Selected Lectures on the Pitṛputra Samyukta Sūtra

Thus it should be understood: the initial consciousness and the emptiness of the initial consciousness; one's own karmic actions and the emptiness of karmic actions; the body consciousness and the emptiness of body consciousness; if cessation exists, cessation is empty; if birth exists, birth is empty; samsara and the emptiness of samsara; nirvāṇa and the emptiness of nirvāṇa. All are empty in their own nature. There is neither a doer nor a receiver. It is merely displayed according to worldly convention. This is not spoken from the perspective of the ultimate truth.

Explanation: One should understand in this way the initial consciousness and the emptiness of the initial consciousness, understand one's own created karmic actions and the emptiness of karmic actions, understand the body consciousness and the emptiness of body consciousness; understand in this way that if any dharma arises, its arising is empty, if any dharma ceases, its cessation is also empty; simultaneously, one should understand samsara and the emptiness of samsara, understand nirvāṇa and the emptiness of nirvāṇa. The creation and flow of karmic actions have neither a doer nor a receiver. All dharmas are merely displayed according to worldly discrimination. From the perspective of the ultimate truth, such statements are not made.

The initial consciousness arising in the physical form of the next life is also empty. Created karmic actions are also empty. The body consciousness is also empty. If I also cease this dharma, this very cessation is empty. Is there a real cessation? Is there a principle of this dharma's cessation? No, it is empty. The arising of consciousness in the next life, the arising itself is also empty. Is there a fixed, unchanging principle or rule of arising? No, it is empty. All dharmas arise just like this. We cycle in the six realms, being human, deva, animal, hungry ghost – this samsara is also empty. If samsara were not empty, one should cycle forever, unable to attain liberation, unable to become a Buddha; spiritual practice would be useless. The fact that we can cease samsara, can depart from samsara, demonstrates that samsara is empty; it is not that there truly exists an indestructible dharma of samsara. We ourselves are not real, so how could there be a real dharma of samsara? There is not. All is empty; all is illusory.

If we attain nirvāṇa, ceasing the dharmas of the three realms, the five aggregates cease, the eighteen elements cease, the body ceases, the mind ceases, feelings cease, thoughts cease, the karmic actions of body, speech, and mind cease – all cease. Only the ālaya-vijñāna remains, neither arising nor ceasing, pure and tranquil. This state is called nirvāṇa. The state where the five aggregates and eighteen elements have ceased is itself also empty; it is also subject to birth, cessation, and change; it is not eternally unchanging. The state of nirvāṇa also comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. There is no one who enters nirvāṇa, nor is there anyone who emerges from nirvāṇa. There is neither a doer nor a receiver.

Therefore, nirvāṇa is not truly existent. Nirvāṇa is the manifestation of a state of quiescence, as unreal as the clamorous phenomena of the world; it is illusory. This state is also empty. Only the ālaya-vijñāna is not empty; all else is empty. Nirvāṇa has no characteristics; even the state of emptiness is empty. This emptiness does not exist apart from the ālaya-vijñāna.

All dharmas have neither a doer nor a receiver. The fourth-stage arhat who attains nirvāṇa – there is no person who attained the fourth fruit, nor is there an arhat who entered nirvāṇa. There is no arhat enjoying the bliss of cessation. Who receives the bliss of cessation in nirvāṇa? Can such a person be found? Within nirvāṇa, there is no person, no arhat. If there were, it would not be nirvāṇa. The arhat's physical body ceases, the conscious mind ceases, the functions of the five aggregates cease, the phenomena of the eighteen elements cease. Therefore, within nirvāṇa, there is no arhat, no one receiving the bliss of cessation.