The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Two: The Five Aggregates Are Illusory

Original text:佛言阿难。汝犹未明。一切浮尘。诸幻化相。当处出生。随处灭尽。幻妄称相。其性真为。妙觉明体。

This "place" refers to the tathāgatagarbha, the place of arising of all deluded dharmas; it is not elsewhere, nor is there any other place—outside the tathāgatagarbha there are no dharmas. Then, in accordance with karmic seeds and relying on conditions, the tathāgatagarbha outputs the seeds of the seven great elements, giving rise to the world of the five aggregates; when the conditions are exhausted, the deluded dharmas cease—and they still cease within the tathāgatagarbha, not elsewhere, for there is no elsewhere. This amounts to saying that all dharmas arise yet do not arise, cease yet do not cease. When the seeds of the seven great elements are output, there is also no output—since nothing goes outside the tathāgatagarbha, where could they be output to? In particular, when the seeds of the seventh consciousness are output, where could they be output to? Without the impetus of the seventh consciousness, there would be no world of the five aggregates. Among deluded dharmas, the seventh consciousness exists first; apart from it there are no other deluded dharmas. Where does the seventh consciousness exist, and when it ceases, where does it cease to? All are within the tathāgatagarbha, at the place of the tathāgatagarbha; all the other illusory and deluded dharmas are likewise so.

Reflecting on this matter is very interesting and even more meaningful: the world originally has no dharmas, nor is there even a world—there is nothing at all. If one sees dharmas, one sees the tathāgatagarbha; if there is seeing, it is the seeing of the tathāgatagarbha. What else could there be, apart from the tathāgatagarbha? Truly, all dharmas are utterly without anything attainable—unattainable, absolutely unattainable.