The Marks of the Dharma Must Also Be Broken Through

Original text of Chapter Eight of the Diamond Sutra: 一切诸佛及诸佛阿耨多罗三藐三菩提法。皆从此经出。所谓佛法者。即非佛法。

Literal translation: All Buddhas and all the dharmas of the Buddhas' anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi are born from the vajra mind (vajra-citta); therefore the dharma that sentient beings call the Buddha-dharma is also not the Buddha-dharma, (it is merely named the Buddha-dharma.) First of all, the Buddhas are Buddhas who attained buddhahood later; their five-aggregate bodies with the thirty-two marks are produced and manifested by their own undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna); the wisdom of equality, the wisdom of wondrous observation, and the wisdom of accomplished deeds are manifested by their own undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna); the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), moment by moment, uses the seeds of the seven great elements to give birth to and sustain the Buddhas' five aggregates and seven consciousnesses, and only then can the Buddhas manifest and exist. The dharma by which the Buddhas attained buddhahood is a dharma that did not originally exist but came to be afterward; it is the experiential dharma accumulated and summarized through the Buddhas' practice over three countless great kalpas; it is a dharma produced by causes and conditions, not a fixed dharma, and it too is given birth to and sustained by the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna).

Therefore, the Buddha-dharma as called by sentient beings is not a dharma that originally existed, not the true dharma that is unborn and unceasing; it was only later given the name Buddha-dharma, a provisional name for the Buddha-dharma. Although it is empty and without self-nature, it is also not not-the-Buddha-dharma, because these dharmas after all have the function of attaining buddhahood, and have existence in the phenomenal realm; they are not dharmas that are empty with nothing to be seen.

After the dharma-marks of all the Buddhas and of all the dharmas by which the Buddhas attained buddhahood—the Buddha-dharma—have been refuted, apart from the vajra mind (vajra-citta) and the tathatā-buddha-nature, what other dharma truly exists, a dharma that cannot be changed and cannot be refuted? There is none. When even the dharma-marks of the most supreme dharma can be refuted, then in the world there is no dharma-mark that cannot be refuted. The world is then truly empty, void, and desolate, not worth sentient beings' pursuit, not worth seeking and grasping. Let everyone's mind rest, let it cease—there is no need to fabricate anything further, because no matter what one fabricates, it is all empty and illusory, of no use whatsoever.