All Dharmas Are Related to Tathagatagarbha

Question: After food is eaten and digested, it becomes the Four Great Elements of one's own physical body. At this point, how exactly is it related to the Tathāgatagarbha?

Answer: When food enters the stomach and is digested, the Tathāgatagarbha absorbs the Four Great Elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—as nutrients from the food to sustain the needs of the physical body's Four Great Elements, thereby transforming and sustaining the physical body, enabling sentient beings to live normally. In truth, we are related to the Tathāgatagarbha at every moment and instant; we cannot exist apart from it. From seeing the food, to taking and handling it, then eating, chewing, swallowing, digesting, and breaking it down, followed by absorption and excretion—all are related to the Tathāgatagarbha. All dharmas do not arise spontaneously, do not abide spontaneously, do not change spontaneously, and do not cease spontaneously; all are related to the Tathāgatagarbha.

When one achieves great, continuous realization after awakening, one will observe the operation of the Tathāgatagarbha in all dharmas; not a single dharma can be separated from the Tathāgatagarbha. We rely on it for our existence; it sustains all activities of our lives, manifesting all dharmas we need. However, understanding precisely how all dharmas are related to the Tathāgatagarbha must be realized through one's own Chan (Zen) meditation; others cannot assist in this matter.