Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (40)

The Fire Element Comes from the Tathāgatagarbha

In the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, wait—rather, in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha says that fire comes from the tathāgatagarbha and is a property of the tathāgatagarbha. Yet the tathāgatagarbha contains nothing at all: no shape, no form, no hardness, no heat, no wateriness, no motility—He does not even possess a material appearance as tiny as a speck of dust. And yet He can manifest the trichiliocosm of the ten directions—how utterly inconceivable. Therefore, when one studies the Buddha-dharma to the very end and comes to know the real nature of all dharmadhātus, no longer deluded or confused, one will perfectly accomplish the Buddha Way.