Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Fathers and Sons (XX)

The Arising and Cessation of the External Realm

When the external realm gradually formed, it took twenty small kalpas (336 million years) to be established from the void of absolute emptiness, gradually forming the universe, the vessel world, of the trichiliocosm. After the trichiliocosm perishes, it returns to absolute emptiness. All that is subject to arising and cessation is empty; not a single dharma remains.

The seeds of the earth element exist within the Tathāgatagarbha. These seeds are also formless, signless, and empty. The external mountains, rivers, and earth formed from them are likewise empty in their intrinsic nature, lacking self-nature. They cannot determine their own existence, being manifested by the Tathāgatagarbha. The hardness of material objects is also empty—formless and signless—arising and ceasing along with the objects.