Why Are All Dharmas Marked by Emptiness?

Original text of the Heart Sutra: 色不异空，空不异色，色即是空，空即是色，受想行识也复如是，舍利子，是诸法空相不生不灭，不垢不净，不增不减。是故空中无色，无受想行识，无眼耳鼻舌身意，无色声香味触法，无眼界，乃至无意识界，无无明，也无无明尽，乃至无老死，也无老死尽，无苦集灭道，无智也无得。

Explanation: Why does the Heart Sutra contain all these "no's"? How can they be understood from the perspective of Yogācāra? If we explain this passage using the principle of the seven great seeds of Yogācāra, it becomes easy to understand. The dharmas of the five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness—are generated from the seven great seeds within the tathāgatagarbha. From the perspective of worldly dharma-appearance, it seems that the five aggregates and their functions exist; but in essence, they are all the seven great seeds of the tathāgatagarbha and their operations, and therefore all are functions of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus the worldly appearances of the five aggregates are in fact false appearances, all empty, and in reality nonexistent. Therefore, although the aggregate of form superficially exhibits worldly phenomena of arising and ceasing, at its root the arising of the aggregate of form is the transformation of the seven great seeds, and the ceasing of the aggregate of form is likewise the transformation of the seven great seeds. From beginning to end it is all the functioning of the seven great seeds, and there is no real aggregate of form to speak of. By the same token, the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are also like this: they are all the ceaseless transformations of the seven great seeds, and the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness have nothing to do with it.

Moreover, the functions of the seven great seeds are precisely the functions of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha uses the seven great seeds as raw material, splashing ink freely to transform into the manifold world of the five aggregates. But no matter what, the appearances of the world are all empty; the dharmas of the five aggregates have never arisen and never ceased, and one cannot even speak of defilement or purity regarding the dharmas of the five aggregates, because the raw material is the pure seven great seeds. The appearances of the dharmas of the five aggregates are empty, and since they are empty, whatever one says about them is conceptual proliferation (prapañca). Thus the empty appearance of the dharmas of the five aggregates is neither increasing nor decreasing—nothing has ever moved, nothing has ever arisen, and nothing has ever ceased. And the supramundane dharma-appearance of the tathāgatagarbha is also an empty appearance, possessing no worldly features whatsoever; He too is neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure (na saṃkleśo na vyavadānam), neither increasing nor decreasing.

Therefore, within this emptiness-natured mind, this empty-appearance mind of the tathāgatagarbha, there are no dharmas at all: no aggregate of form, no aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind, no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma, no eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, or mind consciousness, no ignorance. Nor is there any cessation of ignorance, no suffering, origination, cessation, or path, no twelve links of dependent origination, and even further, no wisdom and no attainment. All worldly dharmas, in the final analysis, are the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, all attributes of the tathāgatagarbha.

To see appearances is already a mistake; to see appearances is the mind grasping at itself, causing the tathāgatagarbha, which is not illusory, to become an illusory dharma. "If one sees that all appearances are not appearances, one sees the Tathāgata"—if one sees that the five aggregates are not the appearances of the five aggregates, that there are no appearances of the five aggregates, then one has seen the Buddha Tathāgata—the tathāgatagarbha. Merely seeing appearances as illusory is still not a sufficient level; from the perspective of Yogācāra dharmas, illusory dharmas are simply emptiness—there are no such things as illusory dharmas. From the perspective of the one true dharma realm, when the one is true, all is true, and there is no delusion: deluded dharmas are true dharmas. Illusory appearances are in fact the true dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, dharmas within the one true dharma realm, possessing the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Only seeing in this way is ultimate. Having studied Yogācāra and applied Yogācāra, one will feel that everything learned previously is not ultimate, and that Yogācāra is the most ultimate Buddhadharma.