Without the tathāgatagarbha, there would be no dharmas at all

Why can a willow tree sway—can it sway by itself? Some say the swaying of a willow is a natural phenomenon, arising from causes and conditions; some say the willow flutters because of the force of the wind. Yet the World-Honored One says in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 一切法非自然性，非因缘性，meaning that all are the nature of tathāgatagarbha. Apart from tathāgatagarbha there are no dharmas at all. A willow tree cannot, apart from tathāgatagarbha, flutter up by itself; and if the wind were apart from tathāgatagarbha, it would not exist at all, much less be able to perform the function of blowing. The Chan patriarchs said: 心外无法，满目青山—all dharmas are dharmas within the mind of tathāgatagarbha, and the green mountains filling the eyes are all the nature of tathāgatagarbha.

All conditioned dharmas of causes and conditions, if apart from tathāgatagarbha, cannot exist at all. Therefore, to say that all dharmas arise naturally, or that they are born of causes and conditions, is conceptual proliferation (prapañca); in substance, all are generated by tathāgatagarbha. There is no sun, willow, wind, or myriad things existing independently outside of tathāgatagarbha; there is no sun or wind that, apart from tathāgatagarbha, could have its own functioning, nor phenomena such as the swaying of a willow. These phenomena are all results generated by the self-nature of the great elements within tathāgatagarbha, while at the same time not apart from the karmic conditions of sentient beings.

Wind is generated by the combined seeds of the four great elements, with the wind element predominant. When a great wind rises, why does it carry a whooshing sound? Sometimes there is even a roaring sound? Why does the great ocean have the sound of towering waves? These sounds are also material form (rūpa), generated by tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the four great elements. The continuous arising and ceasing of material form produces so-called energy. When a great wind formed from earth, water, fire, and wind arises, because the arising and ceasing of its own seeds is excessively rapid, wind speed is formed. Wind speed is not a real material substance; it is a product of the phenomenon of material arising and ceasing, also called energy. Energy is not a real material substance; it too is a product of the phenomenon of material arising and ceasing.

When the constant arising and ceasing of a great wind creates the false appearance of continuous motion, the so-called energy thus formed, upon encountering other objects, acts upon them. Because the motion is too fast and the energy too great, when the two meet, it is in fact called an impact. After the impact, the state of rest or motion of the object is altered, and at the same time an impact sound is emitted. The larger the mass of wind, the greater its energy; when it encounters other objects, the impact sound produced is louder, and the more it can alter the course of other objects. The sounds in the great ocean are produced in the same way.

In any tiny corner of the worlds of the ten directions, apart from tathāgatagarbha nothing can exist, nothing can have its own function—all is the function of tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha of all sentient beings is operating every second and every instant, constantly outputting the seeds of the four great elements and the seven great elements, constantly causing the myriad things to arise, abide, change, and perish. Not a single tathāgatagarbha is idle and useless. Each tathāgatagarbha has its own individual plot of land—one's own "three fen and one mu"—that it must maintain by itself; and there are also shared fields of cooperation that must be maintained jointly, with each cooperating with the others, yet all coordinated seamlessly.

Before sentient beings are born, the external living environment has already been constructed by the tathāgatagarbha of all sentient beings with karmic connections, employing the self-nature of the great elements; only then can sentient beings be born into this world and survive in it. Before sentient beings are born into this world, their tathāgatagarbha has already been working for vast kalpas, and only after the world has been constructed in complete form can sentient beings be born into this world. Before this celestial body is about to be destroyed, the tathāgatagarbha of all sentient beings must go to other worlds to participate in construction; after it is built, when their karmic connection with this world ends, sentient beings will be reborn there. The work done by our tathāgatagarbha is extremely numerous and massive in quantity, yet it has never proclaimed itself—bearing toil and complaint alike, seeking neither fame nor gain. One truly wonders what He does it all for.