須菩提 於意云何 若有人滿三千大千世界七寶以用布施 是人以是因緣 得福多不 如是世尊 此人以是因緣 得福甚多 須菩提 若福德有實 如來不說得福德多 以福德無故 如來說得福德多
xū pú tí yú yì yún hé ruò yǒu rén mǎn sān qiān dà qiān shì jiè qī bǎo yǐ yòng bù shī shì rén yǐ shì yīn yuán dé fú duō bù rú shì shì zūn cǐ rén yǐ shì yīn yuán dé fú shèn duō xū pú tí ruò fú dé yǒu shí rú lái bù shuō dé fú dé duō yǐ fú dé wú gù rú lái shuō dé fú dé duō
Key Message
Because merit has no fixed essence, it is boundless. Acts of generosity freed from clinging flow through the entire dharma-realm and transform all things.
▸Section 19 is among the most compact and paradoxically charged passages in the Diamond Sutra, delivering a radical teaching on the nature of merit in just a few lines.
Section 19 is among the most compact and paradoxically charged passages in the Diamond Sutra, delivering a radical teaching on the nature of merit in just a few lines. The Buddha poses the familiar question about the merit of filling the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world with the seven treasures and offering it all as a gift. Subhūti confirms the merit would be vast. The Buddha then inverts the logic entirely: 'If merit possessed a real, fixed existence, the Tathāgata would not say that the merit is great. It is precisely because merit has no fixed essence that the Tathāgata says the merit is great.' This is an application of the principle of emptiness (śūnyatā) to the domain of merit itself. Merit that can be quantified, compared, and possessed is already caught in the web of clinging. True merit, being empty of inherent existence, is boundless — it flows through the entire dharma-realm (dharmadhātu) without obstruction, transforming all things.