Is There Tathāgatagarbha in Insentient Things?

"Insentient" means lacking a conscious mind, lacking all the functional properties of a conscious mind; therefore, there is no power of discernment and no operation of mental factors (caittas).

However, insentient things are also manifested and upheld by the tathāgatagarbha—they are manifested and upheld jointly by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings who share common karma. When multiple tathāgatagarbhas cooperate together, they can only output the seeds of the four great elements to form the four great elements, manifesting the material universe (the vessel-world), mountains, rivers, the great earth, flowers, grasses, trees, and other insentient things; they cannot output the seeds of consciousness. Therefore, insentient things are also a functional operation of the tathāgatagarbha, yet they lack the functional operations of the five aggregates of sentient beings. The output of the seeds of consciousness is the individual act of a single sentient being's tathāgatagarbha; it can form a conscious mind, which has the functional operations of a conscious mind and the running of mental factors—this is what constitutes sentient beings. The dharmas formed by the tathāgatagarbha's outputting the seeds of the four great elements versus its outputting the seeds of consciousness are different: the former forms insentient things that have no conscious mental activity and no body of the five aggregates, while the latter forms sentient beings that have conscious mental activity and a body of the five aggregates. Both have the functional operations of the tathāgatagarbha; the operations are simply different.

The tathāgatagarbha's operation within the body of the five aggregates is in union with the seven consciousnesses, working in concert with the seven consciousness-minds; it can discern the activities of the seven consciousness-minds, making the body of the five aggregates lively and vibrant. But multiple tathāgatagarbhas have no cooperative relationship with insentient things—they merely output and alter the seeds of the four great elements. Insentient things have no mental activity; they are not produced and sustained by a single tathāgatagarbha, so within insentient things there is no way to find one's own tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, one cannot attain realization or see the mind by means of insentient things. But within the operation of the body of the five aggregates, one can find the tathāgatagarbha, can attain realization, can see the mind. Hence, in the Āgama sūtras, the World-Honored One said: 五阴非我，不异我，不相在。