Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (84)

After the consciousness-mind comes into being, it continues to operate unceasingly upon the physical body until death. When this life comes to an end, after the six consciousness-minds—the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, and mind consciousness—have all ceased, this is called the aggregates of death, and the body is just a piece of wood. When the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind consciousnesses first arise, this is called the aggregates of birth. One arising and one ceasing constitute a single lifetime.

At the birth and disappearance of each lifetime, one brings nothing and takes nothing away. Apart from carrying karmic formations back and forth to undergo retribution, everything else vanishes without a trace. Therefore, all dharmas are themselves conditioned things subject to arising and ceasing; they are empty. What is empty cannot be taken away; only what is real can be taken along. What is it that can be taken along? The tathāgatagarbha has followed you life after life, carrying karmic seeds from life to life, actualizing the karmic retribution of life after life. As for where the five aggregates go to undergo retribution, the tathāgatagarbha does not care—He does not undergo retribution anyway; He merely continues to manifest the five-aggregate body in accordance with karma, never ever abandoning sentient beings. So who is the person dearest to us? It is the tathāgatagarbha—so dear that for not even a moment is He willing to leave us.