Two Kinds of Annihilatory Emptiness in the World

In the world there are two kinds of annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), or perverse grasping at emptiness, which harm people deeply and directly cause sentient beings to fall into the three lower realms and transmigrate through the six paths. One is the emptiness of "nothing whatsoever" held by the 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 of wholesome and unwholesome deeds—so whatever one does does not matter, as long as one is free and unrestrained, fully indulging in pleasure to one's heart's content.

The other kind of perverse grasping at emptiness belongs to those who study the Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha teaching. Although they acknowledge cause and effect and karmic retribution, acknowledge past and future lives, and acknowledge that there is an imperishable tathāgatagarbha within the body, they crave the pleasures of the five desires, yet are unwilling to cultivate diligently and practice earnestly, unwilling to keep the precepts and cultivate meditative concentration. So they deny all the deluded functions and operations of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) 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 then no need to study Buddhism and become a Buddha, because the tathāgatagarbha is originally a Buddha. Or they let the five aggregates run wild and act recklessly, 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 carries no cause and effect, no karmic retribution. Therefore one may be at ease following conditions, without keeping the precepts and without cultivating concentration, because the tathāgatagarbha originally transgresses no precepts and is originally endowed with concentration.

These two doctrines of annihilatory emptiness and perverse grasping at emptiness, though different in nature, lead to 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 signs/marks, as if they had already transcended the marked and reached the signless. In truth, it is the tathāgatagarbha that is signless, while the body of the five aggregates still falls entirely within the marked; at present there is simply no transcending it, because without keeping the precepts and without meditative concentration, the prajñā wisdom is severely insufficient, and every thought and moment dwells within signs/marks. If one insists on covering up these signs, the only option is perverse grasping at emptiness. When the karmic retribution arrives, one must face it directly, and the signs/marks of evil retribution can no longer be avoided.

But for those who have already transcended the marked and reached the signless, why would they still choose to eat meat, claiming to be unattached to the sign of eating meat, rather than choose to eat vegetarian, content to eat leftovers as conditions allow? Since there are no signs/marks anymore, everything should follow conditions and be kept simple—just staying alive to practice would suffice. Why then be so picky and particular about protecting the body and nourishing health? They do not keep the precepts with signs/marks, but exclusively keep the signless precepts—is not the choosing of food, clothing, housing, and daily use also a sign/mark? Why choose the sign of enjoyment and not the sign of enduring hardship? Clearly, the signless is false, and the marked is what is real. Studying the Mahāyāna is excellent, 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?