Selected Discourses on the Sutra of the Collected Teachings of the Father and Son (6)

Original text: If each possesses it separately, then you, Ānanda, should have two bodies. If the head and hand arise from a single touch, then the hand and head should be one entity. If they are one entity, then touch cannot be established. If they are two entities, then upon touching, where does the touch reside? It cannot reside in the toucher (the active agent) nor in the touched (the passive object). It should not be that emptiness forms touch with you. Therefore, it should be known that the perception of touch and the body both lack a fixed location. That is, both the body and touch are fundamentally void and illusory. They are not produced by causes and conditions, nor are they of self-existent nature.

Explanation: Why is it said that the earth element possesses hardness? Great King, this hardness is also a provisionally designated term, similar [to other designations]; it is not truly hard and eternally indestructible. Because this physical body will ultimately decay and disintegrate, finally being abandoned in the wilderness or burial grounds. The four great elements scatter and vanish without a trace. From where does the hardness within the physical body come? It has no source, nor does it have a destination. It does not come from the four directions, above, below, or the intermediate points of the body, nor does it go to the four directions, above, below, or the intermediate points. The earth element within this physical body is thus: it has no source and no destination. (This is the explanation according to the Hinayana; the World-Honored One did not explicitly state that the ālaya-vijñāna and tathāgatagarbha emit the seeds of the four great elements to form the physical body, and that in the end, the seeds of the four great elements within the physical body return to the ālaya-vijñāna and tathāgatagarbha.)

From where does the earth nature within this kalala (fertilized ovum) come? It comes from no source. After it perishes, it also has no place to return to. When the physical body dies and the earth nature perishes, where does the earth nature go? It has no destination. Thus, the earth nature is empty, illusory, and unreal. Therefore, the hardness of the body is not real. Hardness exists from the beginning of the kalala, then transforms into the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, and bones of the physical body. After death, the earth nature disperses; the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, and bones are all destroyed. The hardness has no place to go, nor does it go into emptiness. When it came, it had no source; it simply came.

But in reality, all of this is emitted from the tathāgatagarbha. The Buddha had not yet explained this point. The internal earth element arises in this way: due to the union of male and female, the manas (mind faculty) takes rebirth within the fertilized ovum, and upon the birth of the kalala, the earth element is produced. The earth element is so subject to arising and ceasing, so void and illusory, therefore we should not cling to the earth element. Do not regard the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and the physical body as the self, as real and indestructible.