The Relationship Between Internal Dharma Objects and External Dharma Objects

Question: Does the tathāgatagarbha only condition real dharmas, that is, earth, water, fire, and wind—the ten material things comprising the five faculties and five sense-objects? Then what about the height of mountains and the size of trees that we see—are they real dharmas or provisional dharmas? Can the tathāgatagarbha condition them? If it does not condition them, then who created the differences in the material world (inanimate environment), the differences in the size, shape, and color of objects?

Answer: Real dharmas are the external five sense-objects—the objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch—but they also include external mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya), such as the visible form's characteristics of shape (saṃsthāna-rūpa), expressive gesture (vijñapti-rūpa), and non-expressive form (avijñapti-rūpa), and so forth. Thus the height of external mountains and the size of trees are also real dharmas, and the tathāgatagarbha can also condition them. Because when the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to a material form, it does not merely give rise to the manifest colors of the form object; it must simultaneously give rise to the mental sense-objects such as the form object's characteristics of shape, expressive gesture, and non-expressive form. Otherwise, the form object would not be a complete form object—it would have only the single appearance of color. The same applies to sound objects, smell objects, taste objects, and touch objects: external mental sense-objects all exist for each of them.

If there were no external mental sense-objects, and form objects consisted only of manifest colors, then all form objects would have only color, without characteristics of shape, expressive gesture, or non-expressive form. There would then be no shape, no height, no size, no length, breadth, squareness, roundness, thickness, or thinness; no distinguishing marks of variety and kind; no expressive or non-expressive forms such as beauty and ugliness, loftiness, uprightness, grandeur, tree rings, softness and hardness, and so on. The form objects of the material universe would then have only differences of color; apart from that, everything would be a blur, an undifferentiated chaos.

In that case, not only could karmic seeds not be realized, the tathāgatagarbha's manifestation of the myriad things would also become extremely simple. The great trichiliocosm would have only brilliant colors with no physical substance whatsoever, and thus nothing of any practical value. What sentient beings saw would be nothing but a field of color, with no distinctions of length, breadth, squareness, roundness, size, beauty, or ugliness. All form-object matter would be unusable, and sentient beings could not survive in such a material world.

In actuality, when the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to material form, it uses the seeds of the four great elements to completely manifest all kinds of different material forms, including color, shape, posture, quality, degree of softness or hardness, and other such contents. Then, when sentient beings see forms, the tathāgatagarbha, relying on the external six faculties, transmits the complete form object to the supreme faculty (indriya), including the mental sense-object. With the manas directing the seeing of forms, the eye consciousness and mind consciousness can then jointly discern the complete form object. This is the principle behind the saying that the tathāgatagarbha manifests images like a mirror: the images manifested are similar and identical to the external form objects. It is impossible for the inner mental sense-object to appear without the external mental sense-object.

The five-aggregate physical bodies of sentient beings also belong to material form and are real dharmas, including all appearances, which already exist in the mother's womb; all are personally conditioned by the tathāgatagarbha. If there were no external mental sense-objects, a person would have only color, without limbs, head, five faculties, sex, age, features, temperament, height, fatness or thinness, learning, cultivation, and so on—no characteristics of shape, expressive gesture, or non-expressive form. If, when the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the physical body, it gave rise only to manifest colors, then no one could be called a human being, and no one would know what kind of thing they were. Likewise, all form objects would be unrecognizable as anything at all; the world would be a chaos of color alone. Such a thing could not possibly exist.

Therefore, mental sense-objects such as characteristics of shape, expressive gesture, and non-expressive form are also real dharmas. The tathāgatagarbha both gives rise to them and can condition them, and can rely on them to manifest the inner mental sense-objects. What sentient beings discern is the complete form object, with all information fully present—not inner mental sense-objects conjured up out of nothing. The same is true of the other sense-objects: they all have external mental sense-objects, and the inner mental sense-objects arise in dependence on the external mental sense-objects, not in dependence on the inner five sense-objects giving rise to the inner mental sense-objects.

The tathāgatagarbha transmits the real dharmas to the supreme faculty, where they become provisional dharmas. The manas conditions them, and if it is interested and wishes to discern them in detail, yet cannot discern them itself, the tathāgatagarbha, at the place where faculty and sense-object contact each other, gives rise to the six consciousnesses to discern them. When the eye faculty contacts the inner form object, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the eye consciousness therein; when the ear faculty contacts the sound object, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the ear consciousness; when the nose faculty contacts the smell object, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the nose consciousness; when the tongue faculty contacts the taste object, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the tongue consciousness; when the body faculty contacts the touch object, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the body consciousness; when the manas contacts the mental sense-object, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the mind consciousness. The six consciousnesses can then manifest and discern the inner six sense-objects.