Discourse on the Father and Son Aggregate Sutra (Part 12)

The solidity of the internal earth element is illusory and unreal.

Original text: Why is this said? Regarding solidity. Great King, this solidity is provisionally designated based on resemblance. Ultimately, this body will decay, disintegrate, and perish. Only the burial mound is its final destination. Where does this solidity come from? It does not come from the four directions. Nor does it depart upwards, downwards, or to any quarter. Great King, the internal earth element should be understood thus.

Explanation: Why is it said that the earth element possesses solidity? Great King, this solidity is also a nominal designation based on resemblance; it is not truly solid and eternally indestructible. Because this physical body will inevitably decay, disintegrate, and perish, ultimately being discarded in the wilderness or burial grounds. The four great elements scatter and vanish without a trace. Where does the solidity within the physical body come from? It has no origin. Nor does it have any destination; it does not come from the four directions, above, below, or the intermediate points of the body, nor does it depart to those directions. The earth element within this physical body is thus: it has no origin and no destination. (This explanation follows the Śrāvaka approach; the Buddha did not explicitly state that the ālaya-vijñāna and tathāgatagarbha project the seeds of the four great elements to form the physical body, and that after the body's dissolution, the seeds of the four elements within it return to the ālaya-vijñāna and tathāgatagarbha.)

Where does the earth element within this kalala (fertilized ovum) come from? It comes from nowhere. After its cessation, it has no place to return to. When the physical body dies and the earth element ceases, where does the earth element go? It has no destination. Thus, the earth element is empty, illusory, and unreal. Therefore, the solidity of the body is not real. Solidity exists from the beginning of the kalala, then transforms into the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, muscles, and bones of the physical body. After death, the earth element disperses; the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, muscles, and bones all perish. The solidity has nowhere to go; it does not enter the void. When it manifested, it came without an origin; it simply manifests.

But in reality, all of this is projected from the tathāgatagarbha. The Buddha had not yet expounded this point at that stage. The internal earth element arises thus: due to the union of male and female, the manas (mind faculty) takes rebirth in the fertilized ovum, and upon the birth of the kalala, the earth element arises. The earth element is so subject to arising and ceasing, so illusory, that we should not cling to it. We should not regard the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, muscles, bones, or the physical body as the self, or as real and indestructible.