The Tathāgatagarbha's Sustaining of the Embryo and the World of the Faculty-Body (Part Three)

All dharmas are the tathāgatagarbha. From the surface appearance, it seems that this dharma gives rise to that dharma, but in reality all are generated by the tathāgatagarbha by means of certain conditions. All external phenomena are superficial, illusory appearances; in essence they are all the functions of the tathāgatagarbha. For example, in the twelve links of dependent origination, ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ)—can ignorance produce bodily, verbal, and mental actions? Ignorance has no substance; it is merely a concept, a false name. It is not a conscious mind and has no seeds, so of course it cannot give birth to any dharma. The fact is that because sentient beings have ignorance, bodily, verbal, and mental actions arise, and only then does there come "formations condition consciousness."

Who produces bodily, verbal, and mental actions? It is the tathāgatagarbha, relying on certain external conditions together with the ignorance of sentient beings, that bodily, verbal, and mental actions can be born and exist. Can bodily, verbal, and mental actions produce the six consciousnesses? Certainly not. It is because sentient beings have bodily, verbal, and mental actions that the six consciousnesses are forced to continually manifest and operate. Who gave birth to the six consciousnesses? Of course it is the tathāgatagarbha, not bodily, verbal, and mental actions, because bodily, verbal, and mental actions have no substance and no seeds, and therefore cannot give birth to any dharma. In essence, it is because there are the conditions of the sense faculties and sense objects that the tathāgatagarbha produces the six consciousnesses. The dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination is a chain where each link leads to the next: the preceding link is the condition, while the cause for the birth of the next link is always the tathāgatagarbha.

Any dharma in the world of the three realms, if not sustained and held by the tathāgatagarbha, will decay and perish and cannot exist, and we would be unable to come into contact with it. Without the tathāgatagarbha, first of all there would not even be ourselves, let alone the world of the three realms. Every dharma in the world is sustained and held by the tathāgatagarbha; the external phenomena are the conditions, while the inner essence is all the tathāgatagarbha.

The arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of all dharmas, and the destruction of the planet Earth—all are the tathāgatagarbha at work within them. There is no dharma that can have its own self-nature and exist independently apart from the tathāgatagarbha. Do not be fooled by those surface appearances that seem very real, as if they could exist independently, as if they could arise and perish on their own. In fact it is not so; they are all the sustaining function performed by the tathāgatagarbha. The Earth seems to arise and perish by itself; the windows, chairs, and stools in our homes seem to slowly change by themselves and finally perish—but in fact there is no such thing. It is all the arising, abiding, and transformation produced by the tathāgatagarbha transmitting the seeds of the four great elements that brings about those surface appearances.