Types of Sound

The first volume of the Yogācāra-bhūmi classifies sound objects into many types, dividing them into three categories based on whether they are adhered to by one's own tathāgatagarbha or not. The first type is sound produced by the primary elements adhered to solely by one's own tathāgatagarbha, known as sound arising from adhered primary elements. Examples include one's own speaking, coughing, breathing, sounds emitted by internal organs, and so forth. The second type is sound arising from both adhered and non-adhered primary elements, such as sounds generated by friction when one's body comes into contact with external objects, for instance, footsteps, the sound of picking up objects, the rustling of clothing, impacts between the body and material objects, etc. These are sounds produced by the interaction of one's own tathāgatagarbha with external matter. The third type is sound arising from non-adhered primary elements, meaning that this sound is not solely adhered to or controlled by one's own tathāgatagarbha. Examples include the harmonies of the universe, the sound of wind and rain, thunder, the flowing sounds of oceans and rivers, the sounds of various machines, and so on. These are sounds collectively adhered to by the tathāgatagarbhas of beings sharing collective karma.

Sound encompasses much more meaning; it possesses numerous attributes, and its classification is very complex and difficult to delineate. All of these are functions of the tathāgatagarbha. The vast majority result from the collective adhering function of all the tathāgatagarbhas of beings sharing collective karma, and they all arise from the birth and extinction, the transformations of the four primary elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. The functional activity of the tathāgatagarbha is everywhere; there is fundamentally no real function belonging to the five aggregates themselves. Thus, the entirety is precisely the true suchness. No one can find any thing, any dharma, that is not the functional activity of the tathāgatagarbha's seven primary seeds. All are functions of the tathāgatagarbha; all credit must be attributed to the tathāgatagarbha. The seven consciousness minds still depend on the tathāgatagarbha to extensively create all karma. The tathāgatagarbha, undiscriminatingly, manages everything, never differentiating, never refusing, responding to every request. It is called "responding wherever called upon" – wherever there is a need, it is there. It is also described as "neither coming nor going."