The Nature of the Tathāgatagarbha

The tathāgatagarbha is not something assembled; He is not a composite. Whatever is composite is born and formed later, and is therefore subject to arising and ceasing. But the tathāgatagarbha exists from the very beginning, neither arising nor ceasing. No dharma can be assembled into the tathāgatagarbha; rather, it is the tathāgatagarbha that gives birth to all dharmas. The tathāgatagarbha is not in empty space, yet He is never apart from the five aggregates (pañcaskandha); in all the operations of the five aggregates, the tathāgatagarbha is there cooperating. The tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the five aggregates by transmitting the seven intrinsically existing great seeds (earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, consciousness), and the body of the five aggregates is formed from the six great seeds transmitted by the tathāgatagarbha.

When the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the five aggregates and the eighteen realms (dhātus), He does so by directly transmitting seeds and transforming them. And after this transformation, when the tathāgatagarbha manifests the five aggregates, the twelve sense bases (āyatanas), the eighteen realms, and the myriad dharmas, He does so on the basis of the outer six sense-objects that have already been transformed: again, through the five sense faculties, He takes in the object-aspects of the six sense-objects and transforms them into the inner six sense-objects. It is in this way that we are able to discern the realms of the six sense-objects. That is to say, the inner object-aspects of the six sense-objects that we perceive are re-transformed by the tathāgatagarbha through the five sense faculties, based on the outer object-aspects—He transforms the outer object-aspects anew. This is the principle by which the six sense-objects manifest in the mind.

The tathāgatagarbha is boundless on the outside; He does not envelop the body, and within, He does not overlap with the body. Being without form or appearance, He cannot overlap with a body that has form and appearance, much less envelop it. Because the tathāgatagarbha has no inside or outside, just as empty space has no inside or outside. The tathāgatagarbha is not a worldly dharma; we cannot view Him or understand Him according to the concepts of worldly dharmas. If we do so, then when we seek Him, we will not add further obstructions.