般若心經 段六 顯空六相

The last passage said "五蘊皆空 — the five aggregates are all empty"; this one sketches a face for that "emptiness": neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing. Yet think it over and a doubt rises: flowers bloom and fade, people fall ill and recover, money grows and dwindles — how is it that the moment one steps into the mark of emptiness, all of this is met with a "neither"? Is it asking us to deny the arising-and-ceasing laid out plain before us? The ancient masters say the crux outright: these six "neithers" do not negate the events but that layer of "real arising-and-ceasing, real defilement-and-purity." Flowers blooming and fading still appear upon dependent arising; what is denied is only "a real entity truly arising and truly ceasing." The three pairs of "neither" answer exactly to three entanglements of the human heart: neither arising nor ceasing clears away the grasping at is-it-there-or-not; neither defiled nor pure clears away the grasping at is-it-good-or-bad; neither increasing nor decreasing clears away the grasping at is-it-much-or-little. Three rulers brought to measure the world find nothing to rest on before the true face of emptiness (空相, śūnyatā-lakṣaṇa) — not that the world has vanished, but that your measuring with its "real graduations" has fallen through. Read these six "neithers" through, and the long string of "無 / no" in the next passage has its governing thread.

The sūtra says:

是諸法空相，不生不滅，不垢不淨，不增不減。

Plain-language rewrite:

All these dharmas, spoken of in their true face as "empty": they have never arisen, and they have never ceased; they have never been defiled, and they have never been made pure; they do not increase, and they do not decrease.

("諸法空相," the mark of emptiness of all dharmas, is the true face of that "emptiness" in all things, the way they are to begin with; and the three pairs of "neither… nor…" below say that within this true face, the oppositions of arising-versus-ceasing, defilement-versus-purity, and increase-versus-decrease simply cannot be set down.)

A question bound to rise

The last passage said "色即是空、五蘊皆空" ("form is itself emptiness; the five aggregates are all empty"), and this one follows straight on by sketching a face for that "emptiness": these dharmas are marked by emptiness — neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing.

But think it over and a doubt arises. The things right before my eyes plainly do arise and cease — flowers bloom and fade; people fall ill and recover; money grows and dwindles. How is it that the moment one steps into the "mark of emptiness," all of this is met with a "neither"? Is the mark of emptiness asking us to look straight at what is there and call it absent — to deny arising, ceasing, defilement, purity, the things laid out plain before us?

To get through this pass, one has to be clear about on which layer the "neither" is being said.

Not that there is no arising-and-ceasing in the events themselves — it is the "real arising-and-ceasing" that was never there

Woncheuk points out that this passage is "revealing the mark of emptiness through six kinds of meaning (約六種義以顯空相)" — taking six facets (arising, ceasing, defilement, purity, increase, decrease) to reveal the true face of emptiness. Kuiji says the crux outright: what these six "neithers" negate is the wholly-imagined nature, and the layer of "self-arisen dharmas" upon the other-dependent nature — their reality.

What is the "reality" of "self-arisen dharmas"? It is the conviction set down in your mind: that there is some solidly real thing which arises of itself and ceases of itself. Kuiji says this layer is "by its very nature empty and non-existent (本性空無)" — it was never there to begin with. So "neither arising nor ceasing" is not a denial of flowers blooming and fading (that is dependent arising, vivid and present); it is a denial of "there being a real entity standing there, truly arising and truly ceasing."

He puts his finger on one crucial line: the mark of emptiness's "neither arising-nor-ceasing and so on" means "皆無如彼二乘等執生等位別" ("none have the fixed positions of arising and so forth that the two vehicles and others grasp at"). That is to say: the two vehicles take arising, ceasing, defilement, purity as so many fixed, really-different "positions" — this is real ceasing, that is real arising; this is the position of defilement, that the position of purity. What the mark of emptiness clears away is precisely this kind of "really-different position." The events of arising and ceasing still appear upon the other-dependent nature, but that grasping at "real slots and real positions" is emptied out.

Three pairs of "neither," clearing away three entanglements

Take the six marks as three pairs, and they come closer to the human heart:

• Neither arising nor ceasing — clears away the entanglement over existence: the supposing that there is a thing solidly real that comes into being and then solidly real that passes away.
• Neither defiled nor pure — clears away the entanglement over value: the supposing that there is a thing intrinsically and really filthy, or really clean. (Here the 《大般若》 [Larger Prajñā Sūtra] cited by the ancient masters reads 「不染不淨」 "neither tainted nor pure," making it the plainer that what is cleared away is the grasping at taint-versus-purity.)
• Neither increasing nor decreasing — clears away the entanglement over quantity: the supposing that the true face will really gain a measure through your practice, or really lose a measure through your deeds.

With the three pairs cleared, one message stands plain: the rulers you bring to measure the world — is-it-there-or-not, is-it-good-or-bad, is-it-much-or-little — find nothing to rest on before the true face of emptiness. It is not that the world has vanished; it is that your whole measuring with its "real graduations" has fallen through.

Through the mirror of Yogācāra: one mark of emptiness, in the language of sūtra and of treatise

It is not that the Heart Sūtra's "six meanings of the mark of emptiness" need Yogācāra to be made coherent, nor that Yogācāra borrowed them from the Heart Sūtra. It is one and the same matter — "clearing away the wholly-imagined real positions and revealing the true face of the dependent-and-perfected (遣遍計實位、顯依圓真相)" — which the Heart Sūtra reveals with six "neithers," and which Yogācāra states as "the fixed positions of the wholly-imagined nature are by their very nature empty and non-existent (遍計所執位別本性空無)."

Read these six "neithers" through, and the long string of "無 / no" in the next passage (no form, no feeling-perception-formations-consciousness, no eye-ear-nose-tongue-body-mind…) has its governing thread: that string is not a wholesale wiping-out of body, mind, and world; it is the working-out of the principle of these six marks, gate by gate, thoroughly, upon the five aggregates, the twelve sense-fields, the eighteen elements, the twelvefold dependent origination, and the four truths.