Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (12)

The hardness of the inner element of earth is false and unreal

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 element of earth possesses hardness? Great King, this hardness is also a provisional designation established in a similar manner; it is not truly hard, imperishable, and never ceasing. Because this material body will in the end rot and disperse, and finally be abandoned in the wilderness and the graveyard, with the four great elements scattering and vanishing without a trace. Where does the hardness within the material body come from? It has no place of coming, nor any place of going; it does not come from the east, west, south, north, the four intermediate directions, above, or below of the material body, nor does it depart to those directions. Such is the element of earth within this material body—it has no place of coming and no place of going. (This is teaching according to the Small Vehicle; the World-Honored One did not explicitly state that the ālayavijñāna and the tathāgatagarbha output the seeds of the four great elements to form the material body, and that in the end the seeds of the four great elements within the body return to the ālayavijñāna tathāgatagarbha.)

Where does the earth-nature within this kalala (fertilized egg) come from? It comes from nowhere, and after it ceases there is no destination to which it goes. When the material body dies and the earth-nature ceases, where does the earth-nature go? There is no place it goes to. Thus the earth-nature is empty, illusory, and unreal; therefore the hardness of the body is not real. The hardness has existed from the kalala stage onward, then transforms into the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, and bones of the material body; after death, the earth-nature disperses, the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, 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 thus.

But in reality, it is all transmitted from the tathāgatagarbha; the Buddha had not yet spoken of this point. This is how the inner element of earth comes about: because of the union of man and woman, the manas enters the womb into the fertilized egg, and upon the formation of the kalala, the element of earth is produced. Since the element of earth is thus subject to arising and ceasing, false and illusory, we should not cling to the element of earth, nor take the hair, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and the material body as the self, as real and imperishable.