How the Tathāgatagarbha Records Karmic Actions and Outputs Karmic Seeds (Part Three)

Seeds of consciousness have always existed within the tathāgatagarbha; they are neither born nor extinguished. There is no dharma that gives birth to seeds of consciousness—the seeds of consciousness simply exist within the tathāgatagarbha naturally so (such by nature). Although their number is extremely, extremely vast, the total quantity is fixed. Since the quantity is fixed, then after seeds of consciousness are produced and cease, where do they go when they cease? After ceasing, they return to the tathāgatagarbha. In this way, the number of seeds of consciousness within the tathāgatagarbha is fixed: they are constantly produced and then return, sent out and coming back, sent out and coming back, so the quantity remains unchanged.

The tathāgatagarbha always uses this fixed quantity of seeds to produce the seven consciousnesses. When the seeds of consciousness are sent out, they form the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses. Once the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses arise, they divide into defiled, pure, and neutral/indeterminate (avyākṛta) types. If the mental factors (caittas) are defiled, the seven consciousnesses create defiled karmic actions; if the mental factors are pure, the seven consciousnesses create pure karmic actions. And as soon as the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha, they carry back into it all the mental activities created by the seven consciousnesses and the contents they discerned. This is called the tathāgatagarbha's recording, naturally so: it naturally so stores sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and in the future it will naturally so output karmic seeds, naturally so bringing about sentient beings' causes, conditions, and karmic results.

Yet none of this is the tathāgatagarbha actively recording, actively storing, or actively intending to output karmic seeds. The tathāgatagarbha has no such mental activities; He is an unconditioned dharma. The mental activities of an unconditioned mind do not actively or deliberately create anything; all of this is simply His functional nature, naturally so—this is His original mode of operation, and this is precisely the function of His existence. It is not that He has some mental activity such as "I must record sentient beings' karmic actions, and I must distinguish the wholesome from the unwholesome"—He has no such mental activity. That is to say, He naturally so outputs seeds: the seeds of consciousness are sent out, and after discerning and creating karmic actions, the seeds of consciousness return. When they return to the tathāgatagarbha, they immediately bring the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, the contents discerned, and the actions performed back into the tathāgatagarbha, where they are stored as seeds.

In this way, the tathāgatagarbha also stores the contents discerned by the seven consciousnesses and their mental activities. If the mental activities are wholesome, they are stored in the tathāgatagarbha as wholesome seeds; if the mental activities are unwholesome, those bodily, verbal, and mental actions are stored in the tathāgatagarbha as unwholesome karmic seeds; if the mental activities are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are stored in the tathāgatagarbha as neutral (avyākṛta) karma. This is the tathāgatagarbha's naturally-so recording and storing of the operations of the seven consciousnesses; this is how sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions are recorded.

While the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are being performed, they are being recorded bit by bit and stored bit by bit. These seeds are output continuously and return to the tathāgatagarbha without interruption, and thus the recorded and stored contents come to form an event. When this event is complete, it is collected and stored as a single, whole karmic seed. The tathāgatagarbha records bit by bit by bit, collects and stores bit by bit by bit, and finally a complete karmic action and karmic seed is formed. In this process, not even the tiniest mental activity has ever been lost; the tathāgatagarbha has never omitted even the most subtle mental activity. Why? Because all the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha continuously, one by one; the seven consciousnesses discern a little and a little is stored, discern a little and a little is stored, and finally, the discerned contents, strung together continuously, constitute the entire event.

This entire event—whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral—is stored as seeds. The tathāgatagarbha will not make even the slightest alteration or change to these mental activities and karmic actions. Nor does the tathāgatagarbha make any choice, deciding that this karmic action is recorded and that one is not; He has no selectivity. All the seeds return, and all that return are collected into the storehouse. After the output seeds of consciousness come back, they bring back the discerned contents and the contents of what was done, and all are stored as seeds in this storehouse.

After being stored in the storehouse, when the conditions are encountered in the future, the tathāgatagarbha will again output these seeds of consciousness from the storehouse. Once these seeds of consciousness are sent out, they also carry out the previously stored karmic seeds whose conditions have ripened. Thus the creation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions will carry the nature of greed, aversion, and delusion, or else purity, or else defilement. Because the seeds originally stored were of that kind, when He outputs them again at this time, they manifest as pure or defiled in exactly the same way as before.