The Manifestations of True Enlightenment

Understanding certain principles of the tathāgatagarbha is merely understanding the theory; it does not mean realizing the tathāgatagarbha, nor does it mean awakening to the true mind and attaining enlightenment. Enlightenment requires discovering exactly where the tathāgatagarbha operates and how it operates, being able to observe His genuine existence, and being able to observe the unreality of the dharmas through which He operates. Only then does one truly understand the facts and truth of the world, genuinely develop within the mind the feeling that the five aggregates of body and mind are empty and unreal, and give rise to joy, delight, and curiosity toward the tathāgatagarbha.

After truly awakening, one's descriptions of the tathāgatagarbha all have one's own distinctive character—very concrete and real—not an empty description of theory.