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

Original text:如是了知。初识初识空。自业自业空。身识身识空。若灭灭空。若生生空。轮回轮回空。涅槃涅槃。皆自性空。无有作者。亦无受者。但随世俗。之所显示。非第一义。作是说也。

Explanation: One should come to know in this way the initial consciousness and the emptiness of the initial consciousness, come to know the karmic actions one has created and the emptiness of those karmic actions, and come to know the body consciousness and the emptiness of the body consciousness; in this way one should come to know that if all dharmas arise, their arising is empty, and if all dharmas cease, their ceasing is also empty; at the same time, one should also come to know saṃsāra and the emptiness of saṃsāra, and come to know nirvāṇa and the emptiness of nirvāṇa. The creation and transmigration of karmic formations have no agent and no experiencer; all dharmas are merely manifested in accordance with worldly conventions. From the standpoint of ultimate truth, one would not speak in this way.

The initial consciousness that arises on the physical body of the next life is also empty, and the karmic actions that are created are also empty. The body consciousness is also empty. If I extinguish this dharma, that ceasing dharma itself is also empty—how could there be a real ceasing dharma, a principle by which dharmas cease? There is not; it is empty. The arising of consciousness in the next life—the dharma of arising in that arising is also empty. How could there be a fixed, unchanging rule or principle of arising? There is not; it is empty, and it is in this way that all dharmas come into being. As we transmigrate through the six realms—being human, being a deva, being an animal, being a hungry ghost—that transmigration is also empty. If saṃsāra were not empty, one would transmigrate forever, unable to attain liberation, unable to become a Buddha, and cultivation would be useless. The fact that we can cut off saṃsāra and escape from it shows that saṃsāra is empty, that there is no real, unceasing dharma of saṃsāra. Even we ourselves are not real—could there then be a real dharma of saṃsāra? No, everything is empty, everything is illusory.

If we attain nirvāṇa, having extinguished the worldly dharmas of the three realms—the five aggregates extinguished, the eighteen realms extinguished, the body extinguished, the mind extinguished, feelings extinguished, perceptions extinguished, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions extinguished, everything extinguished, with only the ālayavijñāna remaining, neither arising nor ceasing, tranquil and quiescent—that state is called nirvāṇa. The state in which the five aggregates and eighteen realms have all been extinguished is itself also empty; it too is subject to arising, ceasing, and change, and is not forever unchanging. The state of nirvāṇa likewise comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; there is no one who enters nirvāṇa and no one who exits nirvāṇa—no agent and no experiencer.

Therefore nirvāṇa is not a real existence; nirvāṇa is a manifestation of a state of tranquility, just as unreal as the clamorous phenomena of the world—it is illusory and conjured. This state is also empty; only the ālayavijñāna is not empty, and everything else is empty. Nirvāṇa has no marks; even the state of emptiness is empty, and this emptiness does not exist apart from the ālayavijñāna.

None of all dharmas has an agent, nor is there an experiencer. When an arhat of the fourth fruit realizes the fourth fruit and enters nirvāṇa, there is no person who has realized the fourth fruit, no arhat who has entered nirvāṇa, and no arhat who enjoys the bliss of quiescence. Who experiences the bliss of quiescence in nirvāṇa? Can such a person be found? Within nirvāṇa there is no person, no arhat; if there were, it would not be nirvāṇa. The arhat's physical body has ceased, the conscious mind has ceased, the functions of the five aggregates have ceased, and the phenomena of the eighteen realms have ceased; therefore, within nirvāṇa there is no arhat and no person experiencing the bliss of quiescence.