The Profound Meaning of Consciousness-only in the Diamond Sutra (23)

When the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, there was an elderly man who practiced non-Buddhist paths, 120 years old, who had been Ānanda's father for five hundred lifetimes. He had also attained the concentration of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, but was still living in the human world. The Buddha had Ānanda summon him, and then told him that within that meditative concentration there still remained subtle perception, and that even that most subtle knowing mind was not the self; if it were extinguished, one could transcend the three realms and attain liberation, ending birth and freeing oneself from death. Upon hearing this, the old man immediately realized the fourth fruit of arhatship, and said to the Buddha, "I cannot bear to see the Buddha enter parinirvāṇa, so I will go first." Having said this, he entered nirvāṇa without remainder.

Nirvāṇa without remainder means that sentient beings have eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping, no longer have any attachments, and are willing to relinquish their own five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and eighteen realms. In this way, suffering no longer has anything to depend upon, and one departs from suffering and abandons suffering. Having extinguished all suffering, one attains liberation and exits the three realms, leaving only the Ālayavijñāna to exist alone — there is no longer a "self." The bodhisattvas liberate the four forms of birth, nine stages, and twenty-five classes of sentient beings in the three realms, teaching and transforming them to become arhats of the fourth fruit, ending birth and freeing themselves from death, so that at the end of their lives they can 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 liberated so many sentient beings, yet not a single one was liberated — what does this mean? "Liberating" means entering nirvāṇa without remainder as just described — completely relinquishing and extinguishing the self of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms of the six sense faculties, 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 also not called a sentient being. That is to say, there are no sentient beings being liberated, and the Ālayavijñāna that remains alone is also not a sentient being. Thus, not a single sentient being has been liberated, and there is no sentient being who attains liberation. 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 sentient beings" — all are the appearances of the tathāgatagarbha, all are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha itself does not need to be liberated. Therefore, although immeasurable sentient beings are liberated, in reality not even one is liberated. Bodhisattvas should liberate sentient beings in this way, and should also not harbor the thought of liberating sentient beings.