Selected Discourses on the Sutra of the Father and Son XIII

Original text: Even when this world is destroyed, a great black cloud arises, thirty-two layers thick, covering the entire three thousandfold great chiliocosm. It pours down torrential rain with drops as large as elephants, raining ceaselessly day and night without interruption. During this period, fifty kalpas pass. The water accumulates until it fills up to the Brahma Heaven. Great King, from where did this external water element come?

Explanation: When the three thousandfold great chiliocosm is destroyed, a thirty-two-layered black cloud descends from the sky, covering the entire three thousandfold great chiliocosm. Then, raindrops as large as elephants pour down ceaselessly day and night. After a full fifty kalpas, the water accumulates and fills the desire realm heavens, rising all the way to the form realm heavens. Great King, where did this external water element come from?

The external water element refers to the water element outside the body, such as the moisture and wetness contained in the cosmic void, mountains, rivers, and the earth. For example, when the three thousandfold great chiliocosm is about to be destroyed, a water calamity occurs. The sky gives rise to a great black cloud, thirty-two layers thick, extremely dense and heavy, layered upon itself, about to release heavy rain. This thirty-two-layered black cloud spreads across the entire three thousandfold great chiliocosm. The three thousandfold great chiliocosm contains ten billion Earths, ten billion Mount Sumerus, ten billion desire realm heavens with six levels, ten billion first dhyāna heavens, and countless celestial bodies—all covered by this black cloud. Then, raindrops as large as elephants fall, pervading the entire three thousandfold great chiliocosm in the void, submerging even the heavenly realms.

By that time, humans would have long ceased to exist. The Earth would have already been destroyed; the fire calamity would have annihilated humanity and the desire realm heavens. Within the desire realm, there are no humans, no life. From Earth to the six levels of the desire realm heavens, everything is void, yet rain still falls in this void. The rain continues for fifty kalpas. Calculating by a small kalpa, one kalpa is sixteen million eight hundred thousand years; fifty kalpas thus amount to eight hundred forty million years. The rainwater submerges the entire void, rising all the way to the first and second dhyāna heavens. Such is the destruction of the world. All this water belongs to the external water element. When the water comes, it has no origin; when it recedes, where does it go? The problem arises: where could such an immense volume of water recede to? Wherever it goes, it submerges everything.

When sentient beings first enter the womb, the fertilized egg contains no water. As the Tathāgatagarbha gradually enlarges the fertilized egg, water appears within it. Where does that water come from? When sentient beings die, the water element within the body disappears. Where does the water go? From the Hinayana perspective, the water element comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. From the Mahayana perspective, where does the water element come from? It comes from the Tathāgatagarbha. Mahayana teaches that all phenomena arise from the Tathāgatagarbha, while Hinayana teaches that all phenomena are empty, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. These are the two explanations from Hinayana and Mahayana.

All phenomena form from utter nothingness and return to utter nothingness after destruction—not even dust remains, not even the smallest quark particle. This is how illusory the world is. Such a vast world is destroyed—one cannot cling to it even if one tries. How much easier it is for our tiny bodies to perish! All phenomena are utterly illusory and unreal. The entire process of our life’s formation—from nothingness to a fertilized egg, to our birth, growing from a child into an adult, this body of over a hundred pounds—ends with this hundred-plus pounds dispersing at life’s conclusion. What remains? Nothing but a little ashes. Over time, even the ashes vanish. Who can find the ashes from our past lives? They cannot be found. Thus, the entire five-aggregate life form, the entire cosmic void, is empty and cannot be clung to.