Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (33)

The water element originally has no marks of male or female—it has no marks at all—yet from empty nothingness a mark is produced. This proves that all marks are illusory. Why can these marks be manifested? Because there are karmic seeds, seeds of marks. The tathāgatagarbha manifests the marks of male and female and all other marks in accordance with karmic seeds. If the karmic seeds are those of a man, the tathāgatagarbha delivers forth the seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, forming a male appearance; if the karmic seeds are those of a woman, the tathāgatagarbha delivers forth the four great elemental natures of the seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, creating the female form. Originally, earth, water, fire, and wind have no marks, and the tathāgatagarbha also has no marks, yet the material body that is created has different appearances—and these appearances are illusory and unreal. Because marks are conjured up through illusion, they originally do not exist, and later they can vanish again: from nothing at all a mark is formed, and then it changes back into nothing at all. This is what it means to be illusory.