The Tathāgata Breaks Through the Mark of Fine Dust and the Mark of the World

Original text of the Diamond Sutra: 须菩提。于意云何。三千大千世界所有微尘。是为多不。须菩提言。甚多。世尊。须菩提。诸微尘。如来说非微尘。是名微尘。如来说世界。即非世界。是名世界。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Subhūti, what do you think about this matter—are all the particles of dust in the three-thousandfold great thousand worlds numerous? Subhūti replied: They are extremely numerous, World-Honored One. The Buddha said: Subhūti, all particles of dust—the Tathāgata says they are not dust particles; they are merely called dust particles. The Tathāgata says the great thousand worlds are not worlds; they are merely called worlds.

The great thousand worlds composed of countless particles of dust constitute the external space in which the five aggregates of sentient beings exist; they are the material form (rūpa) portion of the mundane world. Here, the Tathāgata has refuted the dharma-marks of this portion of material form. So, does the world of the five aggregates in the mundane realm have any real mark? It has no real mark; it is entirely illusory and false, merely nominally called a world, nominally called the mundane realm, nominally called the secular world, nominally called the five aggregates. Since the five aggregates are but false names, then all the undertakings carried out by the five aggregates—generating bodhicitta, practicing the bodhisattva path to benefit oneself and others, expounding the Dharma to deliver sentient beings, realizing and attaining the Dharma, achieving the bodhisattva fruits as well as the Buddha fruit, and establishing Buddha-lands—all of these are illusory and empty, without any real mark. Then, within this illusory world, what is there for you, me, her, or him to be attached to? What is there to grasp and refuse to let go of?

Why do all these false marks and false names exist? Because of that indestructible vajra mind—He has brought all these dharmas into being through causes and conditions. Whatever comes into being must perish; only what exists originally will never decay and perish. Sentient beings, for beginningless kalpas, have not recognized the truth, and thus have taken the false marks to be the truth and grasped at them; only then has there been the suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāra. Now that we have studied and practiced the vajra Dharma, we should realize the true reality as quickly as possible, return to our true nature, reach the other shore of nirvāṇa, and no longer transmigrate through birth and death.