Selected Lectures on the Pitṛputra Samyukta Sūtra

Original Text: Thus it is understood. The initial consciousness is empty of initial consciousness. One's own karma is empty of one's own karma. The body consciousness is empty of body consciousness. If it ceases, cessation is empty. If it arises, arising is empty. Samsara is empty of samsara. Nirvana is empty of nirvana. All are empty by nature. There is no doer, nor is there an experiencer. It is merely displayed according to worldly conventions. It is not the ultimate truth to speak in this way.

Explanation: One should comprehend like this: the initial consciousness and the emptiness of initial consciousness, comprehend one's own created karmic actions and the emptiness of those karmic actions, comprehend the body consciousness and the emptiness of body consciousness; comprehend like this that all phenomena, if they arise, their arising is empty, all phenomena if they cease, their cessation is also empty; simultaneously, one should comprehend samsara and the emptiness of samsara, comprehend nirvana and the emptiness of nirvana. The creation and continuation of karmic actions have no doer and no experiencer; all phenomena are merely displayed according to worldly discrimination. From the perspective of ultimate truth, it is not spoken of in this way.

The initial consciousness arising on the form body of the next life is also empty. Created karmic actions are also empty. The body consciousness is also empty. If I were to extinguish this dharma, this very act of extinguishing is itself empty. Is there a true extinguishing dharma? Is there a fixed principle for the cessation of this dharma? No, it is empty. The arising of consciousness in the next life, the arising itself is also empty. Is there an unchanging principle or rule for arising? No, it is empty. All phenomena arise just like this. We cycle in the six realms, becoming humans, devas, animals, hungry ghosts—this samsara is also empty. If samsara were not empty, one should cycle forever, unable to attain liberation, unable to become a Buddha, rendering spiritual practice useless. The fact that we can cease samsara, can transcend samsara, demonstrates that samsara is empty; there is no real, indestructible dharma of samsara. We ourselves are not real, so how could there be a real dharma of samsara? There is not; all is empty, all is illusory.

If we attain nirvana, extinguishing the dharmas of the threefold world, the five aggregates cease, the eighteen elements cease, the body ceases, the mind ceases, feelings cease, thoughts cease, bodily, verbal, and mental actions cease—all cease entirely, leaving only the ālaya-vijñāna, neither arising nor ceasing, pure and tranquil. This state is called nirvana. The state where the five aggregates and eighteen elements have ceased is itself also empty; it is also subject to arising, ceasing, and change; it is not eternally unchanging. The state of nirvana also has no coming from anywhere and no going anywhere; there is no one who enters nirvana, nor is there anyone who emerges from nirvana; there is no doer and no experiencer.

Therefore, nirvana is not truly existent; nirvana is a manifestation of a tranquil state, as unreal as worldly phenomena, an illusion. This state is also empty; only the ālaya-vijñāna is not empty, everything else is empty. Nirvana has no characteristics; even the state of emptiness is empty; this emptiness does not exist apart from the ālaya-vijñāna.

All dharmas have no doer and no experiencer. When one attains the fourth fruition of arhatship and enters nirvana, there is no person who attained the fourth fruition, nor is there an arhat who entered nirvana; there is no arhat experiencing the bliss of cessation. Who experiences the bliss of cessation in nirvana? Can such a person be found? Within nirvana, there is no person, no arhat. If there were, it would not be nirvana. The arhat's form body ceases, the conscious mind ceases, the functions of the five aggregates cease, the phenomena of the eighteen elements cease; therefore, in nirvana, there is no arhat, no person experiencing the bliss of cessation.