Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Twenty-Eight)

The Water Element: It Comes from Nowhere and Goes Nowhere

When sentient beings first enter the womb, there is no water in the fertilized egg. As the tathāgatagarbha gradually makes the fertilized egg grow larger, water comes to be contained within it—where did that water come from? When a sentient being dies, the water element in the body is gone—where did the water go? The water element comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; this is the Hīnayāna way of explaining it. From the Mahāyāna perspective, where does the water element come from? It comes from the tathāgatagarbha. Mahāyāna teaches that all myriad dharmas come from the tathāgatagarbha, while Hīnayāna teaches that all dharmas are empty—coming from nowhere and going nowhere. These are the two ways of explaining it in the Great and Lesser Vehicles.