Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (13)

Original text: 乃至此界坏时。兴大黑云。三十二重。遍覆三千。大千世界。降霔洪雨。点大如象。昼夜倾注。相续不绝。如是时分。经五十劫。其水积满。上至梵世。大王。此外水界。从何所来。

Explanation: When the trichiliocosm is about to be destroyed, thirty-two layers of black clouds descend from the heavens, covering the entire trichiliocosm. Then raindrops as large as elephants pour down day and night without cease. This continues for fifty kalpas, until the water accumulates and fills everything, rising all the way up to the Brahma heavens. Great King, where does this external water element come from?

The external water element refers to the water element outside the body, such as the moisture and wetness contained in cosmic space, mountains, rivers, and the great earth. For example, when the trichiliocosm is about to be destroyed and the water calamity appears, great black clouds arise in the sky—thirty-two layers of them, extremely dense and heavy, wrapped layer upon layer, on the verge of pouring down great rain. These thirty-two layers of black clouds spread throughout the entire trichiliocosm. The trichiliocosm contains one billion earths and one billion Mount Sumerus; the six heavens of the desire realm and the first dhyāna heaven each number one billion—countless celestial bodies—all covered by the black clouds. Then raindrops as large as elephants come pouring down, pervading the entire trichiliocosm throughout space, submerging even the heavens.

By that time we humans would long since be gone; the earth would already have been destroyed. The fire calamity would have already destroyed humanity and the desire realm heavens. In the desire realm there would be no humans, no living beings. From the earth up through the six heavens of the desire realm, everything would be empty space—and even in that empty space, rain would be falling. The rain falls for fifty kalpas. If a kalpa is counted as a small kalpa, that is 16.8 million years, so fifty kalpas would be 840 million years. The floodwater submerges even empty space, rising all the way to the first dhyāna heaven and the second dhyāna heaven. Such is the destruction of the world. All this water belongs to the external water element. When the water comes, it comes from nowhere; and when the water recedes, where does it go? Wherever such a vast amount of water recedes to becomes a problem—wherever it goes, it submerges that place.

When sentient beings first enter the womb, there is no water in the fertilized egg. As the tathāgatagarbha gradually enlarges the fertilized egg, water comes to be contained within it—where does that water come from? When a sentient being dies, the water element in the body is gone—where does the water go? The water element comes from nowhere and goes nowhere—this is the Hīnayāna explanation. From the Mahāyāna perspective, where does the water element come from? It comes from the tathāgatagarbha. Mahāyāna teaches that all dharmas come from the tathāgatagarbha, while Hīnayāna teaches that all dharmas are empty, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. These are the two explanations of the Great and Small Vehicles.

All dharmas are formed out of nothingness, and after destruction, there is nothing again—not even a speck of dust, not even the tiniest quark particle. Such is the illusory nature of the world. Something as vast as the world is destroyed, so there is nothing to grasp even if you wanted to—how much more easily destroyed is our small body. All dharmas are far too illusory and unreal. The entire process of the formation of our life—from nothingness to a fertilized egg, to our birth, growing from a child into an adult, this shell of over a hundred jin, and at the end of life this hundred-plus jin dispersing again—what remains? Nothing at all, just a little bone ash. After a long time, even the bone ash is gone. Who could find the bone ash of our past lives? It cannot be found. Therefore, the entire five-aggregate life body, and the entire universe and empty space, are all vast and empty, and should not be grasped.