Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (21)

The Earth Element and Earth Nature Have No Male or Female Marks

The earth element can form the material bodies of sentient beings. Among sentient beings in the desire realm, material bodies are divided into male and female forms, but the earth element itself has no male or female form—it has no form at all. After the seeds of the earth element form a material body, it is then divided into male and female forms. The formless earth element can give rise to objects with form and to living beings.

In our material bodies, bones, muscles, skin, hair, and nails all belong to the solidity of the earth element, called earth nature. Earth nature itself has no male or female form, but once it forms our material bodies, it is divided into male and female forms—and in fact both male and female forms are false and illusory. The earth element originally has no form and no differentiation, yet the forms it manifests happen to have differentiation. Why? Because forms are determined by the karma we have created. If we create the karma of a man, the tathāgatagarbha manifests the physical form of a man; if we create the karma of a woman, the karmic seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and when the tathāgatagarbha transmits the earth element outward, it creates the physical form of a woman for us.