The Essence of the Heart Sutra

Section 3  The True Mind Is Empty and Quiescent, Without Ignorance

Sutra text: 【（如来藏）无无明。亦无无明尽。】 This means that the tathāgatagarbha itself has no ignorance, and there is also no need to extinguish ignorance.

What is ignorance (avidyā)? Ignorance means not understanding—not understanding the five aggregates, not understanding the eighteen realms, not understanding birth-and-death and saṃsāra, not understanding the truth of the Four Noble Truths, not understanding liberation, not understanding nirvāṇa, not understanding the tathāgatagarbha, not understanding the principle of attaining buddhahood, and countless other kinds of not-knowing. Ignorance is the foolishness, darkness, and unknowing within the mind. Ignorance is roughly divided into three kinds: ignorance of a single thought-moment (kṣaṇika-avidyā), beginningless ignorance (anādikālika-avidyā), and ignorance as numerous as dust and sand (rajaḥ-reṇu-avidyā; also called the afflictions upon beginningless ignorance). Ignorance can also be divided into two categories: ignorance of a single thought-moment and beginningless ignorance.

The ignorance eradicated by practitioners of the Two Vehicles is called ignorance of a single thought-moment, also called the ignorance of the four abodes (catvāra-vāsabhūmi-avidyā), which includes: the ignorance of the abode of views in one place, the ignorance of craving for the desire realm, the ignorance of craving for the form realm, and the ignorance of craving for the formless realm. When one attains the first fruit and eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), one has eliminated the ignorance of the abode of views in one place; then, by cultivating the first dhyāna and severing craving for the desire realm, the ignorance of the desire realm is severed. After the arhat of the fourth fruit eradicates self-grasping, the ignorance of craving for the form realm and the formless realm is completely severed, and one then has the ability to transcend the three realms and attain liberation from birth-and-death. When sentient beings study the truth of the Four Noble Truths and the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the four establishments of mindfulness, they can realize that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are empty and not-self, and gradually they sever the afflictive ignorance of the four abodes, becoming arhats of the fourth fruit and pratyekabuddhas. If the view of self has not been severed, not even one kind of ignorance can be eliminated; one fully possesses all craving for the three realms, fully possesses the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, one's mind is full of ignorance, and one constantly dwells in foolish darkness. The arhat of the fourth fruit has completely severed the afflictions of the four abodes, while a person of the first fruit can only sever the afflictions of the abode of views in one place.

Beginningless ignorance means that from beginningless kalpas ago until now, we have not known that there is a self-natured pure mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which is the true self—He neither arises nor ceases, and He has given birth to the false self of countless lifetimes—the five aggregates and eighteen realms. We have never realized the existence of this mind; even when we hear the noble teachings and know that there is such a He, we still do not know how to cultivate and realize it or how to accomplish the Buddha Way—this is beginningless ignorance. Beginningless ignorance is shattered at the time of seeing the mind and enlightenment, but one still knows very little about the tathāgatagarbha's characteristics and the dharmas that should be cultivated and realized, so this beginningless ignorance still remains and has not been completely severed; only at the time of attaining buddhahood can it be entirely eliminated.

After beginningless ignorance is shattered, there remains the ignorance as numerous as dust and sand, also called the afflictions upon beginningless ignorance, meaning that on our path to buddhahood there are still as many dharma principles we do not understand as dust and sand that need to be cultivated and realized. Even after we have seen the mind and attained enlightenment, what we know and have learned is still very little. In the words of the Chan school, only after enlightenment does one open the gateless gate and enter the hall; practice within the inner gate has only just begun. There are still countless afflictions and delusions to be severed, countless ignorances to be broken through, the four dhyānas and eight samādhis and countless superknowledges to be cultivated, the eight consciousnesses need to be transformed so that consciousness becomes wisdom, and the wisdom of the subsequent attainment, the wisdom of the varieties of paths, and omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) need to be gradually perfected. There are also the afflictions and dust-and-sand ignorance that arise along the path of practice which have not yet been cultivated or severed; there are still many obstacles to practice obstructing our attainment of buddhahood. Only by completely severing all that dust-and-sand ignorance and the afflictions upon beginningless ignorance can one become a perfectly complete Buddha. For the vast majority of sentient beings, these three major categories of ignorance—or the two major categories—are all fully present; having neither attained the fruits nor attained enlightenment, all these ignorances exist, showing that we are still ordinary beings burdened with the karma of birth-and-death, and our minds are still immersed in great darkness.

What stands opposite to ignorance and darkness is illumination (vidyā); illumination is wisdom and light. Our mind of the seven consciousnesses was at the very beginning entirely ignorance, lacking the wisdom and light that would enable us to see clearly the principles of things and keep us from being deluded about all dharmas. But the tathāgatagarbha is the most illuminated; His inner mind is entirely illumination, without a single bit of ignorance, without a single bit of foolishness. He has great wisdom, immeasurable wisdom, unsurpassed wisdom, and wisdom of "no equal equal"; these wisdoms are not worldly wisdoms—they cannot be compared to the wisdom of the worldly seven consciousnesses. The entire Heart Sutra teaches prajñā-pāramitā; it teaches the great wisdom of this tathāgatagarbha which has no birth-and-death, teaching this great wisdom that is on the other shore.

This true great wisdom is possessed only by the tathāgatagarbha; therefore His mind is entirely light and does not dwell in darkness, because He has no ignorance. Ignorance is the exclusive property of the seven consciousnesses. Among them, the ignorance of the seventh consciousness (manas) has existed since beginningless kalpas and has never been illuminated; this ignorance was not produced later in life. If it had been produced later, then before it was produced there would have been no ignorance, and having no ignorance would mean being a Buddha. If ignorance were to appear again afterward, it would mean that the Buddha had changed back into an ordinary sentient being—this contradicts what the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment (Yuanjue Jing) says, the principle that after the buddhas attain buddhahood they will never change back into sentient beings. When sentient beings have ignorance, apart from doing evil, they also cultivate goodness, but all with some craving and seeking, for their own benefit, craving pleasure and enjoyment. The tathāgatagarbha is pure, illuminated, and wise, without desire or seeking, and does not engage in these worldly conditioned affairs; yet these worldly affairs done by the seven consciousnesses are in fact all done by the tathāgatagarbha.

The illuminated wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha is extremely vast: the five aggregates, the eighteen realms, and all the dharmas of the world of the three realms can all be produced by Him. He can know the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses of sentient beings, and discern all karmic seeds and the universe's material world (bhājana-loka). He knows what kind of parental conditions to let sentient beings encounter in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava), knows when to enter the womb, knows whose womb is being entered—whether it becomes a human or an animal, or some other kind of being—He knows it all. He knows where the eyes are transformed into being, where the ears are transformed into being. What shape the eyes take, what shape the ears take, what shape the nose takes—He knows it all. When the hair emerges, and what color and style it becomes—He knows it all.

The wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha is immeasurable and boundless: when sentient beings are born, when they die, what kind of living environment to manifest for them, what kind of physical body, whether the six faculties are complete or incomplete, what kind of skin color—He knows it all and can transform it all. He knows the karmic seeds of sentient beings: how many months an animal gestates before birth, how many months a human gestates before birth—He knows it all. Whatever karmic retribution a person should receive, He manifests for him the corresponding environment of retribution and the five-aggregate body of retribution.

He knows whether to transform into a male body or a female body, whether to transform into a deva's body, a human body, an animal body, or a ghost's body. The tathāgatagarbha is so wise—He is purely great illumination, true illumination. Can our mind of the seven consciousnesses understand all this? The mind of the seven consciousnesses dwells in foolish ignorance: it does not even know where it has come from and where it is going, life after life; it does not even know the concepts and contents of its own five aggregates and eighteen realms; it suffers life after life yet does not know that it itself is suffering—its foolishness is beyond words.

What was said above is that the tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance—He is entirely illumination and wisdom. Since the tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance, the dharma of eliminating ignorance does not exist for Him; He does not need, like the mind of the seven consciousnesses, to extinguish ignorance completely through cultivation—the dharma of extinguishing ignorance completely does not exist for the tathāgatagarbha. No matter how sentient beings cultivate, it never involves eliminating the tathāgatagarbha's ignorance; it can only make the ignorance of the mind of the seven consciousnesses ever thinner. Since the tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance, there is no segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) and no transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa); there is no arising, ceasing, or change. The five aggregates and seven consciousnesses have ignorance and must constantly arise, cease, and change; they need to eliminate ignorance, even extinguish it completely, in order to end all birth-and-death and ultimately attain perfect buddhahood. In short, the tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance; He does not wish to become a Buddha and has no need to eliminate ignorance, so there is no dharma of extinguishing ignorance completely.