Differences Among Various Asamskrita Dharmas

Question: The Diamond Sutra states that all sages and saints differ due to the non-action dharma. Does this mean the differences arise from varying degrees of realization regarding the tathagatagarbha dharma? In other words, are the differences due to varying depths of realization of emptiness?

Answer: Sages and saints include śrāvaka arhats and pratyekabuddhas, as well as bodhisattvas and buddhas, collectively known as the Four Holy Beings. Among them, the first two fruitions of the Hinayana path are considered virtuous persons (sages), and those from the awakening to the mind until just before the first bodhisattva ground are also virtuous persons. The first two types, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, are of Hinayana capacity; they do not tread the Mahayana path to buddhahood, do not investigate the Mahayana tathagatagarbha dharma, and have not realized the tathagatagarbha. Only Mahayana bodhisattvas can investigate and realize the tathagatagarbha. This is the distinction between Mahayana bodhisattvas and Hinayana śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.

The non-action dharma realized by the Buddha is the most ultimate and thorough. Not only is the self empty, but phenomena are also empty. Both self-attachment and dharma-attachment are completely severed, leaving the mind utterly empty, without even clinging to the tathagatagarbha dharma itself. Bodhisattvas who realize the Mahayana tathagatagarbha have realized this supramundane non-action dharma. Subsequently, their seventh consciousness mind will increasingly become non-active, like the tathagatagarbha, which, while engaging in the functions of conditioned dharmas, has a mental activity that is non-active—simultaneously conditioned and unconditioned. Hinayana śrāvakas realize the emptiness of self (selflessness of the five aggregates), which is the Hinayana non-action dharma. Pratyekabuddhas realize the dependent arising of the twelve links of causation, understanding that all dharmas are born from causes and conditions and are therefore empty. This is also a type of non-action dharma. After this realization, the minds of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas must become non-active; their seventh consciousness must also be non-active. This non-active nature differs from that of the tathagatagarbha. The tathagatagarbha’s mental activity within all conditioned dharmas is non-active—a non-action that does not abandon the conditioned. In contrast, the non-action of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas seeks to abandon the conditioned entirely, refusing even the most meaningful great work like attaining buddhahood and liberating sentient beings. The Buddha called this the non-action of "withered sprouts and rotten seeds."

The non-action dharma realized by śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas is a semblance, existing only by relying on the truly non-active tathagatagarbha. It is neither ultimate nor real. They still regard dharma appearances as truly existent, perceive the three realms and six paths as real dharmas, and consider suffering as truly existent. They do not realize that all these are illusory manifestations of the tathagatagarbha, essentially non-existent, all being the nature of tathagatagarbha. Therefore, the level of their realization of non-action dharma is very low. Although bodhisattvas have realized the tathagatagarbha non-action dharma, a level higher than that of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, their cultivation is insufficient. They have not fully relied upon the tathagatagarbha, and their mental activity is not yet completely empty and non-active. Thus, it is also not ultimate. Only the Buddha is the ultimate, thorough non-action.

Some say that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas have also realized the tathagatagarbha. If this were so, then śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas would also be bodhisattvas, indistinguishable from bodhisattvas. Their aspiration should be the same, their vows should be the same, and they should all continue to deeply cultivate the tathagatagarbha dharma, walking the bodhisattva path, benefiting themselves and others. Yet their actions contradict the bodhisattva path. They have not generated great compassion, fear the suffering of the three realms, fear their own rebirth in samsara, refuse to continue cultivating, refuse to save sentient beings, and choose to enter nirvana. This is utterly unlike the mental activity of a bodhisattva.

If śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas had realized the tathagatagarbha, they should know how the tathagatagarbha operates within the five aggregates, how it gives rise to and sustains the five-aggregate body. They should not fear conditioned dharmas and the suffering of the three realms and choose to enter nirvana. Yet they are completely ignorant of the tathagatagarbha dharma, unaware that the suffering of the five aggregates is also illusory and need not be feared or avoided. Realizing the tathagatagarbha should enable direct observation of it. If one merely hears the name "tathagatagarbha" and believes it exists, they are still immensely far from realization. Therefore, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas absolutely have not realized this non-action dharma of the tathagatagarbha. Instead, they have realized the Hinayana non-action dharma of the selflessness of the five aggregates and the twelve links of causation. It is because of the different non-action dharmas they realize that sages and saints have distinctions of greatness and smallness, highness and lowness. Bodhisattvas also differ in wisdom and fruition due to varying degrees of realization of the tathagatagarbha.

Non-Buddhist paths also have non-action dharma. When cultivating to the fourth dhyāna, one attains the non-action of immovability, where body and mind are unmoving—no breathing, no pulse, no heartbeat, no discrimination, no mental thoughts. Cultivating to the state of no-perception samadhi, consciousness ceases, and the mind becomes more non-active. Cultivating to the state of neither-perception-nor-non-perception samadhi, consciousness ceases along with the two mental factors of feeling and perception; this is called the non-action of the cessation of perception and feeling. Non-doing, non-functioning, non-acting—this is the non-action of conditioned dharmas.