Exegesis of a Passage from Chan Master Yongming Yanshou's Zongjing Lu (Records of the Mirror of the Source)

 Original text: 伏以真源湛寂，觉海澄清，绝名相之端，无能所之迹。最初不觉，忽起动心，成业识之由，为觉明之咎。因明起照，见分俄兴，随照立尘，相分安布，如镜现像，顿起根身。

Explanation: 伏以真源湛寂，觉海澄清，绝名相之端，无能所之迹。This is describing the intrinsic nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is real, and is the source of all dharmas. He is pure and quiescent, unmoving and unshaken, and also possesses the nature of awareness, able to be aware of all dharmas; therefore He is called the ocean of awakening. The substance of the tathāgatagarbha is without any names or marks: no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; no eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, or mind-consciousness; none of the names and marks of any dharma of the threefold world. Even His own name is an empty name—whatever He is called is merely a provisional designation established by later people. He neither possesses the seeing nature of the seven consciousnesses as the perceiver, nor the seen nature of the six sense objects as the perceived; there is neither perceiver nor perceived, transcending the perceiver-perceived duality of the seven consciousnesses.

最初不觉，忽起动心，成业识之由，为觉明之咎。Before beginningless kalpas, the manas and the tathāgatagarbha existed together. Because of ignorance, the manas was unaware of the true reality of the dharmadhātu; suddenly the mind stirred, giving rise to a mind that greedily sought outward, and the tathāgatagarbha, complying with this, manifested the sense faculties, the body, and the material world. Thus karmic activity appeared, and the seventh consciousness became the karmic consciousness; from this, all the faults and sufferings of birth and death arose. The fault of birth and death lies in the manas giving rise to the mind wishing to clearly perceive the threefold world, failing to abide in the self-nature of the original mind.

因明起照，见分俄兴，随照立尘，相分安布，如镜现像，顿起根身。

Because the manas had the mental thought of wishing to understand and perceive, it gave rise to awareness and illumination, wishing to see the world, and thus the perceiving-aspect of the seven consciousnesses suddenly arose. Because the perceiving-aspect wished to see, there necessarily appeared the object-aspect, the sense-object realm to be seen; the tathāgatagarbha, complying with the manas, manifested the six sense-object aspects, and thus perceiver and perceived were established. Thereafter, the tathāgatagarbha, like a mirror manifesting images, instantly manifested the sense faculties, the body, and the material world; the five-aggregate body appeared, and thus the threefold world was established.