Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Fourteen)

Where does the hardness of the trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold great world) come from?

Original text:复成大地。厚八万四千踰缮那。纵广六万踰缮那。复生轮围。大轮围山。坚固安住。同一金刚。复生苏弥卢山。庾健陀山。[寧*頁]泯陀山。伊舍陀山乃至黑山。如是三千大千世界。次第成已。坚固安住。若无地界。彼坚硬性。从何所来。

Explanation: After the heavenly palaces have been transformed, the Earth is then created. The thickness of the Earth is eighty-four thousand yojanas; "yojana" is an Indian term of measurement. It represents an extremely large number—so many that they cannot be counted—and when that is the case, the Indian language uses "eighty-four thousand" to represent it. This shows that the entire Earth is that thick, with both length and breadth of sixty thousand yojanas. The thickness being greater than the breadth indicates that the Earth is not a perfect sphere but an ellipsoid. After the Earth is created, the Cakravāḍa mountains beneath the Earth are transformed into being, as well as Mount Sumeru, Mount Yugandhara, Mount Mineda, Mount Īṣadhara, and even the Black Mountains—all are transformed into being.

Mount Sumeru is half submerged in the great ocean, with the other half extending above the ocean. The midpoint of the half of Mount Sumeru above the great ocean is the Heaven of the Four Great Kings; the four great heavenly kings of the four directions—east, south, west, and north—the four great Dharma protectors, reside at the midpoint of Mount Sumeru. Mount Sumeru is created primarily from the earth element. The seven golden mountains beneath the four great oceans have also all been completed, primarily from the earth element. In this way, the trichiliocosm is gradually formed in sequential order, extremely solid, like vajra, all possessing hardness, all formed from the earth element. If there were no seed of the earth element, no earth element, where would the hardness of those material things come from?