The Two Kinds of No-Self
The sūtra completes its fourfold architecture — five dharmas, three own-natures, eight consciousnesses — with the last of the four: the no-self of persons, dissolved through a string of similes for how a self is merely assembled, and the no-self of dharmas, whose realization carries a bodhisattva by stages to the Ground of the Dharma Cloud. Mahāmati then asks the Buddha to name, directly, the four kinds of false assertion a person can make about what does not exist — the positive counterpart to the false denial, slander, that a person can make about what does.
The No-Self of Persons, and the No-Self of Dharmas
「復次，大慧！菩薩摩訶薩善觀二種無我相。云何二種無我相？謂人無我，及法無我。云何人無我？謂離我我所、陰、界、入聚。無知業愛生，眼色等攝受計著生識，一切諸根自心現器身等藏，自妄想相施設顯示。如河流，如種子，如燈，如風，如雲，剎那展轉壞。躁動如猨猴，樂不淨處如飛蠅，無厭足如風火，無始虛偽習氣因如汲水輪。生死趣有輪，種種身色，幻術神呪，機發像起。善彼相知，是名人無我智。云何法無我智？謂覺陰、界、入妄想相自性如，陰、界、入離我我所。陰、界、入積聚，因業愛繩縛，展轉相緣，生無動搖。諸法亦爾，離自共相。不實妄想相、妄想力，是凡夫生，非聖賢也，心意識五法自性離故。大慧！菩薩摩訶薩當善分別一切法無我。善法無我菩薩摩訶薩，不久當得初地菩薩無所有觀。地相觀察，開覺歡喜。次第漸進，超九地相，得法雲地。於彼建立無量寶莊嚴大寶蓮華王像、大寶宮殿，幻自性境界修習生，於彼而坐。同一像類諸最勝子眷屬圍繞，從一切佛剎來，佛手灌頂，如轉輪聖王太子灌頂。超佛子地，到自覺聖法趣，當得如來自在法身。見法無我故，是名法無我相。汝等諸菩薩摩訶薩，應當修學。」
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should be skilled in observing the two kinds of no-self. What are the two kinds of no-self? The no-self of persons, and the no-self of dharmas. What is the no-self of persons? It is that which is apart from a self and what belongs to a self, apart from the mere gathering of the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields — [that self being nothing but] ignorance, karma, and craving giving rise [to further existence]; the eye and the rest, in grasping their objects and becoming attached, giving rise to consciousness; and every sense-faculty, the storehouse [consciousness] manifested by one's own mind as the vessel-world and the body and the rest, is set forth and displayed through one's own false thought and its marks alone. It is like a river's current, a seed, a lamp's flame, the wind, or a cloud — perishing moment by moment, one after another. Restless, like a monkey; delighting in impure places, like a fly; never satisfied, like wind or fire; its cause, the beginningless false, habituated force, is like a water-wheel drawing water up. It turns upon the wheel of the [six] destinies of birth-and-death, in every kind of body and form, like a figure moved by sorcery or by a magic spell, its mechanism triggered and its image thereby stirring into motion. To know these various marks well — this is called the wisdom of the no-self of persons. What is the wisdom of the no-self of dharmas? It is to become aware that the own-nature of the very mark of false thought concerning the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields is, in truth, suchness itself; that the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields are apart from a self and what belongs to a self; that their mere gathering, bound by the rope of karma and craving, arises through one condition depending on another in turn, without any true movement at all. Every dharma is just the same: apart from its own mark and its shared mark alike. The mark of unreal false thought, and the very force of that false thought, is what gives rise to an ordinary person — it is not the way of the wise and the noble, since mind, will, consciousness, the five dharmas, and own-nature are all, in truth, apart [from any such thing]. Mahāmati, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva should be skilled in discriminating the no-self of every dharma in this way. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva skilled in the no-self of dharmas will, before long, attain the bodhisattva vision that has nothing at all, proper to the first ground. Observing the mark of that ground, he opens to realization and rejoices; advancing by stages, in due order, he passes beyond the marks of the [next] nine grounds and attains the Ground of the Dharma Cloud. There, he establishes an immense, jewel-adorned image of the great jeweled lotus-king, and a great jeweled palace, born from the cultivation of the illusion-like domain of own-nature, and sits within it. Surrounded by an entourage of the Buddha's foremost children, all of a single kind of form, coming from every buddha-land, he receives the crown-anointing from the Buddha's own hand, just as a wheel-turning sage-king's crown prince receives his own anointing. Passing beyond even the ground of a buddha's own child, he reaches the very path of self-realized noble dharma, and attains the Tathāgata's own sovereign dharma-body. Because he has seen the no-self of dharmas in this way, this is called the mark of the no-self of dharmas. You, and all the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, should diligently train in this."
The commentators read the string of similes for the no-self of persons — river, seed, lamp, wind, cloud, then monkey, fly, wind-and-fire, water-wheel — as two distinct groups rather than one undifferentiated list: "河流等五喻剎那壞相，躁動等三乃虛妄識相，故以猿、蠅、風火喻之。然皆無始虛妄習因，墮於生死三有輪轉，故以汲井輪喻之" — "the first five similes, the river and the rest, illustrate the mark of perishing moment by moment; the next three, restlessness and the rest, illustrate the mark of the deluded consciousness itself, hence the images of the monkey, the fly, and wind-and-fire; and all of this, being the beginninglessly false, habituated cause, falls into the turning wheel of birth-and-death across the three realms of existence — hence the final image of a water-wheel drawing water up." What looks like a single cascade of poetic images is, on this reading, a structured argument: first that the aggregates composing a "self" are momentary, then that the consciousness clinging to them is itself compulsive and restless, and only then that both together are caught on the wheel that keeps producing further birth. Nothing in the list is decorative; each simile targets a distinct piece of the illusion.
On the sequence of grounds a bodhisattva passes through once the no-self of dharmas is realized, the commentators are precise that the joy named here belongs to a specific, named stage rather than to progress in general: "文中言當得初地者，歡喜地也" — "when the text says 'attains the first ground,' this is the Ground of Joy" — the very first of the ten bodhisattva grounds, so called because the vision that has "nothing at all" is itself the direct cause of that joy. They also flag that the jeweled palace and lotus-throne imagery describing the Ground of the Dharma Cloud is not free invention but the direct fruit of a specific practice named just one page earlier in this fascicle: "幻自性者，由修習幻性法門，感如是報" — "'the illusion-like own-nature' means that it is through cultivating the teaching-gate of the illusion-like nature [named in Part 6's rabbit-horn debate] that this very reward is brought about" — the abstract teaching on illusion and the concrete image of a bodhisattva enthroned in a jeweled palace are, on the commentators' reading, cause and effect within the very same fascicle.
Four Kinds of False Assertion
爾時，大慧菩薩摩訶薩復白佛言：「世尊！建立誹謗相，唯願說之。令我及諸菩薩摩訶薩，離建立誹謗二邊惡見，疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。覺已，離常建立、斷誹謗見，不謗正法。」爾時，世尊受大慧菩薩請已，而說偈言：
「建立及誹謗， 無有彼心量，
身受用建立， 及心不能知，
愚癡無智慧， 建立及誹謗。」
爾時，世尊於此偈義復重顯示，告大慧言：「有四種非有有建立。云何為四？謂：非有相建立、非有見建立、非有因建立、非有性建立。是名四種建立。又誹謗者，謂於彼所立無所得，觀察非分而起誹謗。是名建立誹謗相。
「復次，大慧！云何非有相建立相？謂：陰、界、入非有自共相而起計著，此如是，此不異。是名非有相建立相。此非有相建立妄想，無始虛偽過，種種習氣計著生。大慧！非有見建立相者，若彼如是陰、界、入，我人眾生壽命長養士夫見建立，是名非有見建立相。大慧！非有因建立相者，謂：初識無因生，後不實、如幻、本不生。眼色眼界念前生，生已實已還壞，是名非有因建立相。大慧！非有性建立相者，謂：虛空、滅、般涅槃、非作，計著性建立。此離性非性，一切法如兔馬等角，如垂髮現，離有非有，是名非有性建立相。建立及誹謗，愚夫妄想，不善觀察自心現量，非賢聖也。是故離建立誹謗惡見，應當修學。
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I beg you to explain the marks of false assertion and of slander, so that I, and all the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, may leave behind the two extreme, evil views of asserting [what does not exist] and of slandering [what does], and swiftly attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment — and, having awakened, leave behind the view that asserts permanence and the view that, by slander, denies [what is real], never speaking against the true Dharma." Then the World-Honored One, having received Mahāmati's request, spoke in verse: "Assertion, and slander too — neither has any real measure of mind behind it; the body, and what one receives and makes use of, are [likewise] falsely asserted, and mind itself cannot truly know them; it is out of ignorance, lacking wisdom, that assertion and slander both arise."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to display the meaning of this verse once more, said to Mahāmati: "There are four kinds of false assertion of what does not, in truth, exist. What are the four? The assertion of a nonexistent mark, the assertion of a nonexistent view, the assertion of a nonexistent cause, and the assertion of a nonexistent [fixed] nature. These are called the four kinds of assertion. As for slander: it is to observe, of whatever has been [rightly] established, that nothing at all can be apprehended there, and, judging it wrongly to have no basis, to give rise to denial on that account. This is called the mark of assertion and of slander.
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, what is the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent mark? It is to give rise to attachment concerning the aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, which have no [fixed] own mark or shared mark at all, [saying instead,] 'this is thus,' 'this is not otherwise.' This is called the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent mark. This false thought that asserts a nonexistent mark arises from the beginningless, false fault of every kind of habituated force and attachment. Mahāmati, the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent view is this: taking those very same aggregates, elements, and sense-fields, one asserts the view of a self, a person, a sentient being, a life-span, one who is nourished and grows, an agent — this is called the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent view. Mahāmati, the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent cause is this: that the very first arising of consciousness has no cause at all, while what comes after is unreal, illusion-like, and, at bottom, unborn — [yet one asserts that] the eye, form, and the domain of the eye, in a single thought, arise beforehand, and, having arisen, are real, and, having been real, then perish again — this is called the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent cause. Mahāmati, the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent [fixed] nature is this: taking space, cessation, nirvāṇa — the unmade — one becomes attached and asserts them to have a [fixed] nature. [In truth,] this is apart from both [fixed] nature and its absence: every dharma is like the horns of a rabbit or a horse, or like the floating specks a diseased eye sees before it — apart from both existence and non-existence. This is called the mark of the assertion of a nonexistent nature. Assertion, and slander too, are both the false thought of the ignorant, who fail to properly observe that this is merely the measure of their own mind — this is not the way of the wise and the noble. Therefore one should diligently train so as to leave behind the evil views of assertion and of slander."
The commentators frame Mahāmati's request as closing a gap left open by the sūtra's earlier teaching, not introducing an unrelated new topic: "真如界中尚不當無，安得言有？非有說有，名建立常見也；非無說無，名誹謗斷見也" — "within the realm of suchness, one should not even speak of 'non-existence' — how much less, then, of 'existence'? To say something exists where it does not is called the assertion that produces the view of permanence; to say something does not exist where [in the conventional sense] it does is called the slander that produces the view of annihilation." Having spent the last several pages dismantling the view that anything positively exists, the sūtra now has to guard against the opposite overcorrection — treating the resulting silence as license to deny even what is conventionally, provisionally real. Assertion and slander are named as the two ways a listener could mishear everything taught so far.
On why the four kinds of false assertion are organized as mark, view, cause, and nature rather than presented as a single undifferentiated error, the commentators trace each to a distinct point where reasoning goes wrong: the assertion of a nonexistent mark treats what has "no fixed own mark or shared mark at all" as though it did; the assertion of a nonexistent view smuggles a self back into the very aggregates just shown to be impersonal; the assertion of a nonexistent cause invents an origin for consciousness where the text has just said none exists, then treats what follows as though it were genuinely, sequentially real; and the assertion of a nonexistent nature mistakes purely negative terms — space, cessation, nirvāṇa, all defined by what they are not — for positive things possessing a nature of their own. Four different grammatical slips, on this reading, not four instances of one mistake: name, self, causal story, and negation, each capable of being quietly re-inflated into an assertion of existence the moment attention relaxes.
Part 10 Complete
This closes Part 10: the no-self of persons, dissolved through a sequence of similes moving from mere impermanence to compulsive consciousness to the wheel of birth-and-death itself; the no-self of dharmas, whose realization carries a bodhisattva by stages to the Ground of the Dharma Cloud and the jeweled palace built from the very teaching on illusion given several pages earlier; and the four kinds of false assertion that guard against overcorrecting into slander of what is conventionally real. Part 11 closes this fascicle: the wish-fulfilling jewel simile for a bodhisattva's activity in the world, the seven kinds of emptiness, and the teaching — closing the entire first fascicle — that every sūtra is a raft built to be relied on for its meaning, never clung to for its words.
Continue to Part 11 — Seven Kinds of Emptiness, and the Close of Fascicle One →