Inferential Analysis of the Twenty Kinds of Emptiness

The twenty kinds of emptiness in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra are extremely difficult to comprehend. Now, an analogy is provided to facilitate understanding. Imagine an infinitely large container with invisible boundaries, within which there are seven types of particles of different colors. Each type of particle exists in immeasurable numbers and can freely combine to form countless objects.

For example, using five of these particles and following a template within the container, one might assemble a flower. Observing this flower, if our gaze—or what is called attention—falls only partially on the flower's external form and appearance, we perceive its color and shape, thereby knowing the flower's attributes and characteristics. The rest remains unknown and unseen. Such cognition is profoundly biased, and the attachments arising from it are futile and unprofitable. If we can discard the flower's external image and minutely observe its composition and substance, we realize that this flower is actually a combination of five particles; its essence is merely these five particles. The flower belongs to illusory appearances; in truth, it is not even an illusion or false image—it is simply a combination of five mixed particles.

The particles reside within the container. The flower formed by their combination does not exist beyond the container. Regardless of the flower's arising or ceasing, the particles remain as they were, their quantity unchanged. The container remains unmoved and unaltered, unaffected by anything. If viewed with bias, it may seem as though the flower arises and ceases, but in reality, no such thing occurs—it does not even qualify as an illusion. Similarly, following a template and using seven types of particles to form a five-aggregate body is the same: there is no substantial form of a five-aggregate body; it is not even an illusory image. There is no existence of phenomena like the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the five-aggregate body. Arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing leave no trace. Sentient beings, foolishly biased and attached, fixate on them to no avail, futilely. Whether the five-aggregate body arises, abides, changes, or ceases, it does not extend beyond the container. The container remains unmoved, unaffected by anything.

The container is analogous to the Tathāgatagarbha. The seven types of particles are analogous to the seven great seeds within the Tathāgatagarbha. The template is analogous to the karmic seeds stored within the Tathāgatagarbha. Once the template is used, it vanishes and becomes void. The flower and the five-aggregate body are analogous to all dharmas born from the Tathāgatagarbha. By contemplating the twenty kinds of emptiness in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra in light of this analogy, one should find an entry point. Merely by contemplating falling into any kind of conventional dharma characteristic, it is a wrong understanding and wrong view that should be abandoned. Only by observing without falling into conventional dharma characteristics can right view and the wisdom of true reality arise. Finally, emptying everything—emptying even emptiness itself, emptying until utterly clean and stripped bare—leads to complete ultimate realization, tranquil nirvāṇa.

By contemplating in this manner of inference, and then reading all the Mahāyāna sūtras, one should easily comprehend the ultimate and true meaning of the Dharma taught by the Buddha. Then, in practice, there will be a point of entry. Finally, though the Dharma may be understood and comprehended intellectually, to activate it requires experiential realization. To achieve experiential realization requires actual practice. The thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, the six pāramitās of the bodhisattva, the five precepts, the ten wholesome deeds, and all such Dharmas taught by the Buddha must be practiced one by one, without skipping steps or omitting any. Otherwise, experiential realization cannot be attained, the understood and comprehended Dharma cannot be activated, birth and death will continue as before, and suffering will remain as it is.

Contemplate any Dharma by comparing it with this [analogy], and one will swiftly enter its essence. The Buddha-Dharma is the One Vehicle, without duality or otherness. Practitioners of the Two Vehicles cultivate and realize while still clinging to the stage of conventional dharma characteristics. They assert that dharma characteristics exist or that they do not exist, but neither view is ultimate. Dharma characteristics are neither existent nor non-existent; both assertions are mere conceptual elaborations. Therefore, followers of the Two Vehicles fear the conventional five aggregates and fear birth and death, so they seek to hide within nirvāṇa without remainder. This is entirely a case of clinging to characteristics. Thus, the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination are all empty and unreal—they are calculations based on false appearances, clinging to the illusion of mistaking a bow’s reflection for a snake. Therefore, the principle of the non-self of the five aggregates is empty. Even nirvāṇa without remainder is empty. Both are expedient means provisionally established to dispel worldly existence. One should empty worldly non-existence; existence and non-existence are both inadmissible. The non-self of persons and the non-self of dharmas are also expedient means provisionally established. The self is empty; non-self is also empty. Fundamentally, there is only the One True Dharma Realm. Apart from this, there are no dharmas. All natures and characteristics of all dharmas are empty and unobtainable. Emptiness and unobtainability are also empty. When not a single dharma can be grasped, the Buddha Way is ultimately and perfectly accomplished.