Commentary on the Diamond Sutra: The Arising of Dharma in Accordance with the Truth, Eight

Original text:须菩提。于意云何。若人满三千大千世界七宝。以用布施。是人所得福德。宁为多不。须菩提言。甚多。世尊。何以故。是福德即非福德性。是故如来说福德多。若复有人。于此经中受持乃至四句偈等。为他人说。其福胜彼。何以故。须菩提。一切诸佛及诸佛阿耨多罗三藐三菩提法。皆从此经出。须菩提。所谓佛法者。即非佛法。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think? If someone took the seven treasures of a trichiliocosm (three thousand great thousand worlds) and used them for giving, would the merit this person obtains be great? Subhūti said: Very great, World-Honored One. Why is this said? Because such giving obtains merit, not the nature of merit; the nature of merit has no distinction of more or less, and therefore the Tathāgata speaks of merit as being great. The Buddha said that if someone receives and upholds even a four-line verse from this sutra and expounds it to others, the merit obtained would surpass that of giving the seven treasures. Why is this said? Subhūti, all buddhas and the dharma of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi of all buddhas arise from this sutra. Subhūti, so-called buddha-dharma is not an inherently existent dharma; it is provisionally named buddha-dharma.

The seven treasures of the trichiliocosm include the human-realm seven treasures of Jambudvīpa on planet Earth, the seven treasures of Uttarakuru, Aparagodānīya, and Pūrvavideha, the seven treasures of the dragon palaces of the four great oceans, the seven treasures of the seven golden mountains, the seven treasures of Mount Sumeru, the seven treasures of the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, the seven treasures of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the seven treasures of the Yāma Heaven, the seven treasures of the Tuṣita Heaven, the seven treasures of the Nirmāṇarati Heaven, the seven treasures of the Paranirmitavaśavartin Heaven, and the seven treasures of the eighteen heavens of the form realm. A single trichiliocosm contains one billion four great continents, one billion four great oceans, one billion seven golden mountains, one billion Mount Sumerus, one billion Heavens of the Four Great Kings, one billion Trāyastriṃśa Heavens, one billion Yāma Heavens, one billion Tuṣita Heavens, one billion Nirmāṇarati Heavens, one billion Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavens, one billion first-dhyāna heavens, one million second-dhyāna heavens, one thousand third-dhyāna heavens, plus the fourth-dhyāna heavens, the five Pure Abode heavens, the four formless heavens, and the four heavens of the formless realm.

The seven treasures of so many stars, mountains, and seas are beyond calculation; if all were given away, the merit would be even more incalculable. However, such acts of giving away wealth are all conditioned dharmas, arising-and-ceasing dharmas, and are also dharmas with finite measure, so they can be worn away, exhausted, and used up. If one becomes a heavenly lord in one of the heavens of the desire realm, dwelling in a heavenly palace and sporting with celestial princes and princesses for several or several dozen lifetimes, the merit will be used up, and afterward one becomes an impoverished being without merit, with a great likelihood of falling into the three evil destinies. But there is a kind of unconditioned merit that can never be exhausted or worn away, and that is the nature of merit inherent in the tathāgatagarbha.

The tathāgatagarbha contains the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind; these four great seeds combine together, and according to various proportions constitute the seven treasures, the hundred treasures, and countless precious things. The seven treasures of the trichiliocosm, the seven golden mountains, Mount Sumeru, the four great oceans, the heavenly palaces, the entire trichiliocosm, and the buddha-lands of the ten directions all come from the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings. The physical bodies of all sentient beings, the physical bodies of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, and the physical body of the Buddha all come from their respective tathāgatagarbhas. The merit of the tathāgatagarbha has no quantity and cannot be calculated, and the merit it brings to sentient beings is also boundless and immeasurable, beyond counting. Only conditioned merit can be calculated and can be said to be much or great; the unconditioned nature of merit of the tathāgatagarbha cannot be calculated and cannot be expressed or compared in terms of much and great. However much is still little, however great is still small; anything with quantity is small. Only that which is immeasurable and cannot be expressed is the greatest and most abundant. Therefore unconditioned merit is far superior to conditioned merit.

So how does one cultivate this unconditioned merit? The Buddha said, if someone can study and cultivate the Diamond Sutra, receiving the true meaning within the sutra, and after realizing the vajra mind expounds it to others—even if they can only expound a single four-line verse from the sutra—the merit obtained far surpasses the merit of giving the seven treasures. The Diamond Sutra expounds precisely this tathāgatagarbha's nature, solid as a diamond and never decaying or perishing. The tathāgatagarbha possesses the true nature and purity of being unconditioned, non-abiding, signless, unborn, and unceasing; realizing He grants the fundamental non-discriminative wisdom. Then, through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the various merits of the tathāgatagarbha, one obtains differentiated wisdom, also called subsequently attained wisdom; wisdom gradually deepens and sharpens, merit gradually increases, and then, by studying the seeds contained within the tathāgatagarbha, when one possesses a portion of the wisdom of the varieties of paths, one enters the first bhūmi and becomes a noble one.

The more one studies the seed-functions of the tathāgatagarbha, the broader and deeper one's wisdom becomes. Upon entering the eighth bhūmi, without preparatory application of mind, one can directly and swiftly manifest all needed material things—mountains, rivers, the great earth, gold, silver, jewels, and so on—and can also manifest a trichiliocosm buddha-land, as well as unleash immeasurable superknowledges and meditative concentrations (samādhi) to benefit sentient beings. The higher one cultivates, the deeper the wisdom, the greater the virtues and abilities, the more the transformed bodies, and the more beings are delivered. After accomplishing the buddha path, wisdom is boundless and merit immeasurable. All of this is initiated upon the foundation of realizing the tathāgatagarbha; all virtues, abilities and functions, superknowledges and samādhi come from the tathāgatagarbha. Without realization there is no merit and no enjoyment, nor can there be great wisdom and great merit.

The Buddha told Subhūti: why does realizing and then expounding to others surpass the merit of giving the seven treasures? Because all buddhas and all the buddha-dharmas spoken by the buddhas come from this vajra mind, the tathāgatagarbha. On the foundation of realizing the tathāgatagarbha, one studies the seed-functions of the tathāgatagarbha, and from then on can gradually accomplish the buddha path and perfect bodhi. The seeds of wholesome dharmas cultivated by all buddhas over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas are all stored in their own tathāgatagarbhas, with ignorance extinguished. The buddhas accomplished their attainment precisely by realizing the tathāgatagarbha, and then expound to sentient beings all the dharmas of accomplishing buddhahood; the dharmas they speak also flow out from the buddhas' own minds, the tathāgatagarbha.

The Buddha said to Subhūti: "So-called buddha-dharma is not buddha-dharma." This sentence directly addresses the theme and becomes the central sentence of this section. All the dharmas of accomplishing buddhahood spoken by the Buddha are the so-called buddha-dharma; it is by human convention that the dharma spoken by the Buddha is called buddha-dharma. The dharma spoken by the Buddha is the dharma-seeds the Buddha cultivated, retained in the Buddha's tathāgatagarbha, and expounded through various conditions; these dharma-seeds were stored in later, acquired fashion, formed after the fact, not originally existent dharmas. Once the Buddha expounds them, they are dharmas produced by conditions, not fixed dharmas originally existent. Since they are not originally existent fixed dharmas, they are not buddha-dharma in the true sense.

Buddha-dharma in the true sense is originally existent, eternally unchanging, unborn and unceasing, not produced by conditions, originally thus, the tathāgatagarbha that is naturally so (dharmatā), the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), suchness (tathatā), the ultimate truth (paramārtha-satya), the eighth consciousness, the vipāka-consciousness, the great perfect mirror wisdom (ādarśajñāna). All the rest are humanly assigned names and appellations, provisionally spoken as buddha-dharma. In summary, among worldly and world-transcending dharmas, only suchness is the true dharma, the dharma in the true sense, the original dharma, the dharma of true reality; all the rest arise after the fact, are formed by conditions, and are dharmas subject to arising and ceasing, none of them dharmas of true reality.