How to Return to the Original Nature

This single image alone can encompass the entirety of the Diamond Sutra. The four marks are gone, the three realms are gone, birth and death are gone, the Buddha’s form is gone, the Buddha Dharma is gone, Nirvana is gone, liberation is gone, this shore is gone, the other shore is gone—everything is gone. Only the inherently pure mind remains, solitary and silent, not within heaven or earth. Therefore, attaining Buddhahood is gaining nothing; only by gaining nothing can one become a Buddha. Practice is subtraction, it is unloading burdens. When everything is discarded, Buddhahood is attained—even the Buddha is discarded. Practice itself does not exist. Those who study the Buddha and the Dharma are stirring up trouble out of nothing; they are the deluded and confused. There is no Buddha to attain, no Dharma to study, and those who expound the Dharma have nothing to say. In the future, if anyone forces the master to teach, go up and beat him up. What is there to say?

Categorizing the Diamond Sutra as a Prajna scripture seriously underestimates its value. The Diamond Sutra is a genuine scripture for attaining Buddhahood, a scripture of Consciousness-Only, achieving emptiness in one step, attaining Buddhahood in one step. Although all dharmas are empty, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment are empty, the six paramitas of the Bodhisattva are empty, the ten paramitas of the Bodhisattva are empty—yet the Bodhisattva does not abide in inaction and does not exhaust conditioned existence. They do what should be done, fulfilling all six and ten paramitas; otherwise, emptiness cannot be achieved, and the burden cannot be lightened. What does lightening the burden mean? It means unloading everything carried on the shoulders, everything borne on the back, everything held in the hands, everything filling the heart—all those full things are unloaded, discarded, thrown away. All burdens are put down; all dharmas, with form and without form, are emptied, abandoned, discarded—discard, discard, discard. When everything is discarded, one returns to the original state, possessing nothing yet capable of having everything.

How can emptiness be achieved? Can the consciousness ponder these principles and achieve emptiness upon understanding? Can the consciousness make the prison of boundaries, the hell realms, and the three realms disappear or become empty? Does consciousness possess such capability? It absolutely does not. Therefore, do not use consciousness to speculate wildly, conjecture wildly, or struggle wildly. Rendering consciousness useless is no loss.

When consciousness is rendered useless, use the manas (mind root) directly. Once the manas is employed, samadhi appears. Within samadhi, all dharmas are empty—even emptiness is empty; not even a ghostly shadow remains. The manas is indeed this powerful. Those who are unconvinced, clinging to consciousness as supreme, should go argue with King Yama. King Yama will show you the truth. The Buddha won’t reason with you; only King Yama will receive you. If you can’t wait for King Yama, causality will manifest first, and retribution in this life will appear—this is the most illustrative proof. Ultimately, causality and retribution in this life mean the Tathagatagarbha is in charge; the Tathagatagarbha decides. Even the Buddha does not decide; the Buddha does not manage affairs and lacks the authority of the Tathagatagarbha.