The Marks of a Bodhisattva Adorning the Buddha Land Are Also Empty

Original text: 须菩提。于意云何。菩萨庄严佛土不。不也。世尊。何以故。庄严佛土者。即非庄严。是名庄严。

The Buddha said: Subhūti, what do you think of this? Does a bodhisattva adorn the Buddha-land? Subhūti replied: A bodhisattva does not adorn the Buddha-land. Why is this said? Because the one who adorns the Buddha-land is precisely not adorning the Buddha-land; there is no mark of adorning the Buddha-land—it is only an adornment in name and appearance.

In terms of worldly dharmas and marks, all of a bodhisattva's cultivation—the practice of the six pāramitās and the ten pāramitās—is adorning the Buddha-land, and all of a bodhisattva's undertakings to deliver sentient beings are adorning the Buddha-land. The seeds of cultivation and the seeds of delivering sentient beings are retained within one's own mind, the tathāgatagarbha. When the seeds have accumulated to their maximum, the causes and conditions for attaining buddhahood ripen, and then these seeds are used to manifest an adorned Buddha-land. Therefore, all bodhisattva conduct is conduct that adorns the Buddha-land. So, does a bodhisattva adorn the Buddha-land? Of course the bodhisattva adorns the Buddha-land.

However, applying the World-Honored One's universal golden formula, it is: the so-called adornment is precisely not adornment, and is called adornment. This means that when a bodhisattva adorns the Buddha-land, there is no true mark of adornment. All of the bodhisattva's conduct is empty and illusory—the marks exist but the principle does not; the existence is false existence, and the marks are also empty. There is no substantial, genuine affair of adornment; in essence everything is true suchness (tathatā), the one true dharma-realm, and the vajra prajñā mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta); everything else is empty and unreal. Apart from the never-destroying vajra mind (vajra-citta), all dharmas are names and marks, false appearances, and must not be grasped as truly existent. Bodhisattvas vigorously perform the Buddha's affairs within a dream, doing so with an empty mind and a mind of no attainment—acting yet not acting, never attaching, never coveting fame, reputation, or material offerings, and not seeking recompense. Ordinary beings are just the opposite: their minds always have attainment, seeking, and expectation; their minds are not empty, and they cling to marks.