A Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Fathers and Sons (Lecture 85)

Your Majesty, there is not the slightest phenomenon that can pass from this world to another world. Why is that? Because the nature of all phenomena is subject to arising and ceasing.

Your Majesty, when body-consciousness arises, it comes from nowhere; when it ceases, it goes nowhere. When karmic actions arise, they come from nowhere; when they cease, they go nowhere. When initial consciousness arises, it comes from nowhere; when it ceases, it goes nowhere. Why is that? Because their intrinsic nature is free from substantial existence.

In this way, one realizes: body-consciousness is empty; body-consciousness is emptiness. One’s own karmic actions are empty; one’s own karmic actions are emptiness. Initial consciousness is empty; initial consciousness is emptiness. If phenomena cease, that cessation is empty. If phenomena arise, that arising is empty. One understands the turning of karma: there is no doer, nor is there any experiencer. It is merely the manifestation of conceptual distinctions.

Explanation: Your Majesty, fundamentally, not a single thing can be taken from this world to another. Why is this so? Because all phenomena are subject to arising and ceasing. Your Majesty, when body-consciousness arises, it has no origin; when it ceases, it has no destination. The karmic actions produced by consciousness arise without origin and cease without destination. When the initial consciousness within the physical body arises, it too has no origin; when it ceases, it has no destination. Why do these phenomena lack origin and destination? Because the intrinsic nature of these phenomena is free from all substantial existence—there are no truly real phenomena.

In this way, one realizes body-consciousness and the emptiness of body-consciousness; one realizes one’s own karmic actions and the emptiness of those karmic actions; one realizes initial consciousness and the emptiness of initial consciousness. If these phenomena cease, their cessation is empty; if they arise, their arising is empty. One understands the turning of karmic force: there is no creator of karma, nor any receiver of its retribution. All is merely the differentiation and manifestation of conceptual designations.