Analyzing Dependent Origination through the Sound of a Drum

I strike the drum with drumsticks, and the sound "dong, dong, dong" emerges. Does this drum sound come from my hand, from the drum itself, or from the air? When I stop striking the drum, the sound disappears. Where does the drum sound go then? Where did this drum sound originally exist?

All phenomena arise due to various causes and conditions. That drum sound, like all phenomena, has no place of origin when it arises and no place of cessation when it ceases. It comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; all is illusory. Because all phenomena are born of causes and conditions, what is produced is empty and illusory.

The Buddha said: "With cause and condition, the world arises; with cause and condition, the world ceases." These teachings are explained from the perspective of the Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle). From the Mahayana (Great Vehicle) perspective, all phenomena have a source; nothing surpasses knowing the source. What is so good about it? All phenomena are born from the Tathagatagarbha (Womb of the Thus-Come One). Not a single phenomenon exists outside the Tathagatagarbha; all remain within the palm of the Tathagata.

The drum, the drumsticks, and the drum sound are all produced by the Tathagatagarbha through the delivery of the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind) based on various conditions. Therefore, they are called phenomena arising from causes and conditions. Phenomena arising from causes and conditions, the Buddha said, are empty. All phenomena are born from the self-mind. This mind is the Tathagatagarbha, which is also the Alaya consciousness. However, the Tathagatagarbha alone cannot produce any phenomenon. It must interact with the deluded mind (the seven consciousnesses) and karmic seeds; only through the combined functioning of the true and the deluded can phenomena arise. Thus, in every phenomenon, the true mind and the deluded mind function together. By excluding the deluded mind, deluded appearances, and deluded realms from all phenomena of the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness), what remains—the unmoving mind—is the true reality, the Tathagatagarbha.