The Distinction between "Empty by Nature" and "Emptiness (śūnyatā)"

What is emptiness? Emptiness means "nothing"—first, it represents no thing, no dharma, no mark, no mind, no action, and so on; second, it represents no abiding, no attainment, and so on.

The meaning of "empty by nature" (emptiness of nature) is that the nature of a certain dharma is empty—no thing, no dharma, no mark, no mind, no action, and also no abiding, no attainment. Which dharma has a nature that is empty in this way? One must look among the eight mind-bodies. Although the seven deluded consciousnesses are without thing, without dharma, and without mark, they do have mind, do have action, do have abiding, and do have attainment; therefore they are not empty by nature. Only the nature of the tathāgatagarbha is without thing, without dharma, without mark, without mind, without action, without abiding, and without attainment. The mind is attached to not a single thing, clings to not a single dharma; within the mind-body there are no dharmas at all—no wisdom and no attainment. Therefore the tathāgatagarbha is empty by nature.

Being empty by nature represents virtue; an empty mind is virtue. The "great virtuous ones" (dade) spoken of in the world mostly refer to those who have attained the Path and whose minds are empty through realizing emptiness, without any thing. Why is being empty by nature and having an empty mind virtue? Because emptiness is the most powerful; no thing or principle can surpass emptiness, and none can defeat emptiness. Since the mind is empty, what could surpass emptiness? Nothing. Emptiness is the highest and the greatest, transcending everything; all people, things, and affairs cannot compare with emptiness. Therefore emptiness is virtue. A person with an empty mind seeks nothing and attains nothing, and is thus worthy of offerings from humans and devas, worthy of their admiration and respect.

Emptiness (śūnyatā) sometimes refers to the property of being empty—the essential nature of all dharmas is empty—meaning that a certain dharma possesses the property of emptiness, its nature is empty, it does not cling to any dharma, and there is no grasping. This mainly refers to the nature of the tathāgatagarbha mind-body. The fundamental tathāgatagarbha is precisely like this: empty by nature, and its marks are also empty. Although the tathāgatagarbha is empty in nature, it has real substance; it is the unborn and unceasing true reality. Whereas although the mind-nature of the seven consciousnesses clings to existence and is not empty, in essence it is empty without real substance—a delusive mark that arises and ceases.

Emptiness sometimes refers to the mind-body itself, where the subject is the omitted tathāgatagarbha and the predicate is emptiness, directly representing the tathāgatagarbha as the fundamental substance. For example, take "self-nature" (svabhāva): people in ancient times generally used the term "self-nature" to represent the unborn and unceasing fundamental consciousness—the tathāgatagarbha—which has its own independent nature and function and is not swayed by other dharmas. The most obvious example is the Sixth Patriarch, who constantly kept the word "self-nature" on his lips. Whereas all worldly dharmas and marks, as well as the five aggregates, have no self-nature of their own; they are of the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, and their nature is also empty. The appearance of the five aggregates is produced and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; they seem to exist, but in reality they too are empty.