Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Thirty-One)

The Arising and Ceasing of the Water Element Is False and Illusory

When the waters of the four great oceans first came into being, where did the water come from? There is no place it came from. In the end, most of the water of the four great oceans ceases and evaporates—where does the evaporated water go? Does it go into empty space? If empty space contained that much water, it could not hold it all; and if there were water in empty space, it would no longer be called empty space—it would be called a great ocean. Therefore, when the waters of the great ocean disappear, there is also nowhere for them to go. This is how false and illusory the water element is: it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, from emptiness to emptiness. The entire trichiliocosm is just this false and illusory, and the buddha-lands of the worlds in the ten directions are likewise just this false and illusory—arising and ceasing, ceasing and arising—all of it is not to be grasped at. The nature of the water element is empty in the first place when it arises, and it is also empty when it ceases; from emptiness to emptiness, there is nothing at all.