Lectures on the Diamond Sutra: The Six Perfections (Pāramitās) Are Also Empty Marks

Original text of Chapter Fourteen, "Leaving Marks and Extinction" (离相寂灭分第十四)：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, the Tathāgata says 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, forbearance, diligence, meditative concentration (dhyāna), and wisdom. If one can bring forth the great bodhicitta and practice the six pāramitās in order to accomplish the Buddha Way, then one can reach the farther shore of nirvāṇa, and the six practices thus performed are called the six pāramitās. Pāramitā means reaching the farther shore of nirvāṇa; if one practices the six perfections without bodhicitta, the six perfections are merely wholesome dharmas without pāramitā, and one cannot reach the farther shore of nirvāṇa.

The first of the six pāramitās is the pāramitā of generosity. All the generous practices of bodhisattvas are accomplished by the vajra mind (Vajracitta), transformed and sustained by the vajra mind—arising and ceasing, changing, impermanent—so the pāramitā of generosity is an empty, false mark, not a real mark; it is "not the foremost pāramitā," provisionally named the foremost pāramitā. The practice of the pāramitā of forbearance is transformed 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 existing mark. Hence it is also "not the pāramitā of forbearance," provisionally named the pāramitā of forbearance. It is the same with the pāramitā of precept-keeping, the pāramitā of diligence, the pāramitā of meditative concentration, and the pāramitā of wisdom: all are "not pāramitās," without real marks; all are illusory empty false marks, provisionally named pāramitās.

When bodhisattvas cultivate the six pāramitās, they can awaken to the true mind and see the nature, reaching the farther shore of nirvāṇa. But these six pāramitās exist in dependence upon the true mind of tathāgatagarbha, the mind of suchness; and they also depend upon the illusory body of the bodhisattva's five aggregates for their cultivation. Since the body of the five aggregates is unreal, a false mark, then the six pāramitās cultivated in dependence upon the body of the five aggregates are of course even more a false mark, even more "not a mark." The so-called pāramitā of forbearance is in fact merely one after another, or countless, false phenomenal appearances, none of which is reality itself. These false phenomenal appearances are marks of the mental activities of the manas, and are also marks produced and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; on the surface 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 farther shore of birth and death.

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