Two Kinds of Annihilatory Emptiness in the World

In the world there are two kinds of annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), or perverted grasping at emptiness, which do great harm to people, directly causing sentient beings to fall into the three lower realms and transmigrate through the six paths of rebirth. One is the emptiness of "nothing whatsoever" held by non-Buddhists, who believe there is no past life or future life, that death ends everything once and for all, that there is no cause and effect, no karmic retribution for wholesome and unwholesome deeds, that nothing matters whatever one does, and that one need only be free and unrestrained, indulging to one's heart's content.

The other kind of perverted grasping at emptiness belongs to those who study the Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha dharma. Although they acknowledge cause and effect and karmic retribution, acknowledge past and future lives, and acknowledge that within the body there is an imperishable tathāgatagarbha, they crave the pleasures of the five desires, are unwilling to cultivate diligently and practice earnestly, and are unwilling to keep the precepts and cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi). So they deny all the illusory functions and operations of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the eighteen realms, pushing everything onto the tathāgatagarbha, using the tathāgatagarbha to substitute for all the functions of the five aggregates, leaving the five aggregates with nothing to do; there is no need to study Buddhism and become a Buddha, because the tathāgatagarbha is already a Buddha in the first place. Or they let the five aggregates run wild, saying that whatever the five aggregates do is done by the tathāgatagarbha, and what is done by the tathāgatagarbha through the body of the five aggregates has no cause and effect, no karmic retribution; therefore one may be at ease according to conditions, with no need to keep the precepts or cultivate concentration, because the tathāgatagarbha originally transgresses no precepts and originally possesses concentration.

These two theories of annihilatory emptiness and perverted grasping at emptiness, though different in nature, have similar results: denying cause and effect, indulging in unrestrained conduct, and being unable to cease evil and cultivate goodness.

Because they grasp the tathāgatagarbha as self, they also grasp at signlessness, rejecting everything that has a mark, as if they had already transcended the marked and reached the unmarked. In fact, it is the tathāgatagarbha that is without marks, while the body of the five aggregates still falls entirely within the marked; at present it simply cannot transcend them, because without keeping the precepts and without meditative concentration, the prajñā wisdom is severely insufficient, and every thought of the mind dwells within marks. If one insists on concealing these marks, the only option is perverted grasping at emptiness; when the karmic retribution arrives, one must face it head-on, and the marks of evil retribution can no longer be evaded.

But for those who have already transcended the marked and reached the unmarked, why would they still choose to eat meat, claiming not to abide in the mark of eating meat, rather than choose to eat vegetarian food and contentedly eat leftovers according to conditions? Since there are no marks anymore, everything should be kept simple according to conditions—being able to stay alive and practice is enough—so why still be so picky and particular about protecting one's health and preserving one's life? They do not keep the precepts with marks, but exclusively keep the precept of signlessness. Are not the choices of food, clothing, housing, utensils, and travel all marks? Why choose the mark of enjoyment rather than the mark of enduring hardship? It is evident that signlessness is false, and the marked is what is real. Studying the Mahāyāna is very good, but if one does not study it properly, the Mahāyāna dharma can also become poison; if one consumes it without letting go, death is certain. When good medicine turns into poison, whose fault is it?