Selected Lectures on the Sutra of the Meeting of Father and Son

Chapter 3   Detailed Explanation of the Internal and External Six Elements

Original text: 大王。云何为内地界。谓于内身。所生硬涩。发毛爪齿。皮肉筋骨。若内地界不生。亦无有灭。则无集行。

Explanation: Great King, what is the internal earth element? The internal earth element is the earth great-element component within the physical body of sentient beings — the hard portions present in the physical body, such as the hair, nails, teeth, skin, muscles, sinews, bones, and other hard earth-natured tissue parts. If the internal earth element has not arisen, there is also no ceasing, and the dharmas have no phenomenon of accumulation and manifest activity.

The earth element is the earth great-element seed within the Ālayavijñāna. When the Ālayavijñāna possesses the earth great-element seeds, it can produce the hardness of material form (rūpa) and can manifest the living environment of the material world (bhājana-loka) and the body faculties of sentient beings. The internal earth element begins to arise bit by bit when one enters and abides in the mother's womb: when the manas is reborn into the fertilized egg, the Ālayavijñāna outputs the earth great-element seeds to transform and generate the fetus's physical body; otherwise, without the earth-component, the body would be limp like water, and one could not walk, stand, sit, or lie down. Since the earth element has arising, it necessarily has ceasing; only with arising and ceasing can the five-aggregate body be accumulated and can there be bodily actions. If the earth great-element seeds do not arise, there can be no ceasing either, and the five-aggregate body cannot be accumulated. A dharma subject to arising and ceasing is a false dharma, not a true dharma; it is an illusory dharma, an empty dharma. Therefore we must not crave, attach to, or grasp it; otherwise there will be the suffering of birth and death.

Original text: 大王。若时女人。而于内心。如所思维。彼补噜沙。彼补噜沙。亦生爱乐。由二和合。羯逻蓝生。又复思维。相似和合。而得生者。无有是处。若二女人。无有是处。二补噜沙。亦无是处。若彼彼思惟。而得生者。亦无是处。自体无实。非相应故。

Explanation: Great King, if a woman, within her mind, thinks of another person (a man), and that man also feels love and delight toward this woman, then when these two unite, a kālala (fertilized egg) of within seven days will be produced. If the two people are not together, being in different places, and in their minds they imagine that the two can unite, with their bodies not in actual contact, and a fertilized egg could be produced — this is impossible. Because there is no contact of actual substance, the Ālayavijñāna cannot output the earth great-element and five great-element seeds out of thin air to grasp and sustain a fertilized egg that does not exist; therefore no living being is born.

If two women uniting together could produce a kālala, this too is impossible; if two men uniting together could produce a kālala, it is likewise impossible. If any two people long for each other, unable to actually unite, and yet a kālala could be produced, this is even more impossible. Because there is no actual physical body and no four great elements, the kālala cannot be born, the conditions being incomplete.

Original text: 云何说此。为坚硬性。大王。此坚硬性。相似而立。毕竟此身。溃烂散灭。唯冢圹中。是所归趣。彼坚硬性。从何所来。亦非四方。上下而去。大王。此内地界。应如是知。

Explanation: Why is it said that the earth element possesses hardness? Great King, this hardness is also a provisionally established designation based on similarity; it is not truly hard and forever imperishable, because this physical body will in the end decay and disperse, and will finally be discarded in the wilderness and the graveyard, the four great elements scattering and vanishing without a trace. Where does the hardness in the physical body come from? There is no place it comes from and no place it goes: it does not come from the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, above, or below of the physical body, nor does it go to the four intermediate directions, above, or below. Such is the earth element within this physical body — it has no place of coming and no place of going. (This is Hīnayāna teaching; the World-Honored One does not explicitly state that the Ālayavijñāna outputs the four great-element seeds to form the physical body, and that in the end the four great-element seeds in the physical body return to the Ālayavijñāna.)

Where does the earth-nature in this kālala (fertilized egg) come from? It comes from nowhere, and after ceasing there is also no place it goes. When the physical body dies, the earth-nature perishes — where does the earth-nature go? There is also no place it goes. Therefore it is said that the earth-nature is empty, illusory, and unreal, and thus the hardness of the body is not real. The hardness exists from the moment the kālala first appears, then becomes the hair, teeth, skin, muscles, sinews, and bones of the physical body; after death the earth-nature disperses, the hair, teeth, skin, muscles, sinews, and bones are all destroyed, and the hardness has no place to go, nor does it go into empty space — when it came there was no place it came from; it simply came like that.

But in reality they are all output from the Ālayavijñāna; the Buddha has not yet spoken of this point here. This is how the internal earth element comes about: because of the union of man and woman, the manas enters the womb into the fertilized egg, and with the arising of the kālala the earth element is produced. Since the earth element is thus subject to arising and ceasing and is illusory, one should not cling to the earth element, and should not take the hair, teeth, skin, muscles, sinews, bones, and the physical body as the self, as a real and imperishable self.

Original text: 大王。云何外地界。坚硬性者。如彼世间。初建梵王所居宫殿。大宝所成。复生他化自在诸天。所居宫殿。皆七宝成。大王。若无地界。彼坚硬性。从何所生。

Explanation: Great King, what is called the hardness of the external earth element? For example, when the material world (bhājana-loka) of the three realms was first formed, the palace where Mahābrahmā, the lord of the first-dhyāna heaven, dwells was built of various treasures; including the heavenly palace of Śakra Devānām Indra, all were composed of the seven treasures; and the palace where the lord of the Parinirmita-vaśavartin heaven, the sixth heaven of the desire realm, dwells was also built of the seven treasures. Great King, if there were no earth element, from where would the hardness of those palaces arise?

After finishing the internal earth element, the Buddha then speaks of the external earth element. Any earth element is hard in nature; outside the physical body there are also hard material substances. The external six elements do not refer to the internal six sense objects within the eighteen dhātus, but to the external six sense objects, especially the external form object, which is the essential object-realm jointly created by the Ālayavijñānas of sentient beings with common karma, and it can only be contacted by the Ālayavijñānas of sentient beings with common karma.

The hardness in all material forms is formed by the earth great-element seeds; it is all the nature of the earth great element. The palace of Mahābrahmā in the first dhyāna heaven is also composed of the seven treasures; the palace of the lord of the second dhyāna heaven is also composed of the seven treasures; Mount Sumeru is also composed of the seven treasures. All the seven treasures and hundred treasures have their hardness, formed mainly by the earth element. The earth is composed of soil, sand, and various minerals, which also contain various treasures within, all having their hardness, formed by the earth element. When the world was first formed, the palaces were also formed bit by bit: the Ālayavijñānas of all sentient beings with common karma jointly output the four great-element seeds and the five great-element seeds, forming the great elements and jointly manifesting the cosmic material world, manifesting the palaces of the heavens at each level, manifesting the four great continents, the four great seas, and the seven golden mountains. These materials all contain the earth element and all have hardness.

If within the Ālayavijñāna there were no hardness of the earth great element, from where would the hardness of the external material world be produced? This statement shows that the entire external cosmic material world is manifested from the seeds stored within the Ālayavijñāna — manifested by the Ālayavijñānas of all sentient beings with karmic connections jointly outputting the same karmic seeds and the five great-element seeds. This statement tells us where the cosmic material world comes from: it comes from the Ālayavijñāna. Therefore it is still the mind that creates the myriad dharmas; all dharmas are transformed by the mind and arise from the mind. This earth element is a seed, a function within the Ālayavijñāna, that has been manifested. At this point one should preliminarily understand a little of the principle that the myriad dharmas are mind-only.

Original text: 复成大地。厚八万四千踰缮那。纵广六万踰缮那。复生轮围。大轮围山。坚固安住。同一金刚。复生苏弥卢山。庾健陀山。[寧*頁]泯陀山。伊舍陀山乃至黑山。如是三千大千世界。次第成已。坚固安住。若无地界。彼坚硬性。从何所来。

Explanation: After the heavenly palaces have all been created, the earth is then created. The thickness of the earth is eighty-four thousand yojanas; "yojana" is an Indian term. Eighty-four thousand represents an extremely large number — when something is beyond counting, Indian language uses eighty-four thousand to represent it, showing how thick the entire earth is. The length and width of the earth are both sixty thousand yojanas; the thickness being greater than the breadth shows that the earth is not a perfect sphere but an ellipsoid. After the earth is created, the iron ring mountains (Cakravāḍa) beneath the earth are then created, and Mount Sumeru, Mount Yugandhara, Mount Nimindhara, Mount Iśadhara, and even the black mountains are all created as well.

Mount Sumeru is submerged half in the great sea and extends half above it. The midpoint of Mount Sumeru above the great sea is the Heaven of the Four Great Kings; the four great kings, the four great dharmapālas of east, south, west, and north, abide at the midpoint of Mount Sumeru. Mount Sumeru was created mainly by the earth element; the seven golden mountains beneath the four great seas were also built, mainly by the earth element. Thus the trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold great thousand world) was gradually formed in sequence, extremely solid, like vajra, all having hardness, all formed by the earth element. If there were no earth great-element seeds and no earth element, from where would the hardness of those materials come?

What the Buddha speaks of in this passage is the formation of the world, with hardness as the main feature; the hardness comes from the earth element, and the earth element is the function of the seeds stored within the Ālayavijñāna. This statement shows that the trichiliocosm is all created from the seeds stored within the Ālayavijñāna, that is, manifested by the Ālayavijñāna. The Ālayavijñāna of a single person cannot manifest it; only when the Ālayavijñānas of all sentient beings with karmic connections combine together can it be manifested. This is how the world appears — formed bit by bit by the Ālayavijñāna.

The above explains how the internal earth element of sentient beings' physical bodies is formed and how the external earth element of the universe and empty space is formed, showing that the myriad dharmas are all created by the Ālayavijñāna, and that without the Ālayavijñāna there would be no dharmas at all. If you truly understand how deep this principle is, you will understand the true reality of the world, sever the ignorance of foolish delusion, and never again cling to a self, nor cling to the gold, silver, jewels, mountains, rivers, and the great earth outside the body.

Nothing is truly one's own possession; things can only serve our use, and only for a period of time, yet cannot be grasped, so there is no need at all to grasp any dharma. All dharmas in the external world will perish, and one's own five-aggregate body will also perish — who can grasp anything? The five-aggregate body will die, the world will also disappear; nothing is reliable. Even if sentient beings never died, the world would still be destroyed: when the earth is destroyed, when the universe and empty space are all destroyed, the physical body would have no space in which to dwell. Therefore no dharma, including one's own five-aggregate body, can be clung to; nothing can be grasped.

Gold, silver, and jewels are also composed of earth, water, fire, and wind, and are also manifested by the Ālayavijñāna; when the conditions cease, they vanish — even the trichiliocosm will be annihilated. Without the Ālayavijñāna there would be no earth element; without the earth element there would be no trichiliocosm, and no five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings. Therefore all dharmas are manifested by the Ālayavijñāna; the source of the myriad dharmas is the Ālayavijñāna, the tathāgatagarbha. From this one can know that all dharmas are illusory — this is called "the myriad dharmas are consciousness-only."

Original text: 大王。又此地界。欲坏灭时。或为火焚。或为水漂。或为风吹。譬然酥油。其焰炽盛。乃至灰烬。不复可见。若为水漂。犹如以盐。投于水中。须臾消散。若为毗岚。猛风所吹。彼时三千大千世界。悉皆散坏。净尽无余。

Explanation: Great King, when the earth element is about to be destroyed, it may be burned by great fire, submerged by great water, or blown apart by great wind. When the earth element is burned by the great fire, it is like the lighting of a ghee lamp: the flame blazes fiercely until the ghee is burned up entirely, with not even ash left to be seen. When the earth element is submerged by the great water, it is like salt thrown into water, dissolving and disappearing in a moment. When the earth element is destroyed by the fierce vairambhaka wind, the trichiliocosm at that very moment entirely scatters and breaks apart, completely clean without remainder, and nothing exists anymore.

When the earth element is about to be destroyed, how is it destroyed? The first is destruction by the great fire. When the fire calamity comes, it burns all the way up to the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm; below the first dhyāna heaven nothing remains. The six heavens of the desire realm and their heavenly palaces are gone, Mount Sumeru is gone, the four great continents are gone, and the earth is entirely gone. When the world is about to perish, once the great fire ignites, the earth is burned away; then the fire burns up Mount Sumeru and the various heavens of the desire realm; Mount Sumeru and the heavenly palaces are burned to ashes, and even the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm is burned to ashes.

How is the earth burned to destruction? First two suns appear, then three, four, five, six suns, and finally seven suns appear, and everything below the first dhyāna heaven is burned up. When two suns appear, life on earth vanishes without a trace — not to mention seven suns. With just one sun, when summer comes sentient beings can hardly bear it; if two suns appear, can life still exist? When seven suns appear, the waters of the four great seas all dry up, the earth directly catches fire and is burned away. The fire burns up into the heavens: Mount Sumeru is burned away too, the entire six heavens of the desire realm are burned away, and the first dhyāna heaven is gone as well. As for gold, silver, and jewels, they were burned away long before; the seven treasures, harder than gold and silver, are likewise burned up completely.

The second calamity is the water calamity. After everything below the first dhyāna heaven has been burned away, great rain begins to pour from the sky, each raindrop as large as an elephant, falling for seven days and seven nights without cease; the water rises all the way to the second dhyāna heaven of the form realm. The six heavens of the desire realm are submerged, the first dhyāna heaven is submerged, and the great water rises further to the second dhyāna heaven, submerging it entirely. Such is the severity of the water calamity — the devas of the second dhyāna and below cannot escape it.

The third calamity is the wind calamity. When the great wind blows, it blows all the way up to the third dhyāna heaven of the form realm, blowing away even the third dhyāna heaven. Even if the earth were not burned away by the great fire, it could be blown apart by the great wind in an instant. The six heavens of the desire realm would all be blown apart, leaving not even a trace; whatever is composed of the seven treasures or a hundred treasures can all be blown apart; however hard a thing may be, it cannot exist, cannot long endure — how great must the force of this wind be! There is only one thing that fire cannot burn, water cannot submerge, and wind cannot blow away — that is the Ālayavijñāna, the tathāgatagarbha.

After the three calamities pass, only the heavens of the fourth dhyāna and above remain. The fourth dhyāna heaven has four levels, and together with the four formless heavens of the formless realm, these heavens are beyond the reach of all the calamities. Because from the fourth dhyāna upward there is the purity of equanimity and mindfulness, without thoughts, the mind is pure, and thus the calamities cannot be drawn there. In the meditative state of the third dhyāna there is still breathing, and breathing is wind, so it can attract the wind calamity; the wind calamity can rise to the third dhyāna heaven and destroy even the third dhyāna heaven. After the trichiliocosm has in the end entirely scattered and broken apart, it is tranquil without remainder, destroyed so thoroughly that not even dust can be found — nothing at all remains. Therefore it is said that the world is indeed illusory.

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 to King Śuddhodana: Great King, apart from this, the earth element, when arising, is fundamentally empty, and when ceasing, is also empty. In this earth element there is no male mark and no female mark; it is only through the form of language that the earth element and the earth-element nature are displayed. Such earth element and the hardness of the earth element are both unobtainable; only the Buddha's great wisdom can know them without remainder.

The earth-nature is one of the four great-element natures of earth, water, fire, and wind. These four great-element seeds all exist within the Ālayavijñāna; when the seeds are output, they can manifest the five-aggregate body and manifest the mountains, rivers, great earth, and the cosmic material world; the four great-element seeds can manifest all material forms. When the external earth element was formed bit by bit, it took twenty small kalpas — 336 million years — established from the emptiness of nothing at all, as the trichiliocosmic cosmic material world began to form bit by bit. After the trichiliocosm is destroyed, there is again nothing at all. Whatever is subject to arising and ceasing is empty, without a single dharma. The earth great-element seeds stored in the Ālayavijñāna are also formless and markless, empty; the external mountains, rivers, and great earth formed from them cannot determine their own existence, have no self-substance, and their self-nature is also empty, because they are all created by the Ālayavijñāna. The hardness of objects is also empty, formless and markless, arising and ceasing with the objects.

The earth element can form the physical bodies of sentient beings. Among the sentient beings of the desire realm, physical bodies are divided into male and female marks, but the earth element itself has no male or female mark — it has no mark at all. In accordance with the karmic seeds, after the Ālayavijñāna outputs the earth great-element seeds, it creates the male mark or the female mark; the markless earth element can form objects and living beings that have marks. On sentient beings' physical bodies, the bones, muscles, skin, hair, and nails are predominantly hardness, called the earth-nature. The earth-nature itself has no male or female mark, but when it forms a physical body it is divided into male and female marks — and male and female marks are in fact also illusory.

The earth great element originally has no marks and no differences, yet the marks it manifests have differences — why? Because marks are determined by the karmic seeds of the karma one has created: if one has created the karma of a man, the Ālayavijñāna manifests the physical appearance of a man; if one has created the karma of a woman, the karmic seeds stored in the Ālayavijñāna, when the Ālayavijñāna outputs the earth element, create the physical appearance of a woman. From the markless to the marked, all marks are illusory; if the karmic seeds are eliminated, the marks transform. When meditation has been cultivated to the first, second, third, or fourth dhyāna, and at the end of life one is reborn in the form realm, the physical body is no longer divided into male and female marks but is of neutral mark. Male and female marks can continuously transform according to karma; therefore male and female marks are unreal, illusory, and false. What can change is false; what is real never changes.

What is it that never changes? It is the Ālayavijñāna. The three calamities can destroy the great thousand world — then what cannot be destroyed? It is the Ālayavijñāna. Why can it not be destroyed? Because His intrinsic nature is empty and His marks are also empty; therefore there is nothing in Him that can be destroyed. The five-aggregate world all has marks; what has marks can be destroyed; moreover, the five-aggregate world all has arising, and thus has ceasing, whereas the Ālayavijñāna neither arises nor ceases. If a house is empty, when someone comes to steal, to rob, or to destroy things, he cannot succeed. What is empty has nothing that can be destroyed — who can destroy empty space? The Ālayavijñāna's intrinsic nature is empty, and therefore it cannot be destroyed. But all dharmas conjured by the Ālayavijñāna have marks, and only things with marks can be destroyed. When there is no money in one's pocket, who can rob the money away? As long as there is something, it can perish; as long as there is arising, there can be ceasing.

The earth element and the earth-element nature are both illusory and empty, unobtainable. Such true facts can only be fully discerned and fully realized by the Buddha's wisdom; sentient beings can only understand approximately or realize a part, or even a small part. Even a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment cannot fully realize these principles. Only the Buddha's wisdom can realize without remainder all these questions of seeds, fully realizing all the functional seeds within the tathāgatagarbha without the slightest omission — therefore the Buddha possesses omniscience (sarvākārajñatā). Bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi upward have the wisdom of the varieties of paths, and can only know a part of the functional seeds within the tathāgatagarbha. Those who know nothing at all are the bodhisattvas below the first bhūmi, or ordinary bodhisattvas who have not attained enlightenment. The more one knows, the higher the wisdom, and the higher the bodhisattva's stage of realization.

Original text: 大王。云何内水界。谓此身内。所有执受。湿润等性。涎唾脂髓。脓血便利。为内水界。

Explanation: Great King, what is the internal water element? The internal water element is the moistness, lubricity, softness, and such natures apprehended (upātta) within the physical body, such as saliva, tears, sweat, nasal mucus, fat, pus and blood, urine and feces, and so on — all of these belong to the internal water element.

The earth element is divided into the external earth element and the internal earth element; the internal earth element is the hardness within the physical body. The water element is also divided into the internal water element and the external water element; the moistness within the body is the internal water element. The characteristic of water is moistness. For example, the tears welling in people's eyes when they are moved — although the tears have not flowed down, they contain moistness; that is the water-nature. When the body is hot and sweats, sometimes there are no beads of sweat, but there is still a damp quality — that is the water-nature; sweat that flows out is even more evidently the water-nature. There is also water in the skin; without water the skin would become dry and wrinkled, no longer supple.

In fact, there is also the water element in the hair, in the nails, in the bones, and in the flesh; the internal organs all have the water-nature; the whole body, inside and out, above and below, has the water element. Without the water element, life could not be sustained. Every organ has the four great-element natures of earth, water, fire, and wind; combined together they constitute the various different organs, only with different proportions of the four great elements in different organs. If the earth-nature occupies a large proportion, the material exhibits hardness; if the water-nature occupies a large proportion, the material manifests moistness and softness. With different proportions of the four great-element natures, the materials formed are different.

Original text: 大王。若时忽见。亲爱人等。眼中流泪。或为苦恼。所逼流泪。或闻深法。信重流泪。或为寒风。所吹流泪。如是水界。从何所来。水相干时。复何所去。

Explanation: Great King, if someone suddenly meets a beloved person, tears will well in the eyes; or when oppressed by suffering and distress, one sheds tears; or upon hearing the profound dharma, when faith is ardent and joyful, one sheds tears; or when blown by a cold wind, one also sheds tears. From where do these water elements come? When the water dries, where does the water element go?

Why does one shed tears upon seeing a beloved or liked person? Tears belong to the water-nature, which sinks downward, and are related to the craving and affectionate emotions of the conscious mind; when love is heavy, there is downward falling, so the tears sink downward. In distress one sheds tears of pain; in joy one sheds tears of excitement — all are tears shed because of emotion. The tears shed upon hearing the profound dharma are tears involuntarily shed when the mind is moved and influenced and receives a spiritual response. Some people, because their good roots are very deep, after taking up Buddhism in this life, upon seeing the Buddha and bowing to Him, have many, many feelings arise in the heart, and tears flow out involuntarily; or after reading the Buddhist sutras, deeply moved, they also shed tears. When the wind outside blows up and blows into the eyes, tears flow out. These tears all belong to the internal water element. Where does the internal water element come from? There were originally no tears in the eyes, but once external conditions stimulate them, tears come out — from where do the tears come? When the water dries, where do the tears go?

Original text: 乃至此界坏时。兴大黑云。三十二重。遍覆三千大千世界。降霔洪雨。点大如象。昼夜倾注。相续不绝。如是时分。经五十劫。其水积满。上至梵世。大王。此外水界。从何所来。

Explanation: Furthermore, when the trichiliocosm is being destroyed, black clouds of thirty-two layers descend in the sky, covering the entire trichiliocosm; then raindrops as large as elephants pour down day and night without cease; this lasts for a full fifty kalpas, and the water accumulates until it fills the desire-realm heavens, rising all the way up to the form realm. Great King, from where does this external water element come?

The external water element is the water element outside the body, such as the moisture and moistness contained in the universe, empty space, mountains, rivers, and the great earth. For example, when the trichiliocosm is about to be destroyed, the water calamity appears: great black clouds arise in the sky, thirty-two layers, extremely dense and heavy, wrapped together layer upon layer, on the verge of pouring down great rain; the thirty-two layers of black clouds pervade the trichiliocosm. The trichiliocosm has one billion earths and one billion Mount Sumerus; the six heavens of the desire realm and the first dhyāna heaven are each one billion in number — countless celestial bodies, all shrouded by the black clouds. Then raindrops as large as elephants descend, pervading the entire trichiliocosm within empty space, and the heavens are all submerged.

By that time, the humans on the earth would long since have become extinct and the earth already destroyed; the fire calamity has already destroyed Jambudvīpa and the desire-realm heavens; in the desire realm there are no longer humans or devas, no existence of living beings. From the earth to the six heavens of the desire realm, everything is empty space, yet it rains in the empty space, and the rain falls for fifty kalpas. One kalpa, counted as a small kalpa, is 16.8 million years; fifty kalpas is 840 million years. The rain submerges even the empty space, submerging all the way to the first and second dhyāna heavens — such is the destruction of the world. So much water all belongs to the external water element. When the water comes, there is no place it comes from; when the water recedes, where does it recede to? Wherever so much water recedes to would be a problem — wherever it goes, it submerges that place.

When a sentient being first enters the womb, there is no water in the fertilized egg; as the Ālayavijñāna gradually enlarges the fertilized egg, water comes to be contained within it — from where does that water come? When a sentient being dies, the water element in the body is gone — where does the water go? The water element comes from nowhere and goes nowhere — this is the Hīnayāna teaching. From the Mahāyāna perspective, where does the water element come from? In fact it comes from the Ālayavijñāna. Mahāyāna teaches that all the myriad dharmas come from the Ālayavijñāna, while Hīnayāna teaches that all dharmas are empty, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. These are the two teachings at different levels of the Great and Small Vehicles.

All dharmas are formed from nothing at all, and after destruction there is again nothing at all — not even dust, not even the tiniest quark particle remains. Such is the illusoriness of the world. Something as vast as the world can be destroyed, and sentient beings cannot cling to it even if they wish; how much more easily destroyed is sentient beings' tiny body. Therefore all dharmas are extremely illusory and unreal. The entire process of the formation of a sentient being's life — from nothing at all to a fertilized egg, to birth, from a child growing into an adult, to the physical body's shell dispersing again when life ends — what else is there? Nothing at all, only a bit of bone ash; after a long time, even the bone ash is gone. Who can find the bone ash of a previous life? It cannot be found. Therefore the entire five-aggregate life form, the entire universe and empty space, is vast emptiness and cannot be clung to.

Original text: 又此世界。将欲坏时。有二日出。二日出已。小河泉流。悉皆枯涸。三日出时。无热恼池。所出四河。亦皆干竭。四日出时。大海水减。一踰缮那。或二或三。渐次减至。十踰缮那。或二十踰缮那。次第枯竭。至八十踰缮那。有余水在。或深至一多罗树。或深至胸臆。或深至牛迹。乃至少水。如指面量。当尔之时。大海水中。悉皆干燥。净尽无余。

Explanation: When the Sahā world is about to be destroyed, two suns appear. In summer, sentient beings can hardly bear even one sun, let alone two. When two suns appear, those small rivers and small springs and pools are all dried up by the sun; when three suns appear, the four great rivers flowing out of Lake Anavatapta also dry up. When four suns appear, the water of the four great seas decreases by one yojana (one yojana is an Indian unit of measurement, representing the yojana [由寻]; one yojana is forty li). The "great sea water" refers to the four great seas beneath our earth, not on the earth; Lake Anavatapta is likewise not on the earth — both are immeasurably times larger than the earth.

The seawater on the earth has long been gone, and the water of the four great seas keeps decreasing — by two yojanas, three yojanas, ten yojanas, twenty yojanas, eighty yojanas — until finally only a little water remains, the water depth only the height of a tree. It decreases further; the water depth only reaches a human chest; it decreases further to the little water in an ox-hoof print; finally only so much remains as would cover the fingers of a palm laid flat. The waters of the four great seas, immeasurably times larger than our earth, are sun-dried to only the bit of water in an ox-hoof print, and when the water is so little as merely to cover the fingers, finally it all dries up completely, and the great earth becomes dry, without a bit of moisture.

When the waters of the four great seas were first formed, from where did the water come? There is no place it came from. In the end, the waters of the four great seas mostly perish and evaporate — where does the evaporated water go? Into empty space? Empty space could not contain so much water; if there were water in empty space, it would not be called empty space but would be called a great sea. Therefore when the waters of the great sea vanish, there is also no place they go. Such is the illusoriness of the water element: coming from nowhere, going nowhere, from emptiness to emptiness. The entire trichiliocosm is thus illusory; the buddha-lands of the worlds in the ten directions are likewise thus illusory — arising and ceasing, ceasing and arising, none of it can be clung to. The water-element nature, when arising, is fundamentally empty, and when ceasing is also empty — from emptiness to emptiness, nothing at all.

Original text: 大王。此水界相。生无所来。灭无所去。生时本空。灭时亦空。自性空故。无有男相。亦无女相。但唯言说。之所显示。如是水界。与水界性。皆不可得。唯佛正智。而能了知。

Explanation: Great King, the mark of this water element is itself empty, and its self-nature is also empty. If the self-nature were not empty, then when the water arises there would be a place it comes from, and when the water dries there would certainly be a place it goes. But when the water element arises, there is no place it comes from, and when it ceases there is no place it goes; when arising, the water element is empty, and when ceasing, the water element is also empty. Because the intrinsic nature of the water element is empty, the water-element nature itself has no male mark and no female mark; but when the water element forms a physical body, there are male and female marks — thus male and female marks are also illusory and empty. Humans merely use language to express and display male and female marks; there are no actual male and female marks. Therefore it is said that the water element and the nature of the water element are both unobtainable; only the Buddha's profound great wisdom can fully know these principles.

The water element originally has no male or female mark, no mark at all, yet from emptiness it transforms out a mark — this proves that all marks are illusory. Why can these marks appear? Because there are karmic seeds, seeds of marks; in accordance with the karmic seeds, the Ālayavijñāna manifests male and female marks and all the marks of the world. If the karmic seeds are those of a man, the Ālayavijñāna outputs the seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind to form the male mark; if the karmic seeds are those of a woman, the Ālayavijñāna outputs the four great-element natures of the earth, water, fire, and wind seeds to create the female physical appearance. Originally earth, water, fire, and wind have no marks, and the Ālayavijñāna also has no mark, yet the physical bodies created have different appearances — these appearances are illusory and unreal. Because marks are conjured forth: they originally do not exist, yet later can vanish; from nothing at all a mark is formed, and it transforms back into nothing at all — therefore marks are illusory.

The Ālayavijñāna has no mark, and the four great-element natures of earth, water, fire, and wind also have no mark: neither a human mark, nor the physical-body mark of a deva, no male mark and no female mark, no animal mark, no hungry-ghost mark, no hell-being physical-body mark, and no asura physical-body mark. But when the four great-element seeds form a physical body, they gradually create a mark — the human mark, the animal mark, male and female marks, and the marks of the beings of the six destinies are all created. The Ālayavijñāna does not arbitrarily and without pattern conjure marks at random; He manifests in accordance with the karmic seeds contained within the mind-substance.

So we should not complain about how imperfect and unsatisfactory our own physical bodies are; we should ask ourselves more why we have a female body or a body of illness and suffering, why our appearance is not dignified. If we are to complain, we should complain about the karmic actions we created in past lives; what appearance we have in this life is determined by the karma we ourselves created in the past. Therefore, if we want a good physical appearance, we must create wholesome karma. Which appearance is the best? It is the Buddha's thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics — the best, most pure and adorned appearance. But attaining such adorned marks is truly not easy: one must constantly create wholesome karma, constantly eliminate unwholesome karma and defiled karma, and in the end must extensively create pure karma that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome; only then can one become a Buddha and be adorned with major and minor marks like the Buddha's. Merely creating wholesome karma to be reborn in the heavens will not do; in the end one must create pure karma that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome, and only when the mind has attained purity and unconditionedness (asaṃskṛta) can one become a Buddha — then one will possess the most perfect appearance.

The water-element nature is unobtainable. If one wants to keep the water element within the physical body, can it be kept? It cannot be kept. All dharmas in the physical body are unobtainable, all empty. Sentient beings cannot grasp it however they try, cannot cling to it however they wish; therefore when at the end of life the four great elements decompose, the water element likewise decomposes — sentient beings wanting to cling to it and keep it within the physical body cannot retain it. Such water element and water-element nature are both unobtainable; only the Buddha's wisdom can know them. Sentient beings' wisdom is insufficient; they can only understand a small part of it, and then proclaim this small part to sentient beings. Sentient beings cannot even fully understand the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of scriptures spoken by the Buddha, let alone realize them all — much less the dharmas the Buddha has not yet spoken out. Therefore sentient beings' wisdom is still very far distant from the Buddha's wisdom.