Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (59)

The Self-Nature of the Eye Faculty Is Utterly Unattainable

When the earth element is pure, the eye base constituted from it is pure; because the raw material is pure, the material form composed from it is pure. If the water, fire, and wind elements are all pure, the eye faculty constituted from them is pure, because the raw material is pure and the material form composed from it is pure. Outwardly, it appears that an eye faculty of material form arises, with the appearance of material form; yet material form is so illusory and unreal. The seeds of the four great elements flow forth bit by bit, and the eye faculty takes shape little by little, established out of nothing whatsoever; while its raw material is the formless, markless seeds of emptiness. Since the seeds flow forth from the tathāgatagarbha, the essential substance of the eye faculty is in fact the tathāgatagarbha, belonging entirely to the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the self-nature of the eye faculty is utterly unattainable.

Because the tathāgatagarbha is intrinsically pure—neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither coming nor going—the seeds of the four great elements that it outputs are pure, and the self-nature of the eye faculty constituted from them is likewise pure, neither arising nor ceasing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither coming nor going. It has no self-mastery, no capacity for volitional action; all of its attributes belong to the tathāgatagarbha, and not even the slightest dharma of an eye faculty can be attained.