Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: The Appearance of Adornment in the Buddha-Field of Bodhisattvas Is Also Empty

Section Ten: Adorning the Buddha Land
Original Text: “Subhuti, what do you think? Does a bodhisattva adorn the Buddha land or not?” “No, World-Honored One. Why? Because what is called adorning the Buddha land is not adorning; it is merely named adorning.”

Explanation: Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does a bodhisattva adorn the Buddha land? Subhuti replied: A bodhisattva does not adorn the Buddha land. Why is this said? Because what is called adorning the Buddha land does not refer to any real or substantial matter; it is merely nominal adornment, and the matter itself is illusory.

In terms of conventional phenomena, all practices of a bodhisattva—the six paramitas or ten paramitas—constitute adorning the Buddha land. All endeavors of a bodhisattva to deliver sentient beings are acts of adorning the Buddha land. The seeds of practice and the seeds of delivering sentient beings are stored within the Tathagatagarbha of one’s own mind. When these seeds accumulate to their maximum potential, the causes and conditions for attaining Buddhahood ripen, and these very seeds manifest as the adorned Buddha land. Thus, all bodhisattva conduct is the conduct of adorning the Buddha land. So, does a bodhisattva adorn the Buddha land? Of course, they do.

However, applying the World-Honored One’s universal golden phrase: “What is called adorning is not adorning; it is merely named adorning.” This means that when a bodhisattva adorns the Buddha land, there is no true adornment in form. All actions of a bodhisattva are empty and illusory. Phenomena exist but lack inherent reality; their existence is provisional, and their form is also empty. There is no substantial, true act of adornment; in essence, everything is the True Suchness, the One True Dharma Realm, the diamond-prajna reality-mark mind. All else is illusory and unreal. Apart from the indestructible diamond mind, all dharmas are mere nominal designations and provisional appearances; they should not be grasped as real. Bodhisattvas perform the Buddha’s work within the dream, all done with an empty mind, a mind of non-attainment—acting without acting, never clinging, never craving fame, profit, or offerings, and seeking no reward. Ordinary beings are the opposite: their minds are always grasping, seeking, expecting, not empty, and attached to appearances.

The adornment of a Buddha’s land depends on the specific great vows made by the Buddha during the cultivation process and the nature of their actions and deeds—that is, what seeds are stored within the Buddha’s immaculate consciousness. Thus, a bodhisattva’s cultivation over three immeasurable eons is adorning their future Buddha land. This method of adornment is utterly unlike worldly methods of adornment, which is why it is said that a bodhisattva does not adorn the Buddha land. This method of adornment is not truly existent; it is merely given the provisional name “adornment.”

Why is this adornment not real? Because the pure great vows made by a bodhisattva arise from the mind-consciousness and mental consciousness; they are illusory dharmas. Once made, they cease and vanish. Thus, vow-making is a dharma of arising and ceasing, not a dharma that is originally real, eternally existing, and indestructible. All actions and deeds performed by a bodhisattva while walking the path are dharmas of arising and ceasing; they have already vanished and perished. The deeds performed by the seven deluded consciousnesses over countless lifetimes have also ceased and perished. All bodhisattva practices—the six paramitas, the ten thousand practices, the ten paramitas, the ten thousand practices—are performed by the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses; they are dharmas of arising and ceasing. Bodhisattva conduct is a dharma of arising and ceasing; it has all perished. Because these methods of adornment through the six or ten paramitas are not real dharmas, not dharmas that eternally exist without perishing, not dharmas that are originally present, they are not true adornment.