The Sutra of the Combined Discourses Between Father and Son: Discourse Eighty

How to Realize the Emptiness of Body and Mind

When actions of body, speech, and mind are initially performed, they vanish in an instant. For example, when I pick up a knife to kill someone, the act of picking up the knife ceases immediately afterward. Next, when the hand extends outward, the act of extending vanishes once completed. Then, when the knife stabs into the other person’s body, that action too disappears. Subsequently, pulling out the knife causes the act to vanish, followed by discarding or cleaning the knife, after which the action again ceases. The entire sequence of actions constituting the act of killing arises one after another: as each subsequent action emerges, the preceding one vanishes. After all these actions have ceased, has the act of killing truly vanished? If this act did not vanish, the killing would persist indefinitely—yet this is impossible, as all actions must eventually conclude. Actions themselves perish the moment they are completed; thus, they are characterized by arising and ceasing, ultimately ungraspable. However, the seeds of these actions do not vanish; they are stored instant by instant within the Tathāgatagarbha, awaiting future conditions to ripen and yield karmic retribution.

Actions vanish with astonishing speed the moment they are performed. In each instant, eighty-one thousand seeds arise and cease, arise and cease, arise and cease—only through this process does the entire act of killing take form. Thus, while the act of killing is entirely characterized by arising and ceasing, the totality of this action is stored as karmic seeds within one’s own Tathāgatagarbha. In the snap of a finger—a single instant—eighty-one thousand seeds arise and cease. Countless phenomena of arising and ceasing constitute this single snap; thus, the act of snapping is itself illusory. Similarly, the act of killing is formed by connecting innumerable instants equivalent to a snap, composed of countless actions akin to snapping. Therefore, the act of killing is also illusory, characterized by arising and ceasing, and devoid of self. By contemplating in this way, one may realize the Hinayana realization of the emptiness of the body.

One may similarly contemplate the seeds of the conscious mind arising and ceasing instantaneously. Innumerable instants of arising and ceasing form the continuous discriminative actions of the conscious mind. Thus, the conscious mind is characterized by arising and ceasing, is illusory, and is devoid of self. In this way, one realizes the emptiness of mind. With the emptiness of body and mind combined, the five aggregates are empty and devoid of self—thus, the first fruit of the Hinayana path is attained.

While contemplating to sever the view of self, one may further contemplate: How is this series of actions constituting killing produced? One may contemplate the act of snapping a finger: How can eighty-one thousand seeds arise within a single snap? How does the snapping occur? And how does the Tathāgatagarbha record karmic actions? Through such contemplation, those with strong meditative concentration may attain realization very swiftly. With guidance, some realize it in minutes; without guidance, it may take tens of thousands of kalpas. To attain the fruit, when conditions are ripe, realization occurs in an instant. If conditions are unripe, one may remain deluded and inverted within the six paths for hundreds of thousands of kalpas.

Though karmic actions vanish instantaneously, they do not abide in any spatial direction—east, west, south, north, the four intermediates, above, below, or the center—but simply cease. For example, when I raise my hand and then lower it, where does the action of raising the hand go when it vanishes? The karmic action vanishes without abiding anywhere. If it abided in a location, that place would perpetually contain the act of raising the hand. If it were killing, the karmic action of killing would perpetually exist somewhere—which would be deeply problematic.