The Profound Yogācāra Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (Fifty)

Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is the unsurpassed, right and perfect enlightenment—attaining the supreme, true awakening and realization, exhausting all ignorance, without containing a single trace of defiled ignorance, with the mind filled entirely with light and awakening. One thereby realizes ultimate bodhi, accomplishes the Buddha Way, and brings the fruit of buddhahood to perfection. 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 spoken by the Buddha is also formed through causes and conditions: in accord with the conditions of sentient beings—when there is the cause of beings wishing to become Buddhas—he expounds the Dharma that enables 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 originally existing, fixed, and unchanging true dharma of suchness; yet these dharmas cannot be generated apart from the self-nature of suchness.

Then who is it that accomplishes the Buddha Way and attains the fruit of buddhahood? A bodhisattva of wondrous awakening (saddharma-vihāra, the final stage) is the last-bodied bodhisattva before becoming a Buddha. In order to attain buddhahood, he comes to the human world and accomplishes the Way through the eight marks of a Buddha's life. When entering his mother's womb, the bodhisattva's physical body perishes; the manas and the vipākavijñāna (the eighth consciousness) enter the womb. At birth, the six faculties are complete, the six consciousnesses are complete (in humans there is no eye consciousness within the first seven days), and the five aggregates are complete—outwardly no different from ordinary sentient beings. This new set of five aggregates is no longer the five aggregates of the wondrously awakened bodhisattva: the physical body and the six consciousnesses have all been replaced; only the manas and the vipākavijñāna remain the original ones, continuing on. Then he leaves home to cultivate the Way. When he greatly awakens and sees his true nature upon beholding the morning star at night, the ignorance of the seven consciousnesses is exhausted: the sixth consciousness is transformed into the wisdom of wonderful observation (pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna), the manas is transformed into the wisdom of equality (samatā-jñāna), and then the first five consciousnesses are transformed into the wisdom of accomplishing what is to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna). When the transformation of the seven consciousnesses is complete, the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses stored in the eighth consciousness, the vipākavijñāna, are exhausted, and it becomes the great perfect mirror wisdom (ādarśajñāna), also called the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). When all eight consciousnesses have been transformed, the Buddha Way is fulfilled, the fruit of buddhahood is attained, and he is called a Buddha.

Let us then 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 gain anything. Even if it gained something, there would be nowhere to put it—nothing whatsoever can be attained. He has no thoughts, no mental activities, and never considers Himself to be real, to be a Buddha, or to be this or that. All names are bestowed upon Him by people—being this or not being that; 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 and does not become anything. Therefore He does not take up the fruit of buddhahood nor act as a Buddha. If one says that He is the Buddha, that too is a title conferred upon Him by people, not a self-designation He claimed for Himself.