All dharmas are related to the tathāgatagarbha

Question: When food is eaten into the stomach and digested, it becomes the four great elements of one's own physical body. At this point it is related to the tathāgatagarbha—how exactly is it related?

Answer: After food is eaten into the stomach and digested, the tathāgatagarbha absorbs the nutrients of the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—contained in the food, sustaining the needs of the physical body's four great elements and transforming and fashioning the physical body, so that sentient beings can survive normally. In fact, we are related to the tathāgatagarbha in every instant and moment; we cannot be apart from the tathāgatagarbha. From seeing the food, to taking and handling it, then eating, chewing, swallowing, digesting and breaking it down, and then absorbing and excreting it—all of this is related to the tathāgatagarbha. None of the dharmas arise by themselves, abide by themselves, change by themselves, or cease by themselves; all are related to the tathāgatagarbha.

When, after enlightenment, one attains great enlightenment that becomes continuous, one will observe that the operation of the tathāgatagarbha is present upon all dharmas, and that not a single dharma can be apart from the tathāgatagarbha. It is by Him that we live; it is He who sustains all the activities of our life and manifests for us all the dharmas we need. But as for exactly how all dharmas are related to the tathāgatagarbha, this must be realized through one's own investigation of Chan; others cannot help with this matter.