Lectures on the Pitāputrasamāgama Sūtra (10)

What is the inner earth element?

Original text: Great King, what is the inner earth element? It refers to the hardness and roughness that arise within the body, such as hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones. If the inner earth element does not arise, then there is no cessation, and there is no accumulation of formations.

Explanation: Buddha said: Great King, what is the inner earth element? The earth element is the earth element seeds within the Tathagatagarbha. The Tathagatagarbha has earth element seeds that can produce the hardness of material forms, manifesting the living environment of the material world and the bodies of sentient beings. The inner earth element refers to the earth element components within the physical body of sentient beings, the parts that have hardness, such as hair, nails, teeth, skin, muscles, sinews, bones, and other tissues with the earth nature.

The inner earth element begins to arise when entering the mother's womb. The mind consciousness is reborn into the fertilized egg, and the Tathagatagarbha outputs earth element seeds to generate the fetus's physical body. Otherwise, without the earth element in the body, the body would be weak and soft like water, unable to walk, stand, sit, or lie down. Since the earth element has arising, it must have cessation. With arising and cessation, the five aggregates body can be accumulated, and there are bodily formations. If the earth element seeds do not arise in the body, there can be no cessation, and the five aggregates body cannot be accumulated. Dharmas that have arising and ceasing are false dharmas, not true dharmas; they are illusory dharmas, empty dharmas. Therefore, we should not be attached or grasp them.