Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (86)

The Liberation of Hīnayāna Practitioners and the Aspiration of Mahāyāna Practitioners

When body consciousness arises, there is no place it comes from; it does not come from east, south, west, or north, nor does it come from empty space—the conscious mind has no place of origin. After the conscious mind ceases, there is also no place it goes; the conscious mind is illusory, it is empty—thus one can realize the Hīnayāna fruit of emptiness. When karmic actions arise, they have no place of origin and no destination; they too are empty and illusory. For example, before the karma of my killing a person arises, where is this karma of killing? Where is the act of killing? It exists nowhere; the karma has no place of origin. Once I have created this karma, the karma is gone—where did the karma go? Where did the act of killing go? There is nowhere to go; it did not depart to east, south, west, or north, nor to the empty space above and below—it has no destination.

Another example: when I hold this book in my hand, and this action is no more, where has it vanished to? There is nowhere to go—it is illusory. Before the action of my wanting to pick up the book has arisen, where does it exist? There is no such place. Before I speak, where is my speech? There is no place. When I finish speaking, the speech disappears—where has it vanished to? There is nowhere to go. If there were a place to store these things, even empty space could not contain them. All actions and activities are illusory, unreal, and empty; analyzing them over and over, not one of them is real. If a person is completely a Hīnayāna practitioner, concerned only with his own liberation, he will feel that his life has no meaning and is very boring.

To want to keep on living, one must give rise to the Mahāyāna bodhisattva mind—to become a Buddha and deliver suffering sentient beings. That is the one thing in life, and there is nothing else. Everything in the world is empty, nothing is possessed; with this mind living in the world, what is that state of mind? It is like floating lightly, dwelling in empty space—everything has nothing to do with me, without attachment or burden, without affliction or vexation, and also without delight. When can one have that state of mind? The minds of sentient beings are stuffed full with heaps of things—is that heavy? Far too heavy—carried on the shoulders, packed in the heart, wanting everything; yet when they die they cannot take it with them. If it could be taken along, they would pack as much as possible, the more the better; but it cannot be taken away—it is all empty. How could it be carried away?