The Five Dharmas and How False Thought Cascades from Naming
Mahāmati asks the Buddha to explain the five dharmas — mark, name, false thought, suchness, and right wisdom — as a single, unified frame for every stage of the path, from the very first ground to the Tathāgata's own ground of self-realization. Before defining each of the five in turn, the Buddha first answers a more urgent question: how does the ordinary person's false thought actually arise? The answer traces a precise causal chain, from clinging to a mere conventional name, through desire for what that name designates, through karma accumulated from craving and aversion, to a mind wrapped so completely in its own false thought that the sūtra compares it to a silkworm spinning itself into a cocoon.
Introducing the Five Dharmas
爾時大慧菩薩白佛言：「世尊！惟願為說五法、自性、識、二種無我，究竟分別相。我及餘菩薩摩訶薩，於一切地次第相續分別此法，入一切佛法。入一切佛法者，乃至如來自覺地。」佛告大慧：「諦聽，諦聽！善思念之。」大慧白佛：「唯然受教。」佛告大慧：「五法、自性、識、二無我分別趣相者，謂名、相、妄想、正智、如如。若修行者，修行入如來自覺聖趣，離於斷常有無等見，現法樂正受住現在前。大慧！不覺彼五法、自性、識、二無我，自心現外性。凡夫妄想，非諸賢聖。」大慧白佛言：「世尊！云何愚夫妄想生，非諸賢聖？」
At that time, Mahāmati Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I only wish you would explain the ultimate, differentiated marks of the five dharmas, the three own-natures, the eight consciousnesses, and the two kinds of selflessness. May I, and every other bodhisattva-mahāsattva, distinguish this teaching in graduated succession through every ground, entering thereby into the whole of the Buddha's own Dharma — entering into the whole of the Buddha's own Dharma, all the way to the Tathāgata's own ground of self-realization." The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Listen carefully, listen carefully, and reflect well upon it." Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "Yes indeed, I shall receive your teaching." The Buddha told Mahāmati: "As for the differentiated, particular marks of the five dharmas, the three own-natures, the eight consciousnesses, and the two kinds of selflessness: these are called mark, name, false thought, right wisdom, and suchness. Should a practitioner, through practice, enter the domain of the Tathāgata's own self-realized noble wisdom, apart from the views of annihilation, permanence, being, and non-being, he dwells in the very bliss of the Dharma as it stands present before him. Mahāmati, failing to be aware of these five dharmas, the three own-natures, the eight consciousnesses, and the two kinds of selflessness, [one instead sees them merely as] one's own mind manifesting an external nature — this is the ordinary person's own false thought, not the way of the wise and noble." Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, how does the foolish and ignorant person's false thought actually arise, such that it is not the way of the wise and noble?"
The commentators explain why this teaching, though the underlying content has appeared throughout the sūtra already, is being requested afresh here: "五法等上雖已明，而未曾約諸地分別，示其所以入一切佛法至如來地者，故復請之" — "though the five dharmas and the rest have already been clarified above, they have not yet been distinguished specifically in relation to the [ten] grounds, to show how they lead one into the whole of the Buddha's Dharma, all the way to the Tathāgata's own ground — this is why Mahāmati asks for the teaching again." What has already been taught piecemeal, across many earlier passages of this sūtra, is now to be gathered into a single, ordered frame that can be tracked stage by stage along the entire path.
On why the same five terms can describe both delusion and awakening depending on how they are held, the commentators locate the whole teaching's hinge in a single principle: "是知法無自性，迷悟在人。此且總示，所以趣入等相備見後文" — "one thereby knows that these dharmas have no fixed nature of their own; delusion and awakening depend entirely on the person. This is only a general indication here — the particular marks of how one enters upon them are given in full in what follows." The five dharmas are not divided into a "deluded set" and an "awakened set" — the very same mark, name, false thought, suchness, and right wisdom are what a bodhisattva sees clearly and what an ordinary person mistakes, the difference lying entirely in whether one is aware of what they truly are.
How False Thought Cascades: The Silkworm's Cocoon
佛告大慧：「愚夫計著俗數名相，隨心流散。流散已，種種相像貌，墮我我所見，悕望計著妙色。計著已，無知覆障，生染著。染著已，貪恚所生業積集。積集已，妄想自纏，如蠶作繭，墮生死海，諸趣曠野，如汲井輪。以愚癡故，不能知如幻野馬水月自性，離我我所；起於一切不實妄想，離相所相及生住滅，從自心妄想生，非自在、時節、微塵、勝妙生。愚癡凡夫隨名相流。大慧！彼相者，眼識所照名為色，耳鼻舌身意識所照，名為聲香味觸法。是名為相。大慧。彼妄想者，施設眾名，顯示諸相，如此不異象馬車步男女等名，是名妄想。大慧！正智者，彼名相不可得，猶如過客。諸識不生，不斷不常，不墮一切外道、聲聞、緣覺之地。
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "The foolish and ignorant, becoming attached to conventional, worldly names and marks, follow their own mind as it scatters and flows outward. Once it has so scattered, manifold marks and appearances arise, and one falls into the view of self and what belongs to self, desiring and becoming attached to fine and pleasing forms. Once attached, one is covered over and obstructed by ignorance, giving rise to defiled clinging. Once defiled clinging has arisen, karma produced by craving and aversion accumulates. Once accumulated, one becomes wrapped up in one's own false thought, like a silkworm spinning its own cocoon, falling into the great ocean of birth-and-death, into the vast wilderness of every destiny, turning like a wheel drawing water from a well. Because of this very folly, one is unable to know that the own-nature of things is like an illusion, like a mirage, like the moon reflected in water, apart from self and what belongs to self — instead, one gives rise to every kind of unreal false thought. [Rightly understood, all this is] apart from mark and what bears the mark, and apart from arising, abiding, and ceasing, arising only from one's own mind's false thought, not from Īśvara, from time, from atoms, or from any Excellent One. The foolish and ignorant, however, simply follow the flow of names and marks. Mahāmati, 'mark' means: what is illuminated by the eye-consciousness is called form; what is illuminated by the ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, and mental-consciousness is called sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental object — this alone is what is meant by 'mark.' Mahāmati, 'false thought' means: setting up manifold names in order to display these various marks, just as names like 'elephant,' 'horse,' 'chariot,' 'pedestrian,' 'man,' or 'woman' are no different from this — this alone is what is meant by 'false thought.' Mahāmati, 'right wisdom' means: name and mark, [when examined,] can never ultimately be apprehended, being like a mere passing traveler — no consciousness [dependent on them] arises, neither annihilated nor permanent, and one thereby does not fall into the domain of any outsider, śrāvaka, or pratyekabuddha.
The commentators trace the cascade as a single unbroken chain, naming each link explicitly: "依六塵等俗數名相起諸分別，其心流散妄返，墮我、我所見，希望計著於色，覆障聖智，起貪恚癡，造作諸業，如蠶作繭，妄想自纏，墮於諸趣生死大海" — "relying on conventional names and marks belonging to the six sense-objects, one gives rise to discrimination; the mind scatters and flows outward in delusion, falling into the view of self and what belongs to self, desiring and becoming attached to form; this covers over and obstructs noble wisdom, giving rise to craving, aversion, and delusion, which construct karma — like a silkworm spinning its own cocoon, one becomes wrapped up in one's own false thought, falling into the great ocean of birth-and-death across every destiny." The commentators note explicitly that the whole passage, from first attachment to final entrapment, "無出三道" — "never goes beyond the three paths [of affliction, karma, and suffering]" — each link in the chain simply being the next stage of the same three-part cycle repeating itself.
On why the silkworm image in particular is chosen over any other for this bondage, the commentators are brief but exact: "如蠶作繭者，喻自纏縛也" — "'like a silkworm spinning its own cocoon' illustrates binding oneself with one's own thread." No outside force traps the ordinary person in birth-and-death; the very same false thought that spins out from clinging to a name is what then wraps around the one who spun it, exactly as a silkworm is enclosed by nothing but the thread of its own making.
Part 43 Complete
This closes Part 43: the introduction of the five dharmas — mark, name, false thought, right wisdom, and suchness — as a single frame spanning the entire path, and the precise causal chain by which the ordinary person's false thought cascades from clinging to a mere conventional name into craving, karma, and rebirth, wrapped up like a silkworm in its own cocoon, together with the initial definitions of mark, false thought, and right wisdom themselves. Part 44 completes the teaching: the definition of suchness, the bodhisattva's progress from the ground of joy to the cloud-of-dharma ground, how the three own-natures map onto the five dharmas, and the Buddha's own closing verse gathering the whole teaching into a single summary.
Continue to Part 44 — The Five Dharmas Defined, One by One →