The Mechanisms Behind Life and Natural Phenomena

Many people marvel at the wonder and mystery of life and nature, so much so that scientists in every field devote their entire lives to exploring the mysteries of life and nature, hoping to uncover the operating mechanisms behind all dharmas in the world. Because our ignorance is deep and heavy, our wisdom is limited, our vision too narrow, our knowledge too restricted, and our power of observation too weak, we cannot clearly observe what the underlying operating mechanisms actually are; our understanding of many natural phenomena is insufficient, and we do not know their essential characteristics and inner mechanisms—this is why we find the activities of life so mysterious. If one could see with complete clarity the mechanisms of all bodily activities, as well as the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing in nature, these things would hold no mystery for us at all; we would realize that the life activities of the physical body are simply thus by nature, and that the material universe (the inanimate world) is naturally so (dharmatā)—nothing to marvel at. 

All the natural activities of the material universe—the blowing wind, the stirring grass, flashes of lightning, peals of thunder, torrential rains as well as gentle refreshing breezes, the coming of spring and the passing of autumn, the alternation of the four seasons—are these operating mechanisms spontaneous and self-existing, or are they formed by the convergence of causes and conditions? On the surface, they are all produced by causes and conditions, including the karmic conditions of sentient beings with collective karma; they are evoked by shared karmic force. The environments in which sentient beings with different karma exist are of another kind: they have no phenomena of birth, aging, sickness, and death, no alternation of the four seasons; their living environment is always comfortable and perfect—this is what is evoked by the pure karma of sentient beings. The Sahā world, however, has countless phenomena of change—birth, aging, sickness, death, arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing—evoked by the mixed defiled karma of good and evil of sentient beings. 

So how do these phenomena of life and nature occur, and what is the operating mechanism behind them? To say that these phenomena are all dharmas produced by causes and conditions is only a surface answer; in reality, it is the tathāgatagarbha behind the scenes that directs all these dharmas. According to the collective karma and individual karma created by sentient beings, the tathāgatagarbha manifests karmic conditions, and then, in accordance with those karmic conditions, gives rise to all dharmas. The reason the tathāgatagarbha can create all these dharmas is that He possesses the seven intrinsically existing great seeds (earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, consciousness); the different combinations of these seven great seeds constitute the world in all its dazzling variety. Among them, material form is constituted by the five great seeds, and mind is constituted by the seeds of consciousness and the seeds of seeing; when material form and mind combine, they can manifest dharmas that are neither form nor mind. In this way, all dharmas of the world are complete, and the world of sentient beings is established. When karmic seeds and karmic conditions differ, the seeds allocated by the tathāgatagarbha also differ, and the dharmas produced are different; because of these differences, the functions of dharmas are complete, and the world can be diverse and pluralistic. 

The differences among all dharmas are caused by karmic seeds. When karmic seeds differ, the fruits differ, and the phenomena differ; but these are only differences on the conceptual level—substantially they are the same, all being the function of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha manipulates His own intrinsically existing seeds, causing them to gather, disperse, separate, and unite, transforming them into the world's resplendent phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing. When karmic seeds and karmic conditions change, the phenomenal realm changes accordingly. Therefore, the operating mechanism behind the phenomena of life and nature is precisely the principle by which the tathāgatagarbha generates all dharmas. If one masters the functions and roles of the tathāgatagarbha's seeds, one will gradually uncover the secrets of these phenomena and will no longer find the natural world marvelous.