The Discrimination of the Tathāgatagarbha Is Different from That of the Manas

Question: When the manas cognizes an essence-attached realm, is this essence-attached realm a mental sense-object (dharma-viṣaya), or the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) of the tathāgatagarbha? How can the manas' cognition of mental sense-objects be reconciled with its cognition of the tathāgatagarbha's perceiving-aspect?

Answer: The operation of the tathāgatagarbha relies upon the five universally present mental factors of its own substance: attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). When these five mental factors operate upon the essential realm (the realm of essence), they can discern the karmic seeds as well as sentient beings' faculties, body, and material world. Having the function of the perceiving-aspect, the tathāgatagarbha can see all dharmas and illuminate all dharmas, and all these dharmas are the object-aspects (nimitta) perceived by the tathāgatagarbha. After the tathāgatagarbha's volition mental factor operates, it can manifest the essence-attached realm, which is created and transformed by the tathāgatagarbha's volition mental factor. The essence-attached realm is the tathāgatagarbha's object-aspect, the result of the operation of its perceiving-aspect, and the mental sense-object manifested by the perceiving-aspect.

The seventh consciousness, relying on the tathāgatagarbha's perceiving-aspect, can thereby cognize the object-aspect brought forth by the tathāgatagarbha's perceiving-aspect — the essence-attached realm. Therefore, although the seventh consciousness can cognize the tathāgatagarbha's perceiving-aspect, it is different from the object-aspect perceived by the tathāgatagarbha: one is the essential realm, and the other is a similar realm transformed and arisen in dependence upon the essential realm, like the fire in a mirror, which is illusory. Although the essential realm perceived by the tathāgatagarbha's perceiving-aspect is also conjured up by the tathāgatagarbha, the essence-attached realm perceived by the seventh consciousness is an illusion within an illusion — a second transformation.

The object-aspects at the supreme faculty (indriya) are the essence-attached realm and the subjectively imagined realm. The essence-attached realm includes the true essence-attached realm and the false essence-attached realm, divided into transformed attachment and narrow attachment; it comprises material form (rūpa), mental dharmas, and also dharmas that are neither material nor mental. The essential realm cognized by the tathāgatagarbha consists of particles composed of the four great elements, which are relatively coarse (dausthulya) and relatively solid material form; whereas the material form of the essence-attached realm, although also composed of particles of the four great elements, is subtle material form, not so solid, and rather illusory — much like the difference between the physical bodies of humans and the physical bodies of ghosts and spirits. The essential realm, for example, is fire and water composed of the four great elements, the great earth, mountains and rivers, and so on; the essence-attached realm is like the fire and water, the great earth, mountains and rivers, and so on in a mirror. One is real, the other is unreal. The seven consciousnesses can only discern unreal dharmas, not real dharmas; real dharmas can only be discerned by the tathāgatagarbha.