Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Why Can a Sakṛdāgāmin of the Second Fruit Not Have the Thought 'I Have Attained the Fruit of Sakṛdāgāmin'?

Original text of the Diamond Sutra, One Mark No-Mark, Nine: 须菩提。于意云何。斯陀含能作是念。我得斯陀含果不。须菩提言。不也。世尊。何以故。斯陀含名一往来。而实无往来。是名斯陀含。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think about this? Could a sakṛdāgāmin have such a thought, "I have attained the fruit of sakṛdāgāmin"? Subhūti replied: A sakṛdāgāmin cannot have such a thought, World-Honored One. Why is this said? The sakṛdāgāmin is called "one who returns once more" between heaven and the human world, but in reality there is no such thing as coming and going; it is merely given the name sakṛdāgāmin.

This passage carries the same meaning as the preceding passage on the first fruit. One who has truly attained the second fruit has an even emptier view of the self of the five aggregates, and has no notion of "I have attained the second fruit," let alone clinging to the idea of having attained the second fruit, keeping it constantly in mind and proclaiming it everywhere, fearing that others do not know; and if others do not believe it, becoming angry and refusing to speak to them—such deep clinging is clearly the emotional attachment of an ordinary person, and has nothing to do with the first or second fruit.

The sakṛdāgāmin of the second fruit has afflictions lighter than those of ordinary people and those of the first fruit. After death, he is reborn in the heavens once, returns to the human world once, and then attains the fourth fruit of the arhat, gaining liberation and exiting saṃsāra. He likewise does not take the five aggregates and eighteen realms as self, and has no concept of "I" in his mind; therefore he does not think that there is an "I" who has attained the fruit of sakṛdāgāmin, nor that "I" can attain the fruit of sakṛdāgāmin. The sakṛdāgāmin no longer takes the realms of the desire realm as truly existing dharmas, for these all belong to the realms of the six sense objects and are all illusory. Therefore, when he is reborn in the heavens, there is no place he goes to; when he returns to the human world, there is no place he returns to; there is no sakṛdāgāmin of the five aggregates who can come and go between humans and heavens—thus in reality there is no coming or going.

One who has attained the second fruit will, after death in this life, be reborn in a desire-realm heaven to continue cultivation; after dying in that heaven, he will return to the human world to continue cultivation; and after attaining the fourth fruit of arhat, upon death he enters nirvāṇa, no longer taking rebirth in the three realms to undergo suffering, being liberated from the suffering of birth and death in the three realms—this is the single coming-and-going between heavens and the human world of the second-fruit sakṛdāgāmin. In essence, is there coming and going? There is no coming and going; the matter of coming and going is illusory and unreal. The five aggregates in the heavens and the five aggregates in the human world are all illusory and unreal, all false appearances, not the true reality. Therefore the second-fruit sakṛdāgāmin also does not truly exist as a sakṛdāgāmin; the mark of sakṛdāgāmin is also a non-mark, merely provisionally named sakṛdāgāmin. We need not cling to a false name and mark, wasting our minds in vain; we should extinguish the mark of self and the mark of sakṛdāgāmin, and no matter what attainment we achieve, remain unmoved in mind and give rise to no clinging thought; otherwise we will fall into birth and death and saṃsāra, unable to escape.