Why Is There No Dharma to Be Spoken?

Ruchun: I've always been unable to understand why the master says there is no dharma that can be spoken. After reading the new edition of the Diamond Sutra today, I seem to have gained some insight: 1. The essence of the ultimate dharma is non-existence, yet when spoken by the expounder, it becomes existence: there arises the expounder, the listener, and the act of expounding. Thus, where there is arising, there is cessation; there is self, there is appearance, there is grasping. 2. The master expounds different dharmas according to varying conditions; the dharma spoken at such times is impermanent and changing, not that eternally unchanging true dharma. In this way, the dharma spoken by the master becomes non-dharma and pseudo-dharma. Hence, the master says there is no dharma that can be spoken—once spoken, it is no longer the true dharma. But why then has the master expounded so much dharma to us? Because while sentient beings have yet to cross beyond birth and death, they must rely on the Buddha-dharma, this non-dharma, to be saved. Therefore, the Buddha-dharma is both non-dharma and not non-dharma; out of compassion, the master still expounds the dharma for us.

Commentary: Your line of reasoning is rather flawed and requires adjustment and improvement. First, the essence of the ultimate dharma is not non-existence, but the empty nature of mind—it is existence. Because this ultimate dharma exists, all worldly dharmas, including non-dharmas, come into being. Non-existence is the inert emptiness of non-Buddhist paths, a negation of the dharma of true reality. When an expounder speaks the dharma of true reality, it is like pointing with a finger at the moon; they have not transformed non-existence into existence. It is the listener who becomes deluded and attached, believing there is an expounder, a listener, and the event of expounding and listening to the dharma. Second, the eternally unchanging true dharma cannot be spoken by anyone; it can only be pointed to with a finger. The dharma is the finger. And the dharma I speak is the manifestation of the true dharma, which is also empty. That is why it is said there is no dharma that can be spoken.

In the Diamond Sutra, the Buddha states that the expounder of dharma has no dharma to speak. This is because originally there is no Buddha-dharma; the Buddha-dharma is generated subsequently. It is the remedial method expounded by the Buddha based on the ignorance of sentient beings. This remedial method is the subsequently generated dharma—impermanent, arising and ceasing, illusory and transformative—not the inherent, fixed, unchanging dharma. Therefore, it is pseudo-dharma. Once these pseudo-dharmas have been used and verified, they become useless and should be discarded. If one still retains these dharmas in mind, clinging to them, it is dharma-attachment—it is ignorance, the ignorance of mistaking the false for the true. Ignorance is folly. It is like taking medicine to cure an illness; once the illness is cured, the medicine should be discarded. If one insists on continuing to take the medicine, a new illness will arise—clinging to the medicine becomes the illness. The dharma spoken by the expounder is like medicine for curing illness; originally, there was no medicine, but when illness arose, medicine was created.

So how did the Buddha-dharma come into being? It is manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha of the expounder using seeds. Its form and function are all the function of the seeds. Since the seeds belong to the Tathāgatagarbha, the Buddha-dharma is essentially empty, devoid of the appearance of Buddha-dharma; it is all the attribute of the Tathāgatagarbha. It is like all golden vessels possessing the attribute of gold. Such dharma, and all Mahayana Buddha-dharma, can only be truly comprehended and observed after personally realizing the Tathāgatagarbha. Before realization, no matter how much the conscious mind imagines, it is like scratching an itch from outside the boot—ineffectual, or like distant water unable to quench immediate thirst.

Before realization, it suffices for the general direction of one's understanding of the Buddha-dharma to be correct. If one scrutinizes their own understanding in detail, flaws will be found everywhere. The difference between speculative thinking and the direct seeing and personal realization upon attaining the Path is as vast as heaven and earth.