Diamond Sutra Commentary. The Marks of the Dharma Must Also Be Broken Through.

All buddhas and all dharmas for attaining buddhahood arise 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, let us speak of the buddhas: the buddhas are buddhas who attained buddhahood later. The five aggregates (pañca-skandha) with the thirty-two marks are produced and manifested by one's own undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna); the wisdom of equality, the wisdom of wonderful observation, and the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done are likewise manifested by one's own undefiled consciousness. Moment after moment, the undefiled consciousness uses the seeds of the seven great elements to give birth to and sustain the buddha's five aggregates and seven consciousnesses; only then can the buddhas appear and exist. The dharmas by which the buddhas attained buddhahood are dharmas that did not exist before and came into being afterward; they are experiential dharmas accumulated and summarized through the buddhas' three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas of cultivation; they are dharmas produced by causes and conditions, not fixed dharmas, and they too are given birth to and sustained by the buddha's undefiled consciousness.

Therefore, what sentient beings call the Buddha-dharma is not a dharma that existed from the beginning, not a true dharma that is unborn and unceasing; it was only later given the name "Buddha-dharma," a provisional name for the Buddha-dharma. Although the Buddha-dharma is empty and without self-nature, it is also not not-the-Buddha-dharma, because these dharmas do, 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 have been refuted, apart from the vajra mind (vajra-citta) and true suchness and buddha-nature, what other dharma truly exists, a dharma that cannot be altered and cannot be refuted? There is none. When the dharma-marks of even the most supreme dharmas can be refuted, then in the world there are no dharma-marks that cannot be refuted. The world is then truly empty, tranquil, and desolate, not worth sentient beings' pursuit, seeking, and grasping. Let everyone's mind rest, let it cease—there is no need for further futile fabrication, because no matter how one fabricates, it is all empty and illusory, of no use whatsoever.