas, does not grasp at the six sense objects of the three realms, does not create bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and is pure and without afflictions, so there is no need to subdue it. But the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses has ignorance and afflictions, always attaches to marks and grasps at the myriad dharmas of the six sense objects, has the view of self and self-grasping regarding persons, the view of self and self-grasping regarding dharmas, and therefore needs to be subdued, eradicating its ignorance so that the virtuous function of wisdom can arise.

To subdue the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, one must understand the functions and roles of the seven consciousnesses. The eye consciousness sees forms, discerning coarse marks such as blue, yellow, red, white, long, short, square, round, large, and small; the mind consciousness simultaneously discerns fine marks such as good and bad, beautiful and ugly, charm and temperament, and in this process feelings of liking and disliking arise—suffering, happiness, or neither-suffering-nor-happiness—and then bodily, verbal, and mental actions appear. The ear consciousness hears sounds, discerning the pitch, distance, and direction of sounds; the mind consciousness simultaneously discerns categories and meanings, producing mental actions such as craving and aversion, giving rise to feelings of suffering, happiness, or neither-suffering-nor-happiness, and then bodily, verbal, and mental actions appear. The nose consciousness smells odors, discerning fragrance and stench and their directions; the mind consciousness simultaneously discerns the types and degrees of odors, giving rise to mental actions of liking and disliking, producing feelings of suffering, happiness, or neither-suffering-nor-happiness, and then bodily, verbal, and mental actions appear.

The tongue consciousness tastes flavors, discerning sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy; the mind consciousness discerns the types of food, their quality, and the degree of flavor, producing a mind of liking and disliking, giving rise to feelings of suffering, happiness, or neither-suffering-nor-happiness, and then bodily, verbal, and mental actions arise. The body consciousness feels tangible objects, discerning cold and heat, hunger and thirst, fullness, softness and hardness, etc.; the mind consciousness simultaneously discerns mental objects such as fatigue, tranquility, comfort, tiredness, and drowsiness, giving rise to mental actions of liking and disliking, producing feelings of suffering, happiness, or neither-suffering-nor-happiness, and then bodily, verbal, and mental actions arise. The mind consciousness discerns together with the preceding five consciousnesses, and can also discern independently—recalling the past, planning the future, analyzing, inferring, and judging—giving rise to feelings of suffering, happiness, sorrow, joy, and neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā), and producing the next bodily, verbal, and mental actions.

The manas is also mind, without shape or any appearance, also called the formless faculty; it has existed since beginningless kalpas and ceases when an arhat enters nirvāṇa without remainder. It is the consciousness of self-grasping; from beginningless kalpas it has constantly grasped at self, taking all dharmas as self and mine, grasping the functions of the first six consciousnesses as its own, grasping the functions of the eighth consciousness as its own, with greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) constantly manifesting; it is the root of karma creation, always directing the six consciousnesses to act according to its own habits. Practice mainly consists of cultivating and changing the manas. The manas is transformed once upon enlightenment and entering the first bhūmi, transformed once again at the eighth bhūmi, and at buddhahood is completely transformed into the wisdom of equality (samatā-jñāna); the mind consciousness becomes the wisdom of wondrous observation (pratyavekṣaṇā-jñāna), the first five consciousnesses become the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna), and the eighth consciousness becomes the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna). If one can eradicate the self-grasping nature of the manas and no longer grasp at self, then at the end of life one will extinguish one's own five aggregates and eighteen realms and enter nirvāṇa without remainder. What the Buddha said should be subdued is precisely these seven deluded minds.

Original text: 所有一切众生之类。若卵生。若胎生。若湿生。若化生。若有色。若无色。若有想、若无想。若非有想非无想。我皆令入无余涅盘。而灭度之。

Explanation: All categories of sentient beings—whether egg-born or womb-born sentient beings, or moisture-born and transformation-born sentient beings, or sentient beings with form and without form, or those with perception, without perception, and neither with perception nor without perception—I will cause them all to enter nirvāṇa without remainder and liberate them.

The sentient beings of the three realms are divided into four kinds of birth, nine realms of existence, and twenty-five categories. Egg-born refers to sentient beings who do not dwell in the mother's womb and are not born from parents; the manas carrying the Ālayavijñāna directly enters the eggshell, and when external conditions such as temperature are complete, the embryo grows and breaks out of the shell, like chickens, ducks, snakes, and birds. Womb-born refers to sentient beings who, in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava), with the manas carrying the Ālayavijñāna, enter the mother's womb; when the six faculties have grown and matured, they emerge from the womb. Womb-born includes all humans, most animals, some ghosts, and some asuras. Moisture-born refers to sentient beings with meager merit (alpa-puṇya) born under certain temperature and humidity conditions (such as in damp soil and air by watersides and seashores), like various insects and bacteria, and some asuras, etc.

Transformation-born refers to those who can be born through transformation, such as devas of the various heavenly realms, sentient beings of other lands, non-human beings of the ghost and spirit classes, hell beings, some asuras and a small portion of animals, and bodhisattvas and arhats with supernatural powers. Sentient beings with form refers to sentient beings of the desire realm and form realm who possess a material body. The material body is also called the aggregate of form—the physical form from the moment of conception in the fertilized egg until birth and final destruction; because the Ālayavijñāna and the first seven consciousnesses sustain it, the material body has various bodily, verbal, and mental actions and activities—this is called the aggregate of form; otherwise it would be a corpse and an inanimate thing, like plants and minerals.

The desire realm includes the six heavens, the human world, and the three evil paths; the form realm has eighteen heavens—the heavens of the first dhyāna to the fourth dhyāna comprise thirteen levels, plus the five Pure Abode heavens, including the Heaven of No Affliction (Atapa), the Heaven of No Heat (Atapa), the Heaven of Good View (Sudṛśa), the Heaven of Good Appearance (Sudarśana), and the Heaven of No Perception (Asaṃjñin). Anāgāmins of the third fruit cultivate in the five Pure Abode heavens; after exhausting the final afflictions and the craving for the three realms, they attain the fourth fruit of arhatship, and either enter nirvāṇa without remainder or turn their minds toward the Mahāyāna and take rebirth again to learn the bodhisattva path. Other sentient beings cultivating in the five Pure Abode heavens, weary of their material bodies, abandon the material body and ascend to the formless realm.

The formless realm has four heavens: the Heaven of the Sphere of Infinite Space, the Heaven of the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness, the Heaven of the Sphere of Nothingness, and the Heaven of Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception. Formless means no material body and no material form; sentient beings have only the mind consciousness, the manas, and the Ālayavijñāna existing, with the mind abiding unmoving in meditative concentration (samādhi). Sentient beings of the formless realm also cultivate the contemplation of emptiness, with the aim of entering nirvāṇa without remainder. But the principle of emptiness they rely on is not ultimate, so they cannot cultivate their way out and remain in the cycle of the six paths of rebirth. It was like the Buddha's non-Buddhist teacher Udraka Rāmaputra, who cultivated the highest meditative absorption of neither perception nor non-perception, thinking that having no perception in that absorption was the state of nirvāṇa; in fact, in that absorption there was still extremely subtle perception. As long as there is a deluded mind, one cannot escape the three realms and cannot attain liberation. After the Buddha attained the Way, he originally intended to deliver his teacher; looking with the divine eye, he saw that he had already been born in the Heaven of Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception and would not emerge from that absorption again. The Buddha sighed and said: After he descends from that heaven, he will fall into the three evil paths and suffer.

When the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, there was an old non-Buddhist practitioner, 120 years old, who had been Ānanda's father for five hundred lifetimes, and who had also cultivated the absorption of neither perception nor non-perception. The Buddha had Ānanda summon the old man, and then told him that in that absorption there was still subtle perception, and that that most subtle perceiving mind was also not the self; extinguishing it, one could escape the three realms and attain liberation, ending birth and death. Upon hearing this, the old man immediately realized the fourth fruit of arhatship, and said to the Buddha: I cannot bear to see the Buddha enter parinirvāṇa, so I will go first. Having said this, he entered nirvāṇa without remainder. Nirvāṇa without remainder means that sentient beings have severed the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping, no longer have any grasping, and are willing to abandon their own five aggregates and eighteen realms; in this way, suffering no longer has anything to depend on, so they depart from suffering and cast off suffering; having extinguished all suffering, they attain liberation and escape the three realms, with no self remaining. Bodhisattvas deliver the four kinds of birth, nine realms of existence, and twenty-five categories of sentient beings in the three realms, teaching and transforming them to become arhats of the fourth fruit, ending birth and death, so that at the end of life they can all enter nirvāṇa without remainder and attain liberation.

Original text: 如是灭度无量无数无边众生。实无众生得灭度者。

Explanation: The World-Honored One continued: Bodhisattvas liberate immeasurable, countless, boundless sentient beings in this way, yet in reality not a single sentient being is liberated—though delivering, no one is delivered.

Having liberated so many sentient beings, yet not one has been liberated—what does this mean? The meaning of "liberation" is the entry into nirvāṇa without remainder just discussed, which is completely abandoning and extinguishing the self of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms of the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses; then there are no sentient beings. With the five aggregates, one is a sentient being; without the five aggregates, one is not called a sentient being; without the eighteen realms, one is also not called a sentient being—that is, no sentient being is delivered; the Ālayavijñāna that remains alone is also not a sentient being. In this way, not a single sentient being has been delivered, and no sentient being has attained liberation. Even when the five aggregates and eighteen realms have not been extinguished, there are likewise no sentient beings, because the appearance of the five aggregates and eighteen realms is illusory; their existence is false existence, not real existence. There is no such thing as "the sentient being of sentient beings"—all are the appearance of the tathāgatagarbha, all are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha itself does not need to be delivered. So although immeasurable sentient beings are liberated, in reality not one is liberated. Bodhisattvas should deliver sentient beings in this way, without having the thought of delivering sentient beings.