Apart from Tathāgatagarbha, There Is No Dharma of Causes and Conditions

The twelve links of dependent origination taught by the Buddha essentially mean that each link exists in dependence upon the tathāgatagarbha; apart from the tathāgatagarbha, there is no dharma of dependent origination. What worldly people speak of as dependent arising only knows the surface phenomena—it seems as if "this existing, that exists," that this dharma produces that dharma. In reality, because this dharma exists, the tathāgatagarbha produces that dharma, and this dharma itself is also a dharma within the tathāgatagarbha.

Any dharma, once separated from the tathāgatagarbha, does not exist. The arising of any dharma is also the tathāgatagarbha producing it; it is only that many conditions must be fulfilled before the tathāgatagarbha can produce that dharma. If one speaks of the dharma of dependent origination apart from the tathāgatagarbha, claiming that this dharma can produce that dharma, it simply does not hold. For example, "ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ)": ignorance cannot produce bodily, verbal, and mental actions; rather, because sentient beings have ignorance, the sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha can produce bodily, verbal, and mental actions. All the other links should be understood in the same way.