Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (31)

When the four great oceans first came into being, where did the water come from? There is no place it came from. In the end, when most of the four great oceans have ceased and evaporated, where did the evaporated water go? Did it go into empty space? If empty space contained that much water, it could not hold it all; and if there were water in empty space, it would no longer be called empty space—it would be called a great ocean. Therefore, when the water of the great oceans disappears, there is likewise nowhere for it to go. Such is the falsity and illusoriness of the water element: it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, from emptiness to emptiness. The entire trichiliocosm is just this false and illusory, and the buddha-lands of the worlds in the ten directions are likewise just this false and illusory—arising and ceasing, ceasing and arising—all of it not to be grasped at. The nature of the water element is empty in itself when it arises, and empty as well when it ceases; from emptiness to emptiness, there is nothing at all.