Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Receiving and Holding the Dharma According to the Teachings, Thirteen

Original text:尔时。须菩提白佛言。世尊。当何名此经。我等云何奉持。佛告须菩提。是经名为。金刚般若波罗蜜。以是名字。汝当奉持。

Explanation: At this time Subhūti said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, how should this sūtra be named? How should we uphold and practice it? The Buddha told Subhūti that this sūtra is called the Vajra Prajñāpāramitā. Because this name encapsulates the entire Vajra Sūtra, you should properly understand the principles within it, and then thoroughly comprehend and uphold it.

Subhūti asked the World-Honored One to name this sūtra, and also inquired how to practice and uphold it. The World-Honored One said: This sūtra is called the Vajra Prajñāpāramitā. Only after clearly comprehending the meaning of this name can one practice and uphold it. The meaning of the sūtra's title has already been explained at the beginning of this text. The vajra is the hardest treasure in the world; nothing can destroy it, and conversely, it can destroy everything. It is used as a metaphor for our true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. No matter what power anyone uses, this mind can never be destroyed. Apart from it, all worldly dharmas are transformed and generated by it, all possess the nature of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing, and all are unreliable dharmas.

Why is the prajñāpāramitā also an empty mark?

Original text:所以者何。须菩提。佛说般若波罗蜜。即非般若波罗蜜。是名般若波罗蜜。

Explanation: Why is this said? Subhūti, the Mahāyāna dharma of prajñāpāramitā that the Buddha taught to sentient beings is not an actually existent prajñāpāramitā; there is not truly a prajñāpāramitā. It is provisionally named prajñāpāramitā, and its dharma-mark is also empty.

Prajñāpāramitā is an Indian term, translated into Chinese as "great wisdom reaching the other shore," a metaphor for the nirvanic state of the vajra mind, or the prajñā mind, which is free from this shore of birth and death. Both this shore and the other shore are states, provisional names, not entities, nor ultimate reality; there is no substantial mark of this shore or the other shore. Therefore the prajñāpāramitā is an empty mark, provisionally named prajñāpāramitā. By the same reasoning, the six pāramitās are also empty marks, without real substance, not ultimate reality. Pāramitā is a provisional name; the six perfections likewise have no substantial essence or mark; they are empty marks of arising, ceasing, and change conjured forth by the vajra mind. Upon reaching the shore, one abandons the raft. After attaining buddhahood and completing cultivation, there is no longer any need to practice the dharma of the pāramitās.

All dharmas that can only be established and exist by relying on the vajra mind are illusory empty marks and false appearances, without substance or an independent self-nature. The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra evolved from the vajra mind; only by cultivating in accordance with the prajñāpāramitā can sentient beings attain the buddha path. After attaining buddhahood, one discards the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, with no further need to study or rely upon it. The appearance of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra was proclaimed by the buddhas in accordance with sentient beings' matured conditions for study. If the conditions are not complete, the buddhas do not speak the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, and this sūtra would have no cause to appear before sentient beings. Therefore the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra is an interpretation and annotation of the nature of the vajra mind, not the vajra mind itself; hence it is not the true appearance, but a false appearance. And the principles expounded in the sūtra, named prajñāpāramitā, likewise do not represent the vajra mind itself; therefore they are also not the true appearance, but an empty mark. For such an empty mark, the name prajñāpāramitā was given.

The meaning of prajñā is great wisdom, mainly referring to the wisdom innately possessed by the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. For example, His wisdom that can transform and generate all dharmas, His wisdom that does not enter birth and death yet manifests the mark of arising and ceasing, His wisdom that can generate all dharmas yet does not mix with any dharma, and His various kinds of wisdom of the middle way that do not abide in either extreme. These wisdoms are utterly different from the wisdom of the consciousness of the seven faculties. The wisdom of the consciousness of the seven faculties corresponds to worldly dharmas. Even the wisdom of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), the wisdom of realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the wisdom of understanding the seed functions of the tathāgatagarbha, and the wisdom of the Buddha's omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) are all generated through later cultivation; they are not innately possessed wisdom, and differ greatly from the innate wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the wisdom of prajñā still refers to the wisdom of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. The body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) has birth and death; the ten thousand dharmas, indeed hundreds of millions of dharmas, all arise and cease and are unreliable. Only the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, has no arising or ceasing, and does not abide on this shore of birth and death—conveniently spoken of as the other shore. The title of the entire Vajra Sūtra contains these principles. Only after realizing them can one truly comprehend them thoroughly, and then practice and uphold them.

The Buddha spoke the prajñāpāramitā, yet it is not the prajñāpāramitā; it is named the prajñāpāramitā. The name "the great wisdom of prajñāpāramitā on the other shore" is used to summarize the nature of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha truly and actually exists, but that name does not actually or truly exist; it is a provisional name given to Him by the World-Honored One. His provisional names are innumerable, all used to manifest the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The Sixth Patriarch once said: "I have a thing, without head or tail, without name or word, without back or front—do you all still recognize it?" Shenhui said: "It is the source of all buddhas." The Sixth Patriarch said: "I told you it has no name and no word, yet you still call it the source of buddha-nature." At such a moment, one should use zen repartee to hint at the source of all buddhas, and should not speak a name; the name is not Him. All dharmas are merely names, not actually existent. The tathāgatagarbha does not belong to the arising-and-ceasing myriad dharmas, and therefore is an actually existent dharma.

Original text:须菩提。于意云何。如来有所说法不。须菩提白佛言。世尊。如来无所说。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think? Has the Tathāgata spoken any dharma? Subhūti said to the Buddha: World-Honored One, the Tathāgata has spoken nothing; the Tathāgata has not spoken any dharma.

The World-Honored One clearly taught the buddha-dharma for forty-nine years; why then did he say he had not spoken any dharma? The Buddha has three bodies: the Dharmakāya, the Sambhogakāya, and the Nirmāṇakāya. The Dharmakāya Buddha is the Buddha's vajra mind; He is formless and markless, without eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind, without the five aggregates and the eighteen realms. Since He has no body of the five aggregates, He cannot speak the dharma. The Sambhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha, however, have bodies of the five aggregates and possess the eighteen realms, and thus can teach the dharma with mind and mouth. The Sambhogakāya Buddha resides in the heavenly palace of the eighteenth heaven of the form realm, teaching the great bodhisattvas on earth the content of cultivating the wisdom of the varieties of paths.

In order to fulfill sentient beings' wish to seek the dharma, the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha manifests a buddha body in accordance with sentient beings' spiritual faculties (indriya) to deliver sentient beings and proclaim the buddha-dharma. The Nirmāṇakāya Buddha can also emanate countless bodies to the worlds of the ten directions to transform and deliver sentient beings, expounding the buddha-dharma. But the Sambhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha are manifested by the Dharmakāya Buddha; apart from the Dharmakāya Buddha, there would be no Sambhogakāya Buddha or Nirmāṇakāya Buddha. When the latter two buddhas teach the dharma, they cannot be apart from the Dharmakāya Buddha. Therefore, whenever a buddha teaches the dharma, there is the buddha who speaks the dharma and the buddha who does not speak the dharma; the buddha who speaks the dharma cannot be apart from the buddha who does not speak the dharma. Thus Shākyamuni Buddha taught the dharma for forty-nine years, yet said he had not spoken a single word. Here, the Tathāgata refers to the Dharmakāya Buddha, and the Dharmakāya Buddha does not speak the dharma. Once one understands the concept and meaning of the three bodies of the Buddha, one will know whether the Buddha has spoken the dharma or not. Therefore, saying that the Buddha has spoken the dharma is slandering the Buddha, and saying that the Buddha has not spoken the dharma is also slandering the Buddha.