The Essence of the Heart Sutra

Section One  How to Realize the Tathāgatagarbha Mind-Essence of No Attainment

Sutra text: 【以无所得故。菩提萨埵。】As explained previously, "no attainment" means that the tathāgatagarbha, the mind of ultimate reality, attains not even a single dharma; whether worldly dharmas or supramundane dharmas, it attains none of them whatsoever. He is the mind that truly attains nothing and clings to nothing. When bodhisattvas realize this mind of no attainment, having seen the mind and seen the nature, they are called bodhisattva, meaning sentient beings who have already awakened. If one has not realized this tathāgatagarbha mind of no attainment, one remains a bodhisattva who is an ordinary person, for without having awakened to the Mahāyāna bodhi, one is not a bodhisattva (bodhisattva). As bodhisattvas deepen their practice, their degree of awakening grows ever higher, and the content of their awakening becomes ever deeper, broader, and subtler; the ultimate and perfect awakening is that of a Buddha. A Buddha possesses omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) in full; there is nothing among worldly or supramundane dharmas that He does not know; He realizes them all, yet attains them all without attaining.

Why is the tathāgatagarbha a mind of no attainment? The previous chapter discussed His nature of no attainment; He truly attains nothing, not even a single dharma. Among the myriad dharmas of this world—the five aggregates and the six sense objects—and the dharmas of the three realms, the tathāgatagarbha has never attained any. Why does He not attain? First, He lacks the faculty of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing that the seven consciousnesses have toward the six sense objects; He lacks the discriminating and knowing nature of the seven consciousnesses, and thus has no feelings or experiences toward anything; without feeling, there can be no attainment. Second, no dharma is held in His mind, and therefore He attains no dharma. Third, He has no mind of craving; His mind does not grasp, hope for, or pursue any dharma, and He Himself is perfectly complete in all dharmas, lacking nothing, and thus has no need to obtain anything from outside. Fourth, all dharmas are of no use to the tathāgatagarbha; He has no need for any dharma, and what is not used is not attained. Fifth, because the tathāgatagarbha is a mind of empty mark, all dharmas have nowhere to be placed, nowhere to be put, and therefore the tathāgatagarbha attains no dharmas. Sixth, the tathāgatagarbha mind is pure; if there were attainment, the mind would not be pure. The tathāgatagarbha attains not a single dharma in the three-realm world and has never attained anything; He is a truly pure mind of no attainment.

All attainment belongs to the nature of the deluded mind that has awareness, because the aware mind has desires, needs, thoughts, and grasping (upādāna) toward all dharmas, and can use all kinds of strategies and means to seize them, and only then can there be attainment; all dharmas are useful to the aware mind, and the deluded mind can use all dharmas to satisfy its own needs and has use for all dharmas; therefore only the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses is a mind of attainment. For example, money and possessions, family and relatives, fame, power, status, fields and estates, houses, and other such realms of the six sense objects—all these are attained and enjoyed by the aware mind, but they are of no use to the tathāgatagarbha. Even a king or prince of supreme wealth and nobility in the human world is accomplished by the five-aggregate body; the tathāgatagarbha does not become a king or prince, nor does He become an official, get rich, seek fame, or engage in the pursuits of wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep. He attains not a single dharma, worldly or supramundane; even the fruit of Buddhahood He does not attain. Even though we have given Him the name "suchness" (tathatā), He does not attain the name of suchness; He never hopes for any fame, power, status, or fruit.

The tathāgatagarbha does not covet fame, gain, offerings, or the pursuits of wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, and does not covet any dharma. One who realizes this mind of no attainment is an awakened bodhisattva-mahāsattva. Bodhisattvas are divided into fifty-two stages. The ten stages of faith of the ordinary-person bodhisattva mainly cultivate faith in the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—generating pure faith in the Three Jewels, and faith that one too has the tathāgatagarbha and buddha-nature and can also become a Buddha. When pure faith is complete and the ten stages of faith are finished, one enters the ten stages of abiding to cultivate.

At the beginning of the ten stages of abiding, one mainly cultivates the six pāramitās. The first abiding mainly cultivates the pāramitā of generosity (dāna), accumulating the resources of merit for future seeing of the mind and seeing of the nature. Among the six pāramitās, the pāramitā of generosity is foremost and is the main cultivation of the first abiding; the pāramitā of generosity can accumulate the merit for Mahāyāna realization, and merit is the cornerstone of practice, by which one can ascend all the steps of the bodhisattva path. The second abiding mainly cultivates the pāramitā of precepts, strictly holding the five precepts, the eight precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts without any violation; in this way the mind can gradually become purified, meditative concentration will appear, and the bodhisattva's mental disposition will gradually be perfected. The third abiding mainly cultivates patience—not only patience amid the disturbances of people and affairs, but even more, patience with the profound meaning of the Dharma. The fourth abiding mainly cultivates diligence—diligently practicing generosity, diligently practicing the precepts, diligently practicing patience, and also diligently practicing meditative concentration and prajñā.

The fifth abiding mainly cultivates meditative concentration; this concentration refers to the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, which also extends to the concentration of non-Buddhists. One cultivates until, whether sitting quietly or walking, one can gather the mind onto a single object, with the mind not chasing external conditions. Only with such power of concentration does one have the ability to investigate Chan, contemplate the meaning of the Dharma, and engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to attain realization. Seeing the mind and seeing the nature require a certain power of concentration; at minimum one must cultivate until preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) is complete, and only by using this power of concentration to do the corresponding contemplative practice, deliberation (manasikāra), and Chan investigation can one eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and see the mind and see the nature. Generally, students of Buddhism and Chan investigators treat meditative concentration as if it were Chan itself, mistakenly believing that sitting in meditation is investigating Chan, and that enlightenment can be attained by cultivating concentration through sitting. In reality, sitting in meditation to cultivate concentration can only deepen the state of concentration—concentration without investigation, having concentration but no wisdom. Cultivating concentration alone can only still the mind consciousness, reducing discursive thoughts, thereby allowing body and mind to rest. True Chan refers to the Buddha-mind—suchness, prajñā, the tathāgatagarbha; He is the principal consciousness for becoming a Buddha. The Chan school's gate of the patriarchs is precisely to investigate Chan and realize this Chan mind; through investigating Chan one comes to know this mind and realize this mind. Apart from this mind there is no Chan, and it is not Chan. Sitting quietly cultivates meditative concentration; non-Buddhists also cultivate the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, yet lack the prajñā that is Chan; therefore meditative concentration refers to the four dhyānas and eight samādhis. In the fifth abiding one cultivates concentration, and once the most basic preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) is complete, one can contemplate the illusoriness of the five aggregates and eighteen realms; when the contemplative practice succeeds, one can eradicate the view of self and attain the first fruit of srotāpanna, and then seeing the mind and seeing the nature is not far off.

The sixth abiding mainly cultivates prajñā wisdom, studying the prajñā principles of the tathāgatagarbha, including the six hundred fascicles of the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, with the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra as the main texts, immersing oneself in the correct knowledge and view of prajñā. The natures of the sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses must all be studied and understood, clearly discerning the difference between the true mind and the deluded mind, in preparation for enlightenment and seeing the mind, so as not to realize wrongly—mistaking the deluded mind for the true mind would be a misunderstanding. When all six pāramitās are complete and the conditions and season arrive, one can realize the tathāgatagarbha mind of no attainment and become an awakened sentient being, or a bodhisattva capable of awakening sentient beings. When we eradicate the view of self or see the mind and realize the tathāgatagarbha, we will know that the five aggregates are originally illusory, and the karmic actions created are also illusory and unreal; once the three fetters are severed, the karma of the three evil destinies is dissolved, and in the future one can forever avoid falling into the three evil destinies. However, because bodhisattvas have compassion for sentient beings, they may manifest taking birth in the three evil destinies in order to deliver sentient beings with karmic affinity who have fallen into the three evil destinies. When Śākyamuni Buddha cultivated the bodhisattva path in the causal ground, He once served as a deer king; thus bodhisattvas enter the three evil destinies out of a compassionate mind.

There is a Chan kōan that tells how, after Chan Master Weishan Lingyou attained enlightenment, he said this to his disciples: A hundred years from now, I will go below the mountain and become a water buffalo. After a bodhisattva sees the mind and sees the nature, he would originally not fall into the three evil destinies, so why did Chan Master Weishan want to become a water buffalo? He said: When I become this water buffalo, I will write "Monk of Weishan, so-and-so" on the left flank of this buffalo. Chan Master Weishan then asked: Look at this water buffalo—do you call it a water buffalo, or do you call it Weishan Lingyou? If you call it a water buffalo, yet on its left flank is written "Monk of Weishan"; if you call it a monk of Weishan, yet it is a water buffalo—which would be the better name?

Then let us think: who made Chan Master Weishan Lingyou, and who made the water buffalo? What should it really be called? If you truly understand this question, you are enlightened. The name of Chan Master Weishan Lingyou is written on the left flank of the water buffalo; if the name of Chan Master Weishan's previous life were also written on its forehead, and the name of every life were written on the buffalo's body, even covering the whole body, it could not be finished, because there have been countless lives of five-aggregate bodies in the past. The five-aggregate bodies constantly change, but the tathāgatagarbha is only one, never arising or ceasing.

This is to say that after seeing the mind and attaining realization, because the fetters binding oneself to the three evil destinies have been severed, one no longer undergoes retribution in the three evil destinies. How can the karma of the three evil destinies be dissolved most quickly? Only by attaining the fruit and gaining enlightenment, obtaining the patience with non-arising or the patience with the non-arising of dharmas, can karma be dissolved quickly. Our evil karma since beginningless kalpas is too vast; if we had to dissolve all that evil karma by undergoing retribution, it could never be finished, because the evil karma is too much and the eons during which it was created are too distant. As soon as a single sentence slandering the Three Jewels leaves the mouth, one will undergo many kalpas of evil retribution in hell—let alone the countless bodily, verbal, and mental evil actions each sentient being unknowingly creates within a single life.

When our practice gains strength and we attain the fruit, the karma of the three evil destinies will be dissolved. Although we will not suffer in the three evil destinies, there will still be heavy karma lightly requited, and we must undergo some residual suffering in the human world. As for other evil karma, part is dissolved when we attain the patience with the non-arising of dharmas at the first bhūmi; at the second, third, and fourth bhūmis, karma is gradually dissolved, until finally all karma is exhausted and ignorance is completely severed, and only then does one become a Buddha. With unwholesome karma remaining, one cannot become a Buddha; ignorance is karma. When the ignorance of an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva is completely severed, he becomes a Buddha.

When a bodhisattva sees the mind and is enlightened, realizing a mind of no attainment, he is called a bodhisattva; from seeing the mind all the way to equal enlightenment and wondrous enlightenment, one is called a bodhisattva. Thus, when the ten stages of abiding are cultivated to completion, one realizes the contemplation of illusoriness like conjured illusions; one must then cultivate the ten stages of conduct, realizing the contemplation of miragelike phenomena; when the ten stages of conduct are complete, one then cultivates the ten stages of dedication; when the ten stages of dedication are finished, one realizes the contemplation of dreamlikeness, gives rise to one portion of the wisdom of the varieties of paths, and enters the first bhūmi. Having completed the content of the first bhūmi, one further realizes the contemplation of reflections in a mirror; then entering the second bhūmi, upon completion one realizes the contemplation of light and shadow; then entering the third bhūmi, one realizes the contemplation of echoes in a valley; thereafter, the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas increases bhūmi by bhūmi, until one finally becomes an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva; the equal-enlightenment bodhisattva cultivates the major and minor marks (lakṣaṇa-vyañjana-sampad) for a hundred kalpas, and upon their completion becomes a wondrous-enlightenment bodhisattva—these are the fifty-two stages. The wondrous-enlightenment bodhisattva waits in the inner court of Tuṣita for the conditions to mature, then comes to the human world and accomplishes buddhahood through the eight marks of manifestation, becoming the ultimately perfect Buddha. Such is the sequence of cultivating the bodhisattva path and the Buddha path.

For a bodhisattva to become a perfectly and ultimately complete Buddha, he must pass through the cultivation of three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas. If one is not diligent, then the three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas are truly three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas; but if we are diligent, it need not take that long. One day of your diligence may span a kalpa or even longer. Some people see the mind and see the nature in a single day; some cultivate for only a very short time and attain the first, second, third, or fourth bhūmi; and there are those even faster—for example, Sudhana became an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva in a single lifetime, and the dragon girl became a Buddha at eight years of age—truly great diligence.

The content of diligence includes the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, as well as the cultivation of the three untainted studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom. If the content of any level is not cultivated to completion, one's practice stagnates and one's fruit will not advance. Take the ten stages of faith, for example: some people complete them in one kalpa, while others must cultivate for ten thousand kalpas or even longer. Each person's roots of goodness, merit, and conditions differ, so the length of time for cultivation differs. Thus, of these fifty-two stages, some pass through them in a very short time, while others must use the full three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas.

Each person's merit differs, wisdom differs, meditative concentration differs, and degree of diligence in practice differs, so the length of time required for cultivation differs. For example, if a person is extremely greedy and stingy, he will refuse to practice generosity and cultivate merit; at the mere mention of giving, he feels a headache and impatience, and may even give rise to anger; such a person remains stuck at the stage of faith. Even if he reaches the first abiding, the content of the first abiding can never be completed; with insufficient diligence in generosity, this stage is not easy to pass, and the time of cultivation becomes extremely long. Although he may seem to understand some Buddhist principles, it is only superficial and shallow; his blessings are not complete, so he cannot understand thoroughly, much less attain realization. His practice is stuck at this weakness, unable to break through this barrier.

Sentient beings have all been greedy and stingy since beginningless kalpas. Because of greed and stinginess, in every life they are poor and destitute, suffering unspeakably, yet they do not know why it is so. Everyone wishes for wealth and honor, a comfortable, at-ease, and happy life, yet because of their own greedy and stingy mind, they cannot have their wishes fulfilled. Sentient beings lack wisdom and fail to recognize this, because their ignorance is too heavy. Some people with power and influence are greedy their whole lives, insatiably greedy—one hundred million is not enough, they want ten billion—and the result is prison while alive and hell after death, ignorance life after life, suffering life after life. Therefore, the first of the pāramitās of diligent practice is generosity, to remove the mind of stinginess and greed.

After seeing the mind, the bodhisattva must transform the basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti) onto the mind of no attainment that he has realized—the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha—and enter the inner gate to extensively cultivate the bodhisattva's myriad practices of the six pāramitās. He must make vast aspirations to benefit himself and benefit others, and, in accordance with the teachings of all the Buddhas, diligently cultivate and accumulate wisdom and merit, striving to quickly complete the bodhisattva's fifty-two stages.