註華嚴法界觀門 1.34

1.34

This explains the first clause. Annihilationist emptiness is empty voidness and extinction; it is not the true mind. Devoid of knowing and devoid of functioning, it cannot manifest the ten thousand dharmas. There are two kinds of this: namely, emptiness [apprehended by] departing from rūpa, and emptiness of extinction. Emptiness [apprehended by] departing from rūpa means emptiness is outside of rūpa, just as where there is a wall is not empty, while outside the wall is empty. Emptiness of extinction means extinguishing rūpa to clarify emptiness, just as digging a well and removing soil produces an empty space, requiring the necessary extinction of rūpa. Here, to distinguish from this, it is said: "it is not annihilationist emptiness." Therefore the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā says: "Existing first and then becoming non-existent: this is annihilation." However, both non-Buddhists and the Hīnayāna have [the view of] annihilation: non-Buddhists' annihilation returns to the great void, while the two vehicles' annihilation returns to nirvāṇa. Hence the Zhaolun says: "Of great afflictions, none is worse than having a body; thus one extinguishes the body to return to non-existence. Of toil and labor, none is worse than having cognition; thus one severs cognition to sink into voidness." It also says: "Form is a shackle; cognition is mixed poison." The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra says: "If the substance of the mind were extinguished, it would not be different from the frivolous discourse of non-Buddhist annihilation."