The Profound Consciousness-Only Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (100)

Original text:佛言。如是如是。须菩提。实无有法如来得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。须菩提。若有法如来得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提者。然灯佛则不与我授记。汝于来世。当得作佛。号释迦牟尼。以实无有法得阿耨多罗三藐三菩提。是故然灯佛与我授记。作是言。汝于来世。当得作佛。号释迦牟尼。

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: It is so, it is so. Subhūti, there truly is no dharma by which the Tathāgata attains anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, nor does the Tathāgata rely on any dharma to attain buddhahood. If there were a dharma, or many dharmas, that the Tathāgata could rely upon to attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, then Dīpaṃkara Buddha would not have given me the prediction: "In a certain kalpa of the future, you will attain buddhahood, and your buddha name will be Śākyamuni Buddha." The prediction also included such matters as what the buddha-land would be like, what the disciples would be like, how the buddha-dharma would spread, and so on. The World-Honored One continued: Because within His mind He truly held that the Tathāgata has no dharma to rely upon by which to attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, therefore Dīpaṃkara Buddha gave me the prediction, saying: "At a certain time in the future, you will become a Buddha, and your buddha name will be Śākyamuni Buddha."

Here, the Tathāgata explicitly refers to the World-Honored One Buddha who possesses a body of the five aggregates, and implicitly refers to the true-suchness mind essence, the vajra prajñā mind. The Buddha's indestructible vajra mind, from beginningless kalpas until now, has never attained a single dharma—even the dharma of attaining buddhahood, He does not attain. This is because He is not a mind that seeks to gain anything, not a greedy mind; moreover, He Himself is perfectly endowed with all dharmas, lacking not even one dharma. Everything that exists in the world comes from within this mind. As for the buddha-dharma, the true-suchness mind essence also does not attain it; He has never studied Buddhism or studied the dharma, yet the Buddha and the dharma both refer to Himself—so there is no need for Him to study Himself.

He also does not cultivate precepts, meditation, and wisdom, does not extinguish greed, anger, and delusion, and does not break through ignorance, because He Himself is fully endowed with precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and He Himself has no ignorance, greed, anger, or delusion. He also does not need to eliminate the four marks or the eight marks, because He Himself has not a single mark, does not crave or cling to any mark, and does not correspond to any mark; on the contrary, He can transform and create immeasurable, boundless numbers of marks. Therefore, the Tathāgata truly has no dharma by which to attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

As for the Tathāgata who possesses a body of the five aggregates, by relying on the formless, true Tathāgata mind essence, he also attains not a single dharma, and does not attain the buddha-dharma either; within and without, body and mind are utterly bare and starkly clean, without a single dharma. By corresponding with the true-suchness mind essence, relinquishing all dharmas and all marks—even relinquishing the buddha-dharma entirely—only then can one become a Buddha. If there is even one dharma in the mind that is not empty and pure, one cannot accomplish the buddha path. Although one accomplishes the buddha path and attains the fruit and position of Buddhahood, in reality there is no buddha fruit to be attained—even the dharma of "not attaining" is not attained. Whatever dharma is attained, whatever dharma has marks, is entirely empty and illusory; only in this way can one become a Buddha, only then is one the World-Honored One.