Explaining the Diamond Sutra: The Conceptual Forms of Buddhism Must Also Be Broken

All Buddhas and all methods of attaining Buddhahood arise from the Vajra Mind. Therefore, the Dharma that sentient beings call the Buddha Dharma is actually non-Dharma (it is named the Buddha Dharma). Firstly, the Buddhas are subsequently attained Buddhas. The five aggregates and the thirty-two marks are manifested and produced by one's own immaculate consciousness. The Wisdom of Equality, the Wisdom of Marvelous Observation, and the Wisdom of Accomplishing Actions are all manifested by one's own immaculate consciousness. Only because the immaculate consciousness, moment by moment, uses the seven fundamental elements to produce and sustain the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses of the Buddhas, can the Buddhas manifest and exist. The methods for attaining Buddhahood are not originally existent but arise later; they are the experiential methods accumulated and summarized by all Buddhas through three great immeasurable kalpas of practice. They are phenomena produced by causes and conditions, not fixed phenomena, and are also produced and sustained by the Buddhas' immaculate consciousness.

Therefore, the Dharma that sentient beings call the Buddha Dharma is not originally existent, nor is it the true unborn and unceasing Dharma. It is merely named the Buddha Dharma later, provisionally designated as the Buddha Dharma. Although the Buddha Dharma is empty and devoid of inherent nature, it is also not non-Dharma, because these methods ultimately have the function of attaining Buddhahood and possess existence within the phenomenal world; they are not empty phenomena devoid of perception.

After eliminating the characteristics of all Buddhas and the characteristics of the methods for attaining Buddhahood, aside from the Vajra Mind and the Buddha-nature of Suchness, what Dharma truly exists that cannot be altered or annihilated? There is none. If even the supreme Dharma characteristics can be eliminated, then there are no characteristics in the world that cannot be eliminated. Thus, the world is truly empty, still, and desolate, unworthy of sentient beings pursuing, seeking, or clinging to. Let all beings rest their minds, cease their striving, and refrain from vain fabrication, because no matter what is fabricated, it is illusory and of no use.