All Dharmas Are the Nature of the Tathāgatagarbha

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha refuted the naturalist heretics as well as the heretics of causes and conditions. All dharmas return to the true Dharma—the tathāgatagarbha. The arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of all dharmas seem to follow their own inherent laws, but in reality they are all governed by the tathāgatagarbha. Without the tathāgatagarbha's functions of generating and upholding them, not even the slightest phenomenon of arising, abiding, changing, or ceasing would exist in any dharma. Never mind chemical or physical processes—in essence, they are all the workings of the tathāgatagarbha. Without the material form generated and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha and the seven consciousnesses, and without the mental factors (caittas) of the seven consciousnesses, where would those false dharmas dissociated from mind (citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra)—such as swiftness and flux—come from?

The phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of material form can only have their true substance clarified through the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only possessed by bhūmi-pratiṣṭhita bodhisattvas. That is what is seen by the Dharma eye; it is not something that ordinary beings or even ordinary bodhisattvas who have awakened to the true mind and seen the Buddha-nature can accurately discern and observe. With the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only, bodhisattvas on the bhūmis can observe that on every single dharma there is the tathāgatagarbha's concrete operation. The tathāgatagarbha is the puppeteer of all dharmas; ordinary beings can only see the puppets performing the play, but cannot see the mechanism behind the puppets. Yet precisely because of this, ordinary beings remain self-assured, taking the puppets' movements as real and as possessing inherent self-nature, even claiming that there is no string behind the puppets and that the puppets operate entirely by themselves. This shows that sentient beings are obscured by ignorance and cannot see the substance and essence of things.

If one wants to be a bodhisattva but does not make the great vow and does not cultivate merit, one simply cannot become a bodhisattva. One will never be able to sort out the true meaning of the Dharma and will not arrive at a correct understanding. Then one will call the outer paths the inner path, and the inner path the outer path—reversing right and wrong and throwing the Buddha's Dharma into confusion. How many people have actually made the bodhisattva's resolve? Without the bodhisattva's mind, one will not have a correct understanding of the Buddha's Dharma, nor correct views and knowledge. Very simple questions remain unsolved for years on end. If the wisdom of scientists, apart from the Buddha's Dharma, could be used, then scientists could become Buddhas. Then we could just study science instead of studying Buddhism. Not to carefully study and probe into the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, which the Buddha taught so excellently and so definitively, but instead to study the scientists' atheism—is that the conduct of a bodhisattva?

"All dharmas are created by mind alone; all dharmas are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha"—these two statements were spoken by the Buddha. If you have faith in the Buddha's words, then come and explain them, and see whether the Buddha is right or the scientists are right. Some people also speak of the "first-cause heretics." Let us see whether the Buddha is a first-cause heretic. If the Buddha is a first-cause heretic, then as the Buddha's disciples, we should all become first-cause heretics too. Is the view that all dharmas are mind-only the view of the first-cause heretics?

Explain the statement that all dharmas are created by mind alone; explain the statement in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra that all dharmas are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Why do Buddhist learners not carefully contemplate the heretical teachings refuted in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra? That material form arises naturally—the Buddha called this the naturalist heretical theory. That all dharmas arise from causes and conditions rather than from the tathāgatagarbha—the Buddha called this the heretical theory of causes and conditions. In the end, the Buddha concluded: all dharmas are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha and are generated by the tathāgatagarbha.

If those who study the Buddha's Dharma do not accept the Śūraṅgama Sūtra and do not accept what the Buddha taught, what path is that? To contend with the Buddha and go against the Buddha's sutras—what path is that? Draw your own conclusion.