The True Meaning of the Third Chapter of the Diamond Sutra

Original text of Chapter Three: 大乘正宗分

佛告须菩提。诸菩萨摩诃萨。应如是降伏其心。所有一切众生之类。若卵生。若胎生。若湿生。若化生。若有色。若无色。若有想。若无想。若非有想非无想。我皆令入无余涅槃而灭度之。如是灭度无量无数无边众生。实无众生得灭度者。何以故。须菩提。若菩萨有我相人相。众生相寿者相。即非菩萨。

The central idea of Chapter Three of the Diamond Sutra is the Buddha teaching bodhisattvas how to subdue their minds. Why should they subdue their minds? Because bodhisattvas may harbor the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of a life span; one who holds these four marks is not a true bodhisattva. How can a bodhisattva subdue his mind and eliminate the four marks? The Buddha said: even if you deliver all beings of the four forms of birth and the nine realms of existence into nirvāṇa without remainder, you must not think that you have delivered sentient beings, that there are sentient beings who have been delivered. Because in truth, within the dharma realm there are no sentient beings and no self; because there is no self, you should not think "I have delivered sentient beings"; because there are no sentient beings, you should not think that there are countless, boundless beings delivered by you. In this way the four marks are eliminated, the mind becomes pure, and it is subdued. The entire passage does not emphasize making sentient beings enter nirvāṇa without remainder; rather, it supposes that you have truly delivered so many beings into nirvāṇa without remainder. In actuality, this is not the case.

If a person has the mark of self, he will think about how he is such and such, what he wants to do, what he absolutely must do. The emphasis is always on that self of his; taking himself as the center and starting point in everything, his self-nature will inevitably manifest.

If a person has the mark of others, he will cling to people's wholesomeness and unwholesomeness, true and false, good and bad, and cannot leave the crowd, everywhere depending on the crowd to obtain worldly benefits; apart from the crowd, he no longer knows how to settle himself. If a person has the mark of sentient beings, he will wish to be surrounded and pursued by sentient beings, to become the head of sentient beings, chasing fame, profit, and offerings. If a person has the mark of a life span, he will wish to live to a hundred years, to be immortal, with an enduringly long life.

Yet these four marks are all false marks, illusory and unreal marks, not truly existent. If the mind holds the four marks, one cannot eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), cannot cut the bonds, and the cycle of birth and death cannot cease. Therefore a bodhisattva should first eliminate the self-view and shatter the four marks. Only after shattering the four marks can a bodhisattva's mind be empty, can he be unconditioned in action, can his merit become vast and boundless, and can he, by means of this vast and boundless merit, accomplish anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment.

Someone may ask: why did the Buddha have countless, boundless sentient beings enter nirvāṇa without remainder? Judging from the whole text, the Buddha did not have sentient beings enter nirvāṇa without remainder; the purport of the whole text differs greatly from a single sentence or a single word within it. The Buddha told sentient beings that in studying the Dharma and reading the sūtras, they should rely on the meaning, not on the words. The meaning can only be faithfully revealed within a complete book, chapter, section, or paragraph; if one extracts some part from it, will its meaning not be distorted? In reading the sūtras, one must fully and thoroughly understand the whole picture and purport of the Buddhist sūtras; one must not take passages out of context, or take meaning from isolated phrases. One must rely on the meaning, not on the words; otherwise, one becomes an enemy of the Buddhas of the three times.