The Connotation of Dependent Origination and the Emptiness of Inherent Nature

Dependent origination and emptiness of nature (pratītyasamutpāda-śūnyatā) is observed from the perspective of the Small Vehicle's dharma of emptiness, examining all the worldly dharmas born of the tathāgatagarbha; it is not observed from the perspective of the Great Vehicle's tathāgatagarbha. In the worldly realm, all dharmas arise due to causes and conditions; their forms and substances are empty, subject to arising and ceasing, subject to decay and destruction, not long-lasting, unattainable, and cannot be grasped. This is viewing the nature of worldly dharmas from the Small Vehicle's perspective. Among these, the cause is the origin and source that initiates all dharmas; it can also be said to be the karmic seeds of karma created in the past, including the three kinds of karma: wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta). The conditions are the people, things, and environments that facilitate and assist the manifestation of karmic seeds as retributive results. When causes and conditions are complete, the karmic results are realized. Only the seventh consciousness exists without cause or condition; in fact, the existence of the seventh consciousness also has a cause, namely the one thought of ignorance (avidyā) of the seventh consciousness. If this one thought of ignorance is extinguished, the seventh consciousness will no longer continue to exist. The existence of the seventh consciousness has no conditions; it has existed since beginningless kalpas, and no assisting condition for its arising can be found. Therefore, the seventh consciousness has no beginning; because ignorance has no beginning, it is called beginningless ignorance (anādi-avidyā).

Since all dharmas are dependently originated and empty in nature, the causes are also empty in nature and subject to arising and ceasing, and the conditions are also empty in nature and subject to arising and ceasing; therefore, when the causes and conditions cease, all dharmas also cease. This does not involve the Great Vehicle dharma of the tathāgatagarbha; it does not touch upon the fact that the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to all these dharmas, so it is called the Small Vehicle's dharma of emptiness. If the tathāgatagarbha is not involved, the emptiness of all dharmas does not land on the fundamental point; it is as if all dharmas truly exist, and therefore they are dependently originated and empty in nature. In fact, all dharmas, viewed from the perspective of the Great Vehicle's tathāgatagarbha, are all the tathāgatagarbha itself; there is no substantial "all dharmas." All dharmas do not arise, and therefore they do not cease either, because they are transformations of the marks of the tathāgatagarbha—so what is there that arises, and what is there that can cease? None of it goes beyond the tathāgatagarbha.

The emptiness of the Small Vehicle is an emptiness of destruction and ruin, whereas the emptiness of the Great Vehicle's tathāgatagarbha is the emptiness-nature mind that neither arises nor ceases. The two are essentially different and must not be conflated. Dependent origination and emptiness of nature is that kind of voidness in the Small Vehicle dharma, which has not yet touched upon the cultivation content of the Great Vehicle's tathāgatagarbha dharma. Therefore, dependent origination and emptiness of nature is not ultimate; one still needs to awaken to what the ultimate meaning of all worldly dharmas is, and what their essence is.

After attaining the fruit of the arhat and the fruit of the pratyekabuddha, one then turns to the Great Vehicle dharma to cultivate the tathāgatagarbha dharma. After realizing the tathāgatagarbha, one then progressively engages in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the worldly dharma of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), and one will come to know the relationship between the five aggregates and the tathāgatagarbha, the truth of the birth and perishing of the five aggregates, thoroughly comprehend the nature of the tathāgatagarbha and the substance of the world of the five aggregates. Only when ignorance is completely extinguished can one become a Buddha. Merely awakening to the dependent origination and emptiness of nature of the world of the five aggregates is only realizing the emptiness on the Small Vehicle side; one still cannot become a Buddha.