華嚴經義海百門 1.50

1.50

Second, realising form and emptiness: seeing the dust mote established through conditions is form; because form has no intrinsic essence, it is emptiness. If emptiness were spoken of as emptiness without form, that would be absence of the deluded form of conventional truth, whereas true emptiness of paramārtha-satya exists because of deluded form; if form were spoken of as form without emptiness, that would be absence of the true emptiness of paramārtha-satya, whereas the deluded form of conventional truth exists because of true emptiness. Now, simply understanding that delusion has no intrinsic essence is precisely true emptiness; it is not that the absence of form is called emptiness. The sūtra says: 'The nature of form is of itself empty; it is not through the destruction of form that it is empty.'