Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (97)

Keep emptying all the way, and you arrive at the city of nirvāṇa

The consciousnesses on the physical body are all empty, and the volitional karmic formations are also empty. But we must not think that just because karmic formations are empty, we may create evil karma at will—the retributive results do exist. One who truly knows emptiness and has realized emptiness will no longer create evil karma at all: knowing it is empty, why would one still create evil karma for the sake of an empty, unattainable self? There is simply no need to create evil karma; once one knows it is empty, one stops creating it. When the consciousness of the next life arises, that consciousness of the next life is also empty, and the dharma that ceases into emptiness is also empty. Birth and death themselves are empty—nothing is not empty. Keep emptying all the way, and you arrive at the city of nirvāṇa.

In the creation and transmigration of karmic formations, there is no one who creates and no one who receives the retribution. I am illusory, you are illusory, he is illusory; all dharmas are illusory—there is no person. The body is false and empty, the conscious mind is false and empty, the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are false and empty; with no self, no you, no he, and no sentient beings, there are no karmic formations either. The karmic formations that are created—the bodily, verbal, and mental actions—are also false and empty. Once this knot is untied, one realizes the fruit.