Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (X)

Original text:佛说。大王。此外地界。生时本空。灭时亦空。无有男相。也无女相。但唯言说。之所显示。如是地界。与地界性。皆不可得。唯佛正慧。而能了知。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, when this external earth element arises, it is originally empty; when it ceases, it is also empty. Within this earth element there is no male mark and no female mark; it is merely displayed through the form of language. Such a earth element and the nature of the earth element are both utterly unobtainable; only the Buddha's great wisdom can know them without remainder.

When the external earth element gradually formed, it took twenty small kalpas—336 million years—to be established from empty space in which there was nothing at all, gradually forming the universe of the three-thousandfold great thousand worlds, the material world. After the three-thousandfold great thousand worlds are destroyed, there is again nothing at all. Whatever is subject to arising and ceasing is empty; not even a single dharma remains.

The seeds of the earth element exist within the tathāgatagarbha; the seeds are also formless and markless, empty. The external mountains, rivers, and great earth formed from them are also empty in their self-nature, lacking any self-nature of their own; they cannot determine their own existence, being transformed and created by the tathāgatagarbha. The hardness of objects is also empty, formless and markless, arising and ceasing along with the objects.

The earth element can form the material bodies of sentient beings. Among sentient beings in the desire realm, material bodies are divided into male marks and female marks, but the earth element itself has no male or female marks—it has no marks at all. After the seeds of the earth element form a material body, it is then divided into male and female marks. The markless earth element can form marked objects and living bodies.

On our material bodies, bones, muscles, skin, hair, and nails all belong to the hardness of the earth element, called the earth nature. The earth nature itself has no male or female marks, but after it forms our material bodies, it is divided into male and female marks—and male and female marks are in fact all illusory. The earth element originally has no marks and no differences, yet the marks it transforms into have differences. Why? Because the marks are determined by the karma we have created: if we have created the karma of a man, the tathāgatagarbha manifests the physical appearance of a man; if we have created the karma of a woman, the karmic seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha transmits out the earth element and creates for us the physical appearance of a woman.

From the markless to the marked, all marks are illusory. If the karmic seeds are eliminated, the marks are transformed. When we cultivate meditative concentration and attain the dhyānas of the first, second, third, and fourth stages, then when we are reborn in the form realm after this life, that material body is divided neither into male marks nor female marks—at that time there are no male or female marks. The fact that male and female marks can be transformed and changed shows that they are unreal, illusory, and false. What can change is false; what is real never changes.

What is it that never changes? It is the tathāgatagarbha. The three calamities can destroy the great thousand worlds—then what cannot be destroyed? It is the tathāgatagarbha. Why can it not be destroyed? Because His nature is empty and His marks are also empty; therefore there is nothing that can be destroyed. We all have marks, and whatever has marks can be destroyed; moreover, we all have birth, and thus there is death, whereas the tathāgatagarbha neither arises nor ceases.

If a house is empty, and someone comes to steal, to rob, or to destroy things, he cannot succeed. What is empty has nothing to be destroyed—who can destroy empty space? The tathāgatagarbha's nature is empty, and therefore it cannot be destroyed. But all the marks conjured up by the tathāgatagarbha are marked, and only things with marks can be destroyed. When there is no money in our pocket, who can rob us of money? As long as there is something, it can be destroyed; as long as something arises, it can cease. Such is the principle both in the world and beyond the world.

The earth nature is one of the four great element natures of earth, water, fire, and wind. These four great element natures exist within the tathāgatagarbha; He contains the seeds there, and when the seeds are transmitted out, they can manifest our material bodies and manifest mountains, rivers, and the great earth. The seeds of the four great elements can manifest all material form.

Both the earth element and the nature of the earth element are utterly unobtainable—illusory and empty. Only the Buddha's wisdom can fully discern and fully realize this truth of reality. We can only understand a portion of it in a similar way, or even just a small portion; even an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva cannot completely know these principles. Only the Buddha's wisdom can know these seed issues without remainder, fully knowing all the functional seeds within the tathāgatagarbha without the slightest omission—therefore the Buddha possesses omniscience/wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā). Bodhisattvas at and above the first bhūmi possess the wisdom of the varieties of paths, knowing a portion of the functional seeds within the tathāgatagarbha. Those who understand none of it at all are bodhisattvas below the first bhūmi, or unenlightened ordinary bodhisattvas who have not attained enlightenment. The more one knows, the higher one's wisdom, and the higher the bodhisattva's stage.