Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: Why All Minds Are Not Minds

Original text of Chapter Eighteen, "One Substance, Uniformly Viewed": 须菩提。于意云何。如恒河中所有沙。佛说是沙不。如是。世尊。如来说是沙。须菩提。于意云何。如一恒河中所有沙。有如是沙等恒河。是诸恒河所有沙数。佛世界如是。宁为多不。甚多。世尊。

Explanation: Subhūti, what do you think? For example, all the sands in the Ganges River—does the Buddha also call them sands? Subhūti replied: It is so, World-Honored One; the Tathāgata also calls these sands "sands." Subhūti, what do you think? For example, all the sands in one Ganges River—there are Ganges Rivers as numerous as these sands, and the number of sands in all those Ganges Rivers—such is the number of Buddha worlds. Would that not be many? Subhūti replied: World-Honored One, that is indeed exceedingly many. Just the sands in a single Ganges River are already countless, let alone all the sands in all the Ganges Rivers as numerous as those sands—that simply cannot be counted, nor even imagined. The Buddha worlds are as numerous as this, and thus the Buddha worlds are also unimaginable.

Original text: 佛告须菩提。尔所国土中。所有众生。若干种心。如来悉知。何以故。如来说诸心。皆为非心。是名为心。所以者何。须菩提。过去心不可得。现在心不可得。未来心不可得。

Explanation: The World-Honored One told Subhūti that among all the sentient beings in all these Buddha worlds, with their various kinds of minds, the Tathāgata knows them all completely, without omission. Why is this said? Because the Tathāgata has said that all these various minds of sentient beings are not true minds; they are merely given the provisional name "mind." They are not truly existent minds; they are merely given a provisional name, called "mind." Why is this said? Subhūti, these so-called minds are all subject to arising, ceasing, change, and impermanence. A mind of the past is unattainable, because the past has already vanished. The mind of the present is still flowing and changing moment by moment, cannot be grasped, and is likewise unattainable. The mind of the future has not yet appeared, and is even more unattainable. A mind that is unattainable and cannot be grasped is not a true mind; it is merely an illusory false appearance.

Why is it said that the Tathāgata knows all the various minds of sentient beings? Here, "Tathāgata" refers, first, to a Tathāgata with a five-aggregate body, including the Sambhogakāya Buddha and the Nirmāṇakāya; and second, to the Dharmakāya Buddha (dharma-kāya-buddha), the Tathāgata without a five-aggregate body. As for the Nirmāṇakāya, through cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, He has accomplished the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā), and His powers of supernatural penetration are perfect and unobstructed. His wisdom can thoroughly perceive all the mental activities of the immeasurable, boundless sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions; He knows all sentient beings' thoughts at once. Wherever sentient beings' karmic conditions have ripened, He will manifest there, proclaiming the Dharma teachings and delivering sentient beings. As for the other, the Dharmakāya Buddha, the Tathāgata, He can know sentient beings' mental activities—the mental activities within the process of the manifest operation of the seven consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha knows them, and only then can it accord with the seven consciousnesses to give rise to their manifest operation and continue functioning. Therefore, when it is said that the various minds of sentient beings are known, this refers to the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses, not to the vajra mind (Vajracitta), the tathāgatagarbha, because the tathāgatagarbha is only one kind and has no varieties.

When the tathāgatagarbha knows sentient beings' mental activities, it does so primarily by knowing the mental activities of the seventh consciousness, the manas. Whatever the six consciousnesses perceive and deliberate upon in perceiving the myriad dharmas of the six sense objects must all be transmitted to the manas. Relying on this, the manas gives rise to mental factors such as mental engagement (manaskāra), and then makes its own deliberation (manana) and decisions. The tathāgatagarbha will then discern the manas's mental engagement and its volition (cetanā) mental factor. All of the manas's decisions and intentions can be known by the tathāgatagarbha, and it will then accord with the manas's decisions and give rise to the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Therefore, when the tathāgatagarbha knows the manas's mental activities, it can make the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses manifest according to the manas's decisions. What the manas deliberates upon is precisely what the six consciousnesses have perceived, so when the tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's mental activities, it is equivalent to knowing the mental activities of the six consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha also discerns sentient beings' karmic seeds; after discerning them, it outputs the karmic seeds, and thus knows what mental activities sentient beings will manifest.

As for these seven consciousnesses, in reality there are no seven consciousnesses. On the surface they appear to exist, but that existence is false existence—sentient beings falsely see and falsely know them; in actuality, they are all the tathāgatagarbha mind. The seven consciousnesses formed by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting forth consciousness seeds are, in essence, still the tathāgatagarbha mind. Sentient beings falsely perceive the existence of seven consciousnesses, but in essence it is all the tathāgatagarbha. It is all the tathāgatagarbha itself playing about within the illusory realms it has manifested. Therefore the Tathāgata said that all minds are not minds. Here, "not minds" does not refer to the tathāgatagarbha; it refers to the seven consciousnesses, meaning that there are no truly real deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses—all is the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, provisionally named "various minds" and provisionally named "seven consciousnesses."

Later, the text further supplements with the three minds, consistent throughout, all referring to the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses. The deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses are utterly unattainable, because none of them are real dharmas; they are illusory, subject to arising and ceasing, and that is why they are said to be unattainable. The three minds of past, future, and present mainly refer to the six consciousnesses, with the mind consciousness as the primary; the manas, however, has no division of past, future, and present. These minds cannot be grasped or retained; they arise and cease in an instant, never lingering from moment to moment. That is why these minds are said to be unattainable—and indeed they truly cannot be obtained.