Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (60)

The Reason the Eye Faculty Is Unreal

Before the elements of earth, water, fire, and wind are delivered, does our eye faculty exist? No—originally there is nothing at all. When the tathāgatagarbha delivers the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, the eye faculty begins to take shape: the eye socket, the vitreous body of the eye, the retina, the visual transmission nerves—from nothing at all, material form is gradually formed, and finally it scatters and decays, and in the eye base not even the slightest dharma can be obtained.

The four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind are also formless and without characteristics; they are not material form. The tathāgatagarbha is formless and without characteristics; when it delivers forth the formless, characteristicless seeds, material form with shape and characteristics is formed—from nothing at all, a material object with shape and characteristics comes into being. Within this, not the slightest dharma can be obtained; nothing can be gained. The nature of earth cannot be obtained, the nature of water cannot be obtained, the nature of wind cannot be obtained, the nature of fire cannot be obtained. Therefore the eye faculty, the eyeball, the vitreous body, the retina, and so on are all unobtainable, unreal—destroyed the moment they are destroyed. They cannot be relied upon and cannot be grasped.

The four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind are all unobtainable, and the material world they form is also unobtainable; within this, not even the slightest dharma can be obtained. Why? Because material form has no autonomy, no sovereignty, no self-mastery (avaśatā)—it is illusorily manifested and unreal. Within this there is no one who exercises mastery, no one who creates it. Who creates it? If we say that we create it, who calls upon us to do so? Before the eye faculty was born, there were no five aggregates and no so-called "us." The tathāgatagarbha does not exercise mastery and does not create; therefore there is neither a person nor a dharma that creates the eye faculty.