Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (23)

Why can the tathāgatagarbha never be destroyed?

What is the thing that never changes? It is the tathāgatagarbha. The three calamities can destroy the great trichiliocosm, so what is it that cannot be destroyed? It is the tathāgatagarbha. Why can it not be destroyed? Because its nature is empty, and its characteristics are also empty; therefore there is nothing that can be destroyed. We all have characteristics—whatever has characteristics can be destroyed; and we all have birth, so there is also cessation, whereas the tathāgatagarbha neither arises nor ceases.

If a house is empty, and someone comes to steal, or to rob, or to destroy things, he cannot succeed. When something is empty, there is nothing in it to be destroyed—who can destroy empty space? The nature of the tathāgatagarbha is empty, and therefore it cannot be destroyed. But all the characteristics manifested by the tathāgatagarbha have characteristics, and only things with characteristics can be destroyed. When there is no money in our pocket, who can rob us of money? As long as something exists, it can perish; as long as something is born, it can die—such is the principle both in the world and beyond the world.