How the Tathāgatagarbha Records Karmic Actions and Outputs Karmic Seeds (Eight)

The seeds of consciousness, from being output to being drawn back, are like a circulating water pump. The entire process of the tathāgatagarbha recording karmic seeds, storing karmic seeds, and outputting karmic seeds is the process of the tathāgatagarbha acting spontaneously (yathā-pratyaya); He has no mental activity, no subjectivity, and is completely unconditioned (asaṃskṛta). One might say it is conditioned, because on the surface the tathāgatagarbha is constantly operating, constantly generating all dharmas; but in reality He always acts spontaneously, without subjective initiative, without any capacity to make decisions—His mental activity is entirely of an unconditioned nature. Because He has no mental activity, no choosing, He does not discern good and evil, nor does He select between good and evil; whether wholesome or unwholesome karma, He stores it all. Moreover, His storing of karmic seeds is not an active storing; rather, after the seeds of consciousness are sent out, discern the six sense objects, and create bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the seeds of consciousness will naturally bring back the content that was discerned and created, bringing back the entire karmic activity of bodily, verbal, and mental actions.

The mental activity within it—whether mental activity of greed, hatred, and delusion, or of purity—is all brought back, and it is stored naturally and inherently, as the Dharma is by its very nature. It is not that the tathāgatagarbha actively stores or actively collects; rather, it is inherently so, natural and spontaneous, a process that has always been this way, and the entire process is stored without missing a single drop. What does "without missing a single drop" mean? The content discerned by every seed of consciousness is brought back, without even the slightest omission—this is called "without missing a single drop." It is not that the tathāgatagarbha itself insists on not missing anything, or intentionally lets a little slip; neither is the case. Rather, the seeds of consciousness naturally bring it back, and He has no way to make any kind of choice, nor would He make a choice. Once the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses have been created, the tathāgatagarbha has no selectivity whatsoever—there is no choice of whether to store or not to store, no choice of what to store and what not to store; there is simply none at all.

Therefore, we must be careful and cautious in creating our bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Whether what is created is wholesome or unwholesome, even a tiny bit of good or a tiny bit of evil, it is all stored as a seed, and there will come a day when the seeds are output and the karmic retribution is received. Because the seeds of consciousness will return, returning into the tathāgatagarbha, and the mental activity will be brought into the tathāgatagarbha just as it is. It is just like water flowing along its course—whatever it passes through, whatever it washes over, it brings those things back; it is naturally and spontaneously so. The tathāgatagarbha does not make choices either; He simply stores it all naturally, and then the water pump naturally collects and stores whatever was brought back—whether vajra sand or ordinary sand and soil—and then sends it out again.