大乘百法明門論開宗義決 1.18

1.18

Regarding "dharmas such as atoms are all permanently abiding," and so forth: relying on the divine eye attained through worldly concentration, they themselves see their bodies and the worlds continuing without interruption from previous lives, and cling that the self and the world are both permanently abiding. Or, relying on worldly concentration, they give rise to this view: they cling that existence precedes the arising of fruitions, and dispersion precedes the destruction of fruitions; meaning, coarse physical fruitions arise from an aggregation of atoms, and when coarse things are analyzed, they only reach and abide at the atom; therefore, atoms are permanent and coarse things are impermanent. One should say to them: do the self and the world have alteration or no alteration? If they have alteration, clinging that this world is entirely permanently abiding is unreasonable. If they have no alteration, then there would be no distinction; having various characteristics is unreasonable. Atom-theorists, I now ask you: do the atoms you cling to have spatial division or not? If they have spatial division, they should be capable of being analyzed, and clinging to them as permanent is unreasonable. If they have no spatial division, they would have no physical resistance and could not aggregate to produce coarse rūpa, which is unreasonable.