Tathāgatagarbha's Sustaining of the Embryo and the Material World of the Body (2)

Another example is our hand: right after it has been severed, our tathāgatagarbha is still holding and sustaining it. If it is reattached immediately, it can be connected, and then it will continue to function. When an organ in the body has just been detached, the tathāgatagarbha will continue to hold and sustain it directly for a period of time. During this period, if it is surgically reattached right away, it can still recover and become part of the body again, performing its original function; if too much time passes, the tathāgatagarbha will no longer directly hold and sustain the organ that has separated from the body, and if it is then reconnected to the physical body, it cannot be reattached—it becomes a useless piece of matter. Thus all dharmas function through the tathāgatagarbha operating within them.

When an organ is removed from our body and transplanted into someone else, upon being transferred into another person's body, our tathāgatagarbha will hold and sustain it for a period of time; then the other person's tathāgatagarbha will take over and hold and sustain it on its own, after which our tathāgatagarbha no longer concerns itself with it, leaving it to be held and sustained solely by the other person's tathāgatagarbha. If an organ has been cut out of the body for a long time, the tathāgatagarbha will no longer hold and sustain it, and it becomes useless to our body; if it is then reconnected to our body, it cannot be reattached and cannot recover its function—it no longer belongs as a part of our body; or if it is transplanted into another sentient being's body, it will likewise have no vitality and no corresponding functional activity.

Take another example: when our blood vessels rupture and we bleed, the blood that has just flowed out is warm. Why is it warm? Because the tathāgatagarbha is holding and sustaining it. After a long time, the blood is no longer warm, because the tathāgatagarbha is no longer directly holding and sustaining it. Whatever falls off the body—whether a finger, a limb, or skin—is warm when it has just fallen off. Why is it warm? Because the tathāgatagarbha is holding and sustaining it, and thus it has temperature. After a long time, when the tathāgatagarbha no longer directly holds and sustains it, it will become cold and hard.

It is the same with the softness of the body: it is soft because the tathāgatagarbha is directly holding and sustaining it. The bodies of dead people are stiff and hard—why? Because the tathāgatagarbha no longer directly holds and sustains it and no longer personally cognizes it, and so the body becomes hard. With the tathāgatagarbha, a sentient being's physical body has vitality (lifespan), warmth (temperature), and consciousness (the seven consciousnesses), and the body is warm and soft; without the tathāgatagarbha, a sentient being's body has no lifespan, no temperature, and no seven consciousnesses, and the body is cold and hard.