Having last month considered how water is like the Dharma, we consider the teachings that followed the Buddha arising from beneath the bodhi tree.

“O you of good intent! Arising from beneath the bodhi tree, I went to Deer Park in Vārāṇasī. When I turned the Dharma wheel of the Four Noble Truths for the five renunciants including Ājñātakauṇḍinya, I was also saying that all phenomena intrinsically are empty and tranquil, successively occurring but not remaining, coming forth and becoming void moment to moment. When I proclaimed, narrated, and lectured on the twelve-linked chain of dependent origination or the perfection of the six spiritual attitudes for the monks or for the assemblies of bodhisattvas, respectively, here and at other places during the middle period, I was also saying that all phenomena are intrinsically empty and tranquil, successively occurring but not remaining, coming forth and becoming void from moment to moment. Now, again at this place, discoursing on the all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra, I am also saying that all phenomena are intrinsically empty and tranquil, successively occurring but not remaining, coming forth and becoming void moment to moment. O you of good intent! This is why the initial-period discourses, the middle-period discourses, and the current discourse express the same thing even though they differ in meaning. Because meanings differ, living beings understand differently. Because their understanding differs, so does their grasp of the Dharma, their attainment of its fruits, and their realization of the Way.

See Reality as Empty of Substantial Being Yet Conventionally Existent