Commentary on the Diamond Sutra: What Is the Mark of Self?

The self that sentient beings believe in is taking the five aggregates and eighteen realms as the self, believing it to be real, when in fact it is not. The five aggregates include the aggregate of form (rūpa), the aggregate of feeling (vedanā), the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā), the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra), and the aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna). The aggregate of form is the physical body, beginning from the fertilized egg after conception, growing into a fetus, infant, child, adolescent, youth, middle-aged person, and elderly person's body. It is constantly changing, arising and ceasing; whatever exhibits the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing is impermanent, false, illusory, and suffering—it is not the real self.

The aggregate of feeling is sensation, mainly referring to the mind consciousness being able to feel suffering, happiness, and neither suffering nor happiness. There is feeling when the eye sees forms, feeling when the ear hears sounds, feeling when the nose smells scents, feeling when the tongue tastes flavors, feeling when the body feels tangibles, and feeling when the mind discerns dharmas. These feelings arise and cease in constant flux. When suffering is excessive, the mind becomes numb and no longer feels the suffering, which then turns into the feeling of neither suffering nor happiness. When suffering diminishes a little, the mind feels glad—for example, if one is beaten thirty strokes a day, one would be happy when one day it is reduced to fifteen strokes; when happiness is excessive, it is no longer happiness and becomes neither suffering nor happiness. The aggregate of feeling disappears at death, in coma, in the attainment of the concentration of no perception, in the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, and in dreamless sleep. It is impermanent and changing, arising and ceasing, suffering, and not the real self.

The aggregate of perception is the mind taking signs as perception—discerning, distinguishing, planning, intending, deliberating, and judging; in short, it is delusive thinking. There is perception in five circumstances: when the eye sees forms, there is perception, discerning blue, yellow, red, and white, long and short, square and round, coarse and fine, with mental analysis, deliberation, and judgment. When the ear hears sounds, there is perception, discerning the pitch, coarseness, and distance of sounds—male voices, female voices, animal sounds, cosmic sounds, the sounds of valleys and rivers—and simultaneously analyzing, inferring, judging, and planning. When the nose smells scents, there is perception, discerning the types, degrees, directions, and distances of fragrant and foul odors, with analysis, deliberation, judgment, planning, and intending. When the tongue tastes flavors, there is perception, discerning sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and so on. When the body feels tangibles there is perception, and when the mind discerns dharmas there is even more perception. This aggregate of perception ceases at death, in coma, in the attainment of the concentration of no perception, in the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, and in dreamless sleep. It is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, illusory, unreal, and suffering; what is suffering is not the self.

The aggregate of formations refers to the flow of time, the transformation of space, and the change of location, including bodily, verbal, and mental actions. All moving, non-static activities belong to the aggregate of formations: breathing, heartbeat, pulse, the flow of blood, the movement of limbs, coming and going, stopping and moving, speech, mental activity, and all such conditioning activities. Seeing forms with the eye is formation; hearing sounds with the ear is formation; smelling scents, feeling tangibles, and the mind discerning dharmas are all the aggregate of formations. It ceases at the time of entering nirvāṇa and in the state of actual death. It too is arising and ceasing, changing moment by moment without stop—impermanent, illusory, suffering, and unreal—therefore it is not the self.

The aggregate of consciousness includes the six consciousnesses: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness, which mainly perform the function of discrimination and discernment. The eye consciousness discerns the outward appearance of material sense-objects, the coarse part, while the mind consciousness simultaneously discerns the subtle aspects; the ear consciousness discerns sound objects, distinguishing the general, coarse parts, while the mind consciousness simultaneously makes fine discriminations; the nose consciousness smells scents, discerning the coarse aspects, while the mind consciousness discerns the subtle aspects; the tongue consciousness tastes flavors, discerning the coarse aspects, while the mind consciousness discerns the subtle aspects; the body consciousness feels tangibles, discerning the coarse aspects, while the mind consciousness discerns the subtle aspects. The aggregate of consciousness ceases in dreamless sleep, coma, the attainment of the concentration of no perception, the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, and the state of actual death. It is subject to arising, ceasing, change, and impermanence—illusory, suffering, and unreal—therefore it is not the self. In summary, the five aggregates are subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

The eighteen realms include the six faculties, six sense-objects, and six consciousnesses. The six faculties are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental faculties. The eye faculty is divided into the gross physical sense organ and the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda), composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. The grape-like structure on the outside of the body is called the gross physical sense organ, also known as the external eye faculty. The occipital lobe cortex of the brain at the back of the head, connected by the optic nerves and governing vision, is the supreme faculty, on which the eye consciousness depends, and there the eye consciousness arises. If the supreme faculty is damaged, even if the eye faculty is intact, one cannot see forms; this is called being blind with open eyes. The eye faculty is formed in the fertilized-egg stage by the tathāgatagarbha absorbing the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind (nutrients) from the mother's body. It is a dharma of arising and ceasing, an impermanent dharma, an illusory dharma, and suffering; therefore it is not-self.

The ear faculty is divided into the gross physical sense organ and the supreme faculty. The one visible to all on the outside of the body, shaped like a newly curled leaf, is called the gross physical sense organ. The cerebral cortex at the back of the brain, connected by the auditory nerves and governing hearing, is called the supreme faculty, on which the ear consciousness depends, and there the ear consciousness arises. The ear faculty is formed in the embryo by the tathāgatagarbha absorbing nutrients from the mother's body. It is a dharma of arising and ceasing, an impermanent and illusory dharma, suffering and not-self.

The nose faculty is divided into the gross physical sense organ and the supreme faculty. The gross physical sense organ is on the surface of the body, shaped like a pair of olfactory bulbs or a hanging gallbladder; it is the receptor for odors. After receiving odors, they are transmitted via the olfactory nerves to the cerebral cortex, where the nose consciousness arises and only then can one distinguish fragrant from foul. The cerebral cortex at the back of the head is the supreme faculty, governing the sense of smell, on which the nose consciousness depends. The nose faculty is also formed in the fertilized-egg stage by the tathāgatagarbha. It is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, illusory, and suffering—it is not the self.

The tongue faculty is composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, transformed and generated in the fertilized-egg stage by the tathāgatagarbha, and is divided into the gross physical sense organ and the supreme faculty. Outside the body, visible upon opening the mouth, the half-moon-shaped one is the gross physical sense organ; it is the receptor for taste, transmitted via the gustatory nerves to the cerebral cortex, where the tathāgatagarbha generates the tongue consciousness to discriminate the various taste objects. The cerebral cortex at the back of the head is the supreme faculty. The tongue faculty is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory and impermanent, suffering, and thus not-self.

The body faculty is created by the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, an aggregation of thirty-six substances. The external appearance consists of twelve: hair, body hair, nails, teeth, eye discharge, tears, saliva, spittle, feces, urine, grime, and sweat. The body's vessels are twelve: skin, flesh, blood, muscle, sinews, vessels, bones, marrow, fat, grease, brain, and membranes. The internal category is twelve: liver, gallbladder, intestines, stomach, spleen, kidneys, heart, lungs, raw viscera, cooked viscera, red phlegm, and white phlegm. The skin and muscles of every part, down to the internal organs, all have sensation, transmitted via the nerves to the spinal cord and then to the cerebral cortex, where body consciousness is produced and only then can tangibles be felt. The cerebral cortex is the supreme faculty, located at the back of the head; if this part is damaged, the entire body becomes paralyzed and the person becomes a vegetable. The gross physical sense organ is like a barrel of flesh, visible to the human eye, and is thus called the gross physical sense organ. The body faculty is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, illusory, and suffering; therefore it is not-self.

The manas is a spiritual entity, a mind, not matter. It has existed since beginningless kalpas and ceases when an arhat enters nirvāṇa. It is constantly conjoined with afflictions; all its mental activity is "me" and "mine." It has the constant, scrutinizing, and deliberating (manana) function of discernment, constantly grasping the first six consciousnesses as the self outside itself, and constantly grasping the eighth consciousness as the self within itself; it is the defiled manas. Moment by moment it deliberates and acts as the sovereign, making decisions, with very strong grasping nature. It relies on the six consciousnesses to discriminate specific sense-objects, and is the root cause of generating delusion and creating karma. Only through cultivation, changing its defiled nature into a pure nature and exhausting its grasping at itself, can liberation be attained. It too is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, empty, and suffering—it is also not the self.

Next are the six sense-objects of form, sound, scent, flavor, touch, and dharma. Form objects are divided into outer material sense-objects and inner material sense-objects. Outer material sense-objects are composed of the combined four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, including the cosmic inanimate world—Mount Sumeru, the heavenly palaces of the various heavens, the seven golden mountains, the four great oceans, the four great continents, and so on—jointly and harmoniously created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma, constituting the living environment of sentient beings. Only with an environment can sentient beings with karmic affinity be reborn there to receive karmic retribution; when the affinity ceases, the cosmic inanimate world gradually deteriorates, and sentient beings are reborn in other inanimate worlds with which they have affinity. Therefore outer material sense-objects are subject to arising, ceasing, change, and impermanence; they are illusory dharmas, empty and not-self.

Inner material sense-objects: the sentient being's tathāgatagarbha, through the eye faculty contacting outer material sense-objects, generates an identical shadow signal, transmitted through the retina and optic nerves to the cerebral cortex, forming a false form completely identical to the outer form—this is the inner material sense-object. It is also a shadow, not real matter; real material form cannot contact the eye faculty, nor can it be transmitted through the retinal nerves to the back of the brain. Moreover, if the eye faculty could contact physical forms, it would certainly be damaged: if the eye faculty contacts a knife tip, the eye would certainly be stabbed by the knife tip; when the eye contacts fire, the eye would certainly be burned by the fire; when the eye contacts sand, the sand would blind the eye. Therefore the inner eye faculty does not contact physical forms yet sees; what is contacted are the four great subtle particles radiated by the forms—shadows.

This principle is similar to that of a video camera: outer forms are converted by the camera into an inverted image within the machine, and when seen by the naked eye it becomes an upright image again, making one feel one is seeing the real form object. In fact, it is a shadow and a photograph, just like the form objects seen on television. Sentient beings have never seen the real outer form objects since beginningless kalpas. Therefore the inner material sense-objects seen by sentient beings are illusory and empty, also suffering and not-self.

Sound objects are divided into outer sound objects and inner sound objects. Outer sound objects, such as those emitted by the cosmos, valleys, rivers, and various materials, are jointly created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to conditions and karmic affinities; sound objects emitted by sentient beings are generated by each sentient being's own tathāgatagarbha. They are also composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind; they are material, arising and ceasing, illusory, impermanent, empty, suffering, and not-self. The inner sound object is when the tathāgatagarbha, through the ear faculty contacting the outer sound object, manifests an identical shadow, transmitted through the auditory nerves to the cerebral cortex, the supreme faculty. When faculty and object contact, the tathāgatagarbha produces the ear consciousness to discriminate sounds. In fact, this sound is manifested by one's own tathāgatagarbha—false, illusory, arising and ceasing, impermanent, suffering, and not-self. This principle is similar to a tape recorder: the sounds we hear from a tape recorder all resemble the real sounds outside the recorder, but in fact they are only images.

Scent objects are divided into outer scent objects and inner scent objects. Outer scent objects are composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, jointly created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to karma and conditions; the scent objects of a sentient being's own body are created solely by that being's own tathāgatagarbha. The inner scent object is when the tathāgatagarbha, through the nose faculty contacting the outer scent object, manifests a similar shadow, transmitted through the nasal nerves to the cerebral cortex at the back of the head, contacting the nose's supreme faculty; the tathāgatagarbha produces the nose consciousness to discriminate—in fact, it is merely discriminating a false image. Both outer and inner scent objects are subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, empty, and suffering—not the self. Sentient beings, not knowing this, grasp at them incessantly.

Flavor objects are divided into outer flavor objects and inner flavor objects. Outer flavor objects are material, composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, jointly created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to karma and conditions; they are subject to arising, ceasing, and change—impermanent, illusory, suffering—and therefore not-self. The inner flavor object is when the tathāgatagarbha, through the tongue faculty contacting the outer flavor object, manifests a similar shadow, transmitted through the gustatory nerves to the cerebral cortex, contacting the tongue's supreme faculty; the tathāgatagarbha produces the tongue consciousness, which has the function of discrimination. What is discriminated is only an illusory false appearance. The inner flavor object is illusory, impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

Touch objects are divided into outer and inner touch objects. Outer touch objects are composed of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, jointly created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma according to karma and conditions; they exhibit arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing—impermanent, illusory, suffering—and therefore not-self. The inner touch object is when the tathāgatagarbha, through the body contacting the outer touch object, produces a similar shadow, transmitted through the nerves to the back of the brain, contacting the body's supreme faculty; the tathāgatagarbha produces the body consciousness to discern. The inner touch object is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, impermanent, suffering, and not-self. Sentient beings, being ignorant, mistakenly take them as real and grasp at them incessantly.

Dharma objects are also divided into outer dharma objects and inner dharma objects. Outer dharma objects are composed of subtle particles of the four great elements; they are the form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana—such as visible form, expressive form, and non-expressive form—manifested upon the five sense-objects, jointly manifested by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma. The outer dharma objects are then transmitted together with the five sense-objects into the supreme faculty, transformed by the tathāgatagarbha into inner mental sense-objects, contacting the manas, and then the tathāgatagarbha produces the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) to discriminate the inner mental sense-objects. Therefore both outer and inner dharma objects are illusory, subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent, suffering, and not-self.

The six consciousnesses constitute the aggregate of consciousness: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness, all born by the tathāgatagarbha when the six faculties contact the inner six sense-objects. If the manas is not interested in the six sense-objects, the tathāgatagarbha does not give birth to the six consciousnesses, resulting in phenomena of mindlessness such as seeing without perceiving and hearing without listening. When in the concentration of no perception or the cessation of perception and feeling, the mind consciousness also does not manifest, and sentient beings know nothing at all, without the slightest discrimination.

In summary of the above, all the dharmas of sentient beings' five aggregates and eighteen realms are subject to arising, ceasing, and illusory transformation. The body of the five aggregates is like a puppet in a shadow play, an electric doll, a character in an animation, like images of cats and dogs formed by clouds in the sky, like characters on television—extremely unreal. Sentient beings, being ignorant, are lost in and attached to them, falsely creating bodily, verbal, and mental actions, unable to escape the six paths of saṃsāra. If one wishes to transcend the ocean of suffering in saṃsāra, one should frequently engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and reflection on the illusory nature of the five aggregates and eighteen realms according to the above content; then one can realize the fruits of the Small Vehicle, or even awaken and enter the Mahāyāna dharma path, realizing the true tathāgatagarbha.

From the mark of self, it can be seen that the mark of person and the mark of sentient being are also impermanent, suffering, empty, and not-self—all are illusory transformations.