The Empty and the Not-Empty Tathāgatagarbha
The fourth kind of blindness belongs to the newly resolved bodhisattva, who treats emptiness itself as an object to be attained, mistaking a teaching about what the tathāgatagarbha lacks for a thing that exists apart from it. The treatise's clarification, quoting the Śrīmālā Sūtra directly, distinguishes what the tathāgatagarbha is truly empty of from what it is never empty of — before Chapter Six closes with two verses comparing partial vision of buddha-nature to the sun glimpsed through thin cloud.
The Newly Resolved Bodhisattva's Scattered Mind
又散亂心失空眾生者，謂初發心菩薩，離空如來藏義，以失變壞物修行，名為空解脫門。此以何義？初發心菩薩起如是心：實有法斷滅後時得涅槃。如是菩薩失空如來藏修行。又復有人以空為有物，我應得空。又生如是心：離色等法別更有空，我應修行令得彼空。彼人不知空以何等法是如來藏。偈言：
不空如來藏， 謂無上佛法，
不相捨離相， 不增減一法。
如來無為身， 自性本來淨，
客塵虛妄染， 本來自性空。
此偈明何義？不減一法者，不減煩惱。不增一法者，真如性中不增一法。以不捨離清淨體故。偈言：不相捨離相，不增減一法故。是故聖者《勝鬘經》言：世尊！有二種如來藏空智。世尊！空如來藏，若離若脫若異一切煩惱藏。世尊！不空如來藏，過於恒沙不離不脫不異不思議佛法故。
Furthermore, "beings whose scattered minds have lost sight of emptiness" refers to the newly resolved bodhisattva, who departs from the meaning of the empty tathāgatagarbha and, in the loss of it, cultivates by way of destructible things — this is called the gate of liberation through emptiness. What is this meaning? The newly resolved bodhisattva gives rise to this thought: "There really is a dharma that is extinguished, and afterward nirvāṇa is attained." Such a bodhisattva has lost the cultivation of the empty tathāgatagarbha. Furthermore, there is a person who takes emptiness to be an existing thing, thinking "I should attain emptiness," and further gives rise to this thought: "Apart from form and the other dharmas, there is a further, separate emptiness, and I should cultivate to attain that emptiness." Such a person does not know by what dharma emptiness is the tathāgatagarbha. A verse says:
The not-empty tathāgatagarbha is called the unsurpassed buddha-dharma —
a mark never separate, never diminishing or increasing by a single dharma.
The Tathāgata's unconditioned body, pure by its own nature from the very beginning,
is stained by adventitious, false affliction, yet is, from the very beginning, empty by its own nature.
What meaning does this verse make clear? "Not diminishing by a single dharma" means not diminishing affliction. "Not increasing by a single dharma" means that, within the nature of true suchness, not a single dharma is added — because it never departs from its own pure essence. The verse says "a mark never separate, never diminishing or increasing by a single dharma." Hence the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra says: "World-Honored One! There are two kinds of wisdom regarding the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha. World-Honored One! The empty tathāgatagarbha is separate from, freed from, and different from every storehouse of affliction. World-Honored One! The not-empty tathāgatagarbha is, in number surpassing the sands of the Ganges, not separate from, not freed from, and not different from the inconceivable buddha-dharmas."
This citation matches this site's own Śrīmālā Sūtra translation of the identical two-kinds-of-emptiness teaching, here used to correct a very specific error: treating emptiness as though it named some further thing standing apart from ordinary phenomena, to be sought and acquired the way a treasure is sought and acquired. The treatise's own diagnosis is precise — the newly resolved bodhisattva has understood the teaching that afflictions are empty, and mistakenly generalized it into the belief that everything, including the tathāgatagarbha's own qualities, must likewise be emptied out. The two-kinds-of-emptiness formula corrects this in one stroke: the tathāgatagarbha is empty of every adventitious affliction, and, in the very same breath, never empty of a single buddha-quality — "not diminishing or increasing by a single dharma" applies to precisely these two directions at once.
Emptiness Rightly Known, and the Śrāvaka's Ignorance of It
如是以何等煩惱、以何等處無，如是如實見知，名為空智。又何等諸佛法、何處具足有，如是如實見知，名不空智。如是明離有無二邊如實知空相。此二偈中明如是義。又眾生若離如是空智，彼人則是佛境界外，名不相應，不得定、不得一心，以是義故，名散亂心失空眾生。何以故？以離第一義空智門，無分別境界不可得證、不可得見。是故聖者《勝鬘經》言：世尊！如來藏智名為空智。世尊！如來藏空智者，一切聲聞辟支佛等本所不見、本所不得、本所不證、本所不會。世尊！一切苦滅唯佛得證，壞一切煩惱藏、修一切滅苦道故。如是此如來藏，以法界藏故，身見等眾生不能得見。已說以身見相對治真實法界未現前故。
Thus, truly seeing and knowing what affliction is absent, and in what place it is absent, is called the wisdom of emptiness. And truly seeing and knowing what buddha-dharmas are present, and in what place they are completely present, is called the wisdom of non-emptiness. Thus is clarified the true knowledge of the mark of emptiness, apart from the two extremes of existence and non-existence — these two verses clarify this very meaning. Furthermore, if a sentient being departs from this wisdom of emptiness, that person stands outside the Buddha's domain, is called out of accord with it, and attains neither concentration nor a unified mind — for this reason such a person is called one whose scattered mind has lost sight of emptiness. Why is this? Because, apart from the gate of the wisdom of emptiness that is the truth of ultimate meaning, the domain free of discrimination cannot be realized, cannot be seen. Hence the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra says: "World-Honored One! The wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha is called the wisdom of emptiness. World-Honored One! This wisdom of the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha is, from the very beginning, something no śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha has ever seen, ever attained, ever realized, ever comprehended. World-Honored One! The cessation of all suffering is realized by the Buddha alone, who destroys every storehouse of affliction and cultivates every path to the cessation of suffering." Thus this tathāgatagarbha, being the storehouse of the dharma-realm, cannot be seen by beings caught in the view of self and the rest. It has already been explained that this is because, being counteracted by the view of self, the true dharma-realm has not yet become manifest to them.
Closing Verses: The Sun Behind Thin Cloud
又如是出世間法身如來藏，非顛倒眾生境界。已說以無常等世間法對治出世間法界未現前故。又如是自性清淨法界如來空藏，非散亂心失空眾生境界。已說以煩惱垢客塵染、空自性清淨功德法不相捨離出世間法身得名故。此明何義？又依一味等味法界無差別智門，觀察出世間自性清淨法身，是名如實知見真如。是故經說：十住菩薩唯能少分見如來藏，何況凡夫二乘人等。是故偈言：
譬如薄雲中， 見虛空有日，
淨慧諸聖人， 見佛亦如是。
聲聞辟支佛， 如無眼目者，
不能觀如來， 如盲不見日。
所知一切法， 有無量無邊，
遍虛空法界， 無量智能見。
諸如來法身， 充滿一切處，
佛智慧能見， 以無量智故。
Furthermore, this transcendent dharmakāya, the tathāgatagarbha, is not the domain of beings caught in inverted views. It has already been explained that this is because, being counteracted by worldly dharmas such as impermanence, the transcendent dharma-realm has not yet become manifest to them. Furthermore, this empty tathāgatagarbha, the dharma-realm pure by its own nature, is not the domain of beings whose scattered minds have lost sight of emptiness. It has already been explained that this is because the transcendent dharmakāya attains its name precisely by the taint of afflictive dust never being separate from the pure qualities that are empty of it. What does this clarify? Furthermore, in dependence on the gate of the undifferentiated wisdom of the dharma-realm, one flavor, an equal flavor, one observes the transcendent dharmakāya, pure by its own nature — this is called truly knowing and seeing suchness. Hence a sūtra says: bodhisattvas on the ten abiding-grounds can see only a small portion of the tathāgatagarbha — how much more so ordinary persons and practitioners of the two vehicles. Hence a verse says:
Just as, within thin cloud, the sun is seen in the sky,
so too do the noble ones of pure wisdom see the Buddha.
Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, like those without eyes,
cannot behold the Tathāgata, as the blind cannot see the sun.
What is to be known — every dharma — is immeasurable, boundless,
pervading the dharma-realm like space; only immeasurable wisdom can see it.
The dharmakāya of every tathāgata fills every place —
the Buddha's wisdom alone can see it, by the power of immeasurable wisdom.
The chapter's closing image quietly revises its own earlier sun-and-space similes: elsewhere the sun stood for something wholly unobstructed, but here even the noble ones on the bodhisattva grounds see it only "within thin cloud" — genuine sight, yet still partial, with only a buddha's own immeasurable wisdom seeing without any cloud at all. This graduated vision — the blind śrāvaka, the cloud-veiled noble one, the unobstructed buddha — gives the whole chapter's teaching on the nine similes and the four kinds of blindness its final shape: concealment is not a single either/or condition but comes in degrees, each degree corresponding to a real, if still partial, way of already beginning to see.
Part 22 Complete — Chapter Six Concluded
This closes Chapter Six, 無量煩惱所纏品第六 ("Wrapped in Immeasurable Affliction"), and with it the treatise's two longest chapters. Part 23 opens the short seventh chapter, 為何義說品第七 ("Why Explained in This Way") — the treatise's own answer to an objection it poses against itself: if buddha-nature is beyond the reach of even advanced bodhisattvas, why teach it to confused, ordinary people at all? The answer names five specific faults that arise from teaching emptiness alone, without also teaching that all beings possess the tathāgatagarbha.
Continue to Part 23 — Five Faults of Teaching Emptiness Alone →