Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Chapter Seven — Nothing Attained, Nothing Proclaimed

Original text of the Diamond Sutra: 须菩提。于意云何。如来得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提耶。如来有所说法耶。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think — has the Tathāgata attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi? Has the Tathāgata spoken any dharma?

Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment — attaining the supreme, true awakening and realization, utterly destroying ignorance, with the mind filled entirely with illumination and awakening, thereby realizing ultimate bodhi, accomplishing the Buddha Way, and fulfilling the fruit of buddhahood. Since there is no fixed dharma called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, there is likewise no truly fixed and unchanging one who becomes a Buddha; all dharmas are formed through causes and conditions. The dharma spoken by the Buddha is also formed through causes and conditions — in accordance with the conditions of sentient beings: when there is the cause of sentient beings wishing to become Buddhas, the Buddha expounds the dharma that enables sentient beings to become Buddhas. When the conditions differ, the dharma the World-Honored One teaches differs. Therefore, the dharma taught by the Buddha should not, in the end, be grasped either, because it is not a dharma that is fixed, forever imperishable, and unchanging. Any dharma that can be spoken is not the inherently existing, fixed, and unchanging dharma of true suchness (tathatā), yet these dharmas also cannot be generated apart from the tathāgatagarbha, the self-nature of true suchness.

Then who is it that accomplished the Buddha Way and attained the fruit of buddhahood? A bodhisattva of wondrous awakening (saddharma-śrī, the final stage) is the last body before becoming a Buddha. In order to become a Buddha, he comes to the human world and accomplishes the Way through the eight marks of a great being. When entering the mother's womb, the bodhisattva's material body perishes; the manas and the vipāka-consciousness — that is, the eighth consciousness — enter the womb. At birth, the six faculties are complete, the six consciousnesses are complete (humans lack the eye consciousness within the first seven days), and the five aggregates are complete, outwardly no different from ordinary sentient beings. This new set of five aggregates is no longer the five aggregates of the bodhisattva of wondrous awakening — the material body and the six consciousnesses have all been replaced; only the manas and the vipāka-consciousness remain the original ones, continuing on. Then he leaves home to cultivate the Way. When he greatly awakens and sees his nature upon beholding the morning star at night, the ignorance of the seven consciousnesses is utterly severed: the sixth consciousness transforms into the wisdom of wondrous observation (pratyavekṣaṇā-jñāna), the manas transforms into the wisdom of equality (samatā-jñāna), and then the first five consciousnesses transform into the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna). When all seven consciousnesses have been transformed, and the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored within the eighth, the vipāka-consciousness, are utterly extinguished, it becomes the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna), also called the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). When all eight consciousnesses have been transformed, the Buddha Way is fulfilled, the fruit of buddhahood is attained, and he is called a Buddha.

Let us then contemplate: who accomplished this Buddha Way, and who attained this fruit of buddhahood? First, the Buddha's undefiled consciousness is a mind that attains nothing; it itself does not wish to attain anything, and even if it did, there would be nowhere to place it — nothing can be attained. He has no thoughts, no mental activities, and never claims of Himself that He is real, that He is a Buddha, or anything of the sort. All names are bestowed upon Him by people; as for what He is or is not, He has no such concepts. He also does not grasp at any dharma whatsoever, whether wholesome or unwholesome, defiled or undefiled. Because He does not grasp, He is never perfumed or stained, and has no ignorance; because He does not grasp, He does nothing and becomes nothing. Therefore He does not take the fruit of buddhahood, nor does He act as a Buddha. If one says He is the Buddha, that too is a title conferred upon Him by people, not something He claims or confers upon Himself.

Next, consider the Buddha's five aggregates. The five aggregates of sentient beings are called the five coverings (pañca-skandha as "coverings"), for "covering" means to obscure and block — blocking sentient beings from recognizing the true principle, thereby giving rise to wrong views. But the Buddha's five aggregates do not obscure the Buddha's wisdom; the Buddha has already attained ultimate awakening, so they are simply called the five aggregates. The five-aggregate body of a Buddha is adorned with the thirty-two major marks and eighty minor marks, extremely sublime, yet at parinirvāṇa it must also perish. A dharma of arising and ceasing is not the Buddha; it cannot take the fruit of buddhahood, cannot be a Buddha. Although the Buddha's aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness can grasp, they too are conditioned and perishable dharmas that must all perish at parinirvāṇa; these four aggregates are not the Buddha and cannot be a Buddha. Although the manas can continue forever into future lives, forever retained without perishing, it too is of a perishable nature and can perish; it is only deliberately not extinguished so that the Buddha's material body and five aggregates can arise forever. Moreover, the manas alone, even with the wisdom of equality, cannot be a Buddha. Thus bodhi is something that attains nothing, and so there is no fixed dharma that can be called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Original text of the Diamond Sutra: 须菩提言。如我解佛所说义。无有定法。名阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。也无有定法。如来可说。何以故。如来所说法。皆不可取。不可说。非法。非非法。一切圣贤。皆以无为法而有差别。

Explanation: Subhūti said: As I understand the meaning of what the Buddha has taught, there is no fixed dharma called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, nor is there any fixed, unchanging dharma that the Tathāgata can expound. Why is this so? Because the dharmas spoken by the Tathāgata are all not to be grasped or clung to; they are all unspeakable. The dharma spoken by the Tathāgata is not the true dharma that is unborn, unceasing, and unchanging — not the originally existing unconditioned dharma (asaṃskṛta-dharma) — yet it is also not that it is not the unconditioned dharma. All sages and noble ones differ by virtue of the unconditioned dharma.

Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is also called unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment, which means accomplishing the Buddha Way. But becoming a Buddha is not a dharma that exists innately and unchangingly; it is accomplished through cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas. Therefore it is also subject to arising and ceasing, coming into being from non-being; hence it is not a fixed dharma, nor a truly existent dharma.

The Tathāgata likewise has no fixed dharma to expound. Why is this so? Because all the dharma the Tathāgata taught during forty-nine years in the Sahā world — the Tripiṭaka and the twelve divisions of the canon — cannot be grasped as truly existent; indeed, even all the dharma the Tathāgata has taught in the worlds of the ten directions cannot be grasped as truly existent. Why can it not be grasped as truly existent? Because the dharma spoken by the Buddha arises through various causes and conditions; without causes and conditions, these dharmas would not exist, and the Buddha would not teach any dharma. Thus the dharma the Buddha speaks is also subject to arising and ceasing, and cannot be grasped as truly existent and unchanging. Even the great matter of the Buddha delivering sentient beings requires the ripening and completeness of causes and conditions — it requires sentient beings' causes and conditions of merit, of good roots, and of the aspiration for liberation, and so forth. Lacking even one such condition, the Buddha cannot deliver sentient beings. And the dharma taught in delivering sentient beings is determined according to conditions, according to sentient beings' spiritual faculties (indriya), merit, and wisdom. Therefore there is no fixed dharma to be spoken.

A fixed dharma is one that is unchanging and inherently existent, that does not turn with causes and conditions, does not vary with causes and conditions — a truly real, immutable dharma, applied identically to all sentient beings regardless of their capacities, regardless of what conditions are present. Clearly, reality is not like this; such a dharma does not exist. Dharmas produced by causes and conditions, not innately existing, are not fixed dharmas. Therefore it is said that the Tathāgata, in delivering sentient beings, has no fixed dharma to speak. The dharma the Tathāgata speaks arises from non-being, exists and then ceases, and is abandoned upon reaching the other shore; it is also an empty dharma. Hence it is merely named "dharma," while in reality the dharma has no self-nature, no self-substance to speak of — therefore it is "not dharma." Yet it is also not entirely "not dharma," for after all it still has its illusory function: the provisional dharma can be used provisionally and borrowed for use; sentient beings can use it to become Buddhas, and after becoming Buddhas, discard it. Therefore the dharma the Buddha speaks is also "not not-dharma" — it is not that it is not dharma.

Since the dharma spoken by the Tathāgata is all "not dharma," being dharmas produced by causes and conditions with no fixed dharma, then when the Tathāgata teaches different dharmas to sentient beings of different spiritual faculties according to different conditions, and sentient beings cultivate and study them, they realize the unconditioned dharma at different levels — including the unconditioned of the Great, Middle, and Small Vehicles, and even within the same vehicle there are differences in the unconditioned dharma realized. Thus sages and noble ones of different levels and different distinctions are accomplished; all sages and noble ones, because of differences in good roots, merit, and conditions, differ by virtue of the unconditioned dharma they have realized.