Twenty Kinds of Emptiness: A Contemplation through Inference

The twenty kinds of emptiness in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras are extremely difficult to comprehend. Now, an analogy is provided for easier understanding. Imagine an infinitely large container whose boundaries cannot be seen. Within it, there are seven kinds of particles of different colors, each kind being immeasurably numerous. These particles can freely combine to form countless objects.

For example, using five of these particles and following a pattern within the container, one assembles a flower. Observing this flower, if our gaze or attention falls only partially on the flower's form and appearance, we see its colors and features, thereby knowing its attributes and nature, while remaining unaware of everything else. Such perception is profoundly biased, and the attachments arising from it are futile and unprofitable. If we can discard the flower's external form and minutely observe its composition and substance, we realize that this flower is actually a combination of five particles; its essence is merely these five particles. The flower belongs to illusory appearances; in truth, it is not even an illusion or a false appearance—it is simply a combination of five particles mixed together.

The particles reside within the container. The assembled flower does not exist outside the container. Regardless of the flower's arising or ceasing, the particles remain as they were, their number unchanged. The container remains unmoved and unaltered, unaffected by anything. If viewed partially, it may seem as if there is arising and ceasing of the flower, but in reality, no such thing occurs—it is not even an illusion. Similarly, following a pattern, using seven kinds of particles to assemble the five aggregates (skandhas) body is the same. There is no substantial form of the five aggregates body; it is not even an illusory image. There is no existence of phenomena like the arising, abiding, changing, or ceasing of the five aggregates body. Arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing leave no trace. Sentient beings foolishly and biasedly cling to this, which is futile and unprofitable. Whether the five aggregates body arises, abides, changes, or ceases, it does not go beyond the container. The container remains unmoved and unaffected.

The container is analogous to the Tathagatagarbha. The seven kinds of particles are analogous to the seven great seeds within the Tathagatagarbha. The pattern is analogous to the karmic seeds stored within the Tathagatagarbha; once the pattern is used, it vanishes and becomes void. The flower and the five aggregates body are analogous to all dharmas born from the Tathagatagarbha. By contemplating the twenty kinds of emptiness in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras in light of this analogy, we should find a starting point. As long as contemplation falls into any kind of worldly dharma characteristic, it is wrong understanding and wrong view, which should be abandoned. Only by observing without falling into worldly dharma characteristics can correct view and wisdom of true reality arise. Finally, emptying everything, even emptying emptiness itself, emptying so thoroughly that nothing remains, one attains ultimate completion, tranquil nirvana.

Engaging in such inferential contemplation and then reading all the Mahayana sutras should make it easier to understand the ultimate meaning, the true meaning, of the Dharma taught by the Buddha. Then, in practice, one will find an entry point. Ultimately, while one may intellectually understand and comprehend the Dharma, to activate it requires actual realization. To achieve realization requires actual practice. All the Dharma methods required by the Buddha—such as the Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment, the Six Perfections of the Bodhisattva, the Five Precepts, the Ten Virtuous Deeds, and so forth—must be practiced one by one, without skipping steps or omitting any. Otherwise, realization cannot be attained, the understood and comprehended Dharma cannot be activated, birth and death will continue as usual, and suffering will remain suffering.

Any Dharma method, when brought forward for comparative contemplation, will lead to swift entry. The Buddha Dharma is the One Vehicle, without duality or otherness. The practice and realization of the Two Vehicles (Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha) reside in the stage of clinging to worldly dharma characteristics, considering dharma characteristics as existent or non-existent—both are non-ultimate. Dharma characteristics are neither existent nor non-existent; both existence and non-existence are mere speculation. Therefore, followers of the Two Vehicles fear the worldly five aggregates, fear birth and death, and take refuge in the nirvana without residue—this is entirely clinging to characteristics. Hence, the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination are all empty and unreal; they are calculations based on false appearances, like mistaking the reflection of a bow in a cup for a snake. Therefore, the emptiness of the five aggregates and the nirvana without residue are also empty—provisionally established to dispel worldly existence, emptying worldly non-existence. Both existence and non-existence are not so. The non-self of persons and the non-self of phenomena are also provisionally established. The self is empty; non-self is also empty. Originally, it is the One True Dharma Realm; apart from this, there is no Dharma. All natures and characteristics of all dharmas are empty and unobtainable; emptiness and unobtainability are also empty. When emptiness is purified completely, and not a single dharma can be grasped, then one attains ultimate tranquil nirvana, and there is nothing more to be done.