The Profound Consciousness-only Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (50)

Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi means unsurpassed, right and perfect enlightenment—attaining the supreme, true awakening and realization, exhausting all ignorance, without containing even a trace of defiled ignorance, with the mind filled entirely with illumination and awakening. One then realizes ultimate bodhi, accomplishes the Buddha Way, and perfects the fruit of Buddhahood. Since there is no fixed dharma called anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, there is likewise no truly fixed and unchanging one who attains Buddhahood; all dharmas are formed through causes and conditions. The dharma the Buddha teaches is also formed through causes and conditions: in accordance with the conditions of sentient beings, when there is the cause of sentient beings wishing to become Buddhas, He expounds the dharma that enables sentient beings to attain Buddhahood; when the conditions differ, the dharma the World-Honored One teaches differs. Therefore, even the dharma taught by the Buddha should in the end no longer be grasped, because it is not a fixed dharma that never perishes or transforms. Any dharma that can be spoken is not the inherently existing, unchanging dharma of true suchness (tathatā); yet these dharmas cannot be generated apart from the self-nature of true suchness.

Then who is it that accomplishes the Buddha Way and attains the fruit of Buddhahood? A bodhisattva of wondrous awakening (samyak-saṃbodhi) is the final-body bodhisattva before attaining Buddhahood. In order to become a Buddha, He comes to the human world and manifests the eight marks of a Buddha's career. When entering the mother's womb, the bodhisattva's material body perishes; the manas and the vipāka-consciousness—that is, the eighth consciousness—enter the womb. At birth, the six faculties are complete, the six consciousnesses are complete (humans lack the eye consciousness within the first seven days), and the five aggregates are complete, outwardly no different from other sentient beings. This new set of five aggregates is no longer the five aggregates of the bodhisattva of wondrous awakening: the material body and the six consciousnesses have all been replaced; only the manas and the vipāka-consciousness remain the original ones, continuing on. Then He leaves home to cultivate the Way. When He greatly awakens and sees his self-nature upon beholding the morning star at night, the ignorance of the seven consciousnesses is exhausted: the sixth consciousness transforms into marvelous observing wisdom (pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna), the manas transforms into the wisdom of equality (samatā-jñāna), and then the first five consciousnesses transform into the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna). When all seven consciousnesses have completed their transformation, and the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored within the eighth, the vipāka-consciousness, are utterly extinguished, it becomes the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna), also called the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). When all eight consciousnesses have completed their transformation, the Buddha Way is perfected, the fruit of Buddhahood is attained, and He is called a Buddha.

Now let us analyze who made this Buddha and who attained this fruit of Buddhahood. First, the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) is a mind that attains nothing; it itself does not wish to attain anything, and even if it did, there would be nowhere to put it—nothing whatsoever can be attained. He has no thoughts and no mental activities, and never acknowledges Himself as real, as being a Buddha, or as being this or that way. All names are bestowed upon Him by people; as for being something or not being something, He has no such concepts. He also does not grasp at any dharma whatsoever, whether wholesome or unwholesome, defiled or undefiled. Because He does not grasp, He is never perfumed or stained, and has no ignorance; because He does not grasp, He likewise does not do anything or become anything. Therefore He does not take up the fruit of Buddhahood, nor does He act as a Buddha. If one says that He is the Buddha, that too is a title conferred upon Him by people, not something He Himself claimed or conferred upon Himself.