The Significance of Actual Realization

Question: Is empirical realization a process of continually persuading oneself to break free from attachment to self and phenomena? Or can one truly perceive a living Tathāgatagarbha with the naked eye? By Tathāgatagarbha, I refer to the empty Tathāgatagarbha beyond the five aggregates and eighteen elements.

Answer: Empirical realization entails attaining insight through Zen meditation into that Tathāgatagarbha which functions within the five-aggregate body, discerning what function the Tathāgatagarbha performs. This is analogous to perceiving the function of a great wind arising, thereby realizing the existence and location of the great wind itself.