How Tathāgatagarbha Records Karmic Actions and Releases Karmic Seeds (Part 3)

The consciousness seeds inherently exist within the Tathagatagarbha and are neither born nor extinguished. There is no dharma that gives birth to consciousness seeds; they spontaneously and naturally reside within the Tathagatagarbha. Although their number is exceedingly vast, the total quantity is fixed. Since the number is fixed, then after a consciousness seed is born and subsequently ceases, where does it go? After cessation, it returns to the Tathagatagarbha. Thus, the number of consciousness seeds within the Tathagatagarbha remains fixed: they are continuously produced and return, output and return, output and return, so the quantity remains unchanged.

The Tathagatagarbha constantly uses this fixed number of seeds to generate the seven consciousnesses. When consciousness seeds are output, they form the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses. Once the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses are produced, they are categorized as defiled, pure, or neutral. If the mental factors are defiled, the seven consciousnesses perform defiled karmic actions; if the mental factors are pure, the seven consciousnesses perform pure karmic actions. When the consciousness seeds return to the Tathagatagarbha, they bring back with them all the mental activities performed by the seven consciousnesses and the content they have discerned. This is called the spontaneous and natural recording by the Tathagatagarbha. It spontaneously and naturally stores the physical, verbal, and mental actions of sentient beings, and in the future, it will spontaneously and naturally output karmic seeds, spontaneously and naturally actualizing the causes, conditions, and karmic retribution for sentient beings.

All of this is not an active recording by the Tathagatagarbha, nor an active storing, nor an active intention to output karmic seeds. The Tathagatagarbha has no such mental activities; it is an unconditioned dharma. Unconditioned mental activities do not actively or intentionally create anything; they are simply its spontaneously natural functional nature. Its original function is like this; the purpose of its existence is precisely this. It is not that it possesses mental activities thinking, "I must record the karmic actions of sentient beings and distinguish good from evil"—it has no such mental activities. This means that it spontaneously and naturally outputs seeds; consciousness seeds are output, then after discerning and performing karmic actions, the consciousness seeds return. Upon returning to the Tathagatagarbha, they immediately bring back the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, the content they discerned, and the actions they performed, storing them as seeds within the Tathagatagarbha.

In this way, the Tathagatagarbha also stores the content discerned by the seven consciousnesses and their mental activities. If the mental activities are wholesome, they are stored as wholesome seeds in the Tathagatagarbha; if the mental activities are unwholesome, these physical, verbal, and mental actions are stored as unwholesome karmic seeds in the Tathagatagarbha; if the mental activities are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, the physical, verbal, and mental actions are stored as neutral karmic seeds in the Tathagatagarbha. This is the spontaneous and natural recording and storing of the operations of the seven consciousnesses by the Tathagatagarbha; the physical, verbal, and mental actions of sentient beings are recorded in precisely this manner.

While physical, verbal, and mental actions are being performed, they are recorded bit by bit and stored incrementally. These seeds are continuously output and ceaselessly return to the Tathagatagarbha. Thus, the recorded and stored content forms an event. Once this event is completed, it is stored as a complete karmic seed. The Tathagatagarbha records bit by bit and stores incrementally, finally forming a complete karmic action or karmic seed. Throughout this process, not the slightest mental activity is ever lost; even the most subtle mental activity is never omitted by the Tathagatagarbha. Why? Because all consciousness seeds return to the Tathagatagarbha continuously, one after another. The seven consciousnesses discern a bit and store a bit, discern a bit and store a bit; ultimately, the continuously discerned content forms the entire event.

This entire event, whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral, is stored as seeds. The Tathagatagarbha does not alter or modify these mental activities and karmic actions in the slightest. Nor does the Tathagatagarbha make any choices; it does not select which karmic actions to record and which not to record. It has no selectivity; all seeds that return are all stored in the treasury. After the output consciousness seeds return, they bring back the discerned content and the performed actions, all stored as seeds in this treasury.

After being stored in the treasury, when conditions ripen in the future, the Tathagatagarbha will again output these consciousness seeds from the treasury. Once these consciousness seeds are output, they bring along the previously ripened karmic seeds. Consequently, the performance of physical, verbal, and mental actions will carry the nature of greed, hatred, and delusion, or a pure nature, or a defiled nature. Because the originally stored seeds were of that nature, when they are output again, they manifest with the same purity or defilement as before.