The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three: The Falsehood of the Earth Element

Original text:阿难。如汝所言。四大和合。发明世间。种种变化。阿难。若彼大性。体非和合。则不能与。诸大杂和。犹如虚空。不和诸色。若和合者。同于变化。始终相成。生灭相续。生死死生。生生死死。如旋火轮。未有休息。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Ānanda, indeed just as you have said, it is because the four great elements combine that the various transformations of the world appear. Ānanda, if the essential nature of the four great elements were not of a combining character, then the great elements could not blend and combine with one another, just as empty space does not combine with all material form. If they could combine, they would be subject to the same transformations, mutually forming from beginning to end, with arising and ceasing continuing on and on—birth, death, death, birth, birth after birth, death after death—like a whirling fire-wheel, never coming to rest.

Original text:阿难。如水成冰。冰还成水。汝观地。粗为大地。细为微尘。至邻虚尘。析彼极微。色边际相。七分所成。更析邻虚。即实空性。

Explanation: Ānanda, just as water can freeze into ice, and ice can melt back into water, you should observe the characteristics of the earth element: the coarse is the great earth, the fine is dust particles, down to the extremely fine particles bordering on empty space. Analyzing those extremely subtle material dust particles at the boundary of form into seven parts, and analyzing them further, they come even closer to empty space; at this point one can see that the dust particles truly possess the nature of emptiness.

Original text:阿难。若此邻虚。析成虚空。当知虚空。出生色相。汝今问言。由和合故。出生世间。诸变化相。汝且观此。一邻虚尘。用几虚空。和合而有。不应邻虚。合成邻虚。又邻虚尘。析入空者。用几色相。合成虚空。

Explanation: Ānanda, if these dust particles bordering on empty space can be analyzed into empty space, then you should know that empty space can give rise to the characteristics of form. You now ask that, because of combination, the various transformed characteristics of the world are produced. Observe this: a single dust particle bordering on empty space—how many portions of empty space must combine for it to exist? It should not be that empty space combines to form a dust particle bordering on empty space. Moreover, if a dust particle bordering on empty space is analyzed into empty space, how many characteristics of form must combine to form empty space?

Original text:若色合时。合色非空。若空合时。合空非色。色犹可析。空云何合。汝元不知。如来藏中。性色真空。性空真色。清净本然。周遍法界。随众生心。应所知量。循业发现。世间无知。惑为因缘。及自然性。皆是识心。分别计度。但有言说。都无实义。

Explanation: The Buddha said: If form could combine, the combined form would not be empty space; if empty space could combine, the combined space would not be form. Form can still be analyzed, but how could empty space be combined? Ānanda, you fundamentally do not know that within the tathāgatagarbha, the nature of form is true emptiness, and the nature of emptiness is truly form. Both form and emptiness are intrinsically pure, pervading throughout the dharmadhātu, manifesting in accordance with the minds of sentient beings, corresponding to the extent of what they should know, and manifesting according to their karma. People of the world are ignorant and deludedly take form and emptiness to be produced by causes and conditions, or to arise spontaneously. All of this is the discrimination and calculation of sentient beings' consciousness mind; whatever they may say, none of it has any real meaning.

Here the World-Honored One negated the notion that form can produce empty space and that empty space can produce form. If material form dust could be subdivided into empty space, then empty space would be composed of form—so how many dust particles of form would it take to compose empty space? If dust particles could compose empty space, then empty space would no longer be empty space. Likewise, if empty space could compose dust particles of form, then how much empty space would it take to compose a dust particle? If empty space could compose dust particles, then empty space would no longer be empty space, and dust particles would no longer be dust particles—all would lose their self-nature.

If dust particles of form could combine into empty space, then empty space would be form; if empty space could combine into form, then form would be empty space. How could empty space and the characteristics of form combine and transform into each other? They stand in a relationship of equal opposition: where this exists, that does not; where that exists, this does not. Form is formed by the four great element seeds—earth, water, fire, and wind—and has visible characteristics, whereas empty space is a dharma without characteristics. Therefore form cannot transform into empty space, and even less can empty space transform into form.

Form is produced by the tathāgatagarbha, not generated through transformation and combination from empty space; empty space is also produced by the tathāgatagarbha, not generated through the analysis of form. The World-Honored One made this very clear in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: all things and phenomena are produced by the tathāgatagarbha and all originate from the tathāgatagarbha. Wherever there is form, there is no emptiness; where there is emptiness, there is certainly no form. Where there is no form, emptiness is revealed; thus emptiness is manifested by means of form. In the final summary, all is the nature of the tathāgatagarbha; therefore form and emptiness are non-dual.