Guangbai Lun Ben (廣百論本)

If things truly existed on their own, They would not depend on other causes. Since they must depend on other causes, We know for certain they lack real existence.

A jar is not identical to its color, Nor does it exist apart from color. Color does not depend on the jar, Nor does the jar depend on color alone.

If you see them as two separate things, You claim a shared essence exists apart from the jar. But since the two appear distinct, There must also be a difference apart from the jar.

If "one" does not name the jar, The jar should not be called "one." Since "jar" and "one" never truly merge, The jar cannot rightly be called one.

If color pervaded all realities, Color would deserve the greater name. If the opponent's view is not refuted, Then let them state their own position clearly.

Attributes like number and form, Fail to prove what they supposedly mark. Beyond these, there is no other cause, So all things lack true existence.

A jar is not made of separate parts, So its essence is not one. No single part is the jar itself, So its essence is not many either.

What has no tangible body Cannot unite with what has tangible form. Thus elements like color can never Truly combine into a jar.

Color is just one part of a jar, So color itself is not the jar. If the whole does not truly exist, How can any single part exist?

All forms share the same nature; Their characteristics show no real difference. If only one kind is called a jar, Why would others not qualify?

If color differs from taste and so on, Yet is not different from the jar itself, And if the jar equals taste and the rest, Why then is color not the same as the jar?

Since the jar has no real cause, Its essence cannot arise as an effect. So if it differs from color and other parts, The jar must certainly be nonexistent.

If a cause for the jar existed, It could serve as the jar's cause. But since no such cause exists, How could a jar ever arise?

When color and other elements combine, They never truly produce fragrance or the like. Thus the combined whole, like the jar, Should be recognized as nonexistent.

Just as apart from color and so on, The jar's essence is truly absent, So too is color itself absent, Apart from air and other elements.

Heat is the very nature of fire; Without heat, how could anything burn? Therefore fuel has no true essence, And fire does not exist apart from it.

If other elements mixed with heat, Why would they not become fire themselves? If they cannot turn into heat, Then fire's nature would be unfounded.

If fire's smallest particle needs no fuel, Then fire could exist apart from fuel. But if that particle requires fuel, Then no fire-particle could ever exist alone.

When carefully examining all things, Not a single one is truly self-existent. Since no single essence exists, No multiplicity of essences can exist either.

If a thing has nothing beyond itself, You may call it a single essence. But all things bear threefold nature, So the idea of single essence collapses.

Existence, nonexistence, both, and neither— One and many—all dualities dissolve. Apply these pairings step by step: The wise see that none are ultimately real.

In what are merely flowing continuums, The ignorant imagine permanent truths. In what are only gathered collections, They wrongly hold onto real existence.

All things arise from many causes, Their nature is weak, without self-mastery. They depend on conditions, illusory and relative— Thus both self and phenomena are void.

Effects are produced by many causes; Apart from causes, no separate effect exists. This union and its result— The noble ones understand both as absent.

Consciousness is the seed of all existence; Objects are what consciousness perceives. When one sees that objects have no self, The seeds of all existence are extinguished.