釋禪波羅蜜次第法門 7.73

7.73

Thirteenth, contemplating exit and dispersal: this serves to counteract and refute [the absorption of] the station of boundless space. Why is that? “Exit” means departing from the form realm; “dispersal” means dispersing the three kinds of form. Furthermore, “exit and dispersal” means departing from form and mind, relying on empty space to dissolve and disperse in mastery, unbound by material phenomena; hence it is named exit and dispersal. When ordinary people attain this absorption, they think it is true emptiness and tranquility, and grasp at it with longing. Now, as for “contemplating exit and dispersal”: when the practitioner first enters the station of boundless space, they immediately know that it exists only due to the combination of the four aggregates, is without self-nature, and must not be grasped. Why is that? If one says there is exit and dispersal, is empty space that which exits and disperses, or is the mind that which exits and disperses? If it is the mind that exits and disperses, the mind is transformed by the three characteristics: the past has already ceased, the future has not yet arrived, and the present does not abide; how could it exit? If it is empty space that exits and disperses, empty space is insentient, and what exit and dispersal could an insentient phenomenon have? Since one finds no absorption of emptiness, the mind is free of grasping; this is named contemplating exit and dispersal.