Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Ultimately No Self, Seventeen

In this chapter the World-Honored One teaches ultimate non-self, telling Subhūti that after bodhisattvas have brought forth the vast and profound bodhi mind and widely delivered immeasurable sentient beings, they must extinguish the notion of self and the notion of sentient beings—without the mark of self and without the mark of sentient beings—gradually becoming without self in the mind until reaching ultimate non-self. Because in the realm of ultimate reality there truly is no self, neither the self of persons nor the self of dharmas exists, so both must be completely extinguished. Only then is one in accord with the profound bodhi mind; only when the self has been subdued and the mind purified will the Buddhas confer the prediction of future buddhahood upon one. Even after attaining buddhahood, the mind remains without self and empty: there is no dharma-mark of "attaining buddhahood," no dharma-mark of "delivering sentient beings," and no dharma-mark of any kind whatsoever.

Original text:尔时须菩提白佛言。世尊。善男子善女人。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心。云何应住。云何降伏其心。

Explanation: Subhūti asked the Buddha: World-Honored One, when good men and good women bring forth the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, how should they abide, and how should they subdue their minds?

This was Subhūti asking the World-Honored One on behalf of sentient beings: after bodhisattvas have brought forth the Mahāyāna bodhi mind, how should they settle and abide in this mind? Which mind is this mind? It refers to the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, which are capable of bringing forth the bodhi mind, not to the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which never brings forth the bodhi mind. The tathāgatagarbha brings forth no mind at all; it has no mental activity, no wishes, and no desire to become a Buddha—its mental activity abides nowhere. With Subhūti's wisdom, he would not have asked the World-Honored One how the tathāgatagarbha should abide and be maintained; moreover, the World-Honored One had already expounded the nature of the vajra prajñā mind as abiding nowhere. What Subhūti was asking is this: the deluded mind that is capable of bringing forth the bodhi mind—having brought forth pure great vows, should it still, as before, abide in the worldly dharmas of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, abide in the five aggregates, and bring forth its resolve for the sake of these worldly dharmas? After bringing forth the Mahāyāna bodhi mind, one should no longer, as before, cling to the marks of all worldly dharmas, and should no longer have afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion blazing fiercely; one should subdue this mind—so how should it be subdued?

Original text:佛告须菩提。善男子善女人。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心。当生如是心。我应灭度一切众生。灭度一切众生已。而无有一众生。实灭度者。

Explanation: The Buddha told Subhūti: when good men and good women bring forth the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, they should bring forth this mind: "I should deliver and liberate all sentient beings; having delivered and liberated all sentient beings, I know within that in fact not a single sentient being has been delivered and liberated by me."

Here "delivering and liberating" (miandu) has two meanings. The first meaning is that after sentient beings realize the non-self of the five aggregates, they will gradually exhaust their grasping at self, cultivate to the fourth fruit, and attain liberation by entering nirvāṇa without remainder. After nirvāṇa without remainder, the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses are all extinguished, the dharmas of the eighteen realms all vanish, and the appearances of the threefold world all disappear, leaving only the indestructible vajra mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which neither arises nor ceases, abiding in a state of utter emptiness, quiescent and non-active. That sentient being has thus vanished and ceased to exist—this is called delivering and liberating.

Extinguished it certainly is, but why is it said to be "delivered across"? Because this sentient being, who formerly transmigrated through the six paths creating evil karma and undergoing immeasurable, boundless suffering and affliction, now that the manas has extinguished the one thought of ignorance (ekacitta-avidyā), no longer creates the karma of birth-and-death transmigration, much less transmigrates through the threefold world according to karma to undergo the suffering of birth and death. From then on, he no longer has birth and death, no longer has suffering to undergo, and there is no longer any so-called "him." The true him—the tathāgatagarbha—creates no karma, has no birth and death, and certainly undergoes no suffering; it is purely quiescent and non-active. Therefore, "delivering across" means crossing over the suffering of birth and death, passing beyond the transmigration of the six paths.

"Delivering and liberating" has yet another meaning: after a bodhisattva teaches sentient beings to realize the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses gradually extinguish ignorance, afflictions, and the habit energies of afflictions; all eight consciousnesses are transformed into wisdom, becoming the ultimately perfect unsurpassed honored one, no longer a sentient being at all. In this way, that sentient being has been delivered and liberated, having become completely and fully a Buddha, the World-Honored One of a certain fruition stage, no longer merely a Buddha in principle. Such delivering and liberation of sentient beings is ultimate delivering and liberation, the best and most perfect delivering and liberation—utterly consummate, without a trace of regret.

In this way, all sentient beings are delivered and liberated, immeasurable and boundless sentient beings are all delivered and liberated, and yet afterward the mind has no such thought of having delivered and liberated all sentient beings; rather, one feels that one has not delivered a single sentient being, that not a single sentient being has been delivered. This is strange—why is it said that not a single sentient being has been delivered, when clearly all sentient beings have been delivered?