The Causes and Conditions of the Arising of All Dharmas

The Tathagatagarbha is the cause that gives rise to all dharmas, yet a solitary cause alone cannot produce all dharmas. It must be that the Tathagatagarbha, relying on various conditions and containing the seeds of all dharmas, can generate all dharmas, and it also depends on the grasping of the manas. If even one condition is lacking, the Tathagatagarbha cannot produce all dharmas. The karmic conditions must ripen, and the conditions must be complete; this is the prerequisite for generating all dharmas. Yet the Tathagatagarbha itself is unproduced; it is inherently existent, requiring nothing to produce it, and there is fundamentally no thing or principle that can produce it. The Tathagatagarbha is the beginning of heaven and earth, preceding the myriad things. It is naturally thus; there is no reasoning to explain it. Therefore, the Tathagatagarbha is independent and self-sufficient, existing alone without needing to rely on other conditions. If it were produced, it would have to depend on that which produced it for existence and could not be independent.

This is not shallow worldly dharmas that can be easily understood by sentient beings. Supramundane dharmas do not correspond to the majority of sentient beings, hence sentient beings find them difficult to comprehend. Even at the Buddha ground, the Thus Come One's true suchness mind requires various conditions to produce the Thus Come One's body of five aggregates. Preaching the Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions of Sutras requires various conditions. Establishing the precepts requires various conditions. Liberating all kinds of sentient beings requires various conditions. Every action requires various conditions. A solitary cause cannot produce dharmas; dharmas depend on conditions to arise and manifest.

When the Thus Come One comes to the Saha world, it also requires many conditions. Before descending to the human realm, the Thus Come One must observe whether the conditions of the sentient beings in the Saha world have ripened and when they will ripen. When the conditions for sentient beings' practice ripen, the conditions for the Thus Come One's birth ripen. The Thus Come One must also send an advance team to the human realm to await his birth and cooperate together in propagating the Dharma. After the Thus Come One attained enlightenment, proclaiming the teachings of the Three Vehicles required many conditions. It was not something the Thus Come One alone could decide arbitrarily; everything depended on the conditions of the sentient beings and other related conditions.