What Does the “Permanence” Spoken by the Buddha Mean?

The permanence (śāśvata) taught by the Buddha is true existence, real existence—forever unborn and unceasing, unchanging, without beginning or end, never subject to even a moment's cessation. That is the tathāgatagarbha, the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna). It is utterly different from the "divine self" (ātman) spoken of by the non-Buddhists: the divine self of the non-Buddhists is the mind consciousness, a dharma subject to arising, ceasing, and change. To take the deluded mind consciousness as the eternal, unchanging true self is to be an eternalist non-Buddhist. The fundamental Buddhadharma always takes the tathāgatagarbha as its point of departure, unfolding all dharmas and giving birth to all dharmas. Any dharma taught apart from this tathāgatagarbha is either eternalism or annihilationism—both are non-Buddhist teachings. A dharma that will never again undergo change is what is called permanent: in the undefiled consciousness at the Buddha stage, the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses are no longer stored, the seeds no longer undergo change, and thus the undefiled consciousness is permanent.

In our present tathāgatagarbha, the defiled seeds of the consciousness of the seven minds are constantly undergoing change and transformation; they are not fixed, and so they drag down the tathāgatagarbha, making it impossible for the seeds stored within the tathāgatagarbha to remain unchanged. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings is neither permanent nor impermanent. "There is something prior to heaven and earth, formless and originally still and solitary"—this speaks precisely of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha truly exists; it is the forerunner of all things and the master of all things. Therefore, one cannot say that the tathāgatagarbha is merely a noun or concept, nor can one say that it is merely a provisional designation of names. It has real functional characteristics and can give birth to all dharmas and all things; it is an actual entity, even though it is formless.