The Profound Yogācāra Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (82)

Original text:何以故。须菩提！如我昔为歌利王割截身体。我于尔时。无我相。无人相。无众生相。无寿者相。何以故。我于往昔节节支解时。若有我相人相众生相寿者相。应生嗔恨。须菩提。又念过去于五百世作忍辱仙人。于尔所世。无我相。无人相。无众生相。无寿者相。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: Why is this so? Subhūti, for example, in the past when King Kaliṅga dismembered my body, at that time I had no mark of self, no mark of a person, no mark of sentient beings, and no mark of a life span. If, in the past when King Kaliṅga dismembered my body—when my body was being cut apart limb by limb, piece by piece—I had had the mark of self, the mark of a person, the mark of sentient beings, or the mark of a life span, I would have given rise to anger and resentment toward King Kaliṅga. But at that time, I truly did not give rise to any anger or resentment toward King Kaliṅga.

If the World-Honored One had had the mark of self at that time, He would have thought, "My body is being destroyed; I am being humiliated," and then He would have felt intense physical pain, felt furious and anguished in His mind, and would have given rise to anger and resentment toward King Kaliṅga. But at that time, the World-Honored One did not feel any physical pain, nor did He feel any indignation in His mind, nor any sense of being humiliated. Because of the realization He had attained through wisdom and meditative concentration (samādhi), the World-Honored One had realized the exhaustion of the aggregate of feeling (vedanā), so that His body could be without the sensation of feeling. Therefore, when His body was being dismembered, He felt no pain, and that is how He was able to endure having His limbs cut apart without fainting.

If the World-Honored One had had the mark of a person and the mark of sentient beings at that time, He would have been furious at King Kaliṅga, thinking that this person was humiliating Him, being cruel to Him, and acting tyrannically, and thus He would have given rise to anger and resentment toward King Kaliṅga, and would have cursed King Kaliṅga, wanting to take revenge on him and his men. If the World-Honored One had had the mark of a life span at that time, He would have risen up in resistance, trying to stop King Kaliṅga and the executioners from dismembering and destroying His body, because the dismemberment of the body would have signified imminent death—the disappearance of life and the end of that lifespan. Yet at that time the World-Honored One neither resisted nor gave rise to anger and resentment, which proves that at that time the World-Honored One was without the four marks.

Subhūti, I further recall that in past lives, for five hundred lifetimes I was the Kṣānti Ṛṣi (the patient ascetic), cultivating the practice of forbearance. Throughout the cultivation of each of those five hundred lifetimes, I had no mark of self, no mark of a person, no mark of sentient beings, and no mark of a life span. At that time, the World-Honored One was a bodhisattva who had departed from the four marks, a bodhisattva cultivating the six pāramitās. He manifested as the Kṣānti Ṛṣi and cultivated the practice of forbearance; He had already been cultivating in a manner free of the four marks for five hundred lifetimes.