Explanation of the Diamond Sutra: No Annihilation and No Extinction, Chapter Twenty-Seven

Original text:须菩提。汝若作是念。如来不以具足相故。得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。须菩提。莫作是念。如来不以具足相故。得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。

Explanation: Subhūti, if you have such a thought in your mind, believing that the Tathāgata did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi by virtue of being endowed with all the marks, then quickly extinguish this thought. Subhūti, do not have such a thought, believing that the Tathāgata did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi by virtue of being endowed with immeasurable adorned marks. Subhūti, it is precisely by being endowed with immeasurable adorned marks that the Tathāgata attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Because sentient beings' wisdom is shallow, they cannot comprehensively and harmoniously understand all dharmas, and their views become biased and deficient. Therefore, when sentient beings see the World-Honored One break through the four marks, break through the marks of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, and also break through the thirty-two marks of the Tathāgata, some of them will think that the Tathāgata's attainment of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi seems to be achievable without being endowed with all the marks, that buddhahood can be accomplished without them; that those marks are dispensable and unimportant, and one can become a Buddha even without complete marks; that one can become a Buddha without perfecting all merits; or they think that buddhahood is not accomplished in terms of marks, that marks are unimportant and dispensable; that becoming a Buddha requires no marks at all, no marks of the five aggregates, no thirty-two marks; that the Buddha has no body of the five aggregates but is only a mind. All such thoughts and views are slandering the Buddha, similar to the thought of annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), harming oneself and others, and one's practice will not achieve success. The Tathāgata must address these wrong views and correct them, so as to protect sentient beings' views from being biased, enabling them to walk the true path.

Why is thinking that the Tathāgata can attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi without being endowed with all the marks considered the thought of annihilatory emptiness? Because holding such a concept means one neglects or denies the existence and functioning of the mind of ultimate reality, the tathāgatagarbha, denying the real existence of the tathāgatagarbha's functions and powers—that is annihilationism. When each bodhisattva practices the bodhisattva path at the causal stage, every wholesome karma they cultivate is stored as a seed in the tathāgatagarbha. When the causes and conditions are complete, they will sequentially receive the retributions of wholesome karma, great and small, and even the retribution of buddhahood is inexhaustible, with the retributions becoming ever more excellent. These retributions include the adornment and marks of the bodhisattva's physical body of the five aggregates, the environment in which the bodhisattva lives, the buddha-land in which the bodhisattva dwells, all the disciples and close relatives under the bodhisattva's seat, all the bodhisattva's meditative concentrations and immeasurable supernatural powers; most importantly, they include the bodhisattva's boundless wisdom and virtues and abilities, as well as the purification and transformation of the karmic seeds in the bodhisattva's tathāgatagarbha.

Thus, when the bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, the karmic seeds have been completely transformed and purified without remainder, and ignorance has been severed without remainder; therefore the eight consciousnesses can be transformed into the four wisdoms. When the four wisdoms are perfectly luminous, omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) manifests. The Buddha's four wisdoms are precisely the Buddha's eight consciousnesses. Since the Buddha has eight consciousnesses, He has the five aggregates; otherwise, the eight consciousnesses would have no place of support. The Buddha's five aggregates are endowed with the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics because of the Buddha's cultivation of wholesome dharmas throughout three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas; all the seeds of wholesome karma are stored in the tathāgatagarbha. When the conditions ripen and He becomes a Buddha, the seeds manifest, and the appearance of the five aggregates thus obtained is supremely adorned with marks, perfectly endowed with the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics, incomparable and supremely excellent.

If one says that when the Buddha attained buddhahood, He did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi by virtue of complete adorned marks, there would be enormous faults. First, it would lead sentient beings to mistakenly believe that the Buddha does not possess the seeds of wholesome karma cultivated over immeasurable kalpas. In fact, during the Buddha's cultivation over immeasurable kalpas, He perfectly cultivated all wholesome karma, and the seeds are all stored in the Buddha's tathāgatagarbha; upon attaining buddhahood, He would correspondingly obtain the most excellent adorned marks. Second, it would lead sentient beings to mistakenly think that since the Buddha, having attained buddhahood, did not correspondingly obtain adorned marks, perhaps the Buddha's tathāgatagarbha did not store the seeds of wholesome karma. But the fact is that as long as the tathāgatagarbha exists, it naturally and inherently stores the seeds of wholesome karma without the slightest omission.

Third, it would lead sentient beings to mistakenly think that neither the Buddha nor sentient beings have a tathāgatagarbha, that the tathāgatagarbha is merely an expedient teaching, and therefore it did not store all the seeds of wholesome karma cultivated by the Buddha during His practice, so when the Buddha attained buddhahood, He was not endowed with adorned marks. Based on the above faults, we should say that the Buddha attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi precisely by virtue of being endowed with the adorned marks.

If one says that when the Buddha attained buddhahood, He did not correspondingly obtain the retribution of the seeds of wholesome karma, that there were no seeds of wholesome karma, then it is tantamount to saying that the Buddha fundamentally has no tathāgatagarbha. This would be the most fundamental and most serious wrong teaching and wrong view, a fundamentally annihilationist thought, extremely harmful to people, and such wrong views should be quickly eliminated. One should firmly believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists and has real functions and powers, capable of storing the seeds of wholesome karma cultivated by Buddhas and bodhisattvas over immeasurable kalpas; in the future when they attain buddhahood, these seeds of wholesome karma will all manifest, and the Buddha will obtain the excellent retribution of adorned marks and attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. If there were no tathāgatagarbha, the seeds of wholesome karma could not be stored, and at the time of attaining buddhahood the seeds of wholesome karma could not manifest; the Buddha could not be endowed with the marks, and then He would not yet be a Buddha, not yet having attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

By now everyone should understand: if one says that when the Buddha accomplished the Buddha-way, He did not attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi by virtue of being endowed with the thirty-two marks, that is an annihilationism denying the real existence of the tathāgatagarbha, and it would carry immeasurable great faults. Therefore, the World-Honored One, in the manner of exhorting Subhūti, indirectly exhorts all sentient beings not to have annihilationist thoughts, not to think that the Buddha's attainment of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi was not achieved by virtue of complete marks. One should say that the Buddha attained anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi precisely by virtue of complete marks; only thus does it accord with the Buddha's teaching, fit the essence of the Buddha-dharma, and not contradict the Mahāyāna dharma of ultimate reality.

Original text:须菩提。汝若作是念。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。说诸法断灭。莫作是念。何以故。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心者。于法不说断灭相。

Explanation: Subhūti, if you have such a thought in your mind, believing that those who have generated the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi say that all dharmas are annihilatory emptiness, fundamentally nonexistent, that at the time of buddhahood there are no dharmas at all and one is not endowed with the marks of all dharmas, then you should quickly eliminate such a thought and not hold such a concept. Why should one not hold such a concept? Because those who have generated the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi are able to generate the mind for buddhahood precisely because they believe in and accept the mind of ultimate reality that is never annihilated; they will not again say that all dharmas are annihilated.

One who genuinely aspires to become a Buddha has, at this point, fulfilled the conditions of a bodhisattva at the stage of faith; he will already have unshakable faith that every sentient being has the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which is unborn and undying; he believes that all the Buddhas of the ten directions all have the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, and that only by cultivating in accordance with this tathāgatagarbha can anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi be accomplished. He believes that he himself also has the existence of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, that in the future he can also realize the tathāgatagarbha, and that just like all the Buddhas he can become a Buddha; sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions, because they have the unborn and undying vajra mind (vajra-citta), the tathāgatagarbha, can all likewise become Buddhas. Because he generates such faith, the ten stages of faith are fulfilled, and he enters the ten stages of abiding and begins to cultivate the six pāramitās of bodhisattva conduct. If one does not believe that one possesses the tathāgatagarbha, does not believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists, then his faith in the Buddha, in the Dharma, and in the Three Jewels is not yet fulfilled, his cultivation of the ten stages of faith is not yet complete, and he cannot genuinely generate the aspiring mind for buddhahood.

Those who have not fulfilled the ten stages of faith cannot yet believe that the tathāgatagarbha truly exists; they often think the tathāgatagarbha is merely a false name, just a concept. They think that the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha means the tathāgatagarbha does not exist, that the concept of the tathāgatagarbha is an expedient fabrication of all the Buddhas. Because they cannot correctly understand the meaning of what the Buddha taught, they misunderstand all the definitive, ultimate dharma the Buddha taught as the Buddha's expedient teachings, expedient dharmas. They merely have not openly said that the Buddha was toying with sentient beings—ordinary people dare not say this openly—but in substance that is exactly what it means. This thought is slandering the Buddha and slandering the Dharma, taking all the Buddha's definitive and ultimate teachings as the Buddha's non-definitive, non-ultimate dharmas, gravely distorting the Buddha's true meaning. The evil karma of sentient beings slandering the Buddha and the Dharma exists universally; this is not surprising—it is all due to sentient beings' cultivation over the kalpas being too short and their merit being insufficient.

As long as one denies the true existence of the tathāgatagarbha, that it is truly real, that is annihilatory emptiness rhetoric, extremely harmful. Because without the tathāgatagarbha, all dharmas would have nowhere to arise and would all be annihilated, everything finished once and for all. Those who hold annihilationism often say that all dharmas arise through dependent origination and are empty in nature, that all are produced by causes and conditions, that all are empty, that no dharma is real. But if all are empty and there is no real tathāgatagarbha dharma existing, then from what do all dharmas arise? One cannot say that an empty dharma possessing nothing can give birth to another empty dharma possessing nothing—there is no such principle. Just as a turtle's hair, being an empty, non-existent thing, cannot give birth to a rabbit's horns, another empty, non-existent thing, because neither has any substantial entity. Only dharmas that have substance and self-nature can give birth to dharmas without substance and self-nature. Dharmas without substance and self-nature cannot give birth to other dharmas—this is a principle that is naturally so, requiring no further explanation.

If all dharmas arise through dependent origination and are empty in nature, with no substantial tathāgatagarbha dharma existing, then sentient beings' worlds of the five aggregates would perish and never arise again, there would be no birth in future lives, and still less could one cultivate and become a Buddha. To put it in the most extreme terms, even if the five aggregates of future lives were to arise, because there would be no tathāgatagarbha to store sentient beings' karmic seeds, the wholesome karma cultivated by sentient beings would be wasted in vain, the seeds could not be collected and stored. If the seeds of wholesome karma cannot be collected and stored, cultivation is useless and will not produce the retribution of wholesome karma in future lives, still less obtain the more perfect retribution of wholesome karma at the time of attaining buddhahood; there would be no Buddha's thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics, no Buddha's various excellent merits and powers, no Buddha's buddha-lands in the ten directions, no Buddha's adorned Sambhogakāya, no Buddha's immeasurable Nirmāṇakāya emanations, no Buddha's immeasurable supernatural powers, no doctrine of transforming consciousnesses into wisdoms, and still less would there be the Buddha's omniscience (sarvākārajñatā).

Why is it said that without the existence of a substantial tathāgatagarbha, the consciousnesses cannot be transformed into wisdoms? Because if the seeds of the wholesome karma of the seven consciousnesses' lifetime of cultivation—their mental activities transformed from defilement to purity—cannot be stored, then in the next life they would still be defiled; the cultivation would be in vain, with no real benefit, and the defiled nature of the seven consciousnesses would not have undergone transformation. Then at the stage of buddhahood, the seven consciousnesses would still be defiled; the karmic seeds of the seven consciousnesses would not have transformed, the mental activities would not have been purified, and one could not become a Buddha. Therefore, without the real existence of a substantial tathāgatagarbha exercising its corresponding meritorious functions, sentient beings cannot attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, one who has genuinely generated the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi does not speak of the mark of annihilation with regard to dharmas, does not say that the tathāgatagarbha is merely a hypothetical, illusory dharma, and does not say that the mind-body of the tathāgatagarbha does not truly exist.