Every dharma is inseparable from tathatā.

The general outline of the Buddha-Dharma is that all dharmas unfold around tathatā (suchness), leading to the path to buddhahood, and every dharma is inseparable from tathatā. Throughout His life, the World-Honored One taught the Dharma entirely around the fundamental mind, the tathāgatagarbha; apart from the mind there are no dharmas, and all dharmas point to the tathāgatagarbha and tathatā. Even in the Hinayana Āgama sūtras, the tathāgatagarbha is implicitly taught, and sometimes it is explicitly stated as well. For example, the Buddha said: 法不离如，法不异如。This "suchness" (如) is the tathāgatagarbha, and "dharmas" here refers to the dharmas of the five aggregates and the dharmas of the eighteen realms. The Buddha also said: 五阴非我，不异我，不相在。Here "self" (我) refers to the tathāgatagarbha; within the arhat's nirvāṇa without remainder, only the tathāgatagarbha remains.

The principle of the Four Noble Truths is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha. The truth of suffering is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha and exists in dependence upon it: after sentient beings create karma, when the conditions ripen, the seeds of suffering are output by the tathāgatagarbha, and sentient beings undergo the retributive suffering. The truth of the arising of suffering exists in dependence upon the tathāgatagarbha: the karmic seeds created by sentient beings are stored by the tathāgatagarbha. The truth of the cessation of suffering exists in dependence upon the tathāgatagarbha: what is extinguished are the seeds of suffering within the tathāgatagarbha. The truth of the path exists in dependence upon the tathāgatagarbha: apart from the tathāgatagarbha, sentient beings could not cultivate the path. Everything needed for cultivation is provided by the tathāgatagarbha, and the seeds of wholesome dharmas accumulated through practice are stored by the tathāgatagarbha, so that cultivation can continue in the future.

The Middle Vehicle's dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination also exists inseparably from the tathāgatagarbha: it is the tathāgatagarbha that stores and outputs the seeds of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and the tathāgatagarbha that stores and outputs the seeds of nāma-rūpa (name-and-form) and the seeds of the six sense bases. Each of the twelve links exists because of the tathāgatagarbha. Moreover, when pratyekabuddhas trace the chain of dependent origination in reverse, they proceed only as far back as consciousness and then return, unable to go beyond that. When they trace the origin of nāma-rūpa back to the tathāgatagarbha, they can trace no further, and thus they arrive at a conclusion: nāma-rūpa is born from the tathāgatagarbha. The World-Honored One said: 识缘名色，名色缘识，meaning that the tathāgatagarbha can manifest by virtue of nāma-rūpa, while nāma-rūpa is born from the tathāgatagarbha and functions by virtue of it; the two depend upon each other.

The Mahāyāna Dharma, even more so, unfolds everywhere around the functions, essential nature, and operations of the tathāgatagarbha. Without the tathāgatagarbha, there would be no bodhisattva's myriad practices of the six pāramitās. Every kind of cultivation is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha, and every dharma is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha. All the way until the attainment of buddhahood, everything is cultivated by relying on the tathāgatagarbha, and the karmic seeds of cultivation are stored within it, so that the buddha-path can be perfectly accomplished in the future.