Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: The Six Pāramitās Are Also Empty Marks

Original text of Chapter Fourteen: Detachment from Marks and Utter Cessation, Fourteen: 何以故。须菩提。如来说第一波罗蜜。即非第一波罗蜜。是名第一波罗蜜。须菩提。忍辱波罗蜜。如来说非忍辱波罗蜜。是名忍辱波罗蜜。

Explanation: Why is this said? Subhūti, when the Tathāgata speaks of the foremost pāramitā, there is not truly an existent foremost pāramitā; the foremost pāramitā is not a real mark—it is merely the name given to the practice of generosity (dāna), called the foremost pāramitā. Subhūti, as for the pāramitā of forbearance, when the Tathāgata speaks of it, there is not truly an existent pāramitā of forbearance; the pāramitā of forbearance is also an illusory, false mark—it is merely the name given to the practice of forbearance, called the pāramitā of forbearance.

The six pāramitās of bodhisattvas are: generosity (dāna), precept-keeping (śīla), forbearance (kṣānti), diligence (vīrya), meditative concentration (dhyāna), and wisdom (prajñā). If one can bring forth the great bodhi mind and practice the six pāramitās in order to accomplish the Buddha Way, then one can reach the other shore of nirvāṇa, and the six practices thus performed are called the six pāramitās. "Pāramitā" means reaching the other shore of nirvāṇa. If one practices the six pāramitās without the bodhi mind, the six practices are merely wholesome dharmas without being pāramitās, and one cannot reach the other shore of nirvāṇa.

The first of the six pāramitās is the pāramitā of generosity. All the generosity practices of bodhisattvas are accomplished by the vajra mind (vajra-citta); they are conjured up and sustained by the vajra mind, subject to arising and ceasing, change, and impermanence. Therefore the pāramitā of generosity is an empty, false mark, not a real mark—this is "not the foremost pāramitā," provisionally named the foremost pāramitā. The practice of the pāramitā of forbearance is conjured up and accomplished by the vajra mind; it has no substantial attributes, no real mark of forbearance, and no real mark of pāramitā. Therefore it is also an empty, false mark, not a truly existent mark, and thus it is also "not the pāramitā of forbearance," provisionally named the pāramitā of forbearance. The pāramitā of precept-keeping, the pāramitā of diligence, the pāramitā of meditative concentration, and the pāramitā of wisdom are all likewise so: all are "not pāramitās," without real marks; all are illusory, empty, false marks, provisionally named pāramitās.

When bodhisattvas cultivate the six pāramitās, they can see the mind and perceive the nature, reaching the other shore of nirvāṇa. However, these six pāramitās exist in dependence upon the tathāgatagarbha, the mind of ultimate reality, and also depend upon the illusory body of the bodhisattva's five aggregates for the six pāramitās to be cultivated. Since the body of the five aggregates is unreal and a false mark, then the six pāramitās cultivated in dependence upon the body of the five aggregates are, of course, all the more a false mark, all the more a non-mark. The so-called pāramitā of forbearance is in fact merely one after another, or countless, false phenomenal appearances, none of which is the mark of ultimate reality itself. These false phenomenal appearances are marks of the mental activities of the manas, and are also marks born and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; superficially they exist, but in substance they do not. The cultivation of the pāramitā of forbearance is a dharma of arising, ceasing, and change, not constant and unchanging: one act of forbearance is produced and then ceases; then another act of forbearance arises and again ceases. Countless acts of forbearance constitute the bodhisattva's pāramitā of forbearance, and relying on this, the bodhisattva can reach the other shore of birth and death.

Acts of forbearance are the actions of the body of the five aggregates and of the seven consciousnesses. The five aggregates themselves are already non-marks; the seven consciousnesses arise, cease, and change in every kṣaṇa, and the six consciousnesses cease once each day—all are false and unreal. How much more so the practice of forbearance, which exists in dependence upon the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses—it is all the more a non-mark, all the more false and illusory. Therefore the pāramitā of forbearance has no self-nature of its own and is not self-existent; it is merely a superficial appearance, nothing but a name.