འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 1.25

1.25

“How should emptiness be understood through the absence of a governing power? Because there is nothing that is beyond emptiness, there is nothing to be a governing power of emptiness. This is how emptiness should be understood through the absence of a governing power.

“How should emptiness be understood through the absence of birth? Emptiness is not born. If emptiness were born it would not be emptiness. The empty would therefore not be empty. If something that has been born were not empty, and emptiness does not birth itself, then the unborn would not be nonempty. This is how emptiness should be understood through the absence of birth.

“How should emptiness be understood through the absence of cessation? Whatever is born ceases, and emptiness is not born. How could something that is not born cease? This is how emptiness should be understood through the absence of cessation.

“How should emptiness be understood through the absence of conditioning? Emptiness is not acted on, nor does it act. The aggregates, elements, and sense bases are empty. When they are fixated on, they are conceptually designated as emptiness. This is how emptiness should be understood through the absence of conditioning.

“How should emptiness be understood through the absence of doing? Emptiness cannot be effected by saying, ‘You should do it this way.’ This is how emptiness should be understood through the absence of doing.

“How should emptiness be understood through the absence of ownership? Emptiness is not an object and does not have an object;³⁵ it is devoid of mind, thought, and the mind consciousness. This is how emptiness should be understood through the absence of ownership.

“Child of good family, bodhisattvas should understand emptiness through these ten approaches to the way of the Dharma.

“Child of good family, bodhisattvas should understand the factors that oppose emptiness through ten approaches to the way of the Dharma. What are these ten? The opposing factors of (1) ignorance,