Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (131)

All Dharmas Are Entirely Empty and Quiescent

The faculties include the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. These six faculties are like illusions, manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; this is called "like an illusion." The sense objects are like a dream: the sense objects are the forms seen by the eye, the sounds heard by the ear, the fragrant and foul odors smelled by the nose, the sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy flavors tasted by the tongue, the objects felt by the body such as fatigue, tranquility, softness, comfort, hunger, satiety, and so forth, and the mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya) confronted by the manas. These sense objects appear to exist, but their existence is false existence, illusory existence, not real—just like the objects in a dream.

Everywhere the Buddha is revealing to us one truth: all dharmas are entirely empty and quiescent. This means that all dharmas are empty and quiescent. Why is this said? Because all dharmas arise from the aggregation of various causes and conditions, inherently lack any self-nature, and are not truly existent dharmas; therefore they are said to be empty and quiescent. From another perspective, all dharmas are manifested by the Ālayavijñāna, directed by the Ālayavijñāna, and are the shadow of the Ālayavijñāna; in essence they are the Ālayavijñāna, and there are no [independent] dharmas at all; therefore it is said that all dharmas are entirely empty and quiescent. The emptiness of the Small Vehicle and the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the Great Vehicle both point to this truth and reality.