Seven Kinds of Emptiness
Fascicle One closes with three teachings Mahāmati has requested directly: the wish-fulfilling jewel simile for how a bodhisattva who has mastered mind, will, consciousness, the five dharmas, own-nature, and the two kinds of no-self moves freely through the world; seven kinds of emptiness, the coarsest of which the Buddha names specifically so Mahāmati can be warned away from it; and, closing the fascicle, the declaration that every sūtra — this one included — is not to be clung to for its words but relied on only for its meaning, illustrated by a herd of thirsty deer chasing a mirage they mistake for water.
The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel
「復次，大慧！菩薩摩訶薩善知心、意、意識、五法、自性、二無我相，趣究竟。為安眾生故，作種種類像，如妄想自性處依於緣起。譬如眾色如意寶珠，普現一切諸佛剎土，一切如來大眾集會，悉於其中聽受經法。所謂一切法如幻、如夢、光影、水月，於一切法，離生滅斷常，及離聲聞、緣覺之法，得百千三昧，乃至百千億那由他三昧。得三昧已，遊諸佛剎供養諸佛。生諸天宮，宣揚三寶。示現佛身，聲聞、菩薩大眾圍繞，以自心現量，度脫眾生，分別演說外性無性，悉令遠離有無等見。」爾時，世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言：
「心量世間， 佛子觀察， 種類之身，
離所作行， 得力神通， 自在成就。」
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, skilled in mind, will, and consciousness, the five dharmas, own-nature, and the two kinds of no-self, thereby reaches the ultimate. For the sake of settling sentient beings, he takes on every kind of form, just as the imagined own-nature itself depends on the dependent own-nature [to arise]. It is like a wish-fulfilling jewel of every color, appearing everywhere at once, in every buddha-land, within the great assembly of every tathāgata, so that everyone within it, in every one of those places, hears and receives the teaching of the sūtras. That is to say, [he teaches that] every dharma is like an illusion, like a dream, like light and shadow, like the moon in water; that, with respect to every dharma, one is apart from arising and ceasing, from annihilation and permanence, and apart as well from the teaching proper to the śrāvaka and the pratyekabuddha; he attains a hundred thousand samādhis, and up to a hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of samādhis. Having attained these samādhis, he travels to every buddha-land to make offerings to every buddha. He is born in the palaces of the gods, and proclaims there the Three Jewels. He manifests a buddha's own body, surrounded by an assembly of śrāvakas and bodhisattvas, and, by the very measure of his own mind's manifestation, delivers sentient beings from suffering, discriminating and expounding that external things have no [fixed] nature of their own, so that all may be made to leave behind the views of existence and non-existence alike." Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "The measure of mind, and the worldly realm — the Buddha's children observe them, in every kind of body; apart from any deliberate activity, they attain power and the superknowledges, accomplished in perfect mastery."
The commentators read the phrase describing a bodhisattva's manifold forms — "如妄想自性處依於緣起" — as a pointed, compressed callback to Part 9's teaching on the three own-natures, not a loose comparison: "言如妄想等者，況菩薩隨機設化，亦猶凡夫妄想從緣而起" — "the phrase 'like the imagined [own-nature]' means that a bodhisattva's own skillful manifestation of forms, suited to each being's capacity, resembles the very way an ordinary person's false thought itself arises in dependence on conditions." The comparison is startling on first read — a bodhisattva's enlightened activity compared to an ordinary person's delusion — but the commentators intend the parallel structurally rather than morally: both the imagined own-nature and a bodhisattva's transformation-body are appearances arising from the dependent own-nature, the difference lying entirely in whether false attachment accompanies the appearance or not. The same mechanism that produces delusion in an ordinary mind produces a bodhisattva's skillful activity in an awakened one.
On the wish-fulfilling jewel image itself, the commentators do not gloss it separately, letting the sūtra's own comparison stand, but their earlier gloss on "自在力神通三昧" from Part 5 supplies the operative logic here as well: a bodhisattva at this level responds to each being "隨眾色摩尼，隨入眾生微細之心" — the way a maṇi-gem "takes on whatever color is placed before it" — without any need to deliberate about which color to become. This is why the closing verse specifies that a bodhisattva's activity is "離所作行" (apart from any deliberate activity): the jewel does not choose its colors one at a time, and neither does a bodhisattva at this stage choose, moment to moment, which form to manifest for which being.
Seven Kinds of Emptiness
爾時，大慧菩薩摩訶薩復請佛言：「唯願世尊為我等說一切法空、無生、無二、離自性相。我等及餘諸菩薩眾，覺悟是空、無生、無二、離自性相已，離有無妄想，疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。」爾時，世尊告大慧菩薩摩訶薩言：「諦聽！諦聽！善思念之。今當為汝廣分別說。」大慧白佛言：「善哉！世尊！唯然受教。」
佛告大慧：「空空者，即是妄想自性處。大慧！妄想自性計著者，說空、無生、無二、離自性相。大慧！彼略說七種空。謂：相空、性自性空、行空、無行空、一切法離言說空、第一義聖智大空、彼彼空。云何相空？謂：一切性自共相空，觀展轉積聚故；分別無性，自共相不生。自他俱性無性，故相不住，是故說一切性相空。是名相空。云何性自性空？謂：自己性自性不生，是名一切法性自性空。是故說性自性空。云何行空？謂：陰離我我所，因所成，所作業方便生。是名行空。大慧！即此如是行空，展轉緣起自性無性，是名無行空。云何一切法離言說空？謂：妄想自性無言說，故一切法離言說，是名一切法離言說空。云何一切法第一義聖智大空？謂：得自覺聖智，一切見過習氣空，是名一切法第一義聖智大空。云何彼彼空？謂：於彼無彼空，是名彼彼空。大慧！譬如鹿子母舍，無象馬牛羊等，非無比丘眾，而說彼空。非舍舍性空，亦非比丘比丘性空，非餘處無象馬，是名一切法自相。彼於彼無彼，是名彼彼空。是名七種空。彼彼空者，是空最麁，汝當遠離。
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again made a request of the Buddha: "I beg you, World-Honored One, to teach us that every dharma is empty, unborn, non-dual, and apart from own-nature. Once we, and all the other bodhisattvas, have awakened to this emptiness, non-arising, non-duality, and apartness from own-nature, we will leave behind the false thought of existence and non-existence, and swiftly attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment." Then the World-Honored One said to Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva: "Listen well! Listen well! Consider this carefully — I shall now explain it to you fully and in detail." Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "Excellent, World-Honored One! I gladly receive your teaching."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "'Empty of emptiness' [as a phrase] refers precisely to the very domain of the imagined own-nature. Mahāmati, it is for the sake of those attached to the imagined own-nature that emptiness, non-arising, non-duality, and apartness from own-nature are taught at all. Mahāmati, briefly stated, there are seven kinds of emptiness: the emptiness of mark, the emptiness of own-nature, the emptiness of conditioned activity, the emptiness of unconditioned activity, the emptiness of every dharma's being apart from words, the great emptiness of noble wisdom in the ultimate sense, and the emptiness of this-in-relation-to-that. What is the emptiness of mark? It is that every [fixed] nature's own mark and shared mark alike are empty, since, observed carefully, they are seen to be mere gathered accumulations; discriminated, they are found to have no [fixed] nature; own mark and shared mark alike do not [truly] arise. Since neither self-nature nor other's-nature, [nor both together,] has any [fixed] nature, no mark can be said to actually abide — and it is for this reason that every [fixed] nature's mark is said to be empty. This is called the emptiness of mark. What is the emptiness of own-nature? It is that the very own-nature belonging to one's own [presumed] nature is itself unborn — this is called the emptiness of every dharma's own-nature. It is for this reason that the emptiness of own-nature is spoken of. What is the emptiness of conditioned activity? It is that the aggregates, apart from a self and what belongs to a self, arise entirely through cause, and are brought about through the skillful means of karmic activity. This is called the emptiness of conditioned activity. Mahāmati, this very same conditioned activity, arising as it does one condition depending on another in succession, has, in its own-nature, no [fixed] nature at all — this is called the emptiness of unconditioned activity. What is the emptiness of every dharma's being apart from words? It is that the imagined own-nature itself has no [inherent] verbal expression, and it is for this reason that every dharma is apart from words — this is called the emptiness of every dharma's being apart from words. What is the great emptiness of noble wisdom in the ultimate sense? It is that, having attained self-realized noble wisdom, the habituated force of every erroneous view is [thereby] emptied — this is called the great emptiness of noble wisdom in the ultimate sense. What is the emptiness of this-in-relation-to-that? It is that, with respect to a certain place, a certain thing is absent from it — this is called the emptiness of this-in-relation-to-that. Mahāmati, it is like the Deer Boy's Mother's dwelling: there are no elephants, horses, cattle, or sheep within it — yet it is not that the assembly of monks is absent as well — and still one says that dwelling is 'empty.' It is neither that the dwelling itself lacks the nature of a dwelling, nor that the monks lack the nature of monks; nor is it that no elephant or horse exists anywhere else at all — this [merely marks] the own mark that belongs to every dharma [in its own right]. With respect to that one place, that one thing is simply absent from it — this is called the emptiness of this-in-relation-to-that. These are called the seven kinds of emptiness. As for the emptiness of this-in-relation-to-that: this is the coarsest kind of emptiness there is, and you should be far removed from it [as any kind of teaching to rely on].
The commentators are careful that the list's final item is not offered as a seventh valid teaching alongside the other six, but flagged explicitly as the outsiders' own mistaken idea of emptiness, included here precisely so it can be named and rejected: "彼彼空者，正謂外道所計之空，對此言之，但空於彼而不空此，故云於彼無彼空" — "'the emptiness of this-in-relation-to-that' refers specifically to the kind of emptiness the outsiders conceive of: relative to a given case, it empties only that one thing there, while leaving everything else untouched — hence it is called 'with respect to that, that one thing is absent.'" On why the Deer Boy's Mother's dwelling illustrates the error rather than the teaching, the commentators press the logic through to its conclusion: "縱能空舍比丘，而不能空其二者之性，縱以是處無象馬為空，而餘處非無，是則能所、彼此宛然，何空之有？" — "even granting that one can [say] the dwelling and the monks [in a certain respect] are 'empty,' one still cannot empty the underlying nature belonging to either of them; even granting that this one place lacks elephants and horses, other places do not — so that the subject that empties and the object emptied, this case and that case, remain every bit as distinct as before. What emptiness is there in that at all?" A form of "emptiness" that leaves the underlying natures of both terms fully intact, merely reporting that one particular thing happens to be locally absent, is not emptiness in the sūtra's own sense — it is ordinary absence dressed up in emptiness's vocabulary, and precisely for that reason the Buddha names it last and warns Mahāmati away from it directly.
Non-Arising, Non-Duality, and the Fascicle's Close
「大慧！不自生，非不生，除住三昧，是名無生。離自性，即是無生。離自性剎那相續流注及異性現，一切性離自性，是故一切性離自性。云何無二？謂一切法，如冷熱、如長短、如黑白。大慧！一切法無二，非於涅槃彼生死，非於生死彼涅槃。異相因有性故，是名無二。如涅槃、生死，一切法亦如是。是故空、無生、無二、離自性相，應當修學。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「我常說空法， 遠離於斷常，
生死如幻夢， 而彼業不壞。
虛空及涅槃， 滅二亦如是，
愚夫作妄想， 諸聖離有無。」
爾時，世尊復告大慧菩薩摩訶薩言：「大慧！空、無生、無二、離自性相，普入諸佛一切修多羅。凡所有經，悉說此義。諸修多羅，悉隨眾生悕望心故，為分別說，顯示其義，而非真實在於言說。如鹿渴想，誑惑群鹿。鹿於彼相，計著水性，而彼水無。如是一切修多羅所說諸法，為令愚夫發歡喜故，非實聖智在於言說。是故，當依於義，莫著言說。」
"Mahāmati, [dharmas do] not arise from themselves, nor is it that they simply do not arise at all — apart from the [special case of] one who abides in samādhi, this is what is called 'non-arising.' Apartness from own-nature is itself precisely this same non-arising. Apart from own-nature, the momentary, unbroken flow of [mind], and every other-nature that thereby appears [as its object], every [fixed] nature is apart from own-nature — and it is for this very reason that every [fixed] nature is [said to be] apart from own-nature. What is non-duality? It is that every dharma is like cold and heat, like long and short, like black and white. Mahāmati, every dharma is non-dual: it is not that, apart from nirvāṇa, there is, on the other side, birth-and-death; nor that, apart from birth-and-death, there is, on the other side, nirvāṇa. Because [the two] have, as the cause of their apparently differing marks, [one and the same underlying] nature, this is called non-duality. Nirvāṇa and birth-and-death are just so — and every dharma is just the same. It is for this reason that one should diligently train in emptiness, non-arising, non-duality, and apartness from own-nature."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "I have always taught the dharma of emptiness as far removed from both annihilation and permanence — birth-and-death is like an illusion or a dream, and yet the karma [that produces it] is not thereby destroyed.
Space, and nirvāṇa too — [and] the cessation of both — are just the same: it is the ignorant who give rise to false thought about them, while the noble ones are far removed from both existence and non-existence."
Then the World-Honored One again said to Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva: "Mahāmati, emptiness, non-arising, non-duality, and apartness from own-nature enter fully into every sūtra spoken by every buddha; every scripture there is teaches this very meaning. Yet every sūtra, following each being's own hopes and wishes, is taught by making distinctions, so as to display that meaning — and the true reality does not, in fact, reside within the words themselves. It is like a herd of deer, deceived and confused by the notion of water born of their own thirst: the deer, seeing that shimmering mark, become attached to the nature of water being there, when in truth there is no water there at all. Just so, every dharma taught in every sūtra is taught only so as to bring joy to the foolish and the ignorant — the true wisdom of the noble ones does not, in fact, reside within the words themselves. Therefore, one should rely on the meaning, and never cling to the words."
On the difficult opening line distinguishing genuine non-arising from a mere denial of arising, the commentators reach past their own tradition to Yongjia's Song of Enlightenment for the sharpest possible statement of the same point: "非不生者，謂非一向不生，以理言之，無生無所不生。永嘉亦云：『若實無生無不生。』" — "'nor is it that they simply do not arise at all' means that non-arising is not a one-sided denial that anything ever arises; understood correctly, non-arising is a non-arising that leaves nothing whatsoever un-arisen. Yongjia likewise says: 'if [non-arising] is genuine, then there is no non-arising [either].'" Non-arising, properly understood, is not the negation of arising but a description that applies without exception — which means it cannot itself be one more thing standing over against "arising" as its opposite, on pain of becoming just another fixed position to grasp.
On why birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are called non-dual despite appearing utterly opposed, the commentators locate the shared ground precisely: "生死、涅槃本來平等，非涅槃外別有生死，非生死外別有涅槃...此二者不二而二、二而不二" — "birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are, from the outset, equal: there is no birth-and-death existing apart from nirvāṇa, nor any nirvāṇa existing apart from birth-and-death... the two are non-dual and yet appear as two, and appear as two and yet are non-dual." On the closing image of the thirsty deer — placed here, at the very end of the fascicle, as the sūtra's own verdict on how to read everything that has come before it — the commentators draw the moral without softening it: "聖智境界本無言說，然如來善巧分別者，為令眾生離著顯性。苟或執之，則失於理" — "the domain of noble wisdom is, in itself, entirely without words; that the Tathāgata nonetheless skillfully makes distinctions in teaching it is only so that sentient beings may leave behind attachment and have their own [true] nature revealed to them. Should one cling to the words regardless, one loses the very principle they were meant to convey" — a caution the commentators apply, by clear implication, to the fascicle's own hundred and eight questions, hundred and eight statements, and every other list and formula it has just spent eleven pages setting out.
Fascicle One Complete
This closes Fascicle One of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra: the assembly at Mount Lanka and Mahāmati's hundred and eight questions; the Buddha's own hundred and eight statements; the true, manifesting, and discriminating consciousnesses and the ocean of the ālayavijñāna; the three marks of noble wisdom and the debate over a rabbit's horns; gradual and sudden purification; the eternal and the inconceivable, the five lineages, and the icchantika; the three own-natures and the two kinds of no-self; and, closing the fascicle, seven kinds of emptiness and the warning against clinging to words rather than meaning — a warning the fascicle itself asks to be read by. Fascicle Two turns to a question that will occupy much of the rest of this sūtra: why the Tathāgata teaches a tathāgatagarbha at all, when the very same teaching, described carelessly, sounds identical to the outsiders' doctrine of an eternal self.
Continue to Part 12 — The Tathāgatagarbha, and the Outsiders' Self →