The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume 2: The False and Illusory Nature of the Five Aggregates (Pañca-skandha)

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 delusive dharmas—it is nowhere else, and there is no other place; outside the tathāgatagarbha there are no dharmas. The tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with karmic seeds and relying on conditions, outputs the seven intrinsically existing great seeds and gives rise to the world of the five aggregates; when conditions are exhausted, the delusive dharmas cease, and they cease still within the tathāgatagarbha, not elsewhere—there is no elsewhere. This amounts to saying that all dharmas arise yet without arising, and cease yet without ceasing. When the seven great seeds are output, there is in fact no output—since nothing goes outside the tathāgatagarbha, where could they be output to? In particular, when the seeds of the seventh consciousness (manas) are output, where could they be output to? Without the impetus of the seventh consciousness, there would be no world of the five aggregates. The seventh consciousness is the first to exist among delusive dharmas; apart from it, there is no other delusive dharma whatsoever. Where does the seventh consciousness exist, and when it ceases, toward where does it cease? All are within the tathāgatagarbha, at the locus of the tathāgatagarbha—and all the other illusory and delusive dharmas are likewise so.

Reflecting on this matter is very intriguing, 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 is there, apart from the tathāgatagarbha? Truly, in all dharmas there is nothing whatsoever to be attained—they are unattainable, absolutely unattainable.