Discourse on the Pitāputrasamāgama Sūtra (29)

All Phenomena Are Illusory and Unreal

All phenomena arise from nothingness and return to nothingness upon destruction, leaving not even dust nor the tiniest quark particles. Such is the illusory nature of the world. When even this vast world perishes beyond any possibility of attachment, how much more so our fragile bodies, which are far more susceptible to destruction? All phenomena are utterly illusory and unreal. Consider the entire process of our life's formation: from nothingness to a fertilized egg, to birth, growing from infancy to adulthood, forming this shell of over a hundred jin — only for it to disintegrate again at life's end. What remains? Nothing. Merely a handful of ashes that vanish with time. Who can find the ashes from our past lives? None can. Thus, the entire five-aggregate life form and the entire cosmic void are empty and devoid of substance, leaving nothing to grasp.