The Profound Yogācāra Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (23)

When the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, there was an elderly man of one hundred and twenty years who practiced non-Buddhist paths; he had been Ānanda's father for five hundred lifetimes. He had also attained the concentration of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, yet he was still dwelling in the human world. The Buddha had Ānanda summon him, and then told him that within that concentration there still remained subtle perception, and that even that most subtle knowing mind was not the self; if it were extinguished, he could transcend the three realms and attain liberation, ending birth and escaping death. Upon hearing this, the old man immediately realized the fourth fruit of arhatship. He said to the Buddha, "I cannot bear to witness your parinirvāṇa, so I shall depart first." Having spoken, he entered nirvāṇa without remainder.

Nirvāṇa without remainder means that sentient beings have eliminated the self-view and self-grasping, no longer have any attachment, and are willing to relinquish their own five aggregates and eighteen realms. In this way, suffering no longer has anything to depend upon, and thus they depart from suffering and cast off suffering. Having extinguished all suffering, they attain liberation and transcend the three realms, leaving only the ālayavijñāna to exist alone—there is no longer a self. The bodhisattvas delivered the four forms of birth, nine abodes, and twenty-five classes of sentient beings within the three realms, teaching and transforming them to become arhats of the fourth fruit, ending birth and escaping death, so that at the end of their lives they could all enter nirvāṇa without remainder and attain liberation.

The World-Honored One then continued: 如是灭度无量无数无边众生，实无众生得灭度者。Having delivered so many sentient beings, yet not a single one was delivered—what does this mean? "Delivering" means entering nirvāṇa without remainder as just described, that is, completely relinquishing and extinguishing the self of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms of the six sense bases, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses; then there are no sentient beings. With the five aggregates, one is a sentient being; without the five aggregates, one is not called a sentient being; without the eighteen realms, one is likewise not called a sentient being—that is, there is no sentient being to be delivered, and the ālayavijñāna that remains alone is also not a sentient being. Thus, not a single sentient being has been delivered, and there is no sentient being who has attained parinirvāṇa. Even when the five aggregates and eighteen realms have not yet been extinguished, there are likewise no sentient beings, because the appearance of the five aggregates and eighteen realms is illusory; their existence is false existence, not real existence, but temporary existence. There is no such thing as "the sentient being of a sentient being"—all are the appearances of the tathāgatagarbha, all are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha itself needs no delivering. Therefore, although immeasurable numbers of sentient beings are delivered to extinction, in reality not even one has been. Bodhisattvas should deliver sentient beings in this way, and should also not harbor the thought of delivering sentient beings.